God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning Tu lips were made to praise the Lord! And tulips, children love to stretch Their fingers down, to feel in each Its beauty’s sweet nearer. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning A Flower in a Letter You believe In […]
Saturday Snaps: Jay Walking
Sounds of the Blue Jay (Watch your cat’s response when you play this!) Blue jays eat mostly acorns, nuts, and seeds–though they also eat caterpillars, grasshoppers, and beetles. Per National Geographic, they sometimes store acorns in the ground and fail to retrieve them, thus aiding in the spread of forests. There are no […]
Fuel for the Weekend: When the Earth Groaned
When the earth groaned. Part of Japan sank two feet deeper into the ocean. And moved thirteen feet closer to the United States. Its land widened. The planet’s mass shifted and changed its axis. Lives shattered. When the earth groaned. It triggered heaves in people across the world. Widening our hearts. Drawing us closer to […]
Groaning for Japan
Sun bursts through banks of rolling pink and laughs all gold. Another dawn explodes with hope. A day like any other, with plans and expectations. I eat my oatmeal milked and sweet with slice of amber buttered. Steaming tea in hand, I sit. A crow catches draft and sails above corn stubble in bowl of […]
Window on Writing: Kindle Konversion and Letting Go for Lent
This is one shelf. Out of six in this case. Out of four cases of six. Of that style. It doesn’t include the shelves in my office, a wall of built-in shelves in one room, a half-wall of built-in shelves in the basement, a metal cupboard of shelves in the garage. Full of books. Not […]
Textures of Text: Stone Crossings–Baptism
Crows hang near the house today. Perch in the tree across the drive. When I see crows, I think of my baptism. My first one anyway. That just isn’t right. I walked several blocks to church when I was in nursing school. Not every week. And not many weeks. But enough weeks to build up […]
Monday Meditation: In the Being
I settle myself on the porch step with tea steaming. It’s cold, but snow continues to recede under determined sun. Chortles and trills and tweets and squawks and caws and peeps fill the air. Two geese honk and circle before they land on the pond. Stuff to be done stuffs my brain. But still I […]
Sunday Seasoned Sayings: Washington Irving
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. ~Washington Irving It’s been a week of tears. May we turn them into prayers and action. Remembering […]
Saturday Snaps: Dear Deer
White-tailed deer are the smallest of the three members of the deer family found in Michigan, the others being elk and moose. Their size ranges between 125 to 225 pounds, although really healthy bucks may be even larger. Their coat is a reddish-brown color in the summer, but becomes much more gray in the winter. […]
Fuel for the Weekend: I’m a Lenten Failure
Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scraping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time. Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say no to ourselves so that when life turns hard of its own accord, we have the stamina […]
