Lockdown 346

Lockdown Day 346 - 7 March 2021

After taking a day off writing, I decided we all need to have some aesthetic inspiration, something for the brain, to help enhance our neuroplasticity. So while the men are driving a few golf balls, I am sitting under the most incredible tree at Rosewood Terrace with a cuppa in hand. Here are a couple of mind bending art pieces I found:

How amazing is the human brain, to create pieces like these for our enjoyment! Feel the juices flowing? 🤔

To be continued tomorrow. 

Remember God's got you, your brain and everything else.

Lockdown 345

Lockdown Day 345 - 6 March 2021

After the meltdown over my travel arrangements I decided to follow a friend's advice and go the airport to the ticketing office. And once again it was a dead end.

We returned home with two remaining options and a promise from airport staff that the office will re-open for business in a couple of weeks.

Being under administration is not an excuse for bad service towards existing customers. Not to mention using the virus as a cover for incompetence.

Although it was great being at the airport I was very surprised at how incredibly busy it was, also getting that "mall phobia" when you know you need to get out of there.

I also feel compelled to report the bathrooms that have always been squeaky clean, were in really bad shape. And this in a time like this when health and sanitary compliance should be paramount. Some more bad management or whatever the dickens this is.

Staying in a positive and focused frame of mind will demand willpower from all of us.

Amidst vaccine controversy and heavily restricted travel regulations, life will become increasingly more challenging than ever before.

Delivering our best as children of God is our duty, and standing in faith our calling. God honours those who choose to obey Him.

Tomorrow is another day.

A day God still is in control.

He's got this.

Lockdown 344

Lockdown Day 344 - 5 March 2021

Friday. The 50th Friday of Lockdown. I decided to look up Psalm 50. Great was my surprise at this amazing declaration of God on this 50th Friday:

"A psalm of Asaf: The Mighty One, God, Adonai , is speaking, summoning the world from east to west. Out of Tziyon, the perfection of beauty, God is shining forth.

Our God is coming and not staying silent. With a fire devouring ahead of him and a great storm raging around him, he calls to the heavens above and to earth, in order to judge his people. “Gather to me my faithful, those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

The heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge. (Selah) “Listen, my people, I am speaking: Isra’el, I am testifying against you, I, God, your God. I am not rebuking you for your sacrifices; your burnt offerings are always before me.

I have no need for a bull from your farm or for male goats from your pens; for all forest creatures are mine already, as are the animals on a thousand hills; I know all the birds in the mountains; whatever moves in the fields is mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine, and everything in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer thanksgiving as your sacrifice to God, pay your vows to the Most High, and call on me when you are in trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

But to the wicked God says: “What right do you have to proclaim my laws or take my covenant on your lips, when you so hate to receive instruction and fling my words behind you? When you see a thief, you join up with him, you throw in your lot with adulterers, you give your mouth free rein for evil and harness your tongue to deceit; you sit and speak against your kinsman, you slander your own mother’s son.

When you do such things, should I stay silent? You may have thought I was just like you; but I will rebuke and indict you to your face. Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to save you.

“Whoever offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; and to him who goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.” "

Tehillim (Psalm) 50:1‭-‬23 Complete Jewish Bible

God said it all. He's got this.

Lockdown 343

Lockdown Day 343 - 4 March 2021

After a busy day combining errands such as the doggy parlour, picking up mags and a long meeting/assessment amongst others, I came home to my UCook meal I had literally dumped into the slow cooker earlier. Now that's an online buy I don't regret for a second.

UCook means I do the cooking. But UCook does the meal planning and the shopping, delivering all the ingredients right down to the last grain of spice to my door.

So tonight's meal was a beef burrito made with steak strips, mexican spice, etc.

In stead of doing every element in a pan as the recipe suggested, I combined everything in the slow cooker. So when we assembled our burritos we just had to open the cream cheese and guacamole and voilà, happiness on a plate.

Lying in bed listening to the far off city sounds dying down as curfew approaches, the night air carries a freshness that feels like autumn. The sun has already shifted its trajectory and daylight hours are diminishing. 

I muse over the signs of seasonal change, thinking about how God reveals Himself to us through His creation. Before drifting off I offer up a prayer for all those who struggle to see this revelation around them.

#Ggyou

#Ggt

Lockdown 342

Lockdown Day 342 - 3 March 2021

Wednesday. Mid-week braai day. No mess no fuss food. Maybe our local airline currently under administration should  adopt this slogan. Trying to book a ticket off a voucher is definitely the opposite.

Now look, this abominable virus actually happened to the consumer as well. But to cut out the consumer by suspending email and call centres? Surely the airline cannot afford to stop all communication with customers who have been supporting them for years?

I am grateful for the voucher, but please rectify your email with no instructions whatsoever on which number on your voucher should be used and where!!

Oh, and another thing, I totally don't get why you can't be called?  This virus may be clever but as far as I know it hasn't resorted to telephone lines or wireless cummunications just yet. So please will you just get on with it already?

(Sidenote: I should mention that I haven't seen my Mom in 434 days and I'm starting to get very cranky about an airline who is making it very difficult for me to do so- and no, I can't buy another ticket from another airline because you don't do refunds🙄!)

Later, as I sink into a chair in the cool dusk air as nightfall approaches, I decide to decide about it all tomorrow. I breathe deeply, becoming aware of the gift of oxygen, having a brain and being able to talk to God whatever my mood, the topic or the time. Because He holds my diary and manages where my feet go. Because He definitely can see what's coming. Even if I feel I've lost it, He's definitely got this.

Lockdown 341

Lockdown Day 341 - 2 March 2021

Today I migrated my cell number from one service provider to another after a painstaking 10 weeks of trying to end my already expired contract to go on prepaid (the requirement needed for migration). So I was able to keep my existing cell number and avoid having to change my number everywhere.

I put a high premium on delivering excellence when rendering a service. Therefore I expect the same when dealing with other businesses. Sadly the moguls of the business world think because they wallow in their millions and have monopoly rights, customers like us are expendable.

Fortunately my peace does not come from man but from God whose opinion counts more.

So tonight I share the Message of God's opinion on service excellence from Matthew 5:14-16, "Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.

God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand.

Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven."

#Ggt

Lockdown 340

Lockdown Day 340 - 1 March 2021

Today I felt the way I felt in the beginning of Lockdown, as if I was standing on the side of a movie playing out in front of me.

I was waiting for a product I wanted at a local supermarket that had to be fetched from the store room, so I went into human observation mode.

Watching the people walking in and out of the shop, going about their daily business, all of them wearing masks of course.

It felt as if I was standing in 2019, looking into the future, finding everyone masked just looks so out of place and weird.

And I thought, if I were in Nicaragua or Sweden, Christchurch or Indonesia at this moment, the picture would be the same: a faceless world where people all look the 'same'.

Later, while watching TV, where most people do not wear masks, I'm amused by the advertising nature of all the programs, using the life we are starting to forget, to 'sell' their program to the viewers.

Suddenly, an advert pops up, a well known hospital series is returning to the screen, and lo and behold, they are wearing masks...... "At last normal" are the first words on my lips, sharply inhaling as I realise what I had just said.

It was just so refreshing to see one program on TV admitting to this locked up kind of life. They found a way to bring reality back. The real reality. For once I would not feel so locked up and constricted. I can't believe I actually want to see people on TV in masks, because right now it can actually serve as a form of escapism watching people do life 'without' masks 😅🤦🏼‍♀️.

One thing I know for sure is God has as much reality for me as I want. The right kind. I also know He is real.  And He's for real.

He 's my go-to-person who is nót constricted or locked up. Because He's the Miracle Maker who's got this.