Made for my Pleasure

A few weeks ago, a friend invited me to participate in an "open mic night". It was an opportunity for all of us to share something we had created, such as music, a poem or art and receive feedback and affirmation from the group. It got me thinking how so much of what God has created is still yet to be known or appreciated - thousands of undescribed species, breathtaking beauty in isolated corners of the world and under the ocean which we have yet to behold. 

I was reminded of the truth of Gen 1:31: "And God looked at everything he had made and he was very pleased." This poem was inspired by that truth and by the many moths I have been discovering and enjoying lately. 

While you sleep, my art is on display

Obscured by the darkness, yet not to me

I behold my handiwork

As a painter admires his masterpiece

Tatargina Picta, Maetang, Thailand

My creation, my delight

Eyes that pierce

Perfect symmetry

Made for my pleasure.

Corymica immaculata, Doi Pui, Thailand (ID Roger Kendrick)

On the forest floor, I see them
Hidden in the leaf bed, yet not from me
Some made to blend in, some to shine
All unique by my design

Auzeinae, Doi Suthep, Thailand (ID Shen-Horn Yen), edited

My creation, my delight
Regal elegance
Subtle lines
Made for my pleasure.

Clara's Swallowtailed Moth (Ourapteryx clara), Doi Pui, Thailand

In the moonlight, colours are subdued
Their glory is dimmed, yet not from me
I see their shades in the darkness
My brush knows those stains

Comostola laesaria, Doi Suthep, Thailand

My creation, my delight
Shimmering glory
Hues of heaven
Made for my pleasure.

Milionia basalis, Doi Suthep, Thailand

Infinite designs of extraordinary invention
Strange and alien-like, yet not to me
There is no end to my ideas or imagination
For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Green rippled hawkmoth (Eupanacra busiris), Doi Pui, Thailand (ID James Holden)

My creation, my delight
Blended colours
Contorted shapes
Made for my pleasure.

Terastia egialealis, Doi Pui, Thailand (ID Yasunori Kishida)

In the morning, dawn will find them
For a brief moment, they will be yours to see
The sun will meet their mirrored wings
And I will share my creatures with you

Westermannia elliptica, Doi Pui, Thailand (ID Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang)

My creation, my delight
Fragile grace
Reflecting my glory
Made for my pleasure
And perhaps for yours too if you will only stop and see . . . . .
 

Pycnarmon c.f. aeriferalis, Doi Pui, Thailand

Consider the nymphs

I have been inspired a lot by nature recently. Those of you who use facebook may have seen some of my bug pictures! The truth is, I find God often brings insights to me through observing the ways of the natural world. There is so much truth to be gleaned from his creation about his ways, his character and his purposes and often I really need the help of a physical metaphor to help me understand.

This has happened recently with regard to some hard things one of our kids has been going through. It's not been easy for them and not easy for me to watch either. But God has been reminding me of his purposes through observing the lives of the insect nymphs I've been finding in the bushes. 

Grasshopper nymph in our back garden, Chiangmai

Did you know that grasshoppers typically molt about 5 times in their growth from nymph to adulthood? Each transformation involves the shedding of their protective exoskeleton and a temporary vulnerability as the new skin grows and hardens around them. The same is true for dragonflies (and many other insects) who molt up to 12 times and only grow their glorious wings after their very last molting.

Molted grasshopper exoskeleton, Doi Suthep

It has greatly encouraged me to reflect on these creatures as a picture for my kids and for myself. I like the idea that the exposed uncomfortable stage gives room for further growth. I see wisdom in how sometimes old skin just needs to be shed completely so that the new skin can be put on freely without the influence of the old lines and curves.

“You were taught . .  to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”  Eph 4: 22-24

I’m not sure whether insects feel fear and emotion as we do, but I can imagine that molting isn’t a particularly fun experience! No doubt, instinct tells the nymphs to hide and find a safe place as they lose the protection and security of their outer skin. I read recently that many insects don’t eat and have faltered breathing during their molting which usually takes between 8 and 10 hours. There’s nothing I can think of that is more vulnerable than losing your whole outer layer but in His wisdom, God ordained that this would be their path to maturity and finally the freedom of fully formed wings!

