Onions

We were driving past our neighbors last week, and Tim said 'Our neighbors haven't mowed their onions yet' (he called them by name, but they would probably rather be left anonymous due to the scandalous act of not having their onions mowed). I let the remark pass without commenting, for I knew we also had not 'mowed our onions yet'. The thought of it meant we were heading into spring. Longer days of spring means grass is popping up. The weekly task of mowing has begun. For me it is usually therapeutic with the hum of the mowing deck, and the smell of fresh cut onions.

We live out in the country. God generously put a carpet of various grasses, including onions, on the face of our lawn to prevent erosion. The thought of killing some of the grasses to allow more desirable grasses to grow doesn't interest me, even if it contains onions. I appreciate the carpet God made. At this point in my life, I have no desire to try and edit what God created. When we built our house, we went to the trouble of planting beautiful zoysia grass. Tim thought he would spray the yard with fertilizer to help the zoysia establish itself, and grow faster. We wanted to pamper our yard like our neighbors. When he finished spraying, he realized he had made a mistake. Instead of spraying it with fertilizer, he had sprayed it with weed killer. The weed killer considered our beautiful, landscaping quality zoysia grass a weed. It just about made him sick when he figured out what he had done. As a result, our yard is now a mixture of bermudagrass, onions, and other weeds. It seems some people are suppose to have onions in their yard to mow.

Early in spring, all around our house, wild onions pop up everywhere. They are some of the first green growth to come out of the brown earth. Living in the country, wild onions are as plentiful as sweet gum balls. Both sweet gum balls and onions can leave undesirable results when using a lawn mower. Sweet gum balls can be more dangerous than firecrackers, and an aggravation to dogs roaming the yard. Mowing onions, to some people, are an unpleasant aroma as the blades chop off the top of the onion plant. For me, the smell of fresh mowed onions is an inviting and invigorating smell. Fresh mowed onions means spring is here. Fresh mowed onions means new life is coming. Fresh mowed onions means a new beginning. Fresh mowed onions means a fresh look to a scraggly yard. Fresh mowed onions means tan lines are coming soon. Fresh mowed onions means it is time to start hoping for an abundant garden season. Fresh mowed onions, what a welcome smell. Come on spring!

Life has it's own seasons, but no season of life is as wonderful as a good spring season. Spring is a time of renewal, and new growth. I've seen spring come to visit my family. We've had family members leave our lives for a variety of reasons, and suddenly come back. We've had marriages almost destroyed, and by God's grace the commitment renewed and strengthened. We've buried family members young and old, and we've rejoiced in the birth of many babies. We've all made bad decisions, and yet God restores our fellowship with him, if we seek his forgiveness.  We've taken our focus off Christ, and had an intercessor pray and point us back to Him. We've seen sick family members healed. We've experienced career disappointments, only to be blessed by an unexpected job opportunity. While we sometimes find ourselves in a winter season of life, we often forget spring follows winter. If you find yourself in the dark dreary days of winter, hang on. I am here to testify spring can, and will come. I cannot say when or how, but it will come. It may seem like the winter days drag on forever. I have felt the long never-ending days of winter in my life. The warmth, and renewal, of a spring season didn't seem to exist. My winter season rut seemed to extend into the foreseeable future. There seemed no end to the painful, cold, brutal, frustrating, bitter, lonely, and harsh winter season. All I can say is hold on for a little longer, and you can rejoice when you smell the fresh mowed onions. The first hint of spring. The time of renewal you've been waiting for will greet you.

A Time for Everything 

1There is a time for everything, 

and a season for every activity under the heavens: 

2a time to be born and a time to die, 

a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

3a time to kill and a time to heal, 

a time to tear down and a time to build, 

4a time to weep and a time to laugh, 

a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 

6a time to search and a time to give up, 

a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

7a time to tear and a time to mend, 

a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

8a time to love and a time to hate, 

a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Quirky

 We come into this world with empty hands, and we will leave this world with empty hands. Some of us capitalize on every opportunity that comes their way, and some of us stumble past opportunities only to look back and see opportunities missed. Some opportunities might allow us to express our carefree spirit, and other opportunities might allow us to put another notch in our belt. Every day new opportunities show up unannounced. We can seize the moment and take the opportunity, or we can sit by, and watch  someone else run with it. It appears we become a product of our choices and decisions as opportunities present themselves. Take this blog of mine, it was suggested to me by a quilting teacher. While this blog began as an opportunity to share quilting ideas, techniques, and accomplishments, the blog took off in a direction I did not plan. I leaned into the tugging in my heart, allowed it to evolve, and ended up with the blog being what it is. The opportunity appealed to me, so I guess you could say 'I took the opportunity'.

Where do our opportunities take us? Why do we pursue some opportunities, but dismiss others? What type of opportunities appeal us? When I was a child there were a couple quotes I kept taped to my dresser. One of them said,  'Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be', Abraham Lincoln. The other one said 'Love all, Trust a few, and do wrong to no one', William Shakespeare. Both written by historical men, whose opportunities taken have had an impact on many. I'm wanting to focus on the first one mentioned, 'Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be'. It has been this quote, written on a simple piece of paper, which occasionally helped me pick up my drooping chin, kick up my heels, and decide this day I'm gonna choose 'happy'. Happy is an opportunity to choose a better outcome for current situations. By choosing happy I alter how I respond to what comes into my life. By choosing happy I am rewriting my future. The choice of happy isn't always the road I take, but the opportunity to choose is always there.

