Well, its like this; my readers are so busy on facebook, they never read my blog and comment anymore. But, the real reason I haven’t posted in awhile is that my computer is gasping and needs a bit of maintenance…so, I have to surf and write on borrowed computers. Will I fix my computer? Oh, yes! All it needs is a good cleaning and a couple of fans and maybe a new router. Right now I am recovering from a new clutch and a couple of seals for the car. OBTW – Yay for me. My savings account lasted a record four months before being decimated to pay the mechanic.
Monthly Archives: February 2009
The Love of Riches
Some people will do anything for money.
Others will do nothing for money.
A third group will do anything to get something for free.
The first embody the scripture wherein Jesus said, “The Love of money is the root of all evil.”
The second, in their extreme response (or excuse) to avoid evil, would not think of committing any motion resulting in the evil of money. These two seem to be extreme poles of response to the making of money. The need and greed that comes from not having any money may result in a third, more insidious and extreme response:
Some people will do anything for free; free money, free belongings, free food, free ownership.
“Give me neither poverty nor riches…Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you…or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor [you].” Proverbs 30:8.
“People who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction (I Tim 5: 9)”
So, too, all that wait dependently for others to give everything to them for free.
Flashback to November Reflection
GOODBYE MOUNTAINS, HELLO FRIENDS
I came to the mountains in the first place to be alone. Well, sort of. I like my space. I love being alone during the day to putzy about the house and arrange things and indulge in creativity. I am inherently that quintessential stay at home wife or mother who is nourished by planning great things for her family, anchoring and stabilizing her brood and her man by her presence in the home, and the good things that come from her kitchen, her sewing machine, her garden, her pen and her heart.
Two things conspired against me. 1) All the neighbors also came to the mountains to be alone. There was a huge dearth of friends and an abundance of isolation. 2) One cannot live on mountains alone. One must commute to the city and work full time in order to pay the mortgage on the cabin and provide the components and ingredients for those abundantly nourishing meals.
So commenced the commuting and the stress: One foot in the mountains, one foot in the metro; with the shoe always on the wrong foot. What I really want is to live in the mountains and be alone during the day, write my thousand pages, feather my comfy home and hearth, attend to my music and spiritual nourishment; and then-when the lights go down or the vacations come—escape to beaches and exotic places, symphonies and shows, with family and friends in tow to enjoy all that cities and countries and culture has to offer.
How is it that things always turn out backwards? Now I am living in the high desert, still working full time, but with a short three mile commute; two life long friends and several family members close at hand; numerous opportunities to cultivate new friendships. Still I crave: Alone time during the day-Social time in the evening and on days off. I can still go to the mountains or beaches for vacations-and I do! I have just returned from 48 hours in Gunnison; walking and hiking at 7,000 feet; writing in a luxurious motel room complete with hot tub; but, where was the social life at the end of the day? The kids were off doing college activities.
Townsend and Cloud, in their most enlightening and healing book, Safe People (Zondervan, 1995), note that isolated people, socially anorexic people may have fantasies of vacation and doing something fun ALL BY THEMSELVES. Guess I am not there yet. I love to share fun and vacation with the right people! Now where are they?