Lasting Change

The life of a Christian is never about sameness.  It's always about change.  We must learn to survive and once again thrive.  We're being conformed to the image of Christ.

Rise to a new life -- a more compassionate life, a wiser life, a more productive life.
Sound impossible?  It is without Christ.

The stone's been rolled away.  Resurrection life awaits you.
Will you walk into the Light?

thoughts taken from Breaking Free by Beth Moore  

http://wildbluesbysus.blogspot.com/2012/10/breaking-free.html 

Breaking Free

"My times in Egypt are painful for me to remember. Embarrassing for me to admit. Leaving nothing for others to admire. Some days I think I just can't do it. But each morning the Holy Spirit woos me once again to the place where I meet with God. The God of grace bows low and meets with me. In the simplicity of my prayer time, I am suddenly confronted by the majesty of my Redeemer. The One who is responsible for any good in me. My past sins are forgiven and fresh mercies fall like manna from heaven. And once again, my heart is moved, and I surrender all. Morning after morning."

Breaking Free, by Beth Moore, p. 263, 2000, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee

The Wheat and the Tares

Along the north side of the two acre mowed open area is a wild blackberry patch. This year the patch produced thousands of berries that dried and died on the plant due to lack of water and attention. So today, with pruning shears in hand, dressed in long sleeves, long pants, and a sailor hat coated with insect repellent, I decided to cut out the dead canes and drag them out of the patch to make room for next year's crop. Blackberry thorns are extremely sharp and stiff like rose thorns only 1/2 inch long! My clothes, now covered with snagged threads where the blackberries showed their resistance to pruning, has become my blackberry patch outfit.

Hesitant at first I tried to reach in with my shears but the patch held me at arm's length. As I got bolder holding the green canes out of the way with my arm or leg, more dead canes could be cut and removed. For about two hours I trimmed and cut until I had created a path wide enough for me to walk into the patch then cut only the dead cane to the left and right of the path as far as I could reach. Dave drove by on his lawn tractor with trailer and hauled the canes to the burn pile. Tomorrow I will make another path. The patch is large enough for approximately twelve similar paths. In the spring the first year canes (the green ones that didn't produce berries this year) will be pruned to about 3 to 4 feet high to encourage branching for berry formation. (I will enjoy the blackberries much more when they aren't taller than I am.) The antioxidant value of the berries in our diet is definitely worth the effort to grow and harvest them. Meanwhile I need to read up on blackberry nutrient and soil requirements.

We arrived in Maine two weeks ago and find settling in quite enjoyable. The preparation and move itself proved very stressful what with quitting my job. But now that we are moved, finding our way has indeed been an adventure. I praise God for preparing this place for us. There is much work to do and many things to learn. I can hardly wait for each new day to begin. And the stars, oh my, the stars. On a clear night we can see thousands of galaxies, billions of stars, all of the Big Dipper with the last star in the handle being just above the horizon.
Magnificent creation. Magnificent Creator.

LESSON: "Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the world." Matthew 13:40

We've Arrived ...

Our move to Maine is complete. Internet access is still not established in the house. The extremely hot weather and approaching heavy winds and rain of Hurricane Earl are making it necessary to harvest the garden. So we've been busy with that and not focusing on settling in yet. More about the Homestead in future posts.

Coming Soon - A Change

Not a little change...not a change in routine...more of a lifestyle change...a whole lifestyle change. Hubby and I are leaving our outskirts-of-a-major-city-living for outskirts-of-a-minor-town-living.

Remember when I surprised Hubby by telling him I quit my job? Well, this time I really did it! One more month and the packing up begins.

Dot Earth with Andrew C. Revkin has inspirational music for choosing to change. Follow the link and make sure you PLAY to hear him sing his own composition entitled, "Liberated Carbon".

Irreversible Damage to the Earth

One on many articles, this one taken from Yahoo news.

