#small stuff

Cladonia ramulosa 

Oh go on, have a Cladonia.

There are two basic kinds of choices in life – small stuff and life changers. Most of the time, whether a choice is small stuff or a life changer doesn’t have much to do with the actual choice itself. What we’re choosing to do, whether it’s hard or easy.

The difference between small stuff and life changers comes from where we are in life. Context makes all the difference.

Catching a life preserver that’s being thrown to you isn’t all that hard to do.

For someone treading water in a pond, a few feet from the shore, the choice to catch a life preserver is small stuff. It really doesn’t matter either way.

But for someone treading water in the ocean, with no land in sight, the choice to catch a life preserver is anything but small stuff.

Context makes all the difference. And it’s this dynamic that’s at the heart of today’s Gospel.

Loving someone who already loves you unconditionally isn’t all that hard to do.

What today’s Gospel makes clear is the context of that choice when it comes to Jesus. And for you and me, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Our context? On our own, we’re separated from God. Not because we’ve done anything bad. That’s just our default state of existence in this fallen world. That’s where we start from.

The long-term consequences of doing nothing about our separation from God are horrifying to contemplate. Both in this life and in eternity.

The One who is the most upset about this? Is the One that made us. God loves us too much to abandon us.

Which is the whole point of the divine search and rescue mission that is the Incarnation.

That’s the backstory of today’s Gospel, John 3:16.

God isn’t asking us to do something that’s all that hard to do – to love Someone who already loves us unconditionally. Someone is willing to pay the ultimate price just for the chance that we would love Him back (see Good Friday for details).

But for you and me, given our context, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

A little bit of Terry McGinnis (the most slay bitch in Neo-Gotham)

A little bit of Jonkler

And some other stuff

Unlike Clarke i think who just doesnt care about clothes and will put on whatever (definitely has her preferences but its clothes you know, whatever. She might not like something but she's not gonna care enough) Lexa is more particular. Lexa was never allowed to be herself fully, she was Heda. And her clothes are something she gets to chose and something that makes her Lexa and not just Heda, especially in a day to day around the tower. So sometimes its the fact the baby is making her lose that that affects her.

Actually can 100% see this being something she and Clarke actually end uo fighting about because Clarke just doesnt understand why she is so stubborn about changing her wardrobe when she's clearly uncomfortable. I think Lexa has a fear that if she shares that it can feel like the baby is taking away her personhood or the little she is allowed to have, that it might make it seem like she regrets this pregnancy which she doesn't. She loves her baby and is actually loving being pregnant. But this is somehow such an issue to Lexa because its something that to her and her life story really relied on so she could still be a piece of herself. And it sounds... silly you know? To be this attatched to clothes. She thinks Clarke wont really understand what she means. Because while her wife has a lot in common with her, there is a whole past of Lexa’s that Clarke never had to live through something similar. Lexa was at one point one of many, 12 and already expected to die. Its something Clarke wont ever really be able to feel, thankfully.

And it wasn't until she became Heda that Lexa had clothes that were hers and not just clothes all the nightbloods wore. So a part of her is fighting so hard agaisnt this change, like an actual child refusing to accept they have grown taller. And how is she supposed to tell that to clarke and hope she understands? Possibly because to a degree Lexa doesnt known why she is so against it. And while Clarke tries to write it off as just hormones it is also starting to make her feel like she cant help Lexa. And that is enough to make her distressed, more so when Lexa is carrying their baby. Clarke has the assumption that its just body image issues. Which in a way contradicts everything she knows about her wife and the last decade together but a pregnancy is something very new to them so it seems the more logical reason.

My witch doll still doesn't have hands but I've made cauldrons and a mortar and pestle and a couple of flasks! They're only greenware/unfired still though but hopefully they'll survive and come out nice after the kiln.

My plan is to use some glaze on the cauldrons, but not really to cover them. I'm only going to smudge them a bit in it to add some texture. Hopefully it'll make them look a bit like cast iron.

The mortar and pestle are made of two clays - black and white. Though in reality it's more like grey and sand. I tried to not mix them too much. My aim is to get it to look a bit like marble or rock. No idea if it will work though, haven't actually tried it before. So no matter what - I'll learn something.