The Piper is Paid

Just rendered unto Caesar what is apparently Ceasar's.  Although I beats me how they reached that particular number.  Apparently children are good and income is bad in tax-land.  Also, if I plug my car in that is good, but they don't ask if I walk or bike or recycle or bring my own bags or buy responsibly or turn off the air-conditioner or garden organically or pick trash out of the creek.

They ask if I have replaced my windows.

Turns out it isn't the little things that matter in tax-land.

Argh!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Via Soule Mama

Pride and Prejudice

I hope you have read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  If you haven't, you should.  Because it is fun and fun is good. (Stolen from Seuss)  Also, if you haven't, just go back to your life, cuz this is gonna be boring...might be anyway.

I have been listening to P&P almost constantly for the last several weeks because my Audible.com credits don't renew until June and I have listened to my whole library.  *Sob*  So, I have been immersed in the world of Darcy and Elizabeth and I have been noticing little things about the story.  What's that I hear?  A gasp of excitement.  I know!  I am thrilled too.  If I could just go back to my Jane Austen class in college...

So, here we go!

First, while throughout the text, Darcy is "pride" and Elizabeth is "prejudice" I am beginning to see that the reverse is actually true.  Stunner...I KNOW!  Lizzy's entire dislike of Darcy comes from injured PRIDE.  He calls her "tolerable" to her face and she gets a little huffy about that.  As you would!  From that moment she is determined to dislike him (you might call that prejudice, but that throws off my analysis).  Darcy, who is undeniably proud, is determined to undervalue the residents of Longbourn because of their (comparative) poverty and coarseness and misses the spark of beauty and vivaciousness that later captivates him.  Voila! Prejudice!

Second, while Mrs. Bennett basically has no sense and is the laughing stock of her entire neighborhood, Lady Catherine de Bourgh is similarly ridiculous.  Austen, while enmeshed in the social fabric of her time is able to see through it and reveal that...women can be cranky, avaricious and preachy no matter their income!

Third, there are literally millions of words written about the mercenary nature of love portrayed in these books, and I am not going to add to them, but I will just say that I am getting a little tired of persons with "no fortune" having a cook, a maid and a man.  Let's just call them what they are...people richer than I am but don't have their own reindeer forest.  Shocking!

Thoughts on dirt

There are so many moments each day when I wonder if what I do matters. Will stopping in the middle of the grocery store to discuss the power of the consumer to change slavery practices encourage my children grow into caring adults or will they eventually shrug their eccentric mother off as "odd" for only buying fair trade chocolate? Will poking a few seeds into my suburban yard create an atmosphere of stewardship or weediness? Will we live better because there is chard in my fridge?  Do my children grasp the tenderness of the earth because I refuse to buy them watermelons in March?

The sad truth is that we have allowed the bottom line to answer these questions far too often. Yes, my chickens cost way more than the five dollars a week I fork over for eggs.  Can I buy things more cheaply than I can make them or grow them? Almost always. But I find that the sweater that took two and a half years to make is precious in a way that a cheaper one can never be. You will spend more buying locally and fairly than not, but for us, the choice to buy gentle food is one we can live with.  Does that mean that our cart is barely full when we reach the end of our budget?  Yes.  Truly.  But, paying more to know that the reaper of my food did not go home with a lung full of poison makes my apple a little sweeter.  

And that is why I buy fair trade chocolate and plant seeds in my yard every year.  It is not because I am a good gardener.  My failures rank from the mundane to horror flick carnage, but I am convinced that we press in close to the heart of the Creator when we dig our fingers into the dirt that was declared "good."  

This year for Christmas my brother bought each of the kids an apple tree.  I can imagine the joy that we will share as the buds turn to blossoms and the swell to fruit.  I can imagine watching my children climb those knotty limbs for the out of the way and way up high.  I am so glad that we got to plant them so that when they fruit, my children will know that abundance is real but often delayed.  For me, when I doubt if my life is worthy of a story, I think of the tale that the dirt tells.  I think of the countless generations it has fed and then reclaimed.  I think of that moment of inception when the joy of the Creator marveled at the bounty just begun.  Then as I watch the branches of those little trees, planted with so much joy and faith, swell with buds and promise, I know: my story joins in the Great Story and finding a tree that will allow you to enter into its centurian story gives a place to life that smacks of abundance.