What We Do (a mommy tale)

If your daughter brings you a baby bird and hopes that you'll help her figure out what to feed it, and if the baby is cute and feathery and rather desperate looking, and if, all day, you try different things and it never will eat but finally, at nightfall, you realize that what it really needs is a mom to eat a worm and partially digest it and then throw it up into the baby's mouth, and this gives you an idea so you get a very fat grub from the garden and you smash it in the old brass mortar and pestle that was your mother's and then you suck the grub juice up in an eye dropper and find that the baby will now very happily open it's mouth for this delicacy--Well, I just want to warn you that you need to cover the top of the mortar with something while you're doing the smashing or else you might get grub juice on your face.  I'm just sayin...

Elephant Passing

They killed an elephant
the night before we arrived in camp
slayed her for
the slender tusks God gave her

On a certain ridge
when the wind moves
we smell her death

And I am angry at her killers
stupid opportunists
driven by their poverty and lack of care

But not so much

It's the hidden men
lusting for her ivory
shielded by walls of privilege and power
that light my ire

This is an ancient elephant trail
the small spoor tells us
there are babies among this family
that recently travelled by

They must miss their sister
or auntie
or mother

And the leering, lusting men
are safe

The One who made her
is moved

Yes, He who watches
over fallen sparrows
and fading lilies in a field
marks her grave
and speaks

"Don't be fooled.
  On the day we meet,
  Don't think I won't remember."

-lisa, June 2012

laundry line meditations

wendell and i commune outside the laundry door
my feet planted softly in the dewey grass
back warming in the gentle morning sun

i move up and down by the basket
stretching wide sheets and
smoothing faded t-shirts
across the sagging lines

from some part of my memory
wendell speaks
lilting lines
songs of earth and sun and field

in the rhythm of my work
i take pleasure
and feel joy

these damp garments
smell beautiful
(like redemption)

the shiny dryer sits
abandoned

and I worship you
with this small kiss for creation
hanging my laundry
in your good sunshine

Caring for the Lovely Land

(I posted this yesterday over at Wild Hope's blog...)

Out on Wild Hope's land, large areas have been plowed improperly in the past. A big rant about the damage done all over Africa by poor plowing practices won't help here and the question remains as to why small farm owners plow up and down the slope? Don't they know that the topsoil is being stripped off their farms? Don't they realize it is eroded by wind and water, poured into the streams and eventually dumped into the ocean where it kills the coral reef and puts all other marine life at risk?

Possibly there is no concern for marine life so far away. Few local inland farmers would have had resources available to travel to the coast and be impressed by the warm Indian Ocean. Understandably then, there may be little regard for her, but aren't they driven sufficiently by their own desire for successful farming to keep their topsoil?

But it's just not always as simply as that.

Plowing properly requires that you move horizontally across hilly areas instead of creating furrows that run straight down. And while this seems obvious, the actual size and shape of your farm plays a big role in whether this is an easy task to accomplish. To plow along the contour and not up and down may seem like a simple task. But if your farm, like all your neighbors' farms, is a skinny strip of land that was divided out for you by family, it's quite possible that your skinny strip is short on horizontal and long on sloping hill.

To plow properly you will have to manuever the tractor in tight turns that are difficult to accomplish while pulling a plow. It's so difficult that the whole idea starts to feel way too complicated to be worth it.

"Topsoil shmopsoil. Reef? What's that? My kids need maize and beans NOW."

This weekend, Wild Hope is taking a few friends to a seminar that teaches biblical care for the earth as applied to farming. God's heart for the earth is big and passionate and we are thankful that we can begin planting the seeds of that heart among some of our friends here.

We're also thankful that we can be a blessing to the Wild Hope property.

Last week, Byron sat on a tractor with a local neighbor and corrected past damage that was done through improper plowing of land on the land we now oversee. He just didn't want to watch another rainy season come and channel any more of the topsoil away. So Byron and our Tanzanian neighbor worked together to re-shape the land, restoring her natural lines as best they could.

They were pretty satisfied with the result.

And here's a little secret: when the job was done and the land was returned to her naturally protective shape, Byron says he thinks he heard the earth that he was standing on let out a soft sigh of relief.

It's just a small start, but it feels good to bless the very ground of Africa.

Our Stuff

The Story of Stuff is a cleverly made and very well done little video that helps us understand where our stuff comes from and where it goes. More importantly, it points out how our stuff impacts people, economies and the environment along the way.

Please, please take an earth friendly break and watch it. The video is 20 minutes long so make a cup of something you like and pull up a chair. The pause in your day will be good for you :-)

Watch it HERE

PS It's going to be easy to watch where there is fast internet. It was a bit more of challenge here in TZ.

Catching a Glimpse of Jesse

I stole this photo of Jesse off of the blog the Creation Care program he's on in Belize keeps so that the parents can get a little glimpse of what's going on there. It's nice of them as the students have very limited opportunity to get on-line so we don't hear news very frequently.

I love the photo because it's just so very Jesse.

He told me that floating down the river on that warm and rainy day he was thinking about what it means to surrender to God and trust the current he has under us.

I like that I learn from my children about how to follow God.

Recycled Wrap

I thought you might like to see my recycled wrapping paper. I've done this before because I feel so bad about all that paper being used when I have other things that will do. Even though I use baskets and my Trader Joe's bags at the shops and the market, I do end up with overflow at times that requires I bring home plastic bags. So this year we have a lot of blue plastic grocery bags on our gifts under the tree. They are double bagged so you can't see through them and tied off with a ribbon made from whatever I have on hand. Some have the tops chopped off (like the package in the photo) and some still have handle tops sprouting out above. (That way I can use them again when I return to the market.)

You might not agree, but I think they look cute :-)