Rest. Recover. Find a Handful of Quiet.
Find a place of rest. Discover quiet and restoration.
A First Home for the Holidays
My grand puppy Koa welcomes you to his first home.
As we rustled through bits and pieces of old and new from two families, I think how appropriate is to prepare a first home during the Advent season, when we usher traditions old and new into our homes to welcome the dwelling of God among us as a newborn child.
At the Threshold
These days we stand at the threshold
At the edge of a kingdom we cannot grasp.
We long for a kingdom of justice and peace.
as we trod upon a broken earth.
Where Love leaves a mark…
As we wander on the edge of a new year, I wonder
in this year of uncertainties, unknowns, unlikelies….where does Love leave His mark?
Hope for a weary world….
Three years ago this month, this child from my parents homeland stole my heart.
Her family lived in the nipa huts of my family’s ancestry
Homes made of woven palm leaves and bamboo poles suspended above the ground
These homes are meant to protect from flooding when the rains come.
These huts could not survive the three typhoons that slammed into the Philippine islands last month. Three typhoons. The virus. Lives devastated.
advent for the empty nester…..
These handcrafted nativity figures used to crown our yearly birthday cake for Jesus I would bake for my four children every Christmas Eve.
The traditions transition as the children get older.
This year, the children are gone.
Three of them are married now.
Celebrations will be scattered across the country, literally from one end to the other, as they foster their own traditions.
This season, like the entire year, will look different.
Restoration Heartware
A heart beats differently
once the nest has emptied
when the center of her life,
for me, four children, empty out one by one.
Scattered to the opposite corners of the country
with two in the middle.
My heart is literally stretched across the map.
The Space In Between
The space in between darkness and dawn…..
the space where the morning star hovers and the sun’s rays have not yet touched the sky.
where the wash of a rising canopy warms the earth.
that is where God restores our stories.
The Best Things in Life are Sweet
The best things in life are sweet.
Freshly baked cinnamon rolls are paired with a cup of local Cutters Point coffee while I watch the seagulls drift by in the morning sun.
It doesn’t get much sweeter than that, does it?
The one who stands with us.......
I never thought I would say this.
But I am glad my mother is no longer in this world.
She left this world one year ago today.
I know where she is.
For the morning of her passing
An angel in the form of a cloud hovered over the horizon
Slowing Time
Time is measured by earth's revolution around the sun.
One day is measured by earth's revolution around its axis.
One moment is a division of one day.
These days all moments blur together
Sea glass: Broken Pieces
My friend told me the story of sea glass: That true sea glass has rounded edges and pieces like bottle tops and bottoms are most rare, as are the colors blue and aqua. And in a piece of true sea glass the original color remains the same, only gilded by a polished coat from the sea .A myth about sea glass Is to return the broken pieces not yet polished back to the sea as you make a wish.
The Little House
One of my earliest reading memories is turning the pages of this classic children’s book, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. The story is of a little house built in the country, where the owner hopes his family will live for generations, enjoying the sun and trees and birds and flowers. The image of the little red house fixed on the center of the page of this little book is one of few images etched on my memory.
Lantern....
This weekend my youngest son will marry. She is a gift, this answer to the Ephesians 3:20 prayer I have been sending up for my children these past two years. He will marry a beautiful girl whose light shines from her eyes when she tells stories about her second-grade students at the dinner table. When she expresses her concerns about their antics. When she voices she just wants them to be the best person they could be.