As it is Ash Wednesday (which I only knew because of the Facebook posts I saw), I have been thinking what I would like to sacrifice for Lent -- keeping in mind that it isn't just about giving something up, but replacing it with Something better (the S is capital for a reason). I don't like giving up something I can easily go back to after the Lent season is over. That practice seems to miss the point. If it were just giving up something for 40 days, I'd not drink tea. (I do love my tea.) Although, maybe I will give up my oral coping mechanisms and instead of drinking tea or eating chocolate whenever life is wrought with anxiety, I will turn to God's Word instead.
Anyways, I'm having a hard time concentrating on what to sacrifice for Lent. Life has been pretty anxiety-ridden for me as of late -- for my family and myself personally. It seems more like a "count my blessings" time of life than a fasting time of life -- though, I suppose they are one in the same.
Counting my blessings, I think of my family. I really do have a great family -- immediate and extended. We look out for each other and support one another. I am physically far away from most of my family at the moment, but they are always close to me as they are often on my mind. I am thankful I can count them as some of my blessings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXKxazgio2s (I don't know if I linked the web address to the video correctly. If not, copy and paste.)
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Louie (Part 5 - the last)
“Oh, I see. Hello
there. You decided this would be a good
place to park your old car? Thought a
spider would fit in around here?” Louie
was embarrassed. He hadn’t meant to
impose. He only wanted to rest a bit.
Louie turned around and began making his way back to the steering
wheel.
“Well,” came the deep growl, “I suppose a spider and an old
toy car wouldn’t look too out of place here.”
Louie stopped. “Yeah, you can
stay. Why not?”
Mr. Copperpot sat in the chair. Louie climbed to his web and nestled in. Mr. Copperpot sat for a long time staring at
the horizon. Only once did he speak saying:
“Wait till the sun rises. You won’t
think this place looks so bad when the sun rises.” Louie fell asleep.
* * *
A door shut softly.
Feet padded on the sidewalk. A
heavy weight sank into the rusting chair.
A deep growl, almost a purr, was heard.
Louie could smell the morning, but knew it was not quite dawn. He opened his eyes. The old shed and the overgrown grass had not
changed much in the night, even covered in morning dew. Then something happened.
Louie looked out to the horizon and saw something
amazing. Dawn came. Louie was astounded. The only sound was Mr. Copperpot’s slow breathing.
Mr. Copperpot sat and sat staring at the horizon until the
sun had stretched her fingers completely.
He then went inside.
Louie had moved from his web to the back of the seat. As he watched the morning begin, he knew he
would be quite happy with his new home.
The end.
Louie (Part 4)
Where would be a
lovely spot for my home? Louie wondered.
Louie wasn’t paying attention to the road in front of him,
and when he looked forward again, he had to swerve to miss a blue minivan. The van honked at him. “Well, I never,” said Louie. He then came to a screeching halt behind a
grey car at a red sign. The grey car had
a light ticking on and off. After a
moment, the grey car turned right toward the busy highway. The road to the left was empty of other cars,
so the spider decided he would turn left.
Now, there’s something
I’m forgetting to do thought Louie.
He then remembered the light on the right side of the grey car
blinking. “Tick. Tick.
Tick. Tick,” said Louie mimicking
the sound of a turn signal. He then made
his left turn down the quiet street.
Louie drove and drove.
He passed but one car along the way.
Some of the houses had people sitting on the porch. A few watched Louie’s car pass by and scratched
their heads confounded[SB1] . Others paid no attention whatsoever to the red
car with yellow hood. Soon Louie came to
the end of the street. He gradually came
to a halt. Looking up, Louie saw a big,
dark house. It had a porch with stairs
leading up to it. The grass was a little
overgrown. The mailbox at the end of the
drive read “Copperpot”.
“Copperpot.
Copperpot,” Louie said to himself.
The name sounded familiar. The
People that lived at his former house spoke of a Mr. Copperpot. It wasn’t well-known what he did, for the few
times he was home, he kept mostly to himself.
“Some say he’s gone to Africa,” the Lady would say. “No,” the man would say. “That’s nonsense. He goes to visit a sick relative.”
