April 8, 2008
Tuesday, 4:30 p.m.
Letter #13: My Carrot Cross
Howdy! The country station is on the radio. 🙂 All morning it was the Christian station, so I’m happy. What a blessing to hear so many songs that became special to me in the past few years. God is good.
Today we finally were taken off of lockdown status. I hadn’t been out of my cell (except once, to shower) for five days. 🙂 Fun, huh? It’s really not that bad, when I have so many beautiful letters and memories of my family and because I know you’re praying for me. Thank you! It is during times like these, when (because of the no verbal communication status) our info between us is slow, that I really value your prayers. Just know that when God prompts you to pray for me, it’s for a good reason—maybe to just encourage me, maybe to give me a word of witness to someone else, maybe to help me with my Spiritual disciplines—whatever the reason, God blesses me through your prayers! Thank you!
I thought of Mommy and Mark a couple of nights ago when I saw on the news that the statewide K-9 Championship was held in Sacramento. I couldn’t help but wonder if Mommy played hooky from church and took Michaela, or maybe she’s a bit young yet? Next year. 🙂
I found an extremely long “baby” carrot in my lunch, just before Easter. Like, between 2½ and 3 inches long. Go ahead. Put a ruler next to your babies and see if mine wasn’t the longest little carrot you never saw. Well, let’s just say that the Easter spirit got ahold of me, and I decided to make a cross. Everyone makes crosses out of shredded anything here: chip bags, strips of sheets, strings from boxes, etc. Boring, right?
“I can do this in an all-natural, biodegradable way,” I thought as I pledged my undying devotion to Christ and bound the extra-well-endowed carrot to a skinny “normal-sized” one with string from my sheet. The light blue thread hardly showed as I lashed my homemade crucifix together and hung it prominently above my desk, next to my bed.
Next morning, it wasn’t there, so I asked Gypsy why he’d taken my Carrot Cross down.
Well, I know you’re way ahead of me on this and have already figured out what happened, but in one day??!! Yup. Under closer inspection of my wall, there they were—and still held up by the light blue thread, too—my baby carrots, shriveled to the size of two carrot peels, mind you.
Dude next door gave me a string cross—beautiful—to comfort me, but I refuse to hang it on the wall. No, thank you. My carrot skins hang still, in their prominent place next to my bed. Never mind that they aren’t much to look at—every time I do look at them, I’m reminded that when we die, all that is left behind is the skin of flesh. To be truly resurrected—daily—I am supposed to set aside the old man and die to myself, taking on the new man in Christ He has given me. The old man stays nailed to the cross, while the new is alive in Christ and living for Him. Yes, I think of this when I see what’s left of my carrots, and they’re staying on my wall.
In other random news, I finally got to go to store! Besides a few essentials like peanut butter ($1.90 for an 18-oz jar—compare prices 🙂 ) and tooth flossers, I bought two pads of paper. Darn, they’re “legal-sized” and I wish they were just letter-sized. So, thanks, Katie for sending this paper, which I’ll use for my personal letters. The other papers I’ll use for everything else.
Michael, I’ll be working on the other projects you gave me (piano scope and sequence, newsletter articles, youth studies) a bit at a time. Thanks for giving me the projects. I’m just praying there might be something useful to you in all of it—that God would bless my pen, as He did with the Psalmist. Any emails for me? No? That’s okay.
It’s Gypsy’s birthday today; he’s 44. This is a fun place for a birthday. In fact, I’m reserving it for my birthday, too!
Go, Warriors! Go, Spurs! I love you all! Stay healthy, okay? Everyone go on a nice long walk for me. You know you need to get out more. 🙂
Hugs + Kisses!
Christopher