When a Plan Comes Together

Yesterday’s gray skies give way to a sea of fluffy cotton balls.

Soybeans toss and churn.

Cattails surrounding “Lake Abby” sway in the breeze.

Hummingbirds continue to feed and fight outside the window, and I watch tiny green feathers ruffle.

A Monarch flutters high while red and yellow leaves fall low, and a chickadee digs for the last morsels . . . → Read More: When a Plan Comes Together

I’m Leaving Now

My mom fell Sunday.

I’m grateful that my sister lives only a couple blocks away.

My phone is text hot.

And I battle guilt.

Again.

I’m squished between grandchildren and aging parents.

And in every crisis I struggle with whether I need to go now or to see if my presence is more needful later.

I live 200 miles away.

My bags . . . → Read More: I’m Leaving Now

I Am His Poem

So look in the mirror and pray for the grace
To tear off the mask, see the art of your face.
~Michael Card in The Poem of Your Life

When I wake up this morning, my bedroom is still pink.

It’s been pink now for nine years plus.

Every square inch of this house needs to be . . . → Read More: I Am His Poem

Seasons of Serving and the Nature of Love

“I can’t,” I snapped.

She faded back into the living room and left me alone with my pots and oils.

And chopsticks.

Newly married and still giddy from San Francisco and Chinatown, I planned my first dinner party from scratch–sweet and sour chicken, homemade egg rolls, and fried apple (?) somethings (I think) that kept me in . . . → Read More: Seasons of Serving and the Nature of Love

Through and Through Life: Gleaning in the Stones

“There’s a rabbit on the driveway.”

I glanced out the window.

Sure enough.

A rabbit sat in the gravel at the edge of the driveway apron.

I talked to it through the open window.

It stopped nosing in the stone for a moment and looked my way, but was not moved.

I marveled at how the sun, low . . . → Read More: Through and Through Life: Gleaning in the Stones

Through and Through Life: Fresh Breath for My Very Soul

For me poetry and faith are interdependent. Each affects the other as they embrace and interpenetrate. Faith informs art, and art enhances faith. They both, for each other are breath for the bones. ~Luci Shaw in Breath for the Bones.

It’s more than breath for my dry bones, this.

It’s breath for . . . → Read More: Through and Through Life: Fresh Breath for My Very Soul