Guacamole Girl

Busy weekend

I'm just getting to grips with this week after a very eventful weekend - and it's nearly the weekend again - Hurrah!

On Friday, our little treasures went to stay with my Mum & Dad at their splendid B&B, then we made a sharp exit & went to stay in a hotel near Stirling called Broomhall Castle. We were the only people in the hotel (I think they're just finishing a refurbishment) so we were very well looked-after, and of course well-fed.

We climbed a bit up this hill (even though I was totally wearing the wrong shoes) & had a lovely view of the Forth Valley.

Saturday evening, we  went to see Pirates of the Caribbean, which, as predicted was too long and too too silly. However, if you give up wondering who's chasing who (and why) and just enjoy the jokes, it's still worth seeing. And of course, there's lots of Johnny Depp.

On Sunday, my brother-in-law & his family came to stay. We went to Pollok Park, but unfortunately, we were rained off.

Even though they say in Scotland: "If you don't like the weather, hang on for 20 minutes", we had to wait till Monday to get a bit of sunshine.

After all that, I was back at work on Tuesday, leaving Guacamole Guy to clear up the tornado zone. He even did the ironing on Tuesday evening - bless him!

As Ferris Bueller used to say: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

 

Back to (God’s) Nature

These days, I am trying to get back to nature a wee bit – avoiding processed food as much as possible & cooking fresh when I can. I love cooking, although the outcome can be a bit random (last week's special was leek, spinach & brie filo parcels for example). I had a trip to Queen's Park farmers market last weekend for some inspiration and enjoyed the sight of all the fresh fruit and vegetables from around Scotland. We picked up some lovely strawberries from Blairgowrie and a feast of veggies for the soup pot.

All very yummy, but that's not the end of the story. When I was praying this morning, waiting and listening to God, I had a mental picture of baskets of vegetables (a little bit like this picture). There were shiny red tomatoes, dark purple aubergines, and leafy green herbs. I asked God if he had something to tell me about this, or was it just my imagination running riot?

What I felt God saying was firstly that he made all these wonderful things to enrich our lives and health, and that it's good to respect & enjoy His creation. Also, I felt this can be applied on a spiritual level – eating natural, rather than artificial reflects how we need to take in God's word, and let that nourish us, rather than absorbing the human wisdom and worldview we are often surrounded by. Although we need to, and hopefully want to, interact with the world around us, I am reminded of the need to be a bit critical of the "tolerant" society we live in. (Is this analogous to reading the labels on stuff in the supermarket??) The concepts of dependence on, and interaction with a loving Father God are foreign to most of our neighbours and colleagues.

However, what came out of this picture most overwhelmingly was God's goodness. The richness of His grace and provision for us. Seeking God is not a bland, boring spiritual exercise. It's in His presence that we find the bright colours, strong flavours and aromatic aromas to enrich our lives. Despite what is all around in the media and "mainstream" thinking, it's important to hang on to this reality – this life is "real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." (John 10v10, the Message)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all the many readers of this blog!! Hope you had fun over the last few weeks whether you celebrate Christmas as a spiritual event, a family time, a break from work or all of the above.

We had a great time, first of all spending a few days with my family, then with friends visiting us for New Year. It was brilliant to just relax in good company. We even had a wee party on Hogmanay!

I had 3 weeks off work, starting on 13th Dec, so I did actually find some time before Christmas to be quiet and conteplate what Christmas is all about. I was totally struck by the enormity of God actually compressing himself into the form of a human being. That God didn't just sit above the clouds in another dimension, knowing we were physically incapable of reaching out to Him, but became one of us so as to reach out to us is so mind-blowing. I was just impacted again by the brilliance of God's plan. It was at horrendous cost - Jesus' brutal death, but He did it anyway and bridged the chasm, so we can live in a new dimension. I can't mentally understand this mystery, but it was brilliant to re-appreciate it on a deeper-than-mental level this Christmas.

Looking forward to 2007, I began thinking what my hopes & dreams are for this year. I want to be closer to God and experience (deeper-than-mentally again!) Him in my life, I want to be a better parent, I want to be a better friend, I still want to save the world, I want to have more fun. Oh the life of an idealist! Stay tuned, and find out how many of these get checked off!