A Chicken With It's Head Still On

    The arrival of snow is wonderful. Impending doom is more like it. That is how this corner of the world is responding to the vast winter storm that is will arrive tonight. The parking lot of the St. Robert Wall-mart was as busy as a Los Angeles freeway during rush hour. It seemed as if everybody was panic shopping in preparation for the forecast six to ten inches of snow. I was making my own panic run to the pharmacy because I did not want to be without my fibromyalgia meds just in case I got snowed in for a week or two.

 
     Our driveway gets impassible with the smallest amount of ice, so getting out once the weather hits is not conceivable. We are only one mile from city-plowed blacktop but we might as well be living off the grid when glacial weather freezes our little farm to a standstill.

 
    After a two hour wait at the pharmacy (everybody else was panicking too) I had a monster headache and wanted to quickly eat and get home. John and I stopped by Wendy's and ran into Victoria Carriger. I miss her. She was a good friend years back when we lived here the first time before the military moved us to Colorado and then Korea. She has had a tough ride in life and is finally being blessed after nearly a decade of effort invested in building a career in music. That girl sure can sing and God is providing a way for her to take care of her family using her voice. He is using her pain and trials to remind me that he is looking after my dreams too. In due time God will lift me from obscurity. My art, writing and photography will be used to impact the world, just like he is using Victoria's voice to do so now. I need to tell her thanks for being an inspiration.

    Going to Wendy's was a God appointment. Do you get those too? Chance meetings that you know were not planned by your own hands, but were vital nonetheless? Panic driven thinking is stressful. My headache could have been avoided with better planning in regards to my medications. However, if we had not been running around today, if I had not gotten a huge headache, and if I did not try to fight off that headache with a much needed meal; I would not have run into my old friend.

    The day made sense when I was putting my chickens to bed. As I sat on a bale of straw cuddling one of them, I thought that there was tranquility in the chicken shed. As a matter of fact, there is always peace to be had while sitting and cuddling a chicken. The caveat is that I have to slow down long enough to experience the same assurance that a chicken has. There is no panicking over unfilled prescriptions, there is just the moment. It is simple and filled with quiet clucking. Chickens can be extremely philosophical, you just have to ask them the right questions, then shut up and listen.

    A good friend, a full tummy, and knowing extremely smart chickens have brought wonder to my heart today. God appoints all of them at just the right time. Sometimes all it takes is to slow down and live life at the pace of a chicken, one with it's head still on.

   

To Prep or Not to Prep?

    I was reading Jeremiah this morning and pondered how like our times the prophesies were. Israel had been listening to false prophets who said everything was going to be okay. America is full of plenty of people who openly choose to ignore our current state of unraveling. It as if the prophesies had been written yesterday. I thought of my own little piece of land that my family is the steward of and wondered if we were righteous would we be able to somehow escape the coming wrath of God.

   Yesterday I wrote how we prayed for angels to perch on even the smallest concerns here. I really do pray that our chickens are kept safe and our borders-as small as they are- are kept secure.

    It is strange living in a land that others cannot see. If you came to my house would you sense the heavenly host standing guard, or would you just consider me to be mildly insane? Jeremiah was spurned, I expect a similar response from anyone who lives outside of the confines of my skull to react no differently. Sometimes the communication is just between God and me. I sit writing about it not expecting a readership.

    Will there be a remnant of believers in America when everything breaks down? Hmm. I have sympathy for doomsday preppers but am not one myself. If God told me to store vast amounts of food and ammunition, medical supplies and the like, I would obey. That has not happened. I think he would warn me somehow but for now that response seems fear related not God commanded.
   

Hitchhicking Angels and Chickens

     in my little corner of the world it is not an uncommon thing for angels to hitchhike on the roof of our little red family car. It is rather common that they hold sentry duty around the house and even down at the chicken shed too. I sometimes wonder if they get a little bored perched up on the corner eaves of our house as yet another bedtime prayer requests their presence as guardians to our humble homestead. Generally they perform the heavy lifting of my prayer world and remain unseen yet felt.    
    Their absence can be unsettling as family discord gets out of hand and I know that we are off track. At least I may be off track. As the family's chief prayer warrior-in addition to homemaker and cook-I look after the things that we can't see. There is no rhyme or reason to it and I do not expect the world at large to understand that I speak in tongues sometimes to make my petitions to the Almighty. These things are not spoken of in polite company and would make most individuals uncomfortable. Who talks to God like that anyway? Not the tongues part, I mean plenty of people do that. I meant the part where he talks to me and we have this thing going where I think I can hear him. Most of the time I can, so I really don't have a problem with envisioning two angels playing a game of Gin rummy while riding on the roof of my car as we zip on down the interstate. I think they also have coffee sometimes, too.
    I can see their wings gently rustling in the breeze like we are only going two miles an hour. Not much concerns them. But they were definitely on duty the day the horse trailer nearly took me and my two kids out when we were driving down the road in Colorado Springs a few years back. I still remember the moment vividly. We saw the trailer literally shoved away from us at the most crucial moment. My heart beats more quickly just thinking about it now.
     When I look at my little silkie rooster I think about what their wings look like. He is puffy and cute, not at all like a big tough angel. I think that only the fluff on their wings might look like him, but still... Maybe it is the little things that God uses to remind us of the giant things that are at our disposal if we would just ask Him for the help or inspiration we need.