mother Ilean: BE STILL

The tomatoes I worked over so much starting in February.

Finally a tomatoe--am anxiously waiting to taste these heirloom tomatoes

So this past week, I must have got some of what has been going around with Beth, Grace, Roy, Emory. It has been mostly a slight cold, but it has worn me out. Not sure if its a combination of things, or just my older age that puts me down quicker for such a minor thing. Right? Will it is what it is. I have been exhausted during the day and night. Sleeping fine, but still tired most of the day--so that I go and lay down and take a nap, or lay down most of the day. So not much has been able to get done on my endless checklist of life. I am feeling pretty sluggish and worthless in a way. So with that in mind I headed out to do a few morning chores with at least some energy. I took the compost to the compost pile (ie in the garden area), checked the tomatoes, and other vegetables to see how they are progressing. It has been a slow summer--started out cold, and everything is behind, but could tell we will eventually have some vegetables to eat. We really had a bountiful pea crop, which everyone enjoyed eating on. Then I went over to feed the chickens and could see that the raspberries needed to be picked. So using the compost bowl I started to pick. I'm slowed down anyway, but that time of just being quiet and slowly picking through the raspberry bush, gave me pause to slow down even more. I reflected on life, and the myriad of smaller life on the plants, ie the tinier bugs, under the leafs that we don't even know are there most of the time. That if we got even deeper into the sub surface we would see another whole world of life we aren't even aware of. Interesting how God planned this world. Worlds going on that we don't even fully appreciate, because we really can't see them. Then I thought, this sickness has slowed me down so that I can see and appreciate this whole other world--to slow down and know God better. Hence the scripture "Be Still and Know that I am God". And I am grateful that I can go outside on a summer morning and slow down, just take the time to appreciate nature and all that it teaches us. Thankful that I can just step out my door anytime, observe the nature around me, and be still. Something that really is important for the Spirit to work with you. And "heaven knows" that is what I need constantly--to be "stiller" than I am so I can be a better listener to that still small voice.

The raspberry bushes on the south side of the orchard. One lone bush that had a hard time surviving, has now finally multiplied into a nice clump of bushes. As in life, you win some and you lose some, huh.