UN fears 'irreversible' damage to natural environment

Mon May 10, 7:08 am ET
GENEVA (AFP) – The UN warned on Monday that "massive" loss in life-sustaining natural environments was likely to deepen to the point of being irreversible after global targets to cut the decline by this year were missed.
As a result of the degradation, the world is moving closer to several "tipping points" beyond which some ecosystems that play a part in natural processes such as climate or the food chain may be permanently damaged, a United Nations report said.
The third "Global Biodiversity Outlook" found that deforestation, pollution or overexploitation were damaging the productive capacity of the most vulnerable environments, including the Amazon rainforest, lakes and coral reefs.
"This report is saying that we are reaching the tipping point where the irreversible damage to the planet is going to be done unless we act urgently," Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, told journalists.
Djoghlaf argued that extinction rates for some animal or plant species were at a historic high, up to 1,000 times those seen before, even affecting crops and livestock.
The UN report was partly based on 110 national reports on steps taken to meet a 2002 pledge to "significantly reduce" or reverse the loss in biodiversity.
Djoghlaf told journalists: "There is not a single country in the world that has achieved these targets, we continue to lose biodioversity at unprecedented rate."
Three potential tipping points were identified.
Global climate, regional rainfall and loss of plant and animal species were harmed by continued deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, the report said.
Many freshwater lakes and rivers were becoming contaminated by algae, starving them of oxygen and killing off fish, affecting local livelihoods and recreation for local populations.
And coral reefs were collapsing due to the combined blow of more acid and warming oceans, as well as overfishing, the UN found.
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) director general Achim Steiner underlined the economic value and returns of "natural capital" and its role in ensuring the health of soil, oceans and the atmosphere.
"Humanity has fabricated the illusion that somehow we can get by without biodiversity or that it is somehow peripheral to the contemporary world," Steiner said.
"The truth is we need it more than ever on a planet of six billion heading to over nine billion people by 2050."
The report argued that biodiversity was a core concern for society that would help tackle poverty and improve health, meriting as much attention as the economic crisis for only a fraction of the cost of recent financial bailouts.
It advocated a new strategy to tackle the loss alongside more traditional steps such as the expansion of protected natural areas and pollution control.
They included attempts to regulate land consumption, fishing, increased trade and population growth or shifts, partly through a halt to "harmful" or "perverse" subsidies.
The issues raised by the report are due to be discussed at a UN biodiversity meeting in Japan in October.
UNEP report

Consumerism, An Addiction

Two weeks ago hubby and I heard Roger S. Gottlieb, Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), speak on religious environmentalism. The following is a quote from his book, A Greener Faith, Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet.

"Consumerism, we should be clear, is not simply about buying a lot, though it certainly includes that. All through history people have wanted their basic needs met, and that small group with extra cash on hand made a point of getting a good deal more than that. The shape taken by consumerism in the modern world, however, involves not just the multiplication of what you get, but the endless expansion of what you want. Consumerism teaches that the central goal of human existence is the satisfaction of an ever growing, ever changing array of personal desires. To be a consumer, in this sense, is always to be wanting something else: the newest, fastest, largest (or smallest), best, prettiest, or most impressive. If the superlatives in these categories are restricted to the truly wealthy, the goal will be to get the best knock-offs one can afford. In this sense, consumerism is a quasi-addictive pattern, made up of unending cycles of the stimulation of desire - the satisfaction of desire (buying) - and the stimulation of new desires. Like any other addiction, we feel a rush of craving, a brief moment of contentment, the inevitable letdown - and then a new craving."

What does a life free from addiction look like? What is that freedom?

"Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.'"

