Seeking to be CONTENT in all things, JOYFUL in HOPE, PATIENT in affliction.
Today, I took a moment. Sitting in a mottled patch of sun, I tilted my head back and watched the breeze run its fingers through the top of a tree. I listened to birds twitter. Were they arguing? Maybe, since the pair tore past me at top speed a moment later. I felt the sun …
California typically rushes through spring in its frantic dash to summer. Bulbs bloom in February and are gone. Trees bloom and leaf at the same time. If you want to see wildflowers, you better not blink.This year, however, is very different. For the first time in many years, a cool wet spring is unfurling slowly.Buds form and pause, teasing us with what is to come. Wildflowers paint the landscape with wide brushstrokes of yellow, orange, purple. Bulbs – some of them …
One of my favorite gifts this Christmas was a new planner. I just love calendars in January. Empty pages of potential lay before me. In the early days of the year, all things are possible. I realized today that January gardening feels much the same. There was a break in the rain and mild temperatures, so I decided last Sunday was the day for my neglected garden. Late summer’s growth, once lush and inviting, was now drooping and half-dead. Hydrangea …
Continue reading All Things Are Possible: Blank pages, empty pots.
Apologies dear friends, acquaintances, neighbors, lost pets, vendors, insurance companies, politicians, and things that I needed to remember in 2019. I have deleted your emails. My email inbox has for a long time been a file cabinet that never gets sorted. I hang onto letters from friends and prayer requests and photos. Those all seem worthy of saving. I have saved receipts. Possibly important. Regrettably, I also hang onto articles I wanted to refer to someday and then forget. I hang onto blog posts that seem full of wisdom. I hang onto the community garden newsletter and the city newsletter and …
Continue reading Apologies, Dear Ones — Living Intentionally
We recently went on our first camping trip since COVID hit. We had forgotten how to do almost everything. Where does this tent pole go? What did we once pack for dinner? How much ice goes in the ice chest? Thank goodness I keep lists! Once we got there and figured out which end was up, however, the days were filled with small moments brimming with grace. Conversations with longtime friends who we have seen infrequently since they …
Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. Proverbs 3:13-14 My ancestors owned slaves. It is an uncomfortable truth that has nothing to do with my lived experience. Yet it is my heritage, unknown to me for most of my life. I want to believe these forebearers were kind masters. That they treated their few slaves as workers rather than property. Even so, there is no getting around the fact that they were the masters. These God-fearing Christians somehow thought it was ok, even necessary, to own other people. When they died, they included these enslaved people …
Love that affirms is much more than hearts and flowers.
We have a yam that never made it onto a holiday table, but it has done much to nourish me. And it has done so without extra calories!The forgotten yam was in my pantry when I noticed it had begun to sprout. Normally, a sprouting tuber would go directly into the compost bin. This one was leafing out nicely, though, and I remembered how pretty yam vines can be. So I placed it on my windowsill, thinking that at some point I would plant it. It has been there ever since.It continues growing without any help from me. In its own …
Sara K. Schwittek/Reuters The surreal nature and unfolding horror of 9/11 is unforgettable. But 20 years later, my most enduring memories are small vignettes from that day and the days that followed. I remember driving my girls to school as I tried to explain what had happened. I reassured them that they would be safe at school and that Daddy would be safe at work, even though I barely understood the situation myself. I remember my kindergartener asking a few days later if tourists go to jail. It took me …
Anyone who knows me, knows I love fall. I can’t wait for pumpkins, falling leaves, crisp mornings and crunchy apples, mulled cider, roasted pumpkin seeds, and the silly fun of Halloween. In the waning days of August, I made an impulse buy of a ceramic Jack-a-lantern luminary and a masked hedgehog (named Nutmeg) whose legs dangle over the edge of the mantel. I will try to restrain myself and not display these until October. It will be challenging. As I was helping our …
SMALL MOMENTS FULL OF GRACE 