Turkey chili

For Chandra...

If you're following the re-do...

-all the old scraggly azaleas that are coming out are OUT

-new gumpo azaleas (they stay small!), pieris, gardenia radicans,  more pansies, and some creeping vinca have been purchased.  They await soil amendment and planting.

-Billy just made a visit to my house and will give me an estimate on getting a small area of lawn tilled and new grass planted.  I hope it's less than the amount he quoted while we stood out in the rain and surveyed the weeds.  Billy's a friendly guy who knows his business. All the landscape people I've talked to seem to be like that.  Just an observation.

-I want round river rocks to line the new path.  I don't want to buy them.  If you live in the mountains or near a creek with beautiful big round rocks, or if you just happen to have some laying around your yard that you don't want, bring me some.  I'll bake you some bread or espresso brown sugar sandwich cookies in return.

-I wonder if Billy would do the work for bread and cookies?  Probably not.

-It is a whole lot of fun to walk around a family owned nursery with the owner, especially if she is in her 70's and talks about the plants like they are friends. 

-I like working outside in the rain.

-I finally planted something I've looked at for a long time - pink muhly grass.   It is really as lovely as I hoped, especially in the later afternoon, when the sun slants across through the trees and illuminates the soft pink flumes.

-Pansies may be sort of cliche, but they really are cheerful.  They make me think of Teresa, my best friend from high school.

-I don't know much about ground covers, but I know I would like to cover more ground.  A visit to the UNCC botanical garden or maybe Wing Haven might give me some ideas.

For inspiration as I continue this work, I am reading a lovely collection of letters called Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters, the correspondence between Katharine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence.  It's a treasure of a book that I happened upon at Book Buyer.  It's makes me want to come inside after digging, make a cup of tea, and write a real letter to a far away friend.

Forty-third Tuesday

#s 1381- 1384 

I'm sitting in the waiting room at the mechanic.  

I'm very thankful for:

-Thomas, who put on the spare before class

-Jeff and company here at C & S who are polite, honest, helpful

a flat tire in the driveway instead of on the road.

-that I even have a car to drive,

a luxury in most of the world.  I don't take it lightly.

#1385 - 1392

These days, I'm working to make a garden more beautiful.

I'm very thankful for:

-a gift to help me do this work

-helpful, knowledgeable nursery men and women

-a friend's truck to use

-health and strength to dig, rake, prune

-boys to help

-rain

-glossy deep evergreen foliage

-flowers every season

#s 1393- 1398

I have the privilege of teaching this year.

I'm very thankful for:

-my eager, curious students

-so many resources available to us

-this endlessly fascinating world around us

-loupes to see up close and the wonders we see

-binoculars for seeing those distant birds

-students really learning

-students really loving class

#s1399 - 1402

I have a far flung family that I miss a LOT

I'm very thankful for:

-skype*

-cell phones and free long distance

-fb chat

-email

-good old fashioned letters

-that we will all be together, Lord willing, in a couple of months!

#1403 - 1413

I am part of a loving church

I am very thankful for:

-grace-filled biblical teaching

-those who lead worship, week in and week out

-cheerful nursery helpers

-faithful pray-ers

-happy fellowship, laughter, friendship

-those who come alongside, bearing one another's burdens

-answers to prayer

-teachers

-a place to meet
-those who reach out to hurting ones

-time to study together and encourage

-seeing the love of Jesus lived out

This day has not started out the way I anticipated.  But here I sit, the temptation to complain replaced by the opportunity to reflect on some of the good gifts He has given.  This morning, an auto repair shop waiting room has become a place of thanksgiving and praise.

 _________________________________
* I still find it amazing that we can be around the globe from each other and see each other as though we were in the same room.  What a far cry from the earlier days of our marriage when Coty had to travel for weeks at a time and we paid expensive long distance and spoke once every couple of weeks for a very short time!   Asia seems a little closer these days.

And for dinner....

after muscling out those azaleas, we had....

Wait.  I have to explain first.  It was dark when I stopped working in the garden.  Past time to start dinner.  Thomas rolled in from work and asked what we were having.  I hadn't started anything.  He had a definite hankering for something, so, he went to the store and came home with...

these.

