Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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Proverbs 31: Guest Post by the Lovely & Fascinating Periphery

Where Is My Mind? 
King Solomon and The Pixies
For starters, a giant thank you to Marie for her thoughtful contemplation of Proverbs 31 this month. She has given me new perspectives on some dear old verses. Not to mention, llamas. And thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me guest post here today, Marie. I am truly honored that you would let my words fill your space for a day.

Do you listen to The Pixies? No matter. That’s what Youtube is for.

I married a die-hard Pixies fan, so I’ve seen Frank Black close enough to almost reach out and rub his grumpy bald head twice and this song features heavily in the soundtrack of my life. Not a fan? That’s OK. It’s an acquired taste.

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground,
Try this trick and spin it, yeah.
Your head will collapse
If there’s nothing in it.
Where is my mind?
Where is my mind?
Where is my mind?

We are busy people. There are never, ever enough hours in the day. (Except sometimes we have those days that have far too many hours and it’s not bedtime soon enough, but those are just as bad.) Stress related illnesses and injuries are killing more and more people. It’s serious, folks. We are busy people. 

Where is my mind?

Read about the woman in Proverbs 31:10-31. She’s a busy woman. She stays up late and gets up early, she cooks exotic meals, she gets the shopping done, she and her family are well dressed, she makes her own clothes and then sells some too, she’s a philanthropist, she does real estate deals, she’s got her own vineyard! And after all of this, her family blesses her and tells other people how awesome she is. Is she for real? What’s her secret?

We have different work now than our busy friend of thousands of years ago. Not many of us are seeking out flax and wool out of necessity (although, the knitters among us may have some stashed away for fun.) Our work varies from household to household. Some of us have children and spouses, some of us have animals, some of us have demanding day jobs, some of us have lots of land, some of us have health issues to manage. Some of us have all of the above. Are we stressed? 

Where is my mind?

She does good and not harm… she works with willing hands… she dresses herself with strength… she makes her arms strong… she perceives… she considers… she is not afraid… she opens her hand… she opens her mouth with wisdom… the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

These all work together to paint a picture of mindfulness: of conscious and considered choices, of intelligence and purpose, of planning and forethought. This is no harried housewife, running around to put out fires. This is no resentful martyr. This is a strong and mindful woman.

Where is my mind?

Perhaps this woman is a myth. No one gets it right all the time. The work of daily life can wear us down and discourage us – no matter what our particular work is. There are sometimes fires to put out, despite our best efforts. Sometimes we find ourselves spinning with our feet in the air and our heads on the ground. Sometimes our mouths open with exhaustion and the teaching of kindness isn’t anywhere near our tongues. These are realities. It is also a reality that there is no escaping this work of being alive. But I believe in another facet of this reality, too. That we are all given the ability to choose how we live, to aspire, to want to do better, to succeed. 

Frank Black is no King Solomon but he has a point, though: Your head will collapse if there’s nothing in it. Mindfulness. It’s not easy. We may not get it right all of the time, but are we living with conscious choice or merely reacting to our circumstances? How often do our heads collapse from lack of content?

This mindful woman Solomon’s mama is telling him about? Give her the fruit of her hands, let her works praise her in the gates. She reaps the rewards of her mindful life and her life speaks for itself. It not only speaks for itself, it sings for itself. I want a life that sings.

Where is my mind?



********************
Okay friends, did I deliver or what?? 
Thank you so much, Suzanne.
Thank you from my guts and ribs and fingertips.
That was beautiful.
Iespecially love the assertion that the Proverbs 31 woman is 
“no resentful martyr,” but rather a “strong and mindful woman.”
And yes, Frank Black, we collapse if empty.
Excellent.
Please keep track of Suzanne’s constant stream of brilliance over at Peripheral Images
~Marie
“Out of the corner of your eye is where the magic happens.”
~Periphery
xoxoxoxo


Three Things for Tuesday Night

   Hello there you fine citizens! 
I need to take a one-day hiatus from the Proverbs 31 project
in order to touch on a couple of things. 

   Item #1: Our llama adoption is proving to be quite the memory maker. Since Sunday afternoon when he arrived, we have witnessed a steady stream of four-legged drama. All is well, really; we have neither injury nor illness to report. It’s just that the llama is a whole lot more interested in buddying up with Daphne, our moody mare, than she is interested in even being in the same field as him.
   She runs and snorts and screams and then runs some more, and he just stares at her and gives a little chase now and then. It’s not a menacing stare exactly, but I’ll admit it’s unnerving. If a strange man stared at me like that I’d have to get all Charlie’s Angels about it.

   And Chanta, the alpha horse, continues to be annoyed by the whole situation. He has capitalized on the conflict by simply eating everyone’s sweet grain each morning. You might say he’s an emotional eater.

