The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies.”

Today’s woman of wow is Mary Brave Bird, also know as Mary Crow Dog. She was born in 1953 and grew up on Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. She grew up knowing poverty and racism intimately. Her mother did not teach her their native Sioux tongue or any of the traditional ways because she feared these would handicap her child and cause further discrimination.

This only seemed to create more of a longing within her for her heritage. When she was a teenager, she ran away from home and became involved in the American Indian Movement, participating in the 71 day standoff at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre and giving birth to her first child during the siege.

She has dictated a more detailed account of her story in two books, Ohitika Woman and Lakota Woman. I haven’t read either of these, but I’d like to in the future. If you want to read more about this remarkable woman who has faced mountain-sized obstacles because of our nation’s treatment of her people, click here. There are also a couple of movies based on her life and the events of the American Indian Movement.

Sunday morning at church, it was time for communion.  I headed to get the kids from their activities to bring them in to join everyone at the Lord’s Table.  Our youngest, Mollie (3 1/2), was sitting next to me on the pew.  She looked up in excited anticipation and whispered something I didn’t hear clearly.  I asked her what she said, and she repeated,  “When is God’s breakfast?” (with a wonderful lisp)   I smiled and said “In just a few minutes, after we sing another song.”  She delightedly swung her little legs, that don’t even nearly reach the floor, and she said with a sheepish grin, a happy roll of her big blue eyes, and a little laugh, ”I love God’s breakfast!”

Okay, it is pretty bad when you notice that your cactus is dying from lack of water.

I’m not kidding. I have this lovely terranium in our bedroom that sits on a small coffee table under the window (caked, and I mean caked with dust). I knew I wouldn’t do a good job of caring for many plants, so it contains two small cacti, one which is dead but looks great, and the other is one of those cute little ones with an orange-colored top. You know?

Well, the idea was that I wouldn’t really need to remember these plants, and it would be okay. But I looked over the other day, and the poor little orange one’s stem is completely shriveled up. It is skinny as a piece of paper! Yikes. Do you think I’m a just a tad bit burned out from all the nurturing I’m already doing?

Hey, three kids, a dog, a cat, and a poor little cactus that gets forgotten. It is so bad that when I go out to feed the dog, a 6 month old monster of a black lab who was so incredibly cute and small and cuddly when we got him, I get mad at him for acting like a dog. You know, dogs want to play, and they like to jump and run and chew things. But you would think it is a crime the way I act toward that poor dog. But the cactus shows how bad it has really gotten. And I’m writing about it! Still haven’t watered it.

Know the feeling? Like when your husband gets home from work and wants a little attention, and you really just want to meet him at the door and say “See ya later!” or head for a long soak in the tub. Like, you really love the little hands and arms that cling to you and you will die when they are too big to want all the hugs and loving, but still at the end of the day you don’t want anyone touching you?!

Anybody else out there a bit overdone? Anybody else ever kill a cactus? Nah, I doubt it. Well, at least maybe I can make someone else feel a bit better!

Last year I read the book Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas, and if I haven’t said before, I think Bono is really great, not only as a musician but also as a fellow sojourner. Here is a quote from Bono in that book, which I picked up again last night:

“Be silent and know that I am God.” That’s a favorite line from the Scriptures. “Shut Up and Let Me Love You” would be the pop song. (laughs) It’s really what it means. If I ever needed to hear a comment it might be that.

Somehow that struck a chord with me. His pop song version of Psalm 46:10 would be Shut up and let me love you. Oh, how often I need to hear that! Oh how often I imagine God says it to me, and I’m too busy, or too worried, or too guilt-laden, or too angry and burdened, or too whatever, to hear him. Let me love you, dear one, let me love you.

Today it is physical and emotional exhaustion from the constant care of three wonderful, bright, and incredible kids. But throw that in with a husband whose job is stressful and full of travel these days, and you’ve got one weary wife/mom! So, after a full day of activities with these wonderful creatures, including a day at the park, painting their Home Depot woodwork, neighbors over, movie, and reading, while dear hubby needed to work, and I was more than a bit crabby. While getting them down to bed, I yelled at two of them more than once. Arrrrrrgh. I hate that so bad.

