Fixed in Change

The seasons are changing. I can see it in the changes of the soybean fields from their deep summer green to the almost sunflower yellow that is shown now. Soon, they will look like so many sticks lined up in the fields. The corn’s long leaves of green tapered points are drying into their russet gold. The squirrels seem to be extra busy gathering nuts for the winter, hauling them across the still summer warmed ground to whatever hiding hole they might be using. Somewhere north of here, the eagles are preparing their strength to fly south, marking their seasonal route down the Mississippi that will celebrate the arrival of winter here. Every evening, the constellation of Orion is becoming more and more visible in the sky, arriving earlier to admire as the Big Dipper slips past the horizon sooner.

It seems we all have our opinion on which season is the best. I love the cool crispness of fall and the beautiful colors it brings. Others favor the heat of the summer, the new greenness of spring, or the beautiful snows of winter. Regardless of the favoring of one season over another, they pass in succession. It does not merely remain fall because that is my favorite; just like the summer sun will continue to be farther from the earth, the land will continue to cool into winter. 

As I enjoy this particular season, it is a good reminder to me to seek out the beauty and good in each period of life. There are times of harvest, where what has been so carefully tended is now being enjoyed. There are times of want, when things are lean and difficult decisions are required. There are times when the world is cold. And there are times when you can share the warmth of love with the people around you, basking in the glow of their response. So many more seasons than four pass through our lives, more than the changing of the orbital position of earth. And yet, like the earth, I choose to remain fixed on my center axis, on the Son of God.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:1

Football Away Game Soup – Chili

Our first winter of the season has arrived!  As a fan of the flakey white stuff, I was very excited to wake up to big fat flakes falling from the sky. The snow outlines all of the subtle structures of tree branches, a fire is in the stove, the winter garden is starting to show off its unique beauty and it is a perfect time for a big bowl of chili.

Chili is one of those soups that seem to have as many recipes as it has chefs. Beans, meat, spicy, mild, topped with crackers, cheese or creamy – these choices are just a small list of the choices that can be made with chili recipes. Each hand that makes the chili makes it a little differently. It’s a lot of fun to try these different recipes, enjoying many variations on a culinary tune.

With thousands of variations all falling under the name of chili, individuality added by each hand preparing that shared pot of soup adds distinctive flavors belonging just to them. There is not a right or wrong, just different, and yet all falling under this one category. Many ingredients are mixed together in a composition that creates a final flavor. There are many styles and tastes, but they are all chili. I love not being stuck in a box. 

My absolute favorite recipe (though I do have some close seconds) is the chili my parents make. My mom starts it and my dad flavors it as it cooks. There is always a discussion over the level of spiciness and if it will be too hot to share. And it always turns out perfectly.

This is their recipe and it makes a canner full.  Plenty to eat, share and freeze the leftovers for enjoyment on another snow day.

Family Chili for Away Game Soup

• 6 lbs. ground beef\
• 46 oz. can tomato juice
• 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 2 cans of 28 oz. diced tomatoes and green chilies mild
• 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes in a puree
• 28 oz. tap water
• 2 cans of 30 oz. can of chili beans
• ½ qt. size bags of bell peppers (I used frozen bell peppers from the garden this summer), diced
• 4-5 large onions, dice
• Chili powder and salt 

 Heat a large skillet, my personal preference is the iron skillet, and brown six pounds of ground beef. Stir regularly to keep the meat from sticking or burning.

While the meet is browning, dice the peppers and onions. Add the other canned and fresh ingredients to the canner. Stir the tomato juice, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, chili beans, water, bell peppers and onions together.

After the meat has finished browning, drain it and add it to the tomato mixture. Start heating the soup on low.  

Stir regularly to keep the chili from sticking. For this large size pot, add ½ cup of chili powder and start with several shakes of the salt shaker. Once the chili has cooked a while, add another ½ cup of chili powder and stir.  Let the chili cook.  Add chili powder and salt to taste.

Chili is best when it has time to cook and really let all of the flavors work together. This is a great make the day ahead soup.

