FGHart

Last year around this time I was addicted to an on-line interactive game, World of Warcraft (aka World of Warcrack). This game is very fun and very addicting. Sometimes I miss it. In playing WoW, you create a character (mine was a dwarf gnome named Yekopog) who goes on quests and has great adventures. Your character can become a member of a Guild, a collective group of players who work collaboratively. You can go on adventures together, but the guilds are needed for “runs” when the team tackles the more complex and challenging areas loaded with loot. My guild-mates were very helpful. I always knew I could find someone to help me if I get into trouble on a solo-quest. They invited me on runs and were patient with me as I learned the game.

Now I play World of Blogcraft. I spend about as many hours per day sitting at the computer, and about as much time daydreaming about it when I’m away from the computer. My guild is made up of a few fellow-bloggers. As with WoW, I know that many of the other players enjoy the interactive aspects of the game, sharing and networking. I’m just as happy playing solo, but sometimes, admittedly, I’m envious of the people who are at a higher level, more powerful, better networked…. I have to remember the times when my guild-mates helped me level-up to a point where I was in over my head. I hadn’t developed the skills I needed along the way. The quests have a purpose – beyond acquiring gear and “scoring points” they give you much needed training in doses that are easily swallowed.

Some of the players came to WoW from other, similar games. Their skills were already honed and leveling up was more of a chore. I wasn’t there in WoW and I’m not there in WoB. I can’t lose sight of the fact that I blog to practice writing. I’m working to overcome years of communicating in terse e-mails. I’m developing the skills required to extricate thoughts from my brain and to put those thoughts into sentences that flow and entice the reader to follow the train to the end of the track.

If I’m successful, there will be folks with me at the station, ready to board the next train.

Evidence a critter visited in the early morning. Al is soon on the trail.

Before/After – Confederate Rose.

I love spring! I love the first flowers. And apparently, so do the bees!

“Whatever wisdom may be, it is far off and most profound—who can discover it? So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.” (Ecclesiastes 7:24-25)

To fear the Lord is wisdom, to shun evil is understanding. Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

I am seeking wisdom. Not the wisdom of 18 year olds, deciding it’s timely to move from the dorm to an apartment the week before finals. Not the wisdom of 20 years olds, bragging about getting caught up on their bills because welfare paid a portion of their debt. Not the wisdom of 14 year olds who *might* be demonstrating some anger-management issues over lost privileges (“Not passing all of your classes? No computer/No TV – even if it is Spring Break).

The New Testament gives us wisdom by the Spirit, searching all things, even in the deep things of God. I seek the mind of Christ, through the Spirit. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” Without the Spirit we cannot accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to us. (1 Corinthians 2)

As I work in my garden, weeding, tilling, pruning, planting, I pray. I pray for discernment. I pray for peace – and continued tongue-biting. I pray for clarity in my understanding of God’s will for me. I know where my daydreams take me. Do my dreams align with where God wants me to go?

What a difference a few days can make. While I’ve been busting bum trying to get the yard ready for Spring, Spring has been doing its thing.

These photos are just teasers, a bit of “green” to keep me from being pinched on St. Patty’s day. I’ve been working hard prepping beds and cutting back winter’s dormant remains.

So much to do! So little time!

For my friends in the colder climes, I will get more photos posted soon.

And, since these “green” teasers are hardly enough….Here’s a picture of the humming Mountain Laurel in our front yard.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In the spirit of green,

“Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” (Proverbs 11:28)

’nuff said.

Al was not done playing and the frog was not as dead as I initially thought. Just wishin‘ he was.

The poor little froggy is in the house somewhere. Based on Al’s interest in getting behind my dresser this morning, I think I may know where.

Al was back at it later in the day, sitting by the pond, waiting for prey.

At the end of the day he came inside with one eye irritated and swollen shut. Something fought back. He’s all better now. I expect him to be a threat to the yard denizens all summer. {sigh}

Last year, our precious, ferocious, thinks he’s “alpha” cat became quite the yard-warrior. He brought home birds, bunnies, mice, frogs, snakes and lizards with reckless abandon. These critters came into the house dead or alive. I know we should have been grateful for his hard fought/won victories. I’m sure we should have greeted these treasures with praise.

But instead I tended to yell for hubby (or hubby was the sad discoverer) and we quickly cleaned up and eliminated all traces of the prizes that were delivered. I can imagine why poor Al (for Alabaster, as in white, not for “Alpha,” as in dominant) kept going after bigger and better prey. We must seem ridiculously hard to please.

Now, I am suddenly understanding why Al insists on lurking around dark corners, pouncing on my ankles when I walk by, in an effort to bring me down. Clearly he has decided that if he can deliver me at the feet of the Master of the House, finally, finally he will get some respect around here.

My darling hubby is absolutely enamored with this theory.

I am praying for victims of domestic violence. I have never lived in an environment where I feel unsafe or where I fear for my children’s safety. But I am empathetic. I can imagine. I sincerely hope that this prayer that I am offering can be accepted and embraced in the spirit intended. If you are living a life of fear and survival is all you hope for; if avoiding the next “incident” is what you pray for, please take these words to heart.