It is a real gift when I’m able to crawl out of the guilt of expected perfection as a mother, the guilt from failing to love well, the guilt from not being able to be it all for them. Of course, I know the truth. I just forget.

I know that I am not their Savior. That if I were, they wouldn’t need a Real One. I know that when I fail as a mom, I give them the opportunity to taste the Lord, really taste him. I know that when they see me run to him in my weakness and need, they discover how real he is. I know that I’m not only forgiven, but clothed in the perfect love of my Savior. I even know deep down that all of us have those moments, and most of us have a lot of them.

But, again, I forget. And even more, it can be agonizingly challenging to grasp this at a core place in my heart, where it begins to matter in the way I live, not just what I can quote or tell myself that I should be believing.

So, tonight I’m asking God in my weariness, to help me shut up and let him love me. He didn’t choose me because somehow I had something great to offer him. He didn’t choose me for my “sweet nature” or my “determination and discipline” or for my “great motherhood skills”. Nope. None of it mattered to him. He chose me because he longed, and longs still, to show his great love and mercy to me, an undeserving recipient of it.

Lord, do you really love this me? The one weary from all my own striving? The one who tries so often to make her life work apart from your divine help? The “me” who can be so self-serving and self-pitying? And I hear it again, from somewhere deep within, “Be still and know, know my love, dear one.”

So, tonight I’m listening, and I’m counting on this love. I’m counting on his love of this real me, because it is the only me there is, no matter how different I want to be or pretend to be. So again I come. Just as I am, I come. And again, he loves. He loves.

I’m shutting up. Will you?

Today’s woman of wow (or I should say tonight’s, since it is now after 11:00 pm) is Dr. Wangari Maathai (born 1940-present). She was the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She was also the first woman to earn a PhD in central or eastern Africa. She has worked tirelessly toward democracy, human rights, and protection of the environment.

Founder of the Green Belt Movement, she has taught women’s groups how to plant trees and better their own lives through friendly use of the environment. These women, through her influence, have planted over 30 million trees on their farms, schoolyards, and church grounds in Africa. She is affectionately known in her country as “Tree Mother.” I love her gorgeous, sunshiney smile, and she is someone I wish I could get to know in person. If you’d like to read a bit more about her, check out this site.

“I’m allergic to water! I’m allergic to water! I’m allergic to water!” Mollie (3 years old) passionately screamed as she was trying out the shower and some got into her eyes this morning.  This is the same child who, when bothered by a small cold a week ago said with emotion, “My throat is frustrated.”  (Wish you could hear the “lithsp”)

“Grapes will sour before they make sweet wine. . . and everything will be just fine.”

These are some words of a song by Mo Leverett called “Sparks.”  For me, it is one of those songs that sneaks up and encourages me here and there when I begin to feel discouraged over my own progress (or lack thereof) in the faith. 

So here it came again the other day.  I had been told that some of my blog posts seem angry, and I’ve no doubt that is true.  I didn’t even try to deny it, though I did try to say that I think there is freedom for honest expression in the Christian community, hence the Psalms. 

But the conversation did set me to thinking.  And you know, I don’t want to be an angry person, reacting over wrongs I think others have done.  I do not want to be bitter and unforgiving.  I do not want to get hung up on injustices.  The song came again: 

See love flow where once there was tears,  Change through the years and see the anger and fear turn kind.

“See the anger and fear turn kind.”  Wow, now that is hope.  You know, at our core, all of us have a good deal of anger and fear, whether or not we are aware of it.  And there is very little any of us can do to change those core attitudes and beliefs, apart from Love Divine.

The sun will come soon to light a new day.  And Love Divine will show us a better way,   and everything will be OK.