Time Travel on the Driveway

Time has been on the minds of people for a long time. Our myths from centuries back tell stories of time travel, moving forward or backward in time, being able to see what is coming or what happened. We seem to be fascinated with time, time management, time efficiencies, and making the world ever smaller in ever faster technologies. Whether it is a desire to see what will come, has gone, or a way to pause; the need to slow down is one that hits me regularly. I need to slow down, taking time to think about and look at the world around me. It is recharging for me and lets me gather perspective as I listen for a quiet voice of God.

I’m reminded of this need to slow down every time I come down the driveway. There are many kinds of driveways, concrete and asphalt, gravel and dirt. My driveway is a mix of gravel, dirt, and asphalt chunks. It is rutted and uneven in places where water has cut trenches through and left hills and valleys. It needs some work. But, part of me really likes the driveway this way. It forces whoever is coming to the house to slow down; to watch out for dogs that don’t get out of the way of cars and to be on the lookout for rabbits that believe strongly in perpetual rabbit right-of-way. It is a reminder to me to slow down, such an important reminder in our fast paced world.           

I wouldn’t want to give up my cell phone, email, facebook, and other media timesaving technologies forever. What I do want to do is create a balance with reminders that often cause me to pause and look around. Yesterday, I looked up and saw a cloud move across the morning sky. The sun wasn’t quite up yet, and the clouds still had a heavy grey look to them. I thought they looked thick until I saw a lacey view of the moon, edged in a graceful and moving frame. This morning, a golden fog caught the sunlight and let it display its beams suspended in droplets of vapor. The feel of autumn crispness is reflected in the crispness of sweet red and tart green autumn apples. Beautiful fawns have lost their spots, and are now preparing for winter’s cold by growing out their thick fuzzy coats. Their mouths seem to be in a perpetual state of chewing as they utilize the end of summer foliage to prepare for the upcoming chill. A small moth landed on the window, spread its wings and sunned itself in a wonderful leaf disguise.

Maybe our many myths and scientific studies of time travel can be brought to our daily lives by stopping to breathe in the smells, watch for the wispy clouds, feel the sun-filled water droplets in the foggy air, and slow down when coming down the driveway.

Summer Flavors – a New Venture in Gardening

I have had a garden before, a spot to raise zucchini and a few tomatoes. This year, my garden dreams were bitten by the spring bug when the Midwestern winter was still deep in snow, expanding the list of plants to include black beans, corn and potatoes. Spring came and plants that had been started and were growing on make-shift tables by windows or were still stored in carefully selected seed packets made it into the back of the car in boxes, traveling with the needed tools to the garden. It was time to plant! A few months later, and voila, plants are growing and there are things ready to be harvested!

Armed with Bug Soother and my hat, I wade into the green beans and breathe their smell deeply. The corn stalks bend and make a whispering sound. I have a conversation with the Gray catbird as it is sitting on the water container and watching me with curiosity. The bird sings and I join in, we sing together - celebrating the feel of the sun and praising the Son.

The grocery sacks fill with the harvest of the week. I am so excited to get home to break the beans and put them away for winter. The colors, smells, and textures – not to mention of courses tastes, are a joyful part of the experience. I do my homework, finding out how to know when onions are ready to be dug up, or when popcorn should be harvested. The feel of the warm dirt and being able to eat, share, and stock the freezer with fresh produce is a wonderful summer thing.

I look forward to the time in winter when I can pull out a bag of fresh green beans and put them on the stove to cook. The smells of summer will come back, drifting through the house, bringing summer’s flavors during wintry days. Toss a few seeds in, try a new recipe and pause to enjoy the flavors of summer. 

 Fresh Pico de Gallo

Pull out a good knife, cutting board, and bowl.  Chop up the ingredients on the list below and mix well. 