Spotted Grasshopper nymph with wings still not fully formed, Doi Suthep

I’m grateful for the lessons from the nymphs in this season of parenting and life. I wait in hope for the growth and transformation that comes through the hard and vulnerable times. It helps to reflect on God’s bigger purposes as I watch the struggles in my kids and I’m reminded that my job is not to intervene and stop the process but just to provide a safe place where the new skin can form and harden.

I am also aware that in this parable, we are all still juvenile nymphs struggling through seasons of uncomfortable change. My kids will not be free of exposed vulnerable times when they hit adulthood and I am not there yet either. I can look back and recognize seasons of intense upheaval, confusion and vulnerability in my own life and with the gift of hindsight, I can see some of the new skin that I put on in those times. There will no doubt be more to come too and I hope that then I will remember the nymphs and be able to hold on for the ride. Ultimately our final new skin is coming one day, and the "wings" will be even more glorious than the grasshopper's or the dragonfly's!

Scarlet skimmer dragonfly, wings in the sun, Sri Lanna National Park

My first snake!

I was so excited to spot my first snake in Thailand this morning! This beauty was climbing on the electricity pole directly outside our bedroom window.

It's a golden tree snake apparently. Mildly venomous but harmless to humans. Gorgeous! I have since discovered that these are also known as flying snakes for their capacity to glide through the air. I'm thankful I saw it first in climbing mode and not gliding towards me! Hoping it might stay around until the boys get home from school but probably unlikely.

While I'm here, thought I'd add a few more nature discoveries we've made recently. We found these cicada molts resting on trees on a recent trip to the beach.

It was weird because I would wake at 6 am to really loud cicada singing and then by 6.10 am, it had stopped and I went back to sleep. Not sure if they sing right before they molt but it was fun to discover anyway.

And one more discovery from this morning as well.. . .  a heart-shaped fig found on the ground at a local market. 

Now isn't that a beauty?! Enjoy the nature around you today and take the time to stop and look! Thanks for clicking!

(Click here to read about more wild things we have encountered here in Chiangmai.)

Watering can prayers

I have a confession. I am not very disciplined in my prayer life. I shoot up lots of "help me" prayers and I try to thank God often but when I sit down to pray more in depth about something, I get distracted easily and drift off. I think that's why I'm constantly looking for friends to pray with.

One thing I have noticed here in this predominantly Buddhist country, is that the temples provide many physical and symbolic ways for people to offer their prayers and invocations. We have these in the Christian tradition too but not so many.

There are the offerings of the symbolic lotus flower to represent the desire for a pure spirit.

. . . . the rubbing of a gong to aid meditation

. . . . the incense to burn, the stupas to walk around while you make your chant, the prayer wheels to spin, the candles to light and the bells to ring.

I've been quite fascinated by these physical aids to worship in my visits to Buddhist temples here in Chiangmai. You can certainly see how they increase habits of worship and aid focus by engaging all the senses. 

I have found my own physical way to pray recently too and it has surprised me how much it has enhanced my prayer life. One of my daily chores here is watering our plants at our back door. 

It didn't start as a prayer, it was just something I needed to do, but I found myself praying for God's Spirit to water my kids' hearts as I tended to my plants. Turns out "watering can prayers" have a whole load of applications. How badly I need His Spirit to water my own soul in all the dry and stubborn areas of my heart. I have prayed for His watering of our marriage, for His Spirit to pour out on the people of Thailand and for the seeds sown at Thai Village to be saturated with His Spirit and flourish.  It has been good to have a symbolic and physical accompaniment to my prayers and somehow, it has engaged me all the more in believing and persisting in prayer as a daily habit.

