Flash

My friend Shannon dropped a book off for me this summer.

She said she thought of me when she read it.

It had a donkey on the front.

I’m not the least bit offended.

Ahem.

A friend asked McDaniel if they were aardvarks.
Aardvarks!
And then asked if it was her or Ellie’s drawing from elementary school.
Ouch.

The book is "Flash:  The Homeless Donkey Who Taught Me about Life, Faith, and Second Chances” by Rachel Anne Ridge.

There our books that I read where I am impressed by the writing, there are books that I just LOVE the writing and there are books I wish I wrote.

This is the latter for me.

Everything about the way Rachel sees the world and God’s lessons for her through this homeless donkey named Flash, is what I hope to write about one day.

Minus the donkey.

Although, after reading Flash, it made me want a donkey.

Which Shannon warned me about and I thought to myself, 

“Yeah, right.”

But she was.

And I did.

And still do.

I was in the waiting room of the dentist when I started reading this book.

Priscilla Shirer wrote the forward.

(I LOVE her bible studies!)

 I laughed out loud one moment and then came embarrassingly close to crying the next.

All while wearing the Jurassic Park t-shirt that Monte gave me 

thus breaking the “I’ll only wear it to bed” rule that I made for myself. 

In summary:  I was putting off a "I might be crazy" vibe

 in the very tiny waiting room of my dentist.

But you won’t regret reading this book!

Rachel beautifully parallels her walk with the Lord with the actions of Flash.

There’s an entire chapter on the ever-so-slight difference in chromosomes between a horse and a donkey and how Flash didn’t seem to notice and ran with the horses anyway.

Unashamed.

It’s great motivation.

Go get it.

Now.

And let me know what you think.

Dead Plant Dreams

I had a very vivid dream last week.

Monte and I were renting a room from an older couple.

I’m not sure where our daughters were in this dream.

Or what circumstance led us to the situation 

of renting a room in the house of an older couple.

Especially an older couple that seemed hostile towards us.

We had to go out of town and when we came back all our plants were dead.

I don’t mean house plants but outside in the ground plants.

Plants that were right next to the older couple’s alive and well-watered plants.

It infuriated me.

I sarcastically spoke to the older man,

“Thanks a lot for taking such good care 

of my plants when we were gone!”

He said to me with no emotion,

“You didn’t ask me to water your plants.”

I fired back,

“It took such EFFORT for you to NOT water my plants!”

I had such a clear visual image of him going out of his way 

to make sure the garden hose didn’t get one single tiny drop of water

on any of my plants.

He replied again that I should’ve asked him.

I said something about not having to because it was 

in the bible to love your neighbor!

Did I mention the man was wearing a dippy looking quilted leather hat?

My dream self showed great restraint in not mentioning that 

after the “love your neighbor” comment.

I woke up mad from this dream.

Of course I had to wake up Monte and tell him 

all about the mean man 

and my dead plants 

and how totally ticked off this all made me.

It nagged at an old wound for us,

this dream about neglect
and frustration
and not feeling honored.

Familiar old feelings of betrayal 

rushed back to the surface.

After the girls left for school, I opened a devotion that is emailed to me daily.

This is the image that popped up on my phone:

It was such affirmation for me.

I need to look to God and God alone 

to nourish my thirsty plants/soul.

Not man, like in my dream.

God wants me to flourish. 

To bear fruit in my old age and to stay fresh and green.

I can’t look to man to do that for me.

Because man is deeply flawed.

And will always disappoint me.

But I also can’t let bitterness from the past 

to choke out my fresh and green plans for the future.

The rest of the verse in Psalm 92:12-15 says:

“The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” 

It was reassuring and thirst-quenching to read after my dream.

God is good.

God is for me.

God is always, absolutely 100% good.

And also for the day after my dream

 which was September 11th.