Pleasure

What an interesting and rewarding day! Truly.

It began with today's entry in Dine with Me, Real Food for the Hungry Spirit, a devotional by Jana Spicka. What was it about? Pleasure. It convicted me in a whole new way, I must say. Because I really don't do anything just for the joy of it. I work, I sleep, I eat, I follow hard after God, sometimes I hang out with people or dance... I'm an intense person. Pleasure does get lost in my life, right out missed. But it's important to God:

You make known to me the path of life;
You will fill me with joy in Your presence,
with eternal pleasures at Your right hand. 
                               Psalm 16:11


So it was a real challenge. It was difficult even to think of what I would do just for pleasure, especially when I can't go outside. Then it occurred to me: I love to lie in bed. Not rushing getting up, just enjoying the warmth of the covers on a snowy day, reading, listening to music, just lying around. As I write this, it honestly sounds scandalous to me, not to do anything. So of course I did it. And it was glorious- drifting in and out of sleep, reading, enjoying some music. Lovely. I take pleasure in being slow. My nature is not to rush anything. And tonight after I did yoga, I just lay in the floor, cozied up to the heater, and listened to music. I used to do these things, in middle school, before I got a job. Then "real life" happened, and I had no idea how to handle it.

It's honestly a total revelation to me that it's ok to do that sometimes. I have a false view of God. He's changing that view to Truth. Slowly I'm beginning to walk as if He gives me grace, as if He doesn't give me the evil eye when I mess up or am not sure what to do. Lovely to be journeying here, walking into a truth that's the biggest relief of my life. Praise You, Jesus.

Along the same lines, today's blog by Jana, "Playing in the Sand."

Farm Life II: Life's an itch

Itch. ITCH! !@#$*?%&*#@!!

Yes, indeed. When you live in a barn, there's a lot to itch about. We sleep on foam pads and mattresses (I don't have a mattress since I was last to arrive- they ran out). I think the bedding has just been living in the barn along with the chickens and all manner of insects. And so now some of the insects live inside the foam pads or mattresses. Yup. Never boring, farm life.


The first foam pad I chose to sleep on left me itching with tons of new little bites. I never saw the bugs or felt them other than their biting. It was infuriating because I'd try to get rid of them, but there was nothing there I could see. Only once there was an ant crawling on my leg under the covers, and he was pretty big and easy to eradicate, but these other bugs... ? I guess they were bed bugs. At any rate, they're not my kind of party. AT ALL. After the 2nd night of sleeping and waking to the rhythm of invisible chompers, I decided I'd had enough. I was beginning to dread sleep and fear my bed, and after doing 9 hours of farm work, that does not fly. So I got another foam pad that was discarded by a fellow worker after he got a mattress. He said he didn't have any problem with it. And lo and behold, I've had a different experience! No maddening chorus of invisible itchiness. Yay!

I still get bug bites, but they're different. I'm pretty sure I have a spider bite on my calf, and my right ear has been bitten so much that it's swollen and red. I may spray the foam pad again with Citra Solv or even Bac Out. If anything will work, it's Bac Out- amazing stuff, that. I'm trying not to think about all those statistics regarding how many bugs you eat while you're asleep... let's just say I'm probably getting a little extra protein. We'll see how it goes. I just changed my sheets again, and this time I'm only using the pillow I washed after the bed bug incident in the hopes that my ears will be able to heal from all the bites.

For now, it's an ongoing experiment in how to avoid as many bug bites as possible as well as a surprise every morning to see what new bumps my body displays. I've seriously considered asking for donations from mattress companies, maybe getting bug-proof mattress pads or something, because we all get bitten. Helpful input is welcomed.
At this point there's an extra mattress up for grabs, but I'm a little hesitant to use it. It would probably be more comfortable and better to sleep on than just a foam pad, but what lives inside this mattress... ? Decisions, decisions. There will probably be more buggy blogs to come...