Stop Chirping!!

"Who knows the beginning of the things which we CAN know? Theory! Theory! We chirp theories like chickadees because ignorance is a terrifying thing and we need the noise." -Walter Wangerin

This was posted on a friend's Facebook awhile back, and it really caught my attention.  I am a person who used to HAVE to be surrounded by noise.  Two things have always been extremely difficult for me to do: to be still, and to be quiet. (Ask my mom.)  In fact, my mother got me a Precious Moments pin when I was probably 12 or so, and it said, “Slow me down, Lord!” 

I used to hate quiet.  Hate it. The silence literally hurt my ears.  It was deafening! I grew up sleeping with a fan all summer because we lived in a house that didn’t have air conditioning.  I got used to the noise.  Now, I have my oxygen concentrator at night, and my compressor which sounds like a small, low-flying aircraft!  I cannot sleep without noise.  My poor husband!  He loves the stillness…the absolute quiet of darkness.

When I still lived with my folks, I remember coming home late in the evening, and finding my mom sitting in the living room, by herself, in the half-dark, no radio or TV on, nothing. She was just sitting there. She wasn’t even looking at a magazine or reading a book! I used to think she was crazy. Then I had a child!

Before I got sick, I had to fill every atom of space around me with something: noise, music, work, play, fun, people.  I was so afraid of the silence and what it might bring; that I would have to own up to some inappropriate behavior or that I would have to admit that I didn't know it all or have it all, that I couldn't DO it all. It was through all that noise that I lost the ability to hear the whispering of my Lord.

¹¹ Then He [God] said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”   I Kings 19:11-13 NKJV

I LOVE this Scripture.  I remember the first time I read it; it made SO much sense to me!  I had not been hearing that “still small voice” because I had been listening to the wind, and the earthquakes, and the fires. 

Thankfully, I did get sick, and being sick forced me to slow down and be quiet.  And once again I began to hear that still, small voice of God. I think part of appreciating the silence is not being afraid of it. "We chirp theories like chickadees because ignorance is a terrifying thing and we need the noise."  If we're trying to figure everything out we don't have to live with the unknown, because the unknown is terrifying.

If we're talking and moving and doing, if we’re focused on the wind and the earthquake and the fires in our lives, we’ll never be able to hear what God is trying to say.  Because many times, God isn’t in the loud, dramatic things. He’s in the caress of a gentle breeze.  He’s in the touch of a newborn’s cheek to our own. He’s in a whispered “I love you”, as you watch your child fall asleep.

So today I challenge you to be quiet. To embrace the silence.  To put aside the theories.  To stop trying to solve the world's problems... or even your own. And just listen for that still small voice.  Put down the remote, turn off the computer, take a deep breath, and Just. Be. Still.

Turkey Dinner Anyone?

OH. MY. WORD.

If you have never heard a turkey you do not know what you are thankfully missing.  Never in my life have I heard such a racket.

At about 7:45 this morning, I hear a honk in the driveway.  I'm thinking, are you KIDDING me?  I was still upstairs, just waking up, Jacob hogging the bed cuddling by me sound asleep.  Then lots and lots of noise.  LOTS.  You can hear all this because the windows are open because we're having summer in October this year.

So I go downstairs thinking if someone is seriously at my house at 7:45, I am getting my gun.  Consequences be hanged.

So I search, and no one is in sight.  The dogs are going INSANE, so I let them out.  It is then that I realize the cacaphony is all coming from the turkeys!  OH MY GOSH.  My kingdom for a recorder at that moment.  I could have yelled at the top of my voice and not have been heard.  And there were only like 11 of them!  Three of them are toms, and they were all puffed up and their heads were turning blue.  Typical males.

I called Doug to find out if he was the one who honked (yes) and asked when I could murder the turkeys expect the turkeys to be gone. He said end of the month.  SOMEONE isn't gonna live that long....we'll just have to figure out who.

THEN, our meat chickens start CROWING.  Obviously there are several roosters in there.  They are so fat they can hardly walk.  THEN the neighbor's dogs start howling and barking. I'm like, whoever said the "country" was quiet, calm or peaceful has NOT been to MY house!

Of course after the turkeys finally shut up (throwing walnuts, pears, nothing riled them), they wander through the cow pasture and on down the road stopping traffic.  Shoot me now.

Then there is the fruit fly infestation.  Oh my GOSH they are so disgusting.  Where do they all come from????  Well, last night, Doug took the cover off the wonderful, delicious homemade apple pie that he had made the other day, and it was FULL of fruit flies.  I about hurled right then and there.  Did he throw it out?  Nope.

Don't worry, I didn't let him eat it either....

So during WWIII going on outside I'm trying to dump this pie without releasing 17,000 fruit flies.  So I took the whole dang thing outside and dumped it.  Saved the pan.

BUT:  I learned how to kill the little buggers.  Cider vinegar in a bowl with a drop of liquid dish soap.  The dish soap breaks the surface tension of the vinegar, so they drown.  {insert evil laugh}  I've already got a couple in there, the rest are hanging out by the edge of the pool...but they'll take a dunk never you mind.

I have a ridiculous headache, I'm surrounded by fowl, fruit flies, and farting dogs.  But that's a topic for another day.