I pin things here.
I write short things here.
My author page is here.
My photos are here.
I talk about books here.
Saturday
Oct102009
A new landscape
October 10, 2009
When Goa became our home, all of YaYa's drawings of houses became multi-colored, and always featured a few birds, some caterpillars, some worms, and at least one butterfly.
When we moved to the mountains, her drawings changed. Suddenly there were large mountains. Sometimes the houses were tiny in comparison, and the sun was just peeking over the hills.
Now we have come back and we have a new landscape of color around us. Everyone is repainting after the heavy rains, the village is busy with cleaning and painting and the houses are the same, but wear new faces. Next door the house is lime green with cantaloupe highlights! And out the back, what color was that house before? I can't remember, but now it is a brilliant blue. An eye straining blue that keeps coming even when you are no longer looking.
It is lovely.
Two things that Goan people love are fireworks and color. Also fish. As one man told me, chicken is for special, but fish is good everyday.
There have been late rains this year. They've caused flooding and problems, but also this weather which is cool for the time of year. And they wet my laundry on the line when I forget to take it in at night. I go out in the morning and it is sodden and embarrassed.
Did I ever not like palm trees? Did I ever compare them to sticks with hair, back when I was eighteen and I had moved to San Diego from my deep cool forests of Canada? That must not have been me. The palm tree is not only about coconuts or dates or the symbol of relaxation. It is about a wild symmetry of lines and fronds and straight trunks with an explosion right where the tree touches the sky.
And then there is the sorrow of the broken times we live in. Trash in the streams, plastic on the beach, trash washing up on the river beds. The creation is tired, it is not being treated well. I hurt with it.
Beauty and pain always seem to come together. Fear creeps in as well. Is it okay to love anything so much? I remember I felt this way when I first had the babies. As if they would be taken away. But what does this say about how we perceive God to be? As if, after giving a child a birthday present, we would hover over them, waiting to see if they liked it too much and then snatching it out of their hands.
He gives us good gifts. The appropriate response would be thank you, I guess.
So, Thank You.
When we moved to the mountains, her drawings changed. Suddenly there were large mountains. Sometimes the houses were tiny in comparison, and the sun was just peeking over the hills.
Now we have come back and we have a new landscape of color around us. Everyone is repainting after the heavy rains, the village is busy with cleaning and painting and the houses are the same, but wear new faces. Next door the house is lime green with cantaloupe highlights! And out the back, what color was that house before? I can't remember, but now it is a brilliant blue. An eye straining blue that keeps coming even when you are no longer looking.
It is lovely.
Two things that Goan people love are fireworks and color. Also fish. As one man told me, chicken is for special, but fish is good everyday.
There have been late rains this year. They've caused flooding and problems, but also this weather which is cool for the time of year. And they wet my laundry on the line when I forget to take it in at night. I go out in the morning and it is sodden and embarrassed.
Did I ever not like palm trees? Did I ever compare them to sticks with hair, back when I was eighteen and I had moved to San Diego from my deep cool forests of Canada? That must not have been me. The palm tree is not only about coconuts or dates or the symbol of relaxation. It is about a wild symmetry of lines and fronds and straight trunks with an explosion right where the tree touches the sky.
And then there is the sorrow of the broken times we live in. Trash in the streams, plastic on the beach, trash washing up on the river beds. The creation is tired, it is not being treated well. I hurt with it.
Beauty and pain always seem to come together. Fear creeps in as well. Is it okay to love anything so much? I remember I felt this way when I first had the babies. As if they would be taken away. But what does this say about how we perceive God to be? As if, after giving a child a birthday present, we would hover over them, waiting to see if they liked it too much and then snatching it out of their hands.
He gives us good gifts. The appropriate response would be thank you, I guess.
So, Thank You.
in Wonderful
Wonderful 
Reader Comments (10)
That last part? I have been desperately needing to hear that for a long time now. Thanks.
Yes to that last part, yes, yes, yes. It is so hard to separate the risk of life from the God who gives it, but so... freeing.
What a good word of truth in the last part of what youwrote. Yes. So true.
I also love your description of where you live. It sounds like your senses are constantly filled.
Where I used to live overseas, we would take trips every year to an area of great beauty and scads of palm trees. I think about them now with a dreamy far off look in my eye. I miss those palm trees.
It's so fun to see children recreate their surroundings in their art. I remember Ilsa colouring in a "Thomas the Tank Engine" book after we'd been living in the Sahara for about a year. The train was coming through green English hills underneath a blue sky--at least that's how I saw the unfinished black outlines. But she coloured in golden sand dunes and a burning sun above!
And the first time i saw palm trees, I thought they looked like Dr Seuss invented them! Now I, too, love them.
This is absolutely beautfiul. Thank you so much for describing God's gifts this way. I really needed to hear that! :)
What a beautiful point. It's so neat seeing how children view the world. And yes, Thank you. Thank you Lord.
Still listening.
Amazing, truly.
And thank you, Sweet Rae. You are a blessing to me. I have been reading your blog for a while now. You are so brave to put yourself out there for all to see. Transparent and inspiring to me.
God's blessings to you!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.