   The normally wide-range geese are steering clear of all this west-end commotion, barely venturing past the Talking Tree in fact. And it is just a matter of time, folks, before our little buffalo Chunk-Hi feels an urge to socialize that is stronger than the gate holding him in the front field. Eventually he will catch a good, solid glimpse of this loping, table-backed creature and not be able to contain his joy. I rue that future day, Sirs, I rue that day.

   The other thing about this llama is that I have never in my life had so much trouble naming an animal. The flurry of brainstorming with my friends, though, has been endlessly entertaining. I have boiled and reduced the options into categories, and perhaps tomorrow I’ll finally decide. It’s not like he answers my call yet anyway.
   Item #2: I ran my first 5K this past weekend! It was a crazy fun event in Guthrie, Oklahoma, called the Zombie Bolt. I ran it with my friend Trisha, and Handsome accompanied us in our recently dolled up Ford farm truck, now affectionately known as the Zombie Hunter. I can barely tell you in a short paragraph how much fun this was! We laughed almost constantly and made a thousand fun memories more or less evading really aggressive zombies. As for the running part, I am definitely hooked and plan to train for some competitive races this coming year.
Here’s a riddle for you:
Q. How did you know when someone has run a marathon?
A. Oh, don’t worry. They’ll tell you.
   

   Item #3: Please make a point to click back over here tomorrow for an incredibly well written guest post on the whole chapter of Proverbs 31. My guest is Suzanne from over at Periphery, and she flat out honors me with her virtual visit to the Lazy W. Please click here for a link to the first post of hers I ever read, “In This Economy.” You will understand how her deep-seated optimism, blooming warmth, and intelligence captivated me from the get-go. She writes fluidly and as though you are following her through a deep, complex maze that is both padded and fragranced but also plenty challenging.
   Please do check in tomorrow. And give yourself the gift of a quiet room and a cup of something steaming and delicious for when you read what she has to share. I have already read it four times, and I am in love all over again.

   Okay, sweet dreams everyone! Thanks so much for reading! Hope to see you tomorrow for a delicious spin on Proverbs 31.

“If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams 
and you will always look lovely.”
~Roald Dahl
xoxoxoxo

Proverbs 31: Learning and Seeking

For the next skinny little slice of Proverbs 31, verses 8 & 9,
I am rebooting my entry from October 9th of last year.

********************

   The next two verses are rich enough in their own right, but they also are accompanied by a long list of references in the Schofield text.  In my opinion this stuff needs very little expounding, though each of us, depending on our stations and functions in this world, may learn to apply the directives uniquely.  First, the lines from Proverbs:

  “Open thy mouth for the dumb in the course of all 
such as are appointed to destruction.  
Open thy mouth, judge righteously, 
and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”

********************
These references follow:
“I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. 
I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.”
~Job 29:15,16

“And Johnathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, 
Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good.”
~I Samuel 19:4
“Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment:  thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty:  but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.”
~Leviticus 19:15

“And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.”

~Deuteronomy 1:16

“Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.”
~Job 29:12

“Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
~Isaiah 1:17

“He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him:  was not this to know me?  saith the Lord.”
~Jeremiah 22:16

********************

   In what ways are you exposed to the poor and needy?  The widowed, the orphaned, the lonely?  How do you personally cross paths with those who cannot speak up for themselves or who are appointed to destruction?  Granted, these lines might be directed to an actual ruler, a king, but then again it could be advice or instruction for the church too. Which means it’s for us.
   Also, how are we doing in the judging righteously department?  Not so awesomely most times, I suspect.  We are all naturally shaped with unique filters, feelings, preferences, grudges, politics, indoctrination, just all kinds of multi-faceted, self-protective words that really mean, “personal opinion.”  And personal opinion has a way of affecting how we treat others. Personal opinion also has a way of being wrong.  Ever been called to jury duty and felt, whether you expressed it or not, a strong bias, despite the evidence?  Ever catch yourself being cold to someone you don’t know based on another person’s opinion of him?  I have.  And worse.
   These events are common and natural human behavior, but if we read these words in the Bible then we hear a call to do better.  To strive for a life past what is natural and easy.  Stretch, not stagnate.
   I am reminded that every story has more than one side, very often more than two.  And I have been wrong a thousand million times in my life, siding with the wrong person, standing on a moral I later discovered to be flawed or at least incomplete.  This is scary; it impresses on me the gravity of the job of judges who decide the fates of people daily.
   These two little verses have excavated out of my heart more guilt and greater challenge than I expected.  I have a lot of work to do, but I believe that it can be turned around.  I believe that love and mercy are powerful, and I am hoping for second chances.  Checkout the above reference in Isaiah; the words learn and seek are loud to my eyes.
   Learn to do well.
   Seek judgment.
   These are active verbs, words that immediately acknowledge a position of lacking and then command work and hopefully progress.  Ignorance and error can be overcome, so do it.  (I am bossing myself around, not you guys.)  I am flat out thrilled by this idea, this encouragement.  
   
