So, I was playing pretend with S this afternoon. She made me a princess, and she chose to be my knight. She presented the appropriate play costumes, and we were ready to go. Good thing, as there were nasty dragons to be fought. S wielded her sword (read: pool noodle), and with a triumphant "I'll protect you!" took the first dragon down with amazing skill. Then she turned to me and invited me to help her with the next dragon. Sweet deal! The princess hardly ever gets to hold her own sword, let alone use one!
After slaying dragons, Sir S decided we'd better get married, the process of which involved going out to a fancy dinner (man, that would be a lot less stressful and expensive in real life!). We slayed some more dragons, and then I was made supper and dessert again (just regular supper this time, not the kind that gets you married). Play continued on a little bit after this, and then we went outside.
As I was driving home after, I realized that while she has no clue, S totally had some basic tenets of a good relationship thrown into our pretend play. In this day and age, a wife (i.e. the Princess) isn't just a pretty little thing of her husband's (i.e. the Knight). She is (and wants to be) part of the action! The husband has a role to be the protector, and is confident to take initiative, but knows to invite his wife alongside to slay life's dragons together.
At the same time, the wife needs to know she's appreciated and loved at the end of the day, after all the dragon-fighting has been done. Nothing grandiose. Just something that says, "y'know, honey--we fought some big dragons today, and I'm glad you're on my side. I just wanted to say I appreciate you for that."
One day, S will want to be the princess. There is a fantastic knight waiting for her somewhere. One who will let her help fight the dragons, and take her to dinner after. :)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Not Meant to Understand, Just Go With It
Taken from Beth Moore's book, Believing God (good book overall. I especially enjoyed the last four chapters, from which this passage comes).
Not a Children's Book
"The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart--it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence and tenderness and sex and betrayal that befits mankind. It is not the collection of pretty little anecdotes mouthed by pious little church mice--it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone. It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask." -- James Bryan Smith
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Speaking of Tomatoes...
"The difference between knowledge and wisdom is that, knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, while wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad!" -- Unknown
Saturday, August 8, 2009
The Story of the Not-so-Green Thumb
Once upon a time there was a girl who planted things in garden boxes on her balcony. This year, the girl was growing lettuce, and for the first time, attempting herbs: dill and oregano. Vigilantly, she nurtured the seeds she planted, but while the dill started shooting up fairly quickly, the oregano remained hidden under the soil.
Eventually, a plant appeared in the empty garden box! This plant was also sprouting up amongst the dill and in the lettuce. Presuming the wind had blown the seeds around early on, the girl sighed in relief that her oregano had at least started growing, and kept tending to her little garden.
One day, the girl was at a friend's house. Her friend was making vegetable dip, and as she moved around the kitchen, commented, "...needs some oregano." The girl watched in confusion as her friend snatched some leaves from a plant in the kitchen that looked nothing like her own oregano plant. Knowing that her friend was much wiser about food plants than she, the girl decided to deal with the foreign garden plant once she got home.
Upon closer inspection, she realized that not only did this plant not look like oregano, it didn't even smell like oregano. It kinda stunk, actually. And the rate at which the plant was growing was exceeding the dill and the lettuce. One of the stalks even had a little yellow flower forming on it. Hmm, the girl thought, a fast growing plant growing in all my garden boxes... Weeds! The thought that weeds had been growing so freely in her garden boxes annoyed her greatly. They could have hampered the growth of the other plants! She diligently yanked all the stalks out of the boxes and tossed them in the garbage. That felt better. It certainly looked better.
Two weeks passed and the girl thought nothing of her garden box misadventure. Then one day, the girl was playing with her niece in the family's back yard. Her family that lived there had a beautifully landscaped back yard, so the girl thought it odd when she sat down next to a large, gangly-looking plant near the patio--a giant version of the plant she'd had in her own garden boxes. I know my family's been busy, the girl thought, but they wouldn't let a weed get this bad... would they? The smallest seed of doubt started to fill the girl's mind. She moved the stalks around a bit to inspect the massive plant more closely. She gasped.
TOMATO!
Sure enough, small green tomatoes were sprouting all over the plant. The girl's heart sank as she realized what she'd done in her own garden. She'd had at least half a dozen tomato plants growing, and she'd yanked them all. No, she hadn't researched the foreign plant online. No, she hadn't asked anyone about it possibly not being a weed. Where would tomato seeds have come from?!--No one else's balcony had tomatoes. And why would something so yummy come from a plant that smells so awful?! ...There had been no reason to make the link from "not oregano" to "tomato". As a result, she'd lost the potential for one of her favourite garden foods.
...And she still had no oregano.
Eventually, a plant appeared in the empty garden box! This plant was also sprouting up amongst the dill and in the lettuce. Presuming the wind had blown the seeds around early on, the girl sighed in relief that her oregano had at least started growing, and kept tending to her little garden.
One day, the girl was at a friend's house. Her friend was making vegetable dip, and as she moved around the kitchen, commented, "...needs some oregano." The girl watched in confusion as her friend snatched some leaves from a plant in the kitchen that looked nothing like her own oregano plant. Knowing that her friend was much wiser about food plants than she, the girl decided to deal with the foreign garden plant once she got home.
Upon closer inspection, she realized that not only did this plant not look like oregano, it didn't even smell like oregano. It kinda stunk, actually. And the rate at which the plant was growing was exceeding the dill and the lettuce. One of the stalks even had a little yellow flower forming on it. Hmm, the girl thought, a fast growing plant growing in all my garden boxes... Weeds! The thought that weeds had been growing so freely in her garden boxes annoyed her greatly. They could have hampered the growth of the other plants! She diligently yanked all the stalks out of the boxes and tossed them in the garbage. That felt better. It certainly looked better.
Two weeks passed and the girl thought nothing of her garden box misadventure. Then one day, the girl was playing with her niece in the family's back yard. Her family that lived there had a beautifully landscaped back yard, so the girl thought it odd when she sat down next to a large, gangly-looking plant near the patio--a giant version of the plant she'd had in her own garden boxes. I know my family's been busy, the girl thought, but they wouldn't let a weed get this bad... would they? The smallest seed of doubt started to fill the girl's mind. She moved the stalks around a bit to inspect the massive plant more closely. She gasped.
TOMATO!
Sure enough, small green tomatoes were sprouting all over the plant. The girl's heart sank as she realized what she'd done in her own garden. She'd had at least half a dozen tomato plants growing, and she'd yanked them all. No, she hadn't researched the foreign plant online. No, she hadn't asked anyone about it possibly not being a weed. Where would tomato seeds have come from?!--No one else's balcony had tomatoes. And why would something so yummy come from a plant that smells so awful?! ...There had been no reason to make the link from "not oregano" to "tomato". As a result, she'd lost the potential for one of her favourite garden foods.
...And she still had no oregano.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Sardines
Taken from All I Ever Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
By Robert Fulghum
Better than hide-and-seek, I like the game Sardines. In Sardines the person who is it goes and hides, and everybody else goes looking for him. When you find him, you get in with him and hide there with him. Pretty soon everybody is hiding together, all stacked in a small space like puppies in a pile. And pretty soon somebody giggles and somebody laughs and everybody gets found.
Medieval theologians even described God in hide-and-seek terms, calling him Deus Absconditus. But me, I think old God is a Sardine player. And will be found the same way everybody gets found in Sardines--by the sound of laughter of those heaped together at the end.
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