ANTS speak.

ANTS speak. Spiritually, speaking. :)

The day after our water heater, air conditioning, & washer were all fixed, guess who came to "visit". Uninvited. Unwanted. Unliked.

ANTS. They may be your favorite insect, or friend, or maybe foe &/or annoying pests.. Either way, my eyes witnessed 100's and 100's of these little guys marching and trailing inside my home. Around the sink, Around my coffee makers, Around the stove, Around the kitchen & den floors.

After a few days of waking up to "new ants", I realized that there was more to this than killing them w/spray & being exposed to poison, myself.

"esplain, Lisi!" (hehe.. had to put that in there.. i am cuban, and the saying, 'esplain, lucy' always reminds me of me)

Well.... I have discovered a few times in my life, recently being a bit more annoying... That someone close to me has spoken things that are poisonous to others. We are all entitled to our own opinions/observations about others in our lives, but we should try to speak encouraging words or truthful thoughts of them, rather than the opposite. destruction & "doo doo". haha! :) you know what i mean..

Okay.. so, the ANTS represent those words spoken of those that "share". The poison are those sharing words. So I decided to go for the ROOT of the problem. Thought it through. Got some pest COMBAT that attracts the ANTS, and they take the "goods" to their cultivating nest, and WHAM! they are destroyed.

The interesting thing is the ANTS are searching for WATER. They are parched, perhaps. Thirsty? If they could communicate better w/us human kind, I would have gladly put out a bucket of cold WATER for them. yep. I sure would. :)

If you notice, the ANTS destroy themselves, pretty much. They don't know how to make the connection, because their main interest is their NEED. Their WANT.

Alright. I am trying not to share too much in analogies, but they seem to bombard my life, my mind, my soul. So, I go with it. Maybe you can relate w/me a bit.

The conclusion... I don't see ANTS around the same place ever. They are really clever! They forge themselves into the cracks & crevices of other places. But I am alert. Not too upset anymore. They will come. They will go. It is life. The REAL life.

I have more COMBAT if they decide to invade again... But I will continue cooking, and going about my business here @in my own Cole Casita. And i see the ANTS outside, & smile. They belong outside.

small but significant

right now, i'm sipping one of my favorite hot teas, (http://www.yogiproducts.com/products/details/relaxed-mind/) and eating small bites @a time, of a blueberry scone. (http://www.immaculatebaking.com/product.php?id=24)

i'm sharing which brand link because you may want to know :) nothing else..

so, this is not about food or what to drink or eat. it's about a unique observation that took me a few days to *get*. i was cooking salmon and had a jar of stewed tomatoes open next to the sink. i was concerned about how long those tomatoes had been in the fridge. i was thinking out loud and thought to taste the juice. it was okay. no problem. minutes passed, and i turned quickly to get something and my elbow knocked the jar onto the wood floor. ahhh! funny, i just stood there. just waited. it's been a chaotic and frustrating season for me, and this was a word picture of my insides. they were coming out. they were tired of being inside. being kept in the fridge. (so to speak, obviously)

i started to clean up the mess, and wondered if i had just placed it somewhere else, or kept the jar sealed... etc... my mind was racing. simple thoughts, deep thinking.. yes. i do that. :)

i was on my knees. i was not frustrated. i had another can of tomatoes. i was hungry. i got busy. finished cleaning & cooking, then sat to eat. each bite was tasty, and i thought some more about my life season i was in, was facing. alone.

2 out of the 5 air units in the house were out. it is summer in texas. hot! then ironically, the water heater goes out a few days later. in the meantime, no washing machine. both are broken! but, i actually dig going to the laudromat. haha! :) many machines @once is awesome! quicker and you meet interesting people. that was significant for me. the idea of talking to adults during the day. face to face. i love that. being @home all day, not working outside of home, etc.. you get it.

i was finishing my last bite of salmon, and started to put the pieces together. my dot-to-dot of the small stuff going on in my life. the everyday things. life was happening, but it was *speaking* to my spirit.

my outside, physical going throughs have been parallel to the inside going throughs. i know, that sounds like it should always be that way. but, that's not the case for me. for many many years. for different reasons. too many to share, but this time...it was pretty much identical.

these things in my physical house were falling apart. you get the picture.

a lot of people have been through hell and back. literally. this was truly 'nothing', comparatively, but it went deeper. to my core. my spirit, my soul, my mind, all the insides, were falling apart and coming out.

all the while, i was looking outward @the clouds, sunsets/sunrises, trees, moon, sky.... the most beautiful creations! i love them all. oh, and food, too. :)

it took my eyes off of the broken, the problems, the great concerns. just a few examples....my son and his learning disabilities, my marriage, my health, my daughter less than 3 years of being an adult, a toddler that communicates like a monkey @times!! hehe. i am grateful for humor. that is the key to my sanity. ha! no, really.

now, i wanted to clarify... the tomato mess, reminded me of how many times i don't reach out to seek help or keep things nestled deep inside my soul. i felt freer. weird. but true. after i spilled the jar, i saw that 'someone' was cleaning it up w/me. others that love me. god, especially.