Louie cautiously pulled into the driveway of the gloomy
house before him. There was a breeze grabbing
the front screen door blowing it open and creaking[SB2]
it shut as if the breeze was bored. Some
mice rooted in a hole along the side of the great house. Behind the house was a shed well past
usefulness. Beneath an awning sat a
chair. Louie drove the little red car
with yellow hood beside the chair and stopped.
It was getting dark, and Louie was tired from his day’s
trip. He began to make his way back to his
compartment. Louie climbed along the
dashboard and sluggishly crawled along the door, but hadn’t made it halfway
when he
heard: [SB3]
“What’s this?” A slow,
haggard[SB4]
voice spoke into the night. Louie pulled
back in fear. The old man who stood
beside the little red car must be Mr. Copperpot. From where he was, Louie couldn’t see much of
the man other than his belly covered in a white shirt and the top of his brown
trousers held up by suspenders.
Mr. Copperpot walked around the little red car with yellow
hood. “How did this get here,” wondered the
old man aloud.
Louie could see Mr. Copperpot at the back of the red
car. The old man bent over. A worn face with a small scar by the left eye showed
through the window. [SB5] Mr. Copperpot examined Louie’s beautiful
web. Still bent over, he made his way to
the side where Louie sat on the door, not daring to move.
Louie (Part 3)
“Whew,” the spider said wiping his forehead. Louie looked around him to get his bearings[SB1] . He was out of the People’s backyard. I must
now be in the neighbor’s backyard, the spider concluded.
Then Louie heard a low grumbling. It was not the car for it sat motionless
still gently purring. Louie looked over
his right shoulder to find a massive brown form sniffing at the back tire. The form moved cautiously around the side of
the car. Louie sat motionless, afraid of
attracting this great beast’s attention.
How do I get rid of
the mutt? Louie wondered. Instinct
took over. Louie allowed the red car
with yellow hood to slide forward an inch.
The brown dog jerked its head back.
Louie let the car slide another inch.
The dog cocked its head in curiosity and barked. Again Louie moved the car just an inch, this
time backward. The dog began hopping
from side to side barking at the moving object.
“Come on, come on,” Louie urged the dog.
The big brown dog took the bait and once again put its nose to the little
red car trying to make out what it was.
“POW!” Louie said.
The car, under Louie’s command, backfired in the big brown dog’s
face. Having sufficed its curiosity, the dog
tucked tail and ran back toward its house.[SB2] “Yes!”
Louie threw one spindly leg in the air in triumph. “Vroom, vroom,” Louie said, and once again he
was off in the little red car with yellow hood.
But no sooner had Louie left the dog’s yard than he came
across something much worse than a dog.
Rain. Rain falling from a long, green
snake[SB3] . Oh no,
thought Louie in despair. That rain will ruin my beautiful web. It seemed no matter which way Louie
steered, there was no way to avoid the downpour, for to the left was a house
and to the right a creek.
Then Louie saw Spats.
Spats was a pesky, neighborhood cat who believed any deck, porch or car
was his own. There were many a porch
left with bits of mice from Spats’ meals and many a car in the neighborhood
decorated with Spats’ paw prints.
Louie remembered the time Spats decided to make a bed in the
seat of Louie’s car. The vicious cat
camped there for two days and even took a swat at Louie, nearly ruining his
beautiful web, after Louie had asked Spats to go somewhere else.
A wheel in Louie’s mind began to turn and a grin formed on
his face. He turned the car toward the obnoxious[SB4]
beast who was sunning himself in the grass.
Louie zoomed the little red car forward.
“Almost there,” Louie chanted. “Almost
there.”
An awful screech was heard as Louie ran over Spats’ tail
with the car. “Meerroooowww!” wailed
Spats, and with eyes now wide as saucers, he dashed madly around. The lady holding the green watering snake
caught sight of Spats and turned the water on him. “I’ll teach you to stomp through my garden
and eat on my plants, you menace,” shouted the lady.
With the rain now pouring in a different direction, Louie
guided the little red car with yellow hood safely onto the road. After such a harrowing[SB5]
ride to the road, Louie relaxed a bit and studied his surroundings.
