From the Backseat

David to Daniel in the backseat of my car:

"Often when I am in the car I imagine I am a gyroscope."


Me too, kid.

fun with mud

Years ago, when our family first moved down here, I dug up a section of the back yard, mucked about in it, added fertilizer and eventually planted an herb garden. Most of the plants died, but two survived. Those two grew and flourished and took over the whole garden- a sage bush and a rosemary bush. More recently the rosemary bush has been pushing the sagebush over.

A couple Sundays ago I decided to dig up the sage and move it farther away.

So David and I went out dressed in old clothes, tied up the bushes, soaked the whole area with the hose, and started digging.






Pretty soon we seemed to be getting a bit too friendly with the mud...









Then Daniel wandered by all shiny clean and innocent. So we lobbed a few lumps of mud at him. He defended himself with this:









Things continued to degenerate:











but good clean fun was had by all involved (except maybe the photographer, who kept on yelling something about not getting mud on her Sunday outfit).

Conversation over dinner cleanup

Katie is washing dishes while Daniel takes care of the food.
Katie turns around to discover Daniel mashing down the leftover rice to make more room in the container.

K. Daniel! Don't do that! That makes it nasty!
D. Well you can compress files.
K. It doesn't improve the quality.
D. If you compress a .tif file to a .jpg file it only changes the quality a little bit.
K. Rice is not the same as computer files. Besides, space over quality? We have plenty of space for it!
D. Well it cost more money to get more memory.
K. (putting the rice in the fridge) It's a temporary file, Daniel. We can alway erase it later if we need the space for something else.

I have been messing about in the Valley of the Kings, learning how to mummify someone, exploring the interior of the Great Pyramid, and otherwise soaking up Egpyt. This is what I have to say: heathen though they most certainly were, they had a gift for beauty in design and detail. I hope God had some of them design part of my mansion in heaven.

This is one of the most delightful things I have found:

compilation of various inscriptions describing the Queen Nefertiti (her husband was responsible for changing the national religion from polytheism to monothesism- a step in the right direction, I suppose. I think she lived roughly the time of the Judges);

Heiress, Great of Favour, Possessed of Charm, Exuding Happiness, Mistress of Sweetness, beloved one, soothing the king's heart in his house, soft-spoken in all, Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt, Great King's Wife, whom he loves, Lady of the Two Lands, Nefertiti.

Suddenly she seemed like a real person.

reality

Last night I dreamed that I was at Fairwood. Mindy was there too. She was standing by the steps by the swingset. She saw me at the same time I saw her- we ran towards each other and hugged enthusiastically. Matt was behind her, smiling at her.

In the dream I felt no sense of incongruity. I had no uncomfortable feelings or remembrance of death. Mindy was there, as she should be, and I was glad to see her. That was all.

Some day, when we have been in heaven for a few minutes, I think the sense of surprise will wear off a bit. Things will be normal in a heavenly sense. I mean that it will not seem odd at all to find Mindy alive, any more than it was odd to have her around during Bible School.

She still belongs in the land of the living, just not our part of it. Some day we will see her anytime we want. Gloriously, the novelty of it will wear away to be replaced with the familiar comfort of shared memory, close and frequent contact, laughter and labour.

Guess what my friends! Mindy is alive.