John 8: 34-35

Motivational quotes and application

MOTIVATIONAL WORDS OF WISDOM
from http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle
Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need. Voltaire
Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action. Benjamin Disraeli
You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind. Author Unknown
The best way out is always through. Robert Frost
Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking. William B. Sprague
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. Samuel Johnson
Fortune favors the brave. Publius Terence
He who hesitates is lost. Proverb
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall. Confucius
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Albert Einstein
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.Willing is not enough; we must do. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We are still masters of our fate.We are still captains of our souls. Winston Churchill
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Constant dripping hollows out a stone. Lucretius
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose--a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. Mary Shelley

FBL Team member personal application:

“I have always had lots of reasons to "want" to lose weight. I wanted that little black dress, or to be attractive. Even to not look like a dumpy late thirty's mother of two. But a few weeks ago I got a new reason. Being over weight I am at a high risk for diabetes. My brother-in-law has had to deal with diabetes for a lot of his life. This past year has been very bad for him. Finally around Christmas he started cascading organ failure. He died 3 weeks ago because his liver and kidneys just plain failed and there wasn't anything else they could do. We went to see him the night before he died and I stood there, knowing I should be feeling only for him, but thinking "I don’t want to die this way!" He was only 43. I guess getting an up-close look at what the possible health issues can really mean just scared me. Of course I haven't been eating right every day since then. But at least I am making conscious efforts everyday to do at least something better for my body. Add in some protein I wouldn't have eaten, cut a carb I normally do. Do a few extra minutes with the wii fit.”

ASSIGNMENT: Each of you has personal reasons to change your eating habits. Focus on that reason. Keep it before you all the time. Work for it.

(My favorite quote above is: “You can not plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”)

Hardening the Heart to Change

"...if one refuses to be corrected, divine power does not interpose to counteract the tendency of his own action.  He finds it more easy to repeat the same course.  He is hardening the heart against the influence of the Holy Spirit.  A further rejection of light places him where a far stronger influence will be ineffectual to make an abiding impression...  Every seed of indulgence sown will bear fruit.  God works no miracle to prevent the harvest."  Patriarchs and Prophets

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."    Galatians 6:7

Making a Change - How Hard Can It Be?

"...to tell the truth – that the only choices out there for us are not “easy and familiar vs. terrible and unfamiliar” but two versions of unfamiliar – one in which we change ourselves..." taken from Sharon Astyk's Why Not Change? post.

By nature man hates change; seldom will he quit his old home till it has actually fallen around his ears.

Thomas Carlyle
1795-1881, Scottish Philosopher, Author
more famous quotes

Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it.

Harry Emerson Fosdick

1878-1969, American Minister

more famous quotes

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

John F. Kennedy
1917-1963, Thirty-fifth President of the USA
more famous quotes

Change is the end result of all true learning. Change involves three things: First, a dissatisfaction with self -- a felt void or need; second, a decision to change to fill the void or need; and third, a conscious dedication to the process of growth and change -- the willful act of making the change, doing something.

Leo Buscaglia
American Expert on Love, Lecturer, Author
more famous quotes

Ah, gardening...

Yesterday my husband found an article about me on the internet. I just had to post it here. Click on the pictures to see the whole message.

What's Your Plan?

"It was a clear day when the non-instrument rated commercial pilot named Mark left Billings, Montana, in his Beechcraft Debonair. However, the weather along his route through the mountains was not good and was forecast to get worse. When the briefer says twice that VFR flight is not recommended, Mark's response is that the sooner he leaves the better, and that he can 'get a long way down there and then take another look.'"

Jay Hopkins, in an article entitled Responding to Reality published in the March 2009 issue of FLYING magazine, quotes and comments on Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why written by Laurence Gonzales.

"Gonzales says that one of the biggest problems that get people into trouble in survival situations is that they do not face reality. They want to believe they can still proceed according to their plan, and this blocks an accurate assessment of their real situation."

"Gonzales points out that in our complex, technological world we have come to depend on a problem-solving strategy that 'often gives us a illusory sense of control that fails us in moments of crisis.'"

LESSON: "Plan the flight and fly the plan. But don't fall in love with the plan. Be open to a changing world and let go of the plan when necessary so that you can make a new plan." Laurence Gonzales

Food Rehab Boot Camp

Food Rehab Boot Camp establishes the philosophy of food attitude much like Sharon Astyk's post establishes the philosophy of neighborly love.

