Author: marettej

It’s early in the a.m. and we are over the ocean..somewhere. According to the map it’s somewhere in between England and Orlando. I have no clue. I have nothing to see outside my window but clouds. I have to trust that the pilot and his instruments know where they are going… I can’t figure it out. Even if I knew all the coordinates, I can’t fly the plane and they won’t let us up to first class much less get inside the cockpit. I have to trust someone else is totally in control and I can just sit and eat granola bars and try not to drink too much so I have to go to the bathroom.

It’s like that in my life. I made plans, people tell me what they are doing, we decide the best things to do, pray about it and put the spiritual car in gear. The trouble is, I really have no clue if it will work. I have to trust God that he knows the latitudes and longitudes in my life and even though it is something I can’t see. I have to trust..and thats hard to do especially when it seems I am going north when in reality I am going south… my grandmother loved to go driving and often would ask what direction we were going. When we would point to the compass on the front of the car, and tell her we were going south she would say, “well, I am going east but I will go south with you.” That’s what I need to tell God. God says I am going north. It I feel like it’s south. All I can say is “Lord, I feel like I am going south but I will go north with you.” Trying to trust but there are days when it’s hard to do…

I don’t have clue about stuff: yes it took me 60 years to figure that out. We are in a foreign country, learning about stuff. Yesterday it was the windmills, before that castles and before that the architecture of Amsterdam. Our history, or the past, is full of reasons. Reasons why became the propelling force behind change. The Netherlands were being invaded by groups burning their cities therefore they hurt up a castle as a stronghold and made dikes so the foreigners struggled. Some of their ideas backfired, but then again I have had a few of those. Like when they flooded the land to keep people out…in winter…so they just walked on frozen lakes. Yup, I have had a few of those ideas too. But, then again they had some very good ones..like there are no fences here to keep livestock in. Cows, I can see but I have a feeling some of our horses would think that a simple jump over since these dikes were the only 3 feet wide.

The past can teach us if we will learn. We watched working windmills grind spaces and saw wood. Slowly, but using the wind energy and getting the job done. Windmills that pump the water out of the soil, which was their original purpose, to keep the swamp lands drained so they could be used. Reclaimed land from the sea; that might be a good idea for the cabin since the marsh is now totally under water.

The past is what I treasure and read in a bound book called the Bible. I read of people who had good ideas, great ideas and some of them worked and others failed. What they had in common was a desire to serve the God who created them and set eternity in their hearts. I sat and listened to Psalms 90-94 this morning while the tram rattled by and people went about their morning. “Sing to God a brand new song” it told me. How do I sing a new song when all the songs seemingly sing the same thing. Our modern music is so poorly written both in lyric and tune, that I keep going back to the music that holds my heart. Songs that hold the attention intellectually and musically. Music that is singable and rememberable. ( I think I just made up a word.). I will go to the museum today where Rembrandt’s work is, “Night watch”. What we have discovered by listening to the past explained, is that the night watch was not during the night, it was actually in the day and in a castle or tower that the original pose was made and taken from there. So even the past can be deceiving. I am thankful that God holds the past and His word is always faithful and true. There is nothing new under the sun, and if I have a brilliant idea, someone probably thought of it before. However, when I get caught In places I am concerned about, it’s nice to know that in the past, this happened to someone else. And they either waddled through it or God rescued them… either way, we learn from the past. So how do I sing to the lord a new song, when there is nothing new.? And yet, God’s grace is new every morning? The new song comes from my renewed faith when I see what God has done for me. My new song comes from my new day, with a fresh perspective on God, with a confidence that God will do a new thing in me…today….and tomorrow today will be the past and I can thank Him, and praise Him for a new day…and the circle of faith goes on….past, present, future, repeat….

