Photo by Laelia Watt What is the highest calling? This question hit me the other day when I started realizing how many times I have heard people claim that 'the highest calling' in life is to be a parent, particularly a mother. I have also heard this same comparison as parenthood being 'the hardest job' in life. In the past I would nod inwardly to myself and agree, "Yes, being a parent is such an important job! Training children is difficult and rewarding, requiring wisdom and patience." It is still true, but I have a quarrel with the assertion that being a parent is somehow more important than any other calling God offers. Recently, when I kept reading various scriptures about callings and roles in the body of Christ, and finding in books, on the radio and even in secular culture this notion that being a parent supersedes any other purpose in life, the thought rubbed me the wrong way. Where in the Bible does it say that being a parent is "T...
(Shamrock the goat behind bars, University of Arizona farm, 2009) If only it were that easy- they give platitudes and advice that do nothing solve nothing offer no comfort. Stop jabbering SILENCE, please, in the peanut gallery Crazy people with foolish words dripping from their lips might as well be drooling fools consoling one another in a sanitarium pleased with their wit in their delirium Stand behind bars year after year with your soul wilting ears dead with Silence in answer to your every cry Pace a rut in the floorboards wracking your weary brain for ways out and then tell me how easy it is to be free describe what I'm doing wrong deride me for my bad attitude Unless you can open the doors for me Shut up or leave me be When the Judge himself has you trapped there is no escape
I grew up reading fairy tales like a drowining person inhales air when they finally reach solid ground. The adventures, magic, good vs. evil, the emphaisis on quality of character and beauty in the stories thrilled my already overactive imagination and my naturally romantic heart. Unlike most girls though, I did not read the watered down Disney versions of fairy tales. I read the original, hard core Brothers Grimm or other old fashioned fairy tale stories. While I highly enjoy Disney stories too, there is a vast difference in style and sheer number of Borthers Grimm stories. They fill volumes and volumes of books. I remember taking out thick books from the school library. They looked older, more worn and drab than the books that my schoolmates were borrowing. Each volume was a different color-dark maroon, navy blue, emerald green- and all of the pages were yellowed and the spines of the book were slightly worn. The outside of the book may have been uninviting and the thickness ...
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