I know.  Not typical dinner fare around here.  But, when you're beat from wrestling azaleas, you're at a weak point and anything sounds good, especially if someone offers to fix it.  Thomas did saute onions and sweet red peppers to go with our dogs, so dinner wasn't a total nutritional loss!

And don't worry.  Tonight we're having homemade corn chowder and a big salad!

Muscling out azaleas

I think I may have committed Southern gardening sacrilege yesterday.  I ripped out and tossed out four large azalea bushes.  These bushes have occupied the space in the front of my house from (I'm guessing) the time it was built - that is, 23 years.  I've lived here for 8 years and they were here and large when I came.  I've severely pruned them twice.  But they grow back.  Bigger and healthier than ever.  They are just too large for the space where they're planted.  Honestly, look at this picture.

Do those plants look beautiful?  No, they do not.  For a couple of weeks in the spring they are glorious, but the rest of the year they are scraggly and overgrown and filled with dead, brown oak leaves from last fall.  Not pretty.

I had thought it would be at least a nod to Southern gardening etiquette or something, to dig out and transplant those azaleas in another part of my shady yard.  But, oh my!  Have you ever tried to dig out a very large azalea bush and maintain a decent portion of the spreading roots while getting scratched and poked by outstretching branches?  It is not fun.  At all.

After I muscled the first bush out, I thought a change of pace would help, so I took my shovel to the area where the bushes would be transplanted and tried to start digging a hole.  Anticipating that I would be doing that this week, I had watered that area very well a couple of days ago.  That should have made the soil nice and soft, easy to dig.  Right?  Well, it didn't.  I could barely stick my shovel in two inches.  The thought of digging several large holes to transplant these azaleas was rather disheartening.  Of course, I do have slave child labor here that I could employ to dig the holes, but you know, I just started feeling less and less sure it was really worth the effort to save all those azaleas.  Gasp!

Here's how it looks now.

I left one azalea, very severely pruned and cleaned out.  I don't know if it's going to stay or not.  I'm putting it on probation while I determine exactly what I'm going to do in this space.

And now, I'm hitting the books.  Southern Living Gardening.  Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping.  The Well Designed Mixed Garden and scads of old copies of Fine Gardening magazine.  I have a very large mug of tea beside me and my garden notebook.  Freed now of those overgrown azaleas, I'm dreaming....

Forty-second Tuesday

Today is another of those glorious autumn days.  Cool to start, bright clear sky, plenty of sun.  As we drove to co-op this morning, the mist was rising over the fields.

As we started our day, Coty was ending his.  On the other side of the globe, he looked forward to a night of rest after a long, long trip.  Over here on this continent, we welcomed the morning.

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!"

Psalm 118: 24 and 29

1367.  Safe travel to Indonesia for Coty

1368.  A wedding planning evening with Kay and her mom

1369.  Amy's help in planning

1370.  A friend who sticks a dead bird in the freezer so I can use it in class!  I know.  That sounds weird, but I am really  thankful for a friend that knew I'd appreciate that and got excited about saving the beautiful cardinal for me to use!

1371. Helpful landscape and nursery people who take time and answer all my questions

1372.  Feathery pink plumes of muhly grass, now waving in my front garden

1373.  Hard river rock

1374.  Soft, rich humusy soil

1375.  The slanting afternoon sun glinting on water droplets in a newly watered garden

1376.  Colors of pansies

1377.  Praying friends

1378.  Offers of help

1379.  Boys at home

1380.  Long-distance phone calls

The Context: Love and Unity

My friend, Tonia, wrote:

"christians like to talk about submission in marriage, though the common discussion, involving authority, gender and who makes the decisions, seems to me something stingy and earth-bound. submission to one another in love is a thing of beauty, a mysterious relinquishing and embracing, of acceptance and yielding that braids together two into one. there's no more powerful force between a husband and a wife than the choosing of the other at personal expense." (italics mine)

Leo Tolstoy wrote:

"Levin had thought there could never be any relations between himself and Kitty other than those based on tenderness, self-respect, and love: But the first month of their marriage showed otherwise.

