Lynne Taylor

Can the tooth fairy get to the Selwyn Huts?

No.
It would seem the answer is no.

My baby,
my tiny wee Kayli Anne,
who somehow started school this year,
has been telling me for a few weeks that she has a wiggly tooth.

"Yeah, right"
was my internal response.

She is just 5, too small.

So on Saturday I finally look and Yes, she really does have a VERY wiggly tooth.

And then, after church Sunday, we head out to the bach.

And I begin thinking anxious thoughts about tooth fairies.
And spare change.

Sure enough,
Monday night
Kayli returns from cleaning teeth,
clutching tooth, saying,
"so whose tooth is this then, huh, ha, huh?"

Tooth is duly placed in glass of water.

Children spoken to about possible difficulty for tooth fairy
in finding us at the bach.

Adult grovel through wallet:
15c or $20 note all that could be found - too stingy, too generous!

Morning comes.
Tooth still in glass of water.
Children robust.

Tooth placed in tissue, carefully labelled "tooth".

Home again, home again.

Take glass of water to kayli, plus tissue carefully labelled "tooth".

She opens tissue to put the tooth in the water,
and there were two 50c pieces!

WOW!

The tooth fairy must have been waiting at home for us!

Retreated

Had a great time away on retreat.

Spent the morning collaging -
here's what i did...

I said to the facilitator afterwards that
I hadn't wanted to go "prescriptively"
with "outcomes" in mind...
but that if I had of,
then all my outcomes would have been met.

Very neat sense of God speaking through the making
and doing
and patterns
and colour.

... bring scissors and glue stick

I'm off on my retreat.

I need to take scissors and glue stick.

Sounds like fun!

I have opted to buy scissors in Auckland
so I can take all my luggage as hand luggage
and make a speedy exit off plane
and into shuttle
to Dressmart
for bargain shopping

(no, that's not part of the retreat,
just an added bonus)

Where we lived in Auckland,
Dressmart was my local shops
- i literally walked past on the way to shannons school -

I haven't been in over a year
and am suffering withdrawal symptoms!

(If I act true to form I prob won't actually BUY anything
but the looking is fun!!

Cherished

My husband is sending me to Auckland
for a spiritual retreat.

An opportunity for me to stop
pray
listen
think
dream.

Life changed for me this year
when kayli anne started school.

i have more discretionary time

I have opportunity to think about what I want to do
in this next season of my life.

so lovely steve has booked me airfares and a retreat
(including shopping and friends time in auckland!)

(Jan Mc is organising coffee in auckland on tuesday night for the girls...
do ya wanna come?)

I feel cherished

Poor little lost sheepie!

Just pulled my washing out of the machine
front loading machine
strange clicking sound.

Found one poor little lost sheep.

I have rescued it and put it on my printer.

How did you get in the machine,
you poor thing?

Looks none the worse for wear-
tho it seems to be refusing to look at me.
Hmm even when I turn it around it still won't look at me.
(I think it might be a little cross!)

It reminds me I have a phone call to make
to my own (possibly) "lost sheep"

Hopeful weather

I walked out the door today
and felt hope.

A nor-west arch stretched over the Alps
means it is likely to turn into a lovely day.

Warmth in the air
seems like more of a treat
in this moving-into-autumn time
when it is darker in the mornings
and chillier at night.

I shall throw open the doors and enjoy!

Posted

... 175 letters to Christchurch churches
advertising An Easter Journey.
Holy Week 2005

Living in Samaria

Sunday night I inherited the preaching task from Steve.

He'd preached in the morning
on the road to Jeruasalem,
(Luke 9:52-56)
and in Digestion-manner
the evenings task was to go deeper
and apply the text to the everyday.

It seemed appropriate to set the "Samaria" bit in context.

So I retold the story of the Good Samaritan

There’s a story about a good Samaritan.
And the point of the story is that people
expected the Samaritan to be bad not good

For the Jews, Samaritans were an enemy race
They misunderstood each other
They opposed each other
They hated each other
When Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan,
his listeners would’ve been expecting, would’ve been hoping, the Samaritan was going to be the baddy.

Maybe in America the story might go something like this:
A man, I’ll call him George,
was walking down the road
And was mugged and left for dead on the side of the road
and the Senator ignored him
and the youth pastor crossed to the other side of the road
and the Moslem fundamentalist took him home and cared for him.

And I got people to think about their Samaritans -
the people they, like James and John in the passage
would like to call down fire on
(or at least be cross and grumpy with!)

And how they could walk Jesus welk, talk Jesus talk in those situations.