So, God is good to remind me.  He is faithful to show me.  Again.  That no matter how angry my heart can be at times, no matter how much fear tries to grab a hold of me, that Love Divine will make everything OK, and part of that everything is me.  “Grapes will sour before they make sweet wine, and everything will be just fine.”

Thanks for the reminder, Mo, and thank YOU, dear Holy Spirit of God for always knowing how to give me hope.  Dear Winemaker, I love you.

This morning while reading today’s history lesson to my son, I learned something very interesting that I never knew. Now, many of you may be much better history buffs than I, but somehow I missed this story.

Did you know where the marathon came from? Because I didn’t!

In 490 B.C., the King of the massive Persian empire, Darius, wanted to take Greece under his rule. Well, itty bitty Athens and Sparta, two cities of Greece at the time, did not like that idea at all. Darius said, “I’ll take you peacably, if you will just agree to obey me.” They said, “NO WAY!”

You’ve got to love their spunk. The Persians outnumbered them 10 to 1. BUT the Greeks were much better-trained, stronger warriors, plus their passion was greater, as they were fighting for their homes and families. They beat the Persians, and they beat them badly.

To carry the joyful news of victory back to Athens, they called on Pheidippides, a famous runner, to run the 26 miles back to Athens from the city of Marathon where he was at the time. Now, Pheidippides had run the 150 miles to Sparta night and day to give news of the Persian attack only a few days earlier, and this time he ran without once stopping for a rest. He made it to Athens with the news of victory, and almost as soon as the joyous herald of victory was gasped from his mouth, he fell down dead!

And that is where the “marathon” race came from, in honor of this famous run by Pheidippides in 490 B.C.

Okay, this quote just made me laugh out loud and was so fun I just had to share it. Picture this: I was reading to Jonathan while he was taking a bath (I know that’s funny, but we’re funny). And we were finishing up the third book in the Narnia series called The Horse and His Boy, where a young girl Aravis, a young boy Shasta (later known as Cor), and two talking horses travel across a desert to escape into Narnia and unwittingly save the Archenland kingdom from being destroyed. Anyway, here is part of the very last paragraph of the book;

Aravis also had many quarrels (and. I’m afraid, even fights ) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarreling and making up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.

As I read, I began cracking up, and Jonathan and I both had a good, hearty belly laugh. Then, of course, I had to read it again. It is such a wonderful gift to be able to laugh hard with your kids.

And hey, Isn’t that part of a really good marriage? Where you can quarrel and make up again and go on doing that, and somehow still love each other?

Many smiles to you today!

Today’s woman of wow is an educator from the late 19th century, Charlotte Mason.  Unless you are in the homeschooling community, you may not have heard of her.  I cannot possibly do this woman justice here, but I do want to highlight a few things.

Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was born in Victorian England, and she grew to be a devoted reformer of education. She passionately gave herself to the education of children and developed a thorough and brilliant, refreshingly new philosophy of education. She was especially committed to underpriveleged children having the best educational opportunities. Her ideas were widely known and respected, and then were forgotten in the flourish of modern education practices. However, in recent years, there has been a rebirth of interest in her ideas, and many parents and educators are implementing her philosophy.

Her ideas include giving children the best learning materials, such as “living” books which make history and other facts come alive, the best art and music, and much contact with nature.  She had children take time daily to be outside in nature and then record details of some natural object - a leaf, a flower, a bug, that the child found by painting a detailed picture of it and labeling it with the latin name. She also found that narration or “retelling” of information caused children to pay closer attention to what they were learning and be able to remember and communicate it to others, rather than simply having them regurgitate memorized facts on a written test.

Even if you are not in education or homeschooling, many of her ideas and thoughts can be implemented into your family life.  She has impacted the way I see my children and my role in their life. Probably the most important tenet of Ms. Mason’s philosophy is that “children are born persons” and that they naturally want to know and have a love of learning, if we do not squelch that by giving them drab, dull and dry learning materials.

If you would like to read more, this website is full of information on this woman of great impact and remarkable wisdom, Charlotte Mason.  She makes me wish I grew up with an education like that!