I do. Listen that is. That’s what I am doing now: listening. The tram as it rumbles by and prepares to stop at the leidesplein stop. The other tram as it rumbles by only to brake a few more hundred feet down the road. I listen to the sound of clanking from the cafe below. My, they seem to drop a lot of things. I hear the flanking or broken glass and bouncing silverware more than I think I should. I hear the fountain gurgling. The past few days it’s been almost 100 degrees here so children were in the fountain splashing. This morning I don’t hear much splashing, just the gurgling of the fountain. It’s over 20 degrees cooler today. I hear voices but cannot not discern words. I probably wouldn’t understand them anyways once I don’t speak Dutch. A plane goes overhead, mopeds buzz by and every once in awhile the tinkling of a bikers bell. I hear laughter, a gut sounding laugh, and know something was funny to someone.

Listening is a lost art in our world. We hear but we don’t listen. We talk but we don’t say much. We sing but we are off tune using words that don’t make sense. We argue with no point. We dance, well they call it dancing, but it looks like there is a squirrel in their britches. We d things but we often don’t do them with excellence. Listening is hearing at its excellence..we don’t take the time to listen for many reasons but mostly because we are in a hurry. I sat and read a book to a young child a couple weeks ago. I am sure he has heard that story enough that though he can’t read he could tell me. Yet, I sat and read. He listened. We need to sit and listen to each other more. I did lunch awhile back with friends. We talked. We listened. We spoke. We heard. It was a 3 hour lunch and it didn’t take us that long to eat; it was the listening. Go listen to someone today… really take the needs time to listen. It’s amazing what you may hear.

It’s been a long week. Fair weeks always are. Usually fun and exciting this year was cool and great and then the rainy.

Being around people nonstop brings out stuff. We all have stuff. We all respond to things differently. We respond largely based on the stuff in our lives. Sometimes we hold our tongue and other times we need to have others hold our tongue. Sometimes we can walk away with grace and other times we have to be led away by the spirit or by others stronger than our present ability is.

Several times this week I had a choice. Someone voicing an opinion that really wasn’t as much about their opinion as it was the rainy day blues. And I had the honor of it right in my lap. Some older people than I, some younger. Some had a legitimate gripe, others needed a good nap and half a day of sunshine. And several times I had a choice. To speak or to walk away. Some were ornery people and some were people being ornery. Some was simply me being in the wrong place at the right time. Some were just us human being being very human. It would have been much easier to give a speech. I would have loved to say what I knew and how right I was…. and surprisingly I was on the right side most of the time. What we don’t do well is be right with graceful hearts allowing the others to be wrong and not be humiliated. Sometimes just walking away is being right quietly.

Eventually one of the people stopped today and we had a great talk. He didn’t know I knew what had happened. He didn’t need to know because he needed a graceful out. It was a week of cloudy skies making tired people and crabby hearts. Or was it crabby people and tired hearts? It really didn’t matter: being big enough to smile and walk away took more energy than starting an argument.

Jesus let people out of situations gracefully. He wrote in the sand. He didn’t speak and when he did it was like 11 words. I am merely getting wound up in 11 words. I need about 12,000 ton properly defend my position. Jesus didn’t. He just wrote in the sand and spoke a few simple thoughts…. if it were only that easy…..

I love summer. Perhaps it’s my favorite season other than fall and spring. I love the fair, I love the boat, I love the warmth of the sun and the sunsets. I also love rain. I could sit and listen to the rain fall all day… until fair week. I could listen to the thunder and watch the lightning and think it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen, but not during fair week. You see fair week is different. It’s outside for us horse people. It’s a leaking roof in the barn and being dripped on while you talk to people. It’s walking through puddles inside, it’s always being wet and it’s no fun. No riding horses in the arena during thunder storms, no fun to just play when it’s so muddy. So normally we go with the punches but lately it’s been going with the puddles. Some people do that easier than others. Some people roll and bounce. Others flop and sit. Some people roll over get up and keep going. Others well, just kind of plop and don’t move. We people tend to want to have things go our way, kind of, like maybe most of the time. So rolling with the punches means something didn’t work.  We want to kind of just have plan A and nothing else.

So tomorrow we will have a show, with the little kids, rain or shine. Actually we would rather have it cloudy and cool but we will take shine if we can get it. We would like a dry arena, but we will take it not raining at least. We will go with the punches; and puddles and hope and pray for a break in the weather….