GOALS

1. Admit you need help controlling your eating habits

2. Admit that help is available

3. Seek out that help

4. Surrender your current eating habits

5. Follow a designated plan (use the buddy system if necessary)

6. Practice the plan until "no" is as loud as "yes"

7. Graduate to independent eating choices

Last spring David and I jumped into the idea of converting to sustainable living in place, right here at our place, while we're working. Thought we'd just add vegetable gardening, water conservation, composting, starting plants from seed, rain water collection and storage, energy conservation, healthy eating, sharing our experience, etc., to what we already do. I started recording our progress in this blog. OK, all went well - for a couple months until the trouble began.

Our new and former life styles began to crash into each other as the opposties fought for dominance. New/old, unfamiliar/comfortable, chaos/order, empty/satisfied. We had jumped into all these new activities without enough education and experience to insure a successful change in life style. Further, as additional personal events added stress, our effort to change faded.

Since appetite is basic to all areas of change and we eat several times a day, we decided to focus on food. By getting down to basics - David found a diet with simple menus all set up for us - we could learn to discipline ourselves, to say "no" and carry it out, thus strengthening our ability to change our habits of eating and eventually our habit of living.

Right now we are still on the buddy system, helping each other say "no" to any food outside the diet plan. David has lost several pounds and both of us feel better. Soon we will be practiced enough to make significant progress on Chile Chews Discretionary Eating Challenge. (see button on sidebar)

Food Rehab

Hi, my name is Wildblues. I'm a foodaholic.

In the course of our spiritual journey we discovered the spirit-mind-body connection. When one of the links is weak, the whole chain is weak. The health of the body lends to the health of mind and spirit. With over 59 years of habitual do-what-you-want-to attitude as far as what and when to eat, making an improvement is not so easy.

With the help of ChileChews Discretionary Eating Challenge we made a decision to change our eating behavior. Well... That's like sending a soldier into battle without boot camp. So we've put ourselves into Food Rehab. This boot camp for healthy living is a concentrated effort to weed out intemperate habits and learn to just say "no".

No, no, no, no. That's what I said this morning when I lifted the kitchen compost container to look at it more closely (thought I saw something moving inside!) Underneath it were dozens of large black ants from the planning committee trying to agree on how to create an entrance to the colony through my formica countertop.

Panic, run in circles, and scatter. That's what they and I did.

The Whys and Hows of Changing Your Diet

Lately between trips, family, and working, much thought was given to asking what motivates and effects an individual's dietary change. While I'm getting my thoughts into cyber words, these two links offer food for thought.

Powering Down
Chile Chews

Thoughtful eating.

Quit It Now - Cold Turkey

It's not neat. It's not pretty. But, oh so effective.

When choosing to change an addictive behavior, "cold turkey" is a most effective method to accomplish the STOP step of victory. That's where I am today. The MAINTAIN step in victory will be a later post.

Tuesday morning I woke up with "the stomach virus that's going around". Felt like death to me. Both ends exploded leaving me dehydrated and too weak to do anything but nap for two days straight. Five hours passed before a tiny ice chip no longer brought on nausea. My skin was flushed and hot, my pulse rate and blood pressure high. The headache, the gut pain, even my rib cage was too sore to touch. After twelve hours a cooling, lukewarm bath eased some of the discomfort. Never thought Gatorade would be my drink of choice. Did you know that if grape Gatorade, which is not purple but blue, is all that you are ingesting, your poop, what little there is, is bright green? Anyway, the point is the STOP step of victory over an addiction.

The addiction I am trying to quit on the Quit It Now Challenge (see picture link) is comfort eating in the evening. Well, what better way to lose the urge to comfort eat than a bout of vomiting with diarrhea? Takes that whole appetite thing right away. As an added plus to the situation I couldn't have my morning comfort of hot coffee either...the incredible headache with no pain meds in sight. Going cold turkey on two addictions at once, definitely not something I chose for myself. And yet, I did, after the fact.