• 2 jalapeno peppers, seed and dice  *if you have a cut on your fingers, consider wearing gloves or this will make your hands feel like they are on fire!
• 1 onion (I used a purple onion for its sweet flavor)
• 4 tomatoes dice
• 3 garlic cloves finally diced

Mix everything well.  Slice 1 lime in half and juice.  Add to the mix, straining out any pulp.  Put in an airtight container and let it sit over night.  Enjoy chips or with meals, I particularly love it with a summer salad and a dab of Greek yogurt. Will last about a week. 

Long Winter and Welcome Spring

 I’m sitting in the garden, enjoying the feel of sun on my back and dirt on my knees.  I know the feeling of early spring, it is when my bare feet feel grass damp and chill with dew, and when you stand in one spot for a moment the warming soil feels lovely.

Temperatures dropped and then stayed below freezing in the Midwest over the winter.  What is of course expected to be a cold season; stayed sub-zero for a longer time than normal.  The permafrost crept further through the soil as the snow and ice continued to accumulate on top; making nothing quite as welcoming as a fire in the stove and a bracing cup of hot coffee.  Small talk conversations everywhere centered on cold weather and wondering when spring would come.

February came and not surprisingly passed in winter’s chill.  March promised a thaw as the sun showed itself more, but plunged back into freezing temperatures again.  April is purported to bring showers, but I think I remember snow instead!  May has arrived though, bringing the long sought spring.

Waiting through winter’s reluctant change to spring’s entry, the green of new leaves, bright daffodil blooms, and the bright purple of the redbud trees are doubly welcome.  I find myself examining each plant to see if it has survived the prolonged cold, surveying for buds and promise of leaves.  Nothing is exempt in my search for new spring life, from tall trees to the newly planted seeds.  Waiting impatiently for blooms to appear, I expect the warmth of the sun and the moisture of the rains to have encouraged spring to occur in each plant, large and small.

Life has seasons of winter as well, sometimes seeming everlasting frigid cold without the hint of a spring has arrived to stay.  It’s those days of cold darkness (though it may be 100 degrees outside), that we are tasting bitter hurts. How do we keep our eyes toward the spring to come instead of the frozen temperatures we are currently in? Sitting in the garden this past weekend, putting seeds in the ground and anticipating seeing the new sprouts soon reminded me of how we look for heart winters to pass as well.

Winters of the heart, be it from stress, hurt, anger, grief, or a combination of them all, can chill our world as much as that accumulative snow and deepening permafrost.  We tend to pull back, hibernating in our hurts and hope for the sun to come back out.  But, in the midst of the deep winter, it is time to look at garden catalogues!  Dream of summer days, plan for gardens, and get that soil ready for new seeds.  It isn’t ignoring the winter, but it is planning ahead – looking ahead – hoping ahead – for the thaw to come.  Seeds of friendship, good changes to come, familial support, and leaning on Jesus are to be planted in a soil rich in hope, love, and the faithfulness of God. Keep watering, keep waiting and watching with anticipation and when spring comes, so do new plants of great good. 

I am looking forward to being out in the garden.  

My sun hat is ready; the seedlings are beautifully green and growing every day.  Bring on the spring!

Wind Just For Me

Winter in Iowa this year means cold and snowy days, bookended with bright sunshine and bitterly cold wind. Winter does have its benefits when living near the Mississippi River, watching eagles travel the waterway in search of open fishing spots. Almost two weeks ago, the wind had kicked up; making my face freeze in moments, finger tingling and nose chilling whenever I stepped outside. Wind in these cold temperatures where you have to lean into it to move forward; it makes me want to curl up in a warm blanket, in the sun, next to the pot bellied stove with a blazing fire inside of it and a cup of hot coffee inside of me! Heading out for a dentist appointment I had to brave the wind. As I walked from the office to the car in my many winter layers, I was grumbling to myself about the wind. It stung me with gravels and tiny pieces of ice kicking up with the gusts; leaving me digging in my purse for sunglasses to shield my eyes against the incoming micro assaults. 