The outcome of any situation has always been better when I have taken the opportunity, and chose happy. Take for example a horse I have. His name is Bronco Billy. He has been, and still is, an exceptional cutting  (www.nchacutting.com) horse. He has all the traits to make a great cutting horse. He's smart, cowy, athletic, and quirky. Probably every horse that is worth anything has their own quirks. Billy has his quirks, that for any other rider, would make them spitting mad. Billy has the talent of stopping so hard, and sudden, he can bury his butt in the ground in a split second. Myself or anyone else can be riding Billy, and if he gets ready to stop he gives no clues about it. He stops so hard, and so abruptly, it is totally unexpected. It can cause any rider to almost go over his head. If you've ever seen the movie Dances with Wolves, and you saw the scene where the indians try to steal Captain John Dunbar's horse. They are quickly running away with the horse when the he throws on his brakes, and the rider is pulled to the ground by the sudden stopping of the horse. Well, Billy's stopping ability has a similar effect to any rider. When he stops, if the rider is not ready, it will almost throw the rider over his head. I've had Billy for 13 years, and while his stopping ability turns heads in the arena, it can also be frustrating.
Billy has shown off his stopping abilities in the following ways:
-Riding in a pen full of horses and riders I've had a girl riding closely behind me while we loped around in circles. Billy could feel her presence, and I could feel his agitation of her riding so close. In a split second he put on his brakes, and stopped suddenly. The girl had no place to go, but to run into his rear end. There was nothing to do, but apologize over and over. Billy felt her presence, and didn't like it. From that day forward, if anyone tried to ride too close behind us I made a point to ride over to the side and pull him to a quiet stop.
-My children have ridden Billy on occasion. It never failed when they got going good, he would plant his butt in the ground in a sudden stop. Abruptly stopping they were surprised, and a little frustrated. Something about the feeling of being slung around by a large horse is kind of unsettling.
-My brother, who is a very accomplished and rugged cowboy, has ridden Billy. Loping around the round pen Billy, without hesitation, planted his rear end and almost threw my brother out of the saddle. Kicking him back into a lope, my brother was able to go a little further before Billy did the same thing. For me, it was humorous seeing my brothers surprised expression when he came to a jolting stop.
-Being a show horse, it is important that a good cutting horse can stop quickly to control the cow. Billy's athleticism, and stopping ability, far exceeded anything I'd ever ridden before. His quick stops enabled him to stop and turn a cow with ease. He was a superior horse to have residency in central Arkansas. Twice he qualified to go to the World Finals in Amarillo, TX. He had more potential than my ability could handle. He wasn't given an opportunity to fully use all his talent, because he belonged to an amateur rider. He gave his whole heart in the arena. What more could you ask for?
-When I first started riding Billy, and was warming him up at a show, he kept planting his rear end in the dirt. It caught me by surprise. He kept doing it over and over and over again. I was wearing my legs out trying to keep him going. Being a new-by on this horse I didn't know what to think, so I just kinda smiled and went on. After a while of loping and stopping, loping and stopping, I rode up to the edge of the show pen. Billy's trainer was sitting on the other side of the fence. He looked at me with a big grin on his face and said 'He sure does like to stop'. I'm sure it was humorous to him watching as I tried to keep Billy going.

My experience with Billy showed me something. You know what I was saying about choosing the opportunity to be happy? Riding Billy was a challenge. His quirky, unexpected, athletic, frustrating stops, could have been a problem. His quirkiness was such an unexpected thing. There were times I really wanted to lose my cool, but I chose happy. No matter how bad my day was going, Billy's stops brought a smile to my face. I could have let it upset me.  I could have let it make me mad. I could have let my Martin temper get the better of me. I could have spurred him more, and tried to break him of the habit. I could have sold him, and considered his quirky stops a flaw. All the things I could have done.......

All the things I could have done, I am convinced, would have altered the success we had in the arena. Looking back in hindsight, had I chosen one of the other actions, I believe it would have hurt our relationship. As it was, I found myself with a lighthearted chuckle, or a full blown outright loud belly laugh each time he caught me by surprise, and planted himself in the dirt. I've heard it said, and I believe, you have to work 'with' a horse not against it. I believe Billy would not have worked so hard for me, if I had tried to force my will upon him and tried to make him stop his stopping. I'm glad I accepted him as he was. It would have been a missed opportunity not to enjoy this exceptional animal with all his quirkiness. Do you, as I have, sometimes try to alter someone's quirkiness. Perhaps we try to change them into what people around us would consider more acceptable. If we instead would accept them for all their frustrating, repetitive, unexpected, talented habits, we would have the opportunity see them rise to the exceptional person God meant them to be. God is not an amateur. He is God. He can take people to their full potential. Giving our whole heart to God in the arena of life, He can use our quirky talents to achieve great things we cannot imagine.

Take the opportunity to choose happy. People around you will appreciate being accepted for their quirky ways.

Showing Billy was exhilarating joy.

Cutting at the Summer Spectacular in 2006

A birds eye view of Billy at a cutting show