Up at 7:15 and out the door at 7:35 with my
camera over my shoulder to take a walk but it was closer to 8 before I left our
campsite because I got distracted as soon as I stepped out the door. No big surprise there.
Our campsite not only has a tree but there’s also
a privacy hedge along two sides of it.
Both the tree and the hedges are havens for the birds. Well, except for
that one dove that got snatched off the tree by the falcon…I guess the tree
didn’t afford much safety to that bird.
Anyway, from sunrise to sunset there is constant bird chatter around
us. There’s been a cardinal that comes around
in the morning to sing…he happened to fly into the tree when I came out of the
camper. Of course, I had to try for a
picture or a video which took time…and then there was the bug.
As
I turned to get a bottle of water I noticed a rather awkward looking bug
lumbering across the yard rug. It had a longish abdomen, 6 legs and its hind
legs were much longer than the front legs so when it walked it was tilted
forward, head close to the ground as if it were looking for something. Stink bug is what first came to mind and
since I know that they’ll stop to stand on their head when threatened, I
wondered if this bug would do the same.
Yes, it did. Beyond making it do
a headstand it was just fun to watch it walk.
When
I got back to camp I was curious enough about the bug to try to identify it…I
realized by that time that it probably wasn’t a classic stink bug. So I spent about 45 minutes trying to
identify the bug, first asking Google about a ‘black bug that walks on an angle’ and then a ‘black bug with long hind legs’ before finally typing in ‘6 legged black beetle with longer hind legs’, which fairly quickly led
me to the Desert Stink Beetle. It was a long journey but I had the time and
learned much about the bug/beetle world along the way.
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Oh, goodness…I could tell early in the day that this was going to be a
hot one. Topped out somewhere in the high
80’s. While I appreciate not being
bundled up that was a bit on the high side for me.
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Most years when we’re out here we go to the movie theater in Casa
Grande. The trick with that is finding a
movie that looks worth the money. The cost
of a ticket is one thing but the concessions…ooh, boy, that’s a whole different
ballgame. But since popcorn is a must at
the theater we just have to suck it up and pay.
The
only film that I recognized or wasn’t a superhero movie was Marry Me, with Jennifer Lopez and Owen
Wilson. It was a good movie and the 2
hour respite from the heat was good too.
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The 40 Days of Lent challenge for today….Give a copy of your favorite
Bible verse to someone. Gracious but
these challenges require some thinking.
Probably why they’re called challenges.
A verse that has seen me through some very chaotic times in life is Matthew 6:34 (The Message): Give your
entire attention
to what God is doing right now and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.
God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time
comes. (Emphasis is mine.) In a
nutshell…don’t worry, it’ll steal the moment.
Oh, boy…the action part of this challenge was
somewhat triggering for me. I was in my teens, not a regular church attender but
started going to youth group at the corner church because some neighborhood
friends did. At some point we attended a rally at Hope College and what I remember from that night was learning about
evangelizing…the kind where you walk up to a house or a person, hand them a
tract and give them ‘the talk’. I walked out of there thinking if that’s what I’m
required to do maybe this Jesus thing isn’t for me. And for years it felt like
I was lacking something important in the faith department because the thought
of doing this scared me to pieces. I’m now years away from that experience and realize
that God doesn’t require me to be a ‘cold calling evangelist’…but the memory is
strong and so was the anxiety when I read this challenge.
I don’t know anyone out here well enough to just walk up and tell them
or give them a paper with my favorite verse written on it but if the moment was
right I could certainly share this verse and the reason why it resonates with me. And I know all about getting outside my
comfort zone but this is beyond that.
So…I wrote out my verse on a piece of paper and decided to leave it somewhere anchored by a couple of my painted rocks. But where is there a high traffic area around here? Kim solved my dilemma when he suggested we go to the movies this afternoon. I knew immediately which area would get the most traffic: the bathroom. Put my note and rocks on the counter and went to watch the movie. When I used the restroom afterward, the rocks and note were gone. Of course, someone could have thrown them in the trash but I prefer to think that my verse along with the painted rocks was just what someone needed to see today. Maybe I took the cowardly way out but I did what I could…and I think that the spirit of the challenge was met.
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No riding today. It was hot and I didn’t want to put jeans on. Kim isn’t imaging tonight because he doesn’t have gas for his generator and there’s the issue with the moon getting fuller. It was a slacking off kind of day.
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