Middle of nowhere, for rent?

I spent some hours, today and yesterday, mostly yesterday, trying to get my home listed on craigslist, but it will not post, in spite of help. It is a mystery to me. Maybe they thought I was lying, because it looks, just too good to be true.

Right this moment, I'm typing on my laptop, as it sits on my kitchen table. I'm looking out multiple windows, in almost gale force winds, rain lashing about, and I'm enjoying the calm, quiet, shelter. I am surrounded on two sides by houseplants and summer flower pots, that refuse to stop blooming:)

I would rather advertise for a person, to come and enjoy this place, even more than I have. So, just for the fun of it, I'm going to write an ad here. A hypothetical one, from my tiny farm, to cyberspace.

"I'm looking for a companion, to occupy my quiet spaces. Preferably a family, with children and pets, who will make some noise out here for me to listen to. I'm a good sized home, really old, but I don't show it. I have gleaming hardwood floors, but don't run too fast, you might slip and get a terrible black eye, like my present companion did. I was glad when they removed that landline. Why would she run to the phone like that? You must not expect everything to be perfect about me. I need some paint on my porch, and on my deck. I love my new red roof, it was a sacrifice of love giving me that. I have a new boiler, that burns oil, and heats with baseboard hot water. I think I'm realllllyyy cozy myself. I have a big kitchen, but I need a couple of new appliances, (as least my present companion thinks so, since she broke one burner on the cooktop, I don't mind though, I love her)

I have four small bedrooms, and very short steps up to the second story where they all are. Walk carefully and hold the hand rail. There are beautiful views from every single window. There are so many animals around and I like their company. There are ancient trees, in front and back and in the woods too. On one of them, I sport a really awesome rope swing. I have apples trees, both wild and tame, that would prefer someone with a little more experience than my present companion has. (No offense)

I have given off good, cozy heat from my fireplace, and I am spacious downstairs, with a separate laundry room. I have a secret entrance behind the dryer, for my companions' cat to come and go through. (Just thought someone might especially like this:)

I have a huge front porch. People think I look friendly and that's because I am. Yes, I do have that bit of white picket fence in my yard. Don't hold it against me though, I bet some of my future companions used to have mullets too:)

My driveway is gravel and out toward the gravel road is my large and really cool barn. I feel extra cool about it because Wolf Out the Window used to practice in me. They really rock by the way. None of the neighbours minded, because there are none close enough to hear a loud rock band!

As you go up the driveway more, just past the house, up the hill a bit, is the sweetest artist cottage you ever did see. (Just sharing a secret, this is the best hook in my "fishing for a new companion" tackle box) When my present companion first went in there, she burst out crying for joy, that's when I knew she would be mine:) It is large, bright, with a woodstove that really pumps out the heat. I think my heart is more in here than I can communicate. My present companion would like a bathroom in there, and so would I.

You can walk all over me, all 42 acres of me. There are places to play, jump on trampoline, and 30 acres of me, you can plow and plant. They are used to that. I have a big, sweet, spring fed pond, with tons of fish and a dock. I have been greatly enjoyed by everyone who's ever jumped into me. The oftener, the better I say. I am absolutely perfect in summer, not yucky like some ponds that I won't mention.

You have to like fresh air, lots of flowers, lots! You have to like living pretty far from a grocery store and make my kitchen the best restaurant around, or you'll get frustrated. You must like BBQ's and outdoor fireplaces and picnics, just because. It would be helpful if you liked mountain biking, because it is my well kept secret. If you need to heal, from your season of life, if you need rest and respite, I am perfect for that if I do say so myself. Angels like me, and God made me for someone, who needs Him.

My companion right now, doesn't want to leave me, she's downright protective of me. She even prays for me, she loves me and she knows God gave me to her for a season. I like that about her."

Okay, that's the note, just as my farm dictated it. Love to all:)

