I'll Wait for Maple Syrup

I grew up on maple syrup covered pancakes and waffles made lovingly by my “breakfast is my thing” father. Or the occasional special outing at local breakfast-only restaurants with the little glass pitcher with a sliding metal top pouring the perfect consistency over stacks. It was sweet but not too sweet with the color and fragrance of the first frosty morning of autumn. My childhood was mostly real food and more on the healthy side. We had juicers in the 80s and meals were made from scratch. There was nothing too processed until my little brothers came along 11 years later. After which I remember Bagel bites and State Fair Corndogs in the freezer, easy stuff for us to make after school. 

It wasn’t until perhaps my pre-teens at someone else’s house with a toaster waffle when a very different looking bottle of syrup was put before me…. 

Mrs. Butterworths Pancake Syrup. A women shaped glass container housing a very sticky substance. Similar at first glance to maple syrup but a counterfeit in every way it could be, even the caramel color was an added chemical. 

I learned recently in a Chocolate tasting course (very similar to Wine Tasting) that bad chocolate has more sugar added to make up for the bitter lingering aftertaste. You eat it quicker to taste the sugar again that masks the unpleasantness. The faux maple syrup also had a bad aftertaste but the initial hit was so sugary sweet you ate it quickly to regain the sweetness. Before I had finished my plate, it left me with an awful belly ache. 

Did you know that a Maple isn’t tapped until it’s 40 to 45 years old? Afterwards it can continue to be harvested for over 100 years. A slow drip of liquid available in a short window of time in winter while everything else in the forrest is still asleep.

I’ve been thinking about the Maple this week, likening it to myself in age and to waiting for a partner. 

The other syrup is easy to find, cheap and instant. It’s also sticky, faux, gives you a belly ache and leaves you with a bitter aftertaste. Whereas the maple is patience personified. And when it’s matured, out flows something slow but steady as it gracefully fills your bucket. Once it’s been through the fire, it’s transformed to liquid gold and amber. It’s fragrance and taste complex. It makes everything it’s added to richer and warmer. 45 years of experiences in its heart and soul. The droughts, the rains, the locusts and it’s still standing, waiting to show you its hidden treasures stored up for you. 

I’ll wait for the Maple. 

Song of Solomon 7:12-13

Let us go out early to the vineyards: let us see whether the vine has budded and its blossoms have opened, and whether the pomegranates have flowered. There I will give you my love. The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and over our doors are all kinds of choice fruit, both old and new, which I have saved up for you, my beloved. 

The Lord Remembers

The Lord Remembers ~

The horizon disappears into the clouds

Doves cry out as the rain comes down

Strong coffee in a small mug, strong pen in a small hand

Slow reveals of big conceals, yet still so little I understand

I count the days again, I count the miles and then

I recall as many dreams as I can 

The waves so powerful last night they shook my bed

Something broke free and all the words filled my head

Awake Awake your dream is here

That unseen place, that unknown time is near

Look through the mist

Look through the distance

The rain has washed away the dust making everything glisten

The pause has resumed, quiet yourself and listen 

Isaiah 43:19; 55:8-9, Jeremiah 33:3, 2 Peter 3:8-9

"Listen Carefully, I am about to do a new thing, now it will spring forth; Will you not perceive it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert." 

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways" declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways."

"Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you and even show you great and mighty things, things which have been confined and hidden, which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish."

Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay as though He were unable to act and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is extraordinarily patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 

The Nest

The Nest ~

Home near the water and in the trees

Hear the birds and taste the seas

Bring moss and twigs and flowers

We'll be weaving and twisting for hours

Search out the world for green materials

Coastal edges, Mountain ledges, and ethereals 

Finally, it is done, it is finished, but only almost complete 

Soon A round one, then a new one, a teeny tiny tweet

A tiny Finch nest I came across today while pruning the Ixora. Barely big enough to hold one chicken egg. I was most impressed by the Moss. It's a dry coastal climate here. That’s a special order item, mountain trip for daddy bird or Amazon delivery. There's an array of Finches in close vicinity, some smaller than the hibiscus flowers or as big as the flying cockroaches. Some dandy in tuxedos, some flower lovers in yellow, or green or red. Most with a Hawaiian name beginning with "A". 

Finch Nest Hanging in Ixora

Orange and Pink Ixora 

Matthew 13:32

and of all the seeds, the mustard seed is the smallest, but when it has grown it is the largest of the garden herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air find shelter in its Branches." 

Becoming New...Together

 They came out of their shells together. :) 

For the first time I saw two empty shells together, side by side. Leaving the old behind and becoming completely new...together. 

Will he cross the sea to reach me

Stripped down to only what I held back

For the one made for me

That I will finally sink into

Singing healing songs, he's mending with melodies

Quavering love and shouts of jubilee

We'll come out of our shells together

Leave our past behind on the Rock

Live forth brand new, transformed, unlocked  

I awoke before the sunrise hearing, "Arise, shine for your light has come...come alive dry bones". Seeing these empty shells. It is done. Today is the 17th of Nissan, the day of the ultimate resurrection. How timely. =) 

Today also marks 7 years since that night in Nashville when my whole life changed. 

Awake, arise and shine for your light has come. 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come because spiritual awakening brings new life. 

Isaiah 60:1 (Amplified) 

"Arise [from spiritual depression to a new life] shine; for your light has come, 

and the glory and brilliance of the Lord has risen upon you."