Skip to main content

Outta Words

Unbelievable!  I stared at the stick of a plant both my eggplant and pepper had become.  What in the world is making a night time meal of their leaves?  I am completely baffled as I search in vain to catch the culprit.  It does not seem to be the roaming possum or even the occasional visiting squirrel, and I know for certain there are no rabbits in our neighborhood.  The only evidence are little circular chomp bites, but can something that small have such a veracious appetite? Is it a worm, a grasshopper or some invisible insect, completely dressed in camouflage?  I feel robbed of my summer produce, even though it appears to have left the vegetable itself for me to have.  Outta words, I decide to pluck up the remnants later . . . 

I usually have something to say.  Most times, I have find it necessary to speak, to comment, to intervene, to say something.  But not now, I am as naked as my leafless plants.  I'm outta words.  In relationships, dialogue is the source of growth, understanding or misunderstanding, conflict or resolution.  Yes, I haven't always been the best at being forthright, as my tendency is to appease or acquiesce for a sense of peace.  The problem with that is you are caught in between and left with your own sense of being unheard.  So moving out of that position has left me outta words . . . 


I think it's only been a few weeks.  I kept watering my sticks in my vegetable garden and to my surprise and delight, dramatic growth has taken place.  It's as if my plants had never been undressed of their leaves, for now they are wearing bright green foliage.  In fact, they are blooming and once again starting a brand new crop.   I'm outta words with wonder!

Texting isn't really my thing, but I'm learning it's a way to find words.  The conversation seemed at first one sided, angry, accusing and hurting mostly. But in allowing myself to listen responding without so many words, I ultimately found understanding, forgiveness, and hope even though it had to come through my initial fear of rejection and despair.  It's amazing that healing and restoration has come, even when I've been so outta words. . . 

Yes, I may be outta words but never outta hope nor love . . . 

     

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

But . . .

  I had to pause for a moment, as I began reading the text this early morning.  But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly:  they became stubborn and would not listen to Thy commandments."  (Nehemiah 9:18).    How often do I find myself verbalizing "but? what about? what then? what if? really?" All the phrases that feed doubt and angst into my life are found in that one conjunction.  Memory stands as the faithful argument against it, but when faced with future days all seems easily forgotten.  This verse comes to a people who had returned to their homeland after being ravaged and exiled by foreign powers.  Nehemiah is reminding them of who they are, and especially of their one and only God who has forever been faithful to them despite  their faithlessness and wrongdoing.  He reminds them how God is a God of forgiveness, slow to anger, longsuffering, overflowing with lovingkindness, never forsaking them even when He was totally forgott...

Summer Breeze

  Gypsy Rose immediately prances to the back door as she hears her name.  We are ready for our morning walk, which has started later than usual, since I have some of these summer days off.  But it is still early enough to catch the morning breeze.  Walking south, I am refreshed by feeling the gentle wind all around me, it's a cool wrap in contrast to the summer sun.  But it all seems to disappear as I turn the corner and head west, my summer breeze is gone.  I am at a loss for it even as I continue north and east.  It's only as I begin the southern sidewalks back home that I am met with the blissful breeze.  I realize that though I wasn't feeling it for most of my steps, it was there all along, I just had to turn the right direction to get relief . . .  Sometimes, that is how my relationship with God seems.  Yes, I know He is ever near and is with me, but I don't feel that fact.  Sometimes my prayers seem to be in a vacuum, and I'm ...

Brief Moments of Grace

  "But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place,  that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a  little reviving in our bondage." (Ezra 9:8)   Summer welcomes me today with a cloudy cool morning and a subtle fresh breeze.  The day is probably teasing me with moderate temperatures before it will launch into more robust sunlight and heat.  The scorching temperatures have given an abundance of tomatoes, bush beans and yellow squash in my garden, while tormenting the kale, cilantro, spinach and herbs.  My refreshment is found swimming laps in the pool and teaching or rather reminding Gypsy Rose to stay in her lane while we swim together.  Days seem to run together, slip away too fast, as I often feel locked in a routine of sleep, work, cook, repeat. I know that I need to pause and reflect, because even in that daily ritual are God's brief moments of gr...