Healing Song

Joy

Well, I just wrote a short blog and it mysteriously, erased itself, at least a mystery to me. I don't think I can ever capture it's genius again:)
I was sharing about the ordinary day, in the middle of my not yet tidy kitchen, in the middle of nowhere. I was pondering the ordinary things we do, for ourselves, for others, just because, and even we don't remember them. Mundane, perhaps boring, perhaps, shall we say, menial. I used to really hate the "land of mundane". I wanted to do something important, something profound, something heroic, something great! But, something changed in me, as time has gone by and I find, that in the mundane, is a sweetness of His company. He has invaded the land of my mundane, and it has disappeared. Nothing is ordinary anymore, and I don't mind (much) if what I do is completely un-noticed, because, of course, it isn't.
If the main calling in our lives, is the upward call, which is really, the call to the deepest life with Him, the call to intimacy, mundane is an excellent facilitator for this Holy project of His. If He doesn't mind doing dishes with me, doing laundry with me, sitting with me, cooking with me, shoveling snow, cutting grass, feeding critters and doing yucky jobs, well then, I have the very best Companion of ALL TIME!!!!
If anyone, can get inside and tweek our attitudes, it's Jesus. He doesn't mind those yucky jobs!
This morning I was pondering jasper. I had read that the walls of the New Jerusalem are 72 yards thick and made of jasper. That's a lot of Jasper!
Jasper is a clear precious substance, that's not a metal, nor a precious stone, but it is a substance formed from something ordinary, which after time, pressure, and outside influences, is transformed into a whole new substance. Jasper is clear, like glass, some say with a green tinge, some say with a goldish tinge, some say it glitters. It is clear, see through. Can you imagine how cool these kinds of walls would look? Wow. It is said to represent the glory of God.
Just imagine with me for a minute, that the New Jerusalem, is a picture of the transformed you some day. It's a picture of you, with Him, in utterly amazing beauty. Your body is become jasper, and the light, the Light, Himself, shines through, because, the ordinary, has been transformed into something that lets light and glory shine through. It's better than being a tabernacle, or a temple. It's a city, called a bride, called New Jerusalem. It's another, deeper metaphor.
I was picturing the streets of gold, clear, shiny, polished, slippery. I was wondering if you could slide on them, and well, it was like I was walking with Jesus there, and we both began sliding all over the place on those slippy streets. I laughed so hard. They are very slippy streets, not so we fall, but because, we love sliding together.
Did you ever consider that you may just have too sober an idea of just how much joy that God intends for us to have with Him, and it can begin with your hands in the sink doing dishes?
Since I was in the place of picturing this amazing place, I wanted to see the source of the River of Life. I slipped there, sliding with Jesus, and we got down and crawled and looked under the throne, breathing a bit hard from the sliding fun. I looked up and saw it dripping, drip, drip, from the very underneath base of the seat of the throne. Then I wondered, about the throne actually. Jesus said, I never sit on this throne and I'm never off the throne. This seemed pretty contradictory, but, it's a way of Him saying, He IS what the throne represents. Just think about that. He's in you, living, He is enthroned in you. Within Him, is the source of the River, and it spills out, in a deliberately created River way, not eroded there, made there on purpose. In you, is all this developing, by His power at work in you. The Kingdom of God, comes through frail flesh, like a freight train, bursting through newsprint, by His gracious transformation. Isn't that AWESOME!
We are lit up, by Him, who is living Light. In this city, there is no need for the sun, and there is no night. "...and there shall be no more night: they have no need for lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will illuminate them and be their light, and they shall reign forever and ever..." (Rev. 22:5) Light easily seen through jasper walls, through transformed substance-us.
I imagined drinking the water, as it formed it's first drop from beneath that throne. Of course, Jesus and I keeping in the sliding mode, slipped into the River and slid into it's watercourse, and into it's beautiful crystal clear depths together. I'm still reeling from the mind blowing morning! "...and let everyone come who is thirsty, and whoever earnestly desires to do it, let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of Life without cost..." (Rev. 22:17b)
I propose that we need a serious drink, and it's ALWAYS available, for FREE:)
Not just drink, but eat too. "...Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy (priceless spiritual) wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and you earnings for what does not satisfy. Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness ( the profusion of spiritual joy)!..." (Isa. 55:1,2)
I propose a toast to Him, let's drink, by faith, right now, some of His free wine, and let's eat together, some of this bread, He baked for us, and let's drink deep, right now, of that water, that River, that Life, that is Him, that Light, that is Life. Let's feast, all the time, and let's have profuse joy! Let's not be malnourished.
I could write so much!! I am filled up and I have to say, that the adventures of an inner life with Him, can be so astonishingly, grand.

Leaving Nowhere?

Today, I am, s-l-o-w-l-y, coming to grips with moving. With leaving, nowhere:) I am thankful, that so far, we are not selling it. My husband has been unhappy with his job for a long time. Not so much the actual job, it's geographical location, to be more precise. So, out of kindness and mercy, on God's part, he's been handed a good job, back where he'd choose to live. Back in California, back in Ventura county, where I have lived, for altogether 3 years, in two installments. This will be the third installment:)
I am a seasoned "mover", and today, that's not too encouraging. I am too, well aware of the details. There is no bliss of oblivion. However, whispered into my heart, as I was jogging down the worry trail, were the words, "this is going to be so wonderful, you don't have a paradigm for it, nothing in your life has prepared you for this, it will be a wonder to you." It will be like when He gave me the ring, and I just had no paradigm, in my thoughts, or emotions, for the understanding of it. It just was, and it was good.
So, auspiciously, this is off to a rocky start.
But, certainly, it is going to be something, of wonder, when it's all been said and done.