and for the other broken things, i have to call for help. call for assistance. those that are experts or at least know how to fix these items. to make it better for me. for my family. for my *home*.

i'm done eating my scone and sipping my tea now. i think i'll go chase the sweet summer sunset w/my monkeys. i mean, amazing, unique sons. love and thanks, lis

25 minus 15

here are 10 things to know about myself.. (i couldn't think of more for now!) thanks, debs! made me think and giggle and cry.. love you.. :-)

1. i am a first-born american; my parents were born in cuba.
2. i was a gymnast when i was young, and wanted to be in the olympics! i developed osgood schlatters disease (left knee) .. that put the kibosh on that!
3. i love reading fortunes in the fortune cookie, not eating them.. i give them to my son! :-)
(last one, sunday eve: your love of music will be an important part of your life... i ignore the lucky numbers, and love the chinese word(s) they print on the other side with the translation!; Quench One's Thirst.. (jie, ke.. short vowel sounds on the e's) :-)
4. love to read! especially frederick buechner, paula rinehart, mike mason... authors are amazing people on this planet!!
5. i am sometimes called/labeled the bag lady.. not because i live on the street, or carry a bag around.. just because i love to drop off goodies and finds on friend(s) and family's porches, benches, etc... hehehe.. more for me, i really get a happy face doing this, and love to share the yummies! ;-)
6. i have 2 boys, one girl. 2007, 1999, 1995.. good years!
7. i dream of visiting india to see and be with the children.. in the red light district(s) and be apart of a team that will 'set them free'.....
8. i LOVE hot teas.. i am sipping st. john's wort's tea now.. really need! hehehe ;-)
9. i secretly like to watch kid's shows with my children.. hehehe.. no, really! especially peep, and electric company...
10. i really do LOVE grocery shopping.. makes me smile big.. (my mom thinks that is truly bizarre!)

better not to know

this post is from an amy grant blog post, jan. 28th of this year.. i was curious to see when her next musica would be out, so i went on over to her site.. http://www.amygrant.com/

i have always like her music/lyric, her soul... she inspires me~

i told laur that man! i am jealous of cindy and amy!! i would LOVE to write with those 2 amazing gals!!! "well, for sure, in heaven i will write and spend time with them!! hehehehe", i said to laur.. "momma! you and 59 million others!!!", she exclaimed.. hehehe

so true, muy verdad!

we were being silly, but in all sincerity, one of my dreams/desires, is to co-write with a seasoned writer and that their hearts would be like-minded...

i just yelled at my bud, "please stop playing with your cheek, son!" he likes to 'pop' his face with his fingers and then the red rash appears and well.. who cares! hehehe that interrupts my thoughts, and that's all for now..

oh! this song reminds me of sooooo much; one thought i can muster: some things are truly to be left at the 'altar' of our sacrifice place, our life-giving place, our hearts, our souls, our minds, before god's sacred and safe throne...

back when i was worshipping with a community of friends/believers in 1998, i was in a season like this one that these 2 women are writing about... with much learning and much growing, i too, remember that much could have been done, if not for choices that others made, my choices, or just life: the things that happen... maybe.. better not to know~

bless you today!!

on a cool note!!!!!

my 3rd little babe, jaxon, is 2 years old today... i remember that day and thank papagod for his birth.. so blessed, so blessed... thanks, jill, for your song, "all the good things".. i relate so so so so much!!!

hugs~ lis

amy's blog: http://www.amygrant.com/agblog.htm

Today is day 8 in the studio. We're working on a song called "Better Not to Know" that Cindy Morgan and I wrote. My Grandmother Grant died in the spring of 1988 when my first child was 5 months old. We planted a field of fruit trees in her memory....little leafless sticks with promising root balls. I lived on that farm another ten years... Had two more children there, and then life took a few unexpected turns. When I left the farm I left behind the shade of those 75 trees that had grown into a thick canopy over our heads They never had any fruit.Eventually, the farm was sold. Then this past summer I got a phone call. The current owner of the property had had the surviving fruit trees pruned, the farm next door had started keeping bees. My grandmother's trees were loaded down with peaches and pears and apples.

When Cindy came to my house last fall, I had just made my first batch of pear preserves. We talked and ate and wrote this song:

We sowed our seeds

Watered with tears

Waiting for signs of growth

Took months of days And then took years.

We took our steps

We took our falls

Somewhere along the way

We just got lost

And we lost it all.

Nothing ventured nothing gained

The risk of living is the pain

And what will be will be anyway
Oh, it's better not to know

The way it's gonna go

What will die and what will grow

It's better not to know
Those tiny stems became these trees

With dirt and storms

And sun and air to breathe

Like you and me

And some fell down And some grew tall

And those surviving twenty winter thaws

Have the sweetest fruit of all

But innocence and planting day

Are both long gone

So much has changed

And if we got to do it all again ...
Oh it's better not to know...