   That’s all for tonight.  Handsome and I have bellies full of homemade chicken pot pie, and we need to cuddle. Then we had better go outside and check on that llama. He is so spicy you guys!
xoxoxo

Proverbs 31: She Might Have Been a Llama Momma

   I mean, really, it’s totally possible that the fabled lady of Proverbs 31 would have kept, in addition to so many other creatures, a llama. This charming and idiosyncratic animal is highly practical, a characteristic she would have prized. It is hard wired to protect its neighboring animals; it doesn’t eat that much (compared to pigs, cows, or horses); and it is hardy in tough conditions. Also, besides being practical, llamas are incredibly joyful. And this coming week we are going to discover just how much the Proverbs 31 woman prizes both practicality and joy-making!

   For this application alone, 
really just to support my 31-day foray into Proverbs, 
today Handsome and I adopted a llama.
My husband is extremely supportive 
of all of my crazy projects.

   Our new addition arrived this afternoon via trailer delivery from our wonderful friends and mentors Dean and Maribeth. He was laying down comfortably and munching what I can only assume was manna straight from heaven. I climbed up on the back on the trailer to peek at him, and when we made fleeting eye contact he looked away firmly with that snooty, Roman nose thrust into the frosty air.

   Anyway, he is now strolling his regal self around the middle field, temporarily segregated from the horses and buffalo. He is unaware that, being the newest guy on the block, he is lowest on the totem pole. He and our biggest horse, Chanta, are jockeying for position Numero Uno over the wire fence.

   If the Proverbs 31 lady did in fact keep a llama, I predict she would trim his hooves on her own, brush that matted and mysterious fur daily to a gleaming sheen, and also make sure he is so well socialized that only intruders are spat upon.
   Time will tell if I meet the llama criteria for Proverbs 31. Until then, I just plain love him. I love his arrogant expression. I love his bright white face markings. I love his perfectly straight back and fluffy tail. I love the way he runs downhill and then charges into the pine tree. I love the way he frightens my mare and challenges our alpha. I love that he doesn’t yet understand how much time we will spend together. So, so much time you guys. Tomorrow I will finish my reading goals aloud in his field so he grows accustomed to my voice. Maybe.
   We haven’t named this guy yet. he is only a few months shy of three years old, and he is kind of full of himself. Do you have any ideas? Over at this blog’s Facebook page, some fabulously entertaining people are already cooking up ideas. Join the fun!
   Tomorrow I expect we will be back on track for Proverbs 31, and as we go along I will share more about our llama and his fuzzy companions. Have a lovely evening, have a spectacular beginning to your new work week, and thanks so much for reading!

“You enter into a certain amount of madness
when you marry a person with pets.”
~Nora Ephron
xoxoxoxo

 

Continuing Proverbs 31: Waiting for Renewal, Trusting in Love

   In a few short days our family will pass the one year anniversary of a terrible and significant loss. My little sister’s husband, from whom she was then recently separated, took his own life. He left behind three beautiful children and a large, loving, extended family.

   In the midst then of attempting the first Proverbs 31 study, I suspended it and wrote this on October 16th of last year:

Breathing Deeply
   Eight days ago the lives of some of my most beloved people changed forever.  Our family was thrust into grief and shock, worse than any I have ever before witnessed firsthand.  All week long we have responded to each other the way I hope all families everywhere can manage to do.  I feel as profoundly grateful for my parents, my siblings, and my husband as I feel sad for the incredible loss being suffered.
   Having just now opened my 

   In the wake of Tim’s suicide, as I hope you can only imagine, everything that remains has changed forever. His children continue to grow and mature without him. They are very young and in such pain. His parents continue to live their lives, but they grieve constantly. And my little sister has almost fully self destructed. 

   Exactly one day before this awful, gut wrenching anniversary, my family will be binding together hoping for some good news for my sister, our petite, flaxen haired social butterfly girl, now all grown up and hurting worse than we can imagine. We’ll be hoping that her year of extreme mourning is coming to a close and that she can bury some of the debris of this destruction and become a mother and a happy person again.



   I still believe this… That LOVE IS POWERFUL. Not because WE are powerful who give it but because it comes first from LOVE Himself. As flawed and ugly as we sometimes are, we are also drenched in mercy and forgiveness, grace and blessings beyond what we deserve. The more we share it and pour it back out to others, the better it flows back to us.

   Those of you who read the Lazy W and consider me a friend, I am asking for your prayers this coming week. Beyond just thinking positively and making the most of life’s heartache, this is a serious need, and I would be so grateful if you would share some of your love and faith with my little sister, her children, and our parents. I firmly believe that prayer can change things, that LOVE is the most powerful force on earth and beyond it. And I would be so happy for some relief to rain down on our family.

   Thank you ahead of time, because I know so many of you by name who will already be praying before you comment or email me or anything! 

   We’ll pick back up on Proverbs 31 tomorrow.

XOXOXOXO