Louie (Part 2)
Once the People had gone back inside the house, Louie
climbed out of his web and set on the back of the seat wondering how he could
move his home. Then it came to him. He was in a car. If he could just get the car to wake up, he
could drive it away to a new place.
Louie trekked along the back of the seat, along the door and across the
dash until he came to the blue key.
Taking a big breath, Louie turned the key. Nothing happened. He tried again. “Please,” Louie said, but
still the car sat motionless. Louie
looked around in desperation, but there were no answers. Then Louie had an idea. He thought about what a real car sounds
like. He knows that sound well because there
is a road that runs behind the house where the People live.
Maybe…, he
thought. Once more, Louie turned the
blue key, but this time he said the right
magic word: “Vroom! Vroom!”
Suddenly the little red car with yellow hood came to life!
In disbelief Louie blinked his eyes. “Impossible,” he whispered. At this the little red car once again sat
lifeless. The engine no longer purred,
nor even sputtered. The gentle
vibrations ceased. Nothing. Just a plastic little red car. “What?”
Louie said in dismay. “No.”
In determination, Louie once more turned the blue key with
his front two spindly legs. “Vroom!” he exclaimed[SB1] . Again the little red car with yellow hood
sputtered to life and settled into a gentle purr. It did not go back to sleep this time.
Louie laid hold of the steering wheel. Because of the enormity of the steering wheel
in comparison to Louie, it took four of the spider’s legs to maneuver[SB2]
it.[SB3] “Vroom, vroom,” he said once more, and the little
red car started to move. Not really
knowing where he was going to relocate, Louie guided the car slowly
forward. This isn’t that hard thought Louie, so he began driving
faster. This is lovely he smiled.
Until dead ahead he caught sight of a support column. “Oh dear!” cried Louie. “What do I do?” Inches away, Louie swerved the car to the
right. The back corner of the little red car
nicked the pole, but Louie let out a sigh having averted total disaster.[SB4]
But not for long.
Louie realized he was quickly heading for the creek that lay at the very
back of the yard.
“Oh no,” Louie cried.
Once again he swerved the steering wheel, this time to the left. But there was a tree! He violently turned the wheel to the right
and to the left again. Then Louie
brought the car to a stop.
Louie (Part 1)
The little red car with yellow hood stood parked beneath the
deck. Tufts of grass had become mangled
in the steering wheel. The black wheels
had bits of grass and dirt plastered to them.
The door and seat of the car were now filthy with the muck of years’
worth of sitting and storms. It had been
so long since the blue key had been turned, so long since the little red car had
come to life.
In the back of the little red car with yellow hood was a
compartment. The compartment was now
covered with a soft, strong mesh of silky string built slowly day by day. This soft mesh of string was actually the web
of a spider named Louie. And in this
web, housed in the compartment of the little red car is where our story begins.
Louie
had now been by himself [SB1] for
several years, which is not sad since it is in the nature of spiders to live a
solitary life. One day, on his journey
to find a home, he crawled into the little red car with yellow hood to
rest. However, he liked it so well in the
compartment of the car that he decided to stay to make his home there. Each day he would build a little more of his
web: crossing from one side to the other, from the top to the bottom, from one
corner to the other.
No one ever bothered Louie in his task. Louie lived fat off the flies and insects
that happened upon his compartment.
Three years later, Louie was content in his magnificent web that lay in
the compartment of the little red car with yellow hood.
He was relaxing there in his web one evening before the sun
had set when he heard the People discussing something. The People lived in the house where the
little red car slept. Louie saw the
People pointing at the flowerbed nestled against the house, saw them pointing
to the old bird bath in the yard, then heard, “We’ll take that red car and
throw it away too. It’s been years since
it’s been played with. Then we’ll spray
around the house with poison. Get rid of
all the insects and pests.”
Oh no, thought
Louie. They’re going to throw away my home and kill all my food. I have to leave, but I can’t. I can’t leave my home. I love my home!
And why wouldn’t Louie love his home? There was plenty of food, not to mention the
care and pride he had taken in spinning his immaculate[SB2]
web day by day.
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