Conversations mendered around rapists, child abusers, the tsunami, "different people", different races, French ped*philes and specific work- and school-mates.

In the middle i gave out flames - James and John keen to call down fire.

At the end I invited us
in response
to make the two simple cuts
that turn a flame
into a heart
and to commit to respond with love.

Go into your week,
Knowing the acceptance and love of Jesus

Go in love
Quick to respond with love and grace

Go in humility
Celebrating peace and forgiveness
Amen

Deep peace

I am listening to Deep Peace
(Late Late Service 5).

I have been praying deep peace
into some lives over the past couple of weeks.

Because when there are no easy answers
and sometimes no answer at all
all that seems to be possible
(alongside the "action" prayers for healing and restoration)
is to ask for is peace.

Deep peace.

And the sustenance and hope that often accompany.

So to those who need:
Deep peace.
Deep peace.

May it be yours.

More on greengages

Someone I know
Someone I know very well
Someone who was present in my family when I was born

OK, my sister,

once submitted a story to a children's book publisher

about a mother

who told her children
that plums weren't ripe
until they turned red.

So sister and brother watched daily
as plums grew
and grew
and stayed green.
And then began to disappear
...one
by
one...

The last scene of the story had mother
legs swinging from tree branch
juice running down chin

...happily gobbling the last of the greengages.

The publisher rejected the story -
because no-ones mother would REALLY do that

...hmmmm....
wouldn't they??????

(Mum?)
(well, maybe not the swinging from the tree bit...)

PS Our greengages
are readily accessible to all family members
in the fruit basket in the lounge

Honestly they are!

(I must go have another one now)

PPS That story is copyright - no nicking it - I think you should try again, J!

PPPS Tried to feed Shannon a greengage yesterday.
She looked at it very suspiciously,
Said, "No thanks" several times.
Wouldn't eat it
Said, "I have said I don't want one thank you" tersely
and I left it at that flashing forward to teenage years and thinking, "well yes, it is good that she can't be pursuaded having decided she doesn't want one"!

(I popped one in her lunch box tho!)

Diving into Foveaux Strait

Yay!
No longer stuck in Auckland City,
I am diving off Foveaux Strait
having completed my updates
all the way down the country.

If I was working in the Auckland office
I would wander around in an excited,
and needing to tell people,
sort of way.
I would then make myseif a cup of tea
in mild-celebration manner.

So here, alone in my
(it would be poetic to be able to say:
dark, gloomy
but that would be a lie as the sun is shining happily)
at-home-office
I will tell you
(whoever happens to be out there),
make myself a cup of tea
and stand for a moment in the sunshine.

Greengages

Greengage plums are
(quite simply)
the BEST plums in the whole wide world.

(and they are
- conveniently -
only $2.95 per kilo at the Funky Pumpkin
at the moment.)

YUMMMMMMMY!

Ahhhhhhh

It has been quite a weekend/week.

The camp went really well,
tho the way I had structured things
made it hugely nervous-making at times -
especially in relation to the Sunday morning
- i - haven't - prepared - anything - and - am - hoping -
that - people - have - stuff - to -share
sort of way!

Twas great tho.

Loads of women
sharing some of the treasure tucked away inside.

This afternoon I spoke to a bunch of
Mennonite university students from the usa
about the church in NZ
(with side-line discussion on the destiny church).

I had planned to prepare this morning
as I had literally no time last week
with camp prep and my trip to auckland
(and Monday is an untouchable day-off)

I had written a chapter years ago for a book
and knew that with that
and other stuff I had floating around my laptop
I would have a good presentation.

Sadly when I checked,
the book was not on my bookcase
AARRRRGGH
It must be at bcnz on steve's shelf.

A phone call to bcnz had it faxed through to church.

I decided to leave home at 11am,
having done the rest of the prep
to do the final stuff when i had the chapter in hand.

Unfortunately...
i forgot i had also written an appendix for the same book
which was what was waiting for me in the fax machine.

Never mind
Another phone call and the correct chapter was sent.

Did the presentation
Raced to school to pick up the girls
home to change
into town to buy birthday pressies for parties on saturday
into the hospital
visitee not there
back to the car
grab homework
back to hospital cafe
do homework
back to ward
visitee there
(ironically they had been shopping
in the same shop we bought b'day pressies in)
visit
leave at 5.52
feed shannon 2 bananas
drop her at Girls Brigade (late)
home for yummy steve-cooked-dinner
drop steve at mtg
pick up shannon
home
feed shannon
clear emails
blog
RELAX!

Yay!