Their first quarrel arose because Levin had ridden over to inspect a new farm. He returned half an hour late because he had attempted a short cut and got lost. He rode home thinking only of her, of her love, of his own happiness, and the nearer he came to the house the warmer grew his tenderness for her. He rushed into the room with a feeling that was even stronger than the one with which he had gone to propose to her, yet was all of a sudden met with a grim expression he had never seen on her face before. He tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away.

"What's the matter?"

"You're having a nice time . . ." she began, trying to appear calm and venomous.

But the moment she opened her mouth, she burst into a flood of reproaches, senseless jealousy, and everything else that had been tormenting her during the half hour she had spent sitting motionless at the window. It was then that he clearly understood for the first time what he had failed to understand when he led her out of the church after the wedding. He understood that she was not only close to him, but that he could not now tell where she ended and he began. He realized it from the agonizing feeling of division into two parts which he experienced at the moment. He felt hurt, but he immediately realized that he could not be offended with her because she was himself. For a moment he felt like a man who, receiving a sudden blow from behind, turns round angrily with the desire to return the blow only to find that he had accidentally struck himself and that there was no one to be angry with and he had to endure and do his best to assuage the pain. . . .

It took him a long time to recover his senses. His first impulse was quite naturally to justify himself and explain that she was in the wrong; but to show her that she was in the wrong meant to exasperate her still more and to widen the breach which was the cause of all this trouble. One impulse quite naturally drew him to shift the blame from himself and lay it upon her; another much more powerful feeling drew him to smooth over the breach and prevent it from widening. To remain under so unjust an accusation was painful, but to hurt her by justifying himself would be still worse. Like a man half awake and suffering from pain, he wanted to tear off the aching part and cast it away, but on coming to his senses he realized that the aching part was himself. All he had to do was to try to help the aching part to bear it, and this he did."(italics mine)

God-given, grace filled unity and self-denying, other focused love are the context for the headship and submission spoken of in Ephesians 5.  I have often been troubled, like my dear friend, Tonia, by the way headship and submission are discussed and yes, caricatured, as though the only way this Biblical pattern can be lived out is in the roles of domineering husband and cowering wife.  Such caricatures are not truthful representations of Biblical marriage at all.  Nor are they my experience.

There is deep submission in the dying-to-self  loving of a husband's faithful leadership, and powerful freedom in the respect-filled edification of a wife's submission.  When you are not worried about who's the boss, when you consider the other as more important than yourself, when you choose the "other at personal expense" such humility frees you to live fully and joyfully in whatever place God assigns.  Outside the context of unity and love, headship is cruel and submission is weak.

Ephesians 5 talks about the great mystery of marriage, likening it to Christ and the church. Christ is not cruel and the church, when it is truly being the church, is not weak.  So, the caricature has to be wrong.  The true Biblical pattern is much more beautiful - not like the loud clanging of the hammer on the nail but instead like the quiet breeze that makes the golden hickory leaves sway and sing in the afternoon sun.

A satisficer, an optimizer, and unity

A long time ago, my once-economics professor-now-pastor husband explained a couple of economic "people types" to me.

A satisficer is a person who is happy with a solution or product that meets their needs.  They don't worry about whether or not it is the best possible option.  Once their criteria are met, they don't need to do further research.  They make a choice. That'll work.  Fine. Get it.

An optimizer, on the other hand, is a person that has to examine all the possible options.  They don't want to make a decision until they have all the information they feel they need in order to achieve the optimal outcome or purchase the finest product for the money.  They spend a lot of time researching, examining, and comparing in order to get the very best.

It is pretty easy to figure out which you are. If you get irritated when someone you love takes a long time to made a purchase decision, you are probably a satisficer.  If you are annoyed that the loved doesn't do much comparison shopping, you may be an optimizer.  There are some of each kind in every family.

I once spent a very long time with one of my children (who will remain unnamed) while that dear child decided whether to purchase 0.5 or 0.7 mm thickness mechanical pencils.  If I had figured out our differing purchasing strategies before that trip to the store, I would have left her in the school supplies section to take as long as she needed