Time Shift
Remembering Summer
I wrote a post about snow. And ice. And hunkering down. I decided to save it for a blistering day in July. When it sounds good. And instead do a little time travel back to a post from last June. Which sounds good now.
You’re welcome.
Blackberries begin as greenberries… or actually as blossoms that don’t look anything like a berry.
The melt-in-your-mouth tang of a perfectly ripe blackberry takes time to develop. If you try one too soon, pucker-worthy acidity reminds, “Wait!”
Nascent greenberries tell me life is always lived one day at a time. Time that passes quickly on the good days and oh so slowly in hospital rooms, and when you’re waiting to find out if you got the job, and when you’re between paychecks.
Berries are rooted in reality. We didn’t dream of berries and poof, get berries. Gifted by dear friends several years ago, it took a couple of seasons before they yielded anything.
Last year brought the first full harvest at Bright Berry Farm, three years after placing five hundred rootlings in the ground.
It’s easy to forget the life cycles of nature when you can press a button on an electronic device for an instant dopamine hit of all-consuming sensory overload.
Even if God spoke the universe into existence with a single word (and I believe He did) He’s unfolding it through the dimension of our existence: time.
Dreams require time to blossom and ripen. You really must sow what you want to reap.
Relationships grow from seeds of time shared —all kinds of time: mundane, or not.
Careers begin with willingness to listen and learn, diligence at less than entertaining tasks and not being in charge (at first).
It’s hard to wait.
I am still learning there are no shortcuts.
+++
OK. Back to January. Thanks for taking a little trip with me.
Praises
Good progress from friends who have undergone heart surgery.
People who continue to show up and keep hospitals and grocery stores open despite the weather. Thank you.
My prayer request last week about delivering a Substack workshop was answered with a great big yes— we had a great time and I received good feedback. Thank you for praying!
An elderly woman received technical assistance that allowed her to access her church service online before the weather turned bad.
Neighbors reaching out to help neighbors.
A young woman is off to study abroad.
A fellow writer submitted an article last spring to Grace Publishing for their 2025 Christmas book, 'Tis the Season. She didn't hear anything back, and figured it was a no-go. But she got an email from the publisher this week. They had a ton of submissions, and her article was not selected for that book. BUT they accepted it for their 2026 Christmas book. Yay!
Prayers
A woman’s father was hospitalized for liver issues and while he was there, his wife (her mother) passed away.
We’ve been praying for a man scheduled for liver surgery this week. Due to weather, his procedure has been postponed a week. Pray for those who must wait.
A young father of two has been diagnosed with ALS.
A young woman has lost her mother unexpectedly soon. She lost her father only a few weeks ago.
Elderly neighbors need friends.
An apartment fire sent 9 people to the hospital this week.
Family members who don’t know Jesus personally yet… but He continues to reach out for them.
Those removing ice and snow, Lord we ask for protection upon them.
May the anxious find peace in Jesus. He is our peace.
Quests
Substacker Mindy Belz is a journalist I first encountered via an article in Christianity Today. The article featured 2018 Nobel Prize Winner, Dr. Denis Mukwege, OB-GYN who serves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“For more than 30 years, war has ravaged South Kivu’s population. Outside forces, including Rwanda and Uganda, support rebel troops in a pitched battle that’s mostly about monopolizing Congo’s trove of raw minerals essential to technology.
“The AI-fueled thirst for technology runs on cobalt—and the world’s top producer is Congo.
“…many in the developed world know little about this conflict that’s caused more than 5 million deaths and untold atrocities including widespread sexual violence.
Here is my tiny quest to help us remember. The longitude and latitude for Kinshasa, the Capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is 4.3° S, 15.3° E.
Add those numbers and you get 19.6
So, what if on the first day of the month, at 9:00 a.m. you turned off your cellphone (all the way off) for 6 minutes to call attention to cobalt supply chain humanitarian issues?
What if a bunch of people did?
Until Next Week
Once again the dichotomy of living in a broken world—on the one hand beautiful and on the other devastating (completely dependent on where you were born) is hard to bear. Thank you Kimberly Deckel for this Prayer for the Walking Wounded. It could apply to many places we walk these days.
Loving and righteous God,
we cry out to you.
Have mercy upon your children.You say, “Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
May those who suffer at the hands of evil be
strengthened, helped, and upheld by you.
We pray for survivors of abuse, the “walking wounded,”
in the aftermath of the unthinkable.
Make clear the way for healing of mind, body, and soul.
Just as you raised Lazarus from the dead, resurrect the “living dead”
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, create in them new life.
Kimberly Deckel is a priest in the Anglican Church of North America. She lives in Pflugerville, Texas, with her family and serves at Church of the Cross, Austin. Her prayer was featured in the 2025 May/June edition of Christianity Today.
With love,
Jana
I love the idea of turning off our phones to draw attention to the human toll of mineral extraction and war in DR Congo. Thanks for noting the article too!
Thank you for reminding me of berries and our brothers and sister in the Congo on this day.