Walking quickly to get out of the cold, I saw an eagle weaving in and out of the buildings along the road next to the river. A young eagle with wings stretched out fully, twisted into tight turns and then dove toward the earth only to catch the next wind and rocket back up into the sky. Skimming from the tree lines to the ice covered river, and then ascending in wide slow circles, other eagles performed a ballet on the wind. They seemed to only hold themselves ready, moving in faith to catch the invisible wind and trust that it would be there.

Invisible wind and eagle trust; my own thoughts started to catch flight and ascend as well as I continued to feel the wind against my face. It still made my fingers and nose tingle and my face feel frozen and stung. The same invisible wind stinging me was sending the eagles up in acrobatics against rocketing plumes of air. I saw them reach higher and higher, and then dip into dives with agility a pilot would envy, only to move to the next column of air and rise again.  Invisible wind and soaring flights; a thought was hovering on the edge of my mind and slowly built throughout the day.

I am someone who likes a plan.  I have found I can run with changes, but I prefer to know what the end game is.  Okay – the end game and all of the steps along the way.  In detail – copious detail…. When change comes without any of these things, I feel more like I have been tipped into the open space with the eagles, only with no wings and no wind. The thought of invisible wind and eagles grew in my mind, uncurling and suddenly it was a full thought; that wind was for me! That wind that stung my face suddenly held all the promise of summer as I heard the still small voice come back to me.  “Do you not know?  Have you not heard? ...They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Winds in life have been stinging lately.  They have kicked up debris and flung them about, stinging my face and making everything so very cold.  Where is spring; where are the soft warm breezes?  Where is the comfort and ease from the gusts that will knock me over?  And then, leaning into those very gusts, cold and harsh, I find myself celebrating them!  The wind – it’s for me!  It is my reminder in the midst of these difficult cold days of eagles spiraling on pillars of invisible air, my reminder that they are not merely  catching hasty moments in the air – they are soaring!

Invisible wind and my invisible God; they can both cause stings as I am lifted higher and higher on invisible mountains to new heights.  Let me lift up and stretch out my wings and soar. 

Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,"My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary     and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary,and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. 

They will soar on wings like eagles; 

they will run and not grow weary,    

they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40: 27-31

Spring is Coming

   It is unmistakable, the first signs of spring are being shown. I love snow, but it is good to feel the sun and it’s warmth. Soon, the flowers will be blooming and the air will be full of their smell.

   Each season is so different. I love the feel of fresh snow, powdery and deep. I like to really dress in all the snow gear and then head out at night with the dogs. Just sinking down into it, leaning back and watching the stars. It’s beautiful; the intense quiet, and the brightness of the sun on the snow.
   Spring comes in with a passion of storms and a swirl of bright colors. The air itself changes it’s fragrance and becomes full of the smell of earth. The ground soaks in the moisture and the green starts returning to the yard. Tree buds are just a moment away. I know that they open secretly, because I go to bed one night and they are buds. The next morning, there are tiny leaves.
   Summer comes with its heat and the smell of sun block. Summer vacations are planned and the anticipation that has lasted all winter and spring now comes to fruition. The earth is warm under my feet, and I begrudge my time in shoes. Summer rains are something to walk in, to sit on the front porches with porch swings, and enjoy the sound of the rain.
   Fall, every fall I think it’s my favorite. The color, the smell, the “lullaby of the leaves”. Red, yellow, and orange colors are painted onto the leaves by the Great Painter and the world takes on a new due of color. The yellow leaves are my favorite, it seems like sunshine on the top and on the bottom.
  So, I’m saying good-bye to winter and hello to spring. Especially since I have seen a robin and a bug in the yard! It’s a sure sign.

Seasons and Roadmaps II

   The fall wind has been blustery these past few days. The leaves are being blown off the most stalwart of fall leaved trees and creating a staccato dance across the driveway. The windows have creaked and the door shifted in its frame as the air has moved so powerfully. As the temperatures fall below freezing, it is quite evident that fall is in full swing and winter will be arriving soon. There are many here who do not care for the snow and the cold winds of winter, many who would prefer warmer and balmier temperatures.