That was Tuesday morning. It is now Saturday evening. The BRAT diet (bananas-rice-applesauce-toast) is over. The bod is back to normal. No, better than the old normal...no caffeine and no evening comfort eating. Thankfully The Creator's surgical tools are sharp and precise. The addictectomy was a brilliant success! Patient is feeling great, feeling free, feeling blessed and very grateful.

LESSON: When you pray, both the process and the answer may be different than you expect.

DO OVER

Chile, I need a do over.

For the past ten days my performance in your Quit Now Challenge, quitting an addiction for the month of June, has been weak and pathetic. Oh, I have plenty of excuses - really good ones. In fact my excuses are so good that I had to ask myself where addictions come from.

What makes an addiction? A donut isn't an addiction. A television isn't an addiction. A beer isn't an addiction. These items are inanimate and insignificant. So what turns them into powerful addictions? My answer? Repeatedly choosing the same behavior until that behavior becomes habitual. That habit becomes automatic. That automatic, thoughtless behavior becomes a life style in which free choice is surrendered and the life is taken over. Can addiction be reversed once the addict yields to an automatic, thoughtless life style?

The new path to freedom and independence from the trail of addiction requires stopping, turning, and starting again. But, how can the addict make new decisions if the ability to choose is gone? I believe there is one choice no one can give up. That cannot be taken away. The choice to choose.

The theme of this blog, Choosing to Change, began with a desire to change my established suburban-type life style to an Earth friendly, eco-conscious, crunchy* life style. My husband and I expanded our vegetable garden, started educating ourselves about the environment, bought energy efficient light bulbs. But now I'm up against my addictions, my thoughtless behavior. Now I need to stop, turn, and start again. I choose to change.

*According to the Urban Dictionary, crunchy is an "adjective used to describe persons who have adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons. Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists, neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc."

LESSON: Choosing to change begins at the very heart of who you are.

Day Two: Quitting It Today

DAY ONE: At 7:15pm I ran to the freezer and grabbed ice cream. I only had fifteen minutes to eat as much ice cream as I could hold. Cookies 'n Cream not my favorite flavor but better than no ice cream. I finished eating at about 7:40...passed my 7:30 deadline!! I chose 7:30pm as my cut off time for food, all food, each day because I arrive home from work around 7pm. Except for my coffee, breakfast is usually a healthy meal. For lunch I'll eat something at the hospital cafeteria or brown bag* it. (*Currently standing in for the brown bag is a lovely zipper topped reusable lunch bag.) My eating addiction occurs after work when comfort eating takes over.

DAY TWO: Not bad. I had the day off work today. Started the day with homemade whole grain toast with peanut butter and black raspberry jam, orange juice, and coffee. Lunch included a bean burrito, alfalfa sprouts, Bing cherries, and cheese. Then 6:30pm came. A bowl of popcorn and done by 7:30pm. YES! Of course it's only 9pm now and I have stuff to do before going to bed. Then back to work tomorrow...the stress routine... we'll see tomorrow how it goes. Bon Appetit.

7, 6...I planted a peach tree

The "butter jar" belongs to David and the compost container belongs to me. Not sure how that happened but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. (Some blessings wear alot of heavy makeup.) In the pile of decomposing leaves and food waste a peach pit opened and the seed inside sprouted. Three inches tall with baby leaves beginning to open, it now lives in my yard. My first Independence Days Update will begin with - I planted a peach tree.

Let's take stock of where I am.

1. Plant something: Up until this year I have grown only cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and a few beets that I harvested as greens. This year we have planted potatoes, onion sets, beets, Brussels sprouts, rhubarb, asparagus, sunflowers and chives in the front yard. Six varieties of tomatoes, garlic, onions, sweet peas, leaf lettuce, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, sweet peppers in the side yard. Black currants and red raspberries are out back. Parsley, basil (purple and Italian), cilantro, mint, chives and dill are inside growing hydroponically. Alfalfa and radish seeds are sprouting in jars for eating fresh. Next weekend we are starting a garden at my daughter's place in New Hampshire with sweet corn, winter squash, green beans, tomatoes, and flowers. Still to plant at home is bee balm. Hopefully it will attract pollinating insects - bees. I've seen a couple honey bee visitors but our resident bumble bee regularly cruises the property.

2. Harvest something: Only the herbs are ready to be harvested. I'm experimenting with drying them and just eating them fresh. A sandwich with basil instead of lettuce is quite tasty!

3. Preserve something: I found online information on the principles behind drying food and how to build a system that works called, A Review of Solar Food Drying. Back when I was taking a black and white photography class where we developed our own film, David took an unused dresser, removed the drawers, and built screen frames to slide in where the drawers used to go. We hope to adapt that set up for drying foods. I have about fifteen dozen quart-sized canning jars and the equipment for hot water bath canning. Other equipment includes a saucer for making apple sauce and an apple corer/peeler.

4. Prep Something: We have VERY much to do in this area. We have started purchasing some food to store - peanut butter, baking soda, powdered milk, white vinegar, sugar, wheat berries, unbleached flour, white rice, brown rice, and a variety of legumes. We have also purchased our first rain collection barrel and a small Berkey water filtration system. Our well water is very hard. The filtered rain water is wonderful for drinking. We are collecting an assortment of water storage containers and planning the expansion of our system.

5. Cook something: Years ago we purchased a Vita-mix system including the dry container for grinding grains. We have been baking our own whole wheat bread. There are small red beans soaking tonight.

6. Manage your reserves: So far everything is new. However, my freezer is full of wild blueberries which need to be canned and either stored or sold...speaking of blueberry muffins...ah, breakfast, my favorite...

7. Work on Local Food Systems: We are still investigating what is available locally. I began my tomato plant give away. So far eight plants have new homes. Plus this blog is new. Hopefully our experience will encourage someone else to begin a change where they are.

Ah, breakfast, my favorite

The shuffled footsteps down the hall, the glimpse of an old man in his shorts, then the sound of the refrigerator door opening, "Heh, heh. It worked! Look!" David found a quart jar and lid last night (I didn't even think he knew where to look) and poured the pint of heavy cream that he had purchased at the grocery store earlier that day into the jar. He gently shook the jar until butter separated from the whey. Our first homemade butter!* So this morning we spread the butter on homemade whole wheat toast made from flour we had ground from wheat berries the night before. We sliced fresh strawberries and laid them over the butter and garnished with a few alfalfa sprouts (that we sprouted ourselves in another quart jar with a nylon hose lid). Seated in the back yard on a couple of old folding chairs with the songs of several birds, we ate our meal. At this moment life couldn't be better. Ah, breakfast, my favorite. Yum.

Besides the quality of ingredients and the incredible taste, producing your own food gives you such a satisfaction - a wide smile for a job well done. Why did we give this up for a faster more stressful life style? Why did we ever think that industrialization was better than independence? Bigger, better, more money, more power. Ah, power, POWER. That's a hard one to resist. Whatever the reason was, it's time to turn around, about face. Younger people stand at the point of choosing their life path. For those of us over 59, we've been on our life path for many years. Turning around can be fatal if we turn too fast.

For the past couple weeks, maybe a month already, I've been contemplating change. It is like contemplating going on a diet. Both are good ideas and both require sucking it up, saying "no" to a familiar habit, and lots of work. So after all my sulking and whining, the scruffy old man in the plaid shorts with the homemade breakfast won. Today we are joining the Independence Days challenge that Sharon Astyk posted on her website. More later...

*instructions for butter making at CrunchyChickenCooks , Feb.2, 2008