My plants are growing well and I enjoy them every day. Now they are a constant reminder too of the source of all our life and flourishing. My prayer life needed a boost and I found it in my own back yard! Prayer can be so much more than words sometimes.

Wild things of Chiangmai

So this post may have some pictures of creepy crawlies in it. Please feel free to stop reading if this is not your thing. First of all though, I want to make a few things clear about where we live. 

Yes, we live in the tropics and we have banana trees and palm trees growing in our front garden, but we do not have to slash our way through undergrowth to get to school in the morning or share our bed with unwanted visitors; we have yet to have any poisonous animal inside our house (though not unheard of amongst our friends!) and we do not live in fear of snakes or spiders biting our children when they play outside. Just want to keep this real. 

Having said that, there are some amazing tropical creatures here and since many of them are probably unusual to most of you, I thought I would share a little taste of the wild things we have encountered here in Chiangmai.

Because it's rainy season right now, let's start with the frogs. 

Brown tree frog making a visit

This one we found on the porch at our old house. We haven't seen them yet at our new house but we know they are here because they make a right racket, especially after it rains. Apparently, tree frogs mate in the rainy season and the environment is perfect right after a cloudburst, so the loud croaking we hear after the rain is the male's mating call. 

Click here to listen to the tree frogs outside our kitchen window the other night.

This house gecko has been sleeping in our bedroom

Geckos are called jink-jok in Thai and we have them all through our house. We happily share our space with these cute creatures because they eat the much less welcome mosquitos and other flies. The only down sides are the droppings they leave behind and occasionally finding a smushed gecko in the hinges of a door frame. We didn't mean to, I promise!

A cousin of the house gecko is the much larger tokay gecko which gets it's name from a loud vocalization it makes. We hear these a lot but the only time we've ever seen one was on the ceiling of a restaurant out of town. This is a bad photo but I was happy to get it as tokays are notoriously shy. He was over a foot long and had excellent grip on the woven bamboo ceiling. 

You have to admit, tokay geckos are pretty cool!

Click here to hear the sound of the tokay gecko.

Moving on to insects, I do not have time here to list or show pictures of all the colourful bugs we have encountered in our garden and on our hikes. They are pretty funky and all of us (apart from our eldest) enjoy discovering new ones and attempting to identify them. Here are a couple of our favorites.

Lantern bugs found gathered in pairs on their host tree, Chiang Dao

Thailand Monkey Grasshopper found resting near Sticky Falls

Unidentified caterpillar found on a hike up Doi Suthep
Some caterpillars can be poisonous here so we avoid touching those
with spikes or hair especially.

And now to the three scariest ones - spiders, scorpions and snakes. India had prepared me well for these - not that I ever got used to having spiders the size of my hand in my house. . . . but there is a resilience that builds up I guess. Here, whilst we have had lots of little spiders in our house, including the tiny jumping ones, all the big scary ones have been encountered in the wild so far and somehow that makes them much less threatening.

Even I could see the beauty in this orbweaver spider, Southern Thailand.

Scorpions have yet to make it over the threshold in our house, although again we have seen them on our hikes. This picture was taken at an insect zoo where we were allowed to touch only the black ones which have much weaker venom even though they are bigger. Not sure I would be this brave though.

Liam and friend at Chiangmai Insect Zoo, 2015

And snakes have actually not featured at all in our Thailand experience so far - except at the snake farm. We've heard stories of house intrusions and we see signs like this in national parks, so they're out there, but thankfully keeping their distance.. . . . for now.

Sticky Falls warning sign - photo credit Tina

There's so much more I could write about of course - the colorful birds and butterflies, the numerous species of ants that live here, and even the awful and creepy giant centipede. . . . but I haven't got good photos of them yet so that will have to wait. 

Thanks for being interested in our "wild life" here in Thailand. We'll be sure to keep you posted on more wild encounters. For now, I'm off to bed to be rocked to sleep by the mating tree frogs.