   But, just consider for a moment a different view, that of a macro-economist. That view would say that the snow and cold temperatures are valuable because it kills of germs in the soil. We have more productive growing seasons than those around the equator because of that cold.
   So, with that in mind, we have seasons in life as well. There are days when things are balmy and warm. The sun just feels perfect and a light breeze is keeping the temperature nice. These are the days when everything is going well, life is a smile. We have summer.
   There are times when the world changes color, we feel a little dryer, a bit shriveled inside and watch as the color we normally don’t present to the world becomes first and foremost. We find ourselves losing our leaves, bare before the world. We have fall.
   There are times when the snow falls, and though it is beautiful, it is also bitter cold and austere. The silence is loud, and our ears hear everything move. We long for the warmth of a friendly comfort, a soft blanket, a roaring fire, or a comfortable sweater. We have winter.
   There are times when everything seems to be growing and moving. We may be experiencing growing pains, but we are seeing results. It takes work and time, effort and sweat equity, but the reward is visible and wonderful to see. We have spring.
   We have all of these seasons in our lives, many times over. But, the beauty is that there is more than one, and we will move through them to provide growth. Remember the economist, the soil is better for the freeze of the winter, the heat of the summer, the cool rains of fall, and the warming sunshine of spring. We are also often better for the hardships, the trials, and the rests of warmth.

Seasons and Roadmaps

   Each changing season seems to lead me to want to travel someplace different. The blustery weather that we awoke to yesterday here in our corner of the state had me dreaming of getting in the car and heading off down the road, but to where?

   The fall winds blow, the leaves start making their showy appearance and I start dreaming of South Dakota. The last warmth to find the plains before the beginning of the wintry snow that will sweep through the grasses. I so would love to find myself winding the way through the pine trees as the snow starts, and then watching the buffalo walk through the whiteness, creating a path with their amazingly deft mass.
   Or the cool wetness of a spring day, whisking me off to Alaska in July; the feel of the water into the air, the vapor of the sea moist and salty to the touch. Blooms are fragrant and the leaves are deep shades of green.
  As I prepare to travel now, I think of other places I have been fortunate enough to see. There is such a beautiful world out there, so many roads to travel. I’m excited to be off and exploring.

Tree Songs and Goose Honking

I can’t say I try to be normal, it’s not that I usually try to go out of my way to be different, I just am. How are you different you might ask? Well, I find myself signing just about everywhere I go. Yes, I know that I am not living in a musical, but there is just so much music around us.


Again, that may be a bit different, but not really strange – I mean other people may sing too. Then, I find myself at the park, singing to the goose. Let me back up and describe the scene. It was a late winter snow, thick and beautiful. A frost had settled onto the branches and each little stub of tree that is now starting to hold leaves. Coming down the hill, I stopped at the pond. Ice coated part of the pond, creating a small patch of water where the geese were gathering. They paddles around a bit, rather lazily, occasionally flapping wing and diving under the water in search of fish. Getting out of my car, I noticed how quiet it was. I just love that about snow. And in me, a song welled up, “Great is thy faithfulness….” Standing alone on the deck, watching the geese watch me, I sang (loudly) to the geese and the trees and anyone else listening. Frankly, most of the geese didn’t seem to care. But, one honked back at me. It wasn’t the evil goose honk that geese can do when they are in an attitude mood. Instead, it was more benign, more like it was joining in. Behind me, I could hear the branches creaking on the trees, ever so slightly moving. It felt like I was in the middle of a symphony of sound, a praise of God from many species of life.


I was reminded of this last night when reading in my devotions, Isaiah referred to the trees clapping their hands. I love that! That jogged the memory of reading how the stones would have cried out if the people had not as Jesus entered Jerusalem. What beautiful symphony is around us, tree songs and goose honkings, that we miss out on by not paying attention? As spring is here, sounds of the earth coming back to wakefulness abound – I want to take time to enjoy them and to remember, that great indeed is God’s faithfulness. Maybe they will even let me sing along.