Lions, Tigers, and Bears

I can’t remember if I’ve told you this one before, so stop me if I have.  A few years ago K and I drove from Albuquerque, New Mexico to a little town in Colorado close to Aspen.  We were there for some introspection and time away.  While the scenery was lovely, I had been white-knuckled for most of the drive due to how close the road was to the side of the mountain.  We drove higher and higher into the mountains and the drop became more intense, and in this part of Colorado, there were no guard rails. Despite the elevation, we enjoyed our trip and as night fell, we had almost reached our destination.  Several miles before, I had begun to see wildlife signs with, “Watch for Bears,” “Moose Crossing” and the like.  I was pretty excited about seeing wildlife alive and its natural habitat, when suddenly in the darkness, I saw the amber reflection of animal eyes and I yelled at K to turn around. I’m not sure why, but I was immediately convinced that I had spotted a mountain lion. Why a mountain lion? I don’t really know; there weren’t signs posted for mountain lions, and I’d had about 2 seconds to come to my conclusion, but I was convinced. We whipped a quick u-turn on the deserted country road and whizzed back to see the mountain lion, which was really a cow eating grass in a ditch. Imagine my bitter disappointment.

This is a similar story to the time that I saw a shark when we were on vacation in South Carolina that was really a dolphin, but that story is for another time. Laters.

Lovey Dovey

Because I often think about weird things, I’ve thought a lot about this: if by one death (yours) salvation came to many, would you voluntarily lay down your life? I could say a pretty strong “yes” for my kids, a shaky “yes” for family members, and an “I hope I’m that big of a person” for the rest of humanity.

Romans 5:7-9 states: “We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way.” For me, understanding Scripture is realizing how I can best apply/interpret them for my life. I thought about this verse today and as I tend to be an object lesson learner, this is what I got.

K says that his song for me is “Wave on Wave” by Pat Green. (I’ll post the lyrics below) One line states, “Am I the one you were sent to save?” And I feel like that; he is the one. The one I was sent to save, the one I am supposed to be with. And in doing so, sometimes I have given up everything to be that salvation. Love in the good times is as easy as falling off a log, but love in difficulty is another matter all together.  Often when we choose to love, we consciously choose to die to ourselves by giving that love to another, even when they aren’t good and noble; even when they don’t deserve to be loved. Even when they let us down and are of no use to us in a literal sense.  Love works perfectly just like that. I don’t pretend to understand the concept, but I like it, I like laying it all down to rescue the “one” and I like receiving the same splendid love in return.  Laters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJWnIFlYKjs 

Wave On Wave

Pat Green

Mile upon Mile I got no direction. 
We’re all playing the same game 
We’re all looking for redemption 
Just afraid to say the name 
So caught up now in pretending 
What we’re seeking is the truth 
I’m just look for a happy ending 
All I’m looking for is you 
It came upon me wave on wave 
You’re the reason I’m still here 
Am I the one you were sent to save? 
It came upon me wave on wave 
I wandered out into the water 
I thought that I might drown 
I don’t know what I was after 
Just know that I was going down 
That’s when she found me 
I’m not afraid anymore 
She said, you know I always had ya baby 
Just waiting for you to find what you were looking for 
It came upon me wave on wave 
You’re the reason I’m still here 
Am I the one you were sent to save? 
It came upon me wave on wave 
Wave on wave 
Wave on wave 
The clouds broke and the angels cried 
You ain’t gotta walk alone 
That’s why he put me in your way 
You came upon wave on wave 
It came upon me wave on wave 
You’re the reason I’m still here 
Am I the one you were sent to save? 
It came upon me wave on wave

Bad DOG!!

Last night, we guesstimate that our dog ate up to 12 Hershey Kisses. K brought her upstairs to me and said, “Guess what she just did? She ate 12 HERSHEY KISSES!!”  Holly (the dog) snuffled in her endearing way, pretty much clueless to the fact that I reminded her about. Me: “Holly, you dummy! Chocolate can kill dogs!!”  (Again, picture her cute, hairy, and unconcerned)

The real culprit; our darling daughter, always the completer of tasks, long before they are due and her bag of prematurely finished Valentines for her class, left untended in the floor. Each Valentine had a special note and included a fun size bag of 3 Kisses. This special bag of goodies was left next to her backpack ready to be taken to school. The mudroom door was open and Holly managed to tear into the bag and gorge herself on chocolate.

After reading about chocolate online, (luckily milk chocolate is less toxic than dark, see here-Doggy Chocolate Chart) converting ounces of Kisses to her weight, and gauging her behavior, we decided to wait it out to see if she displayed any symptoms. She didn’t.  I feel fortunate that she is ok for several reasons, one- we like having her around and two- the only thing worse than a midnight trip to the E.R. is a midnight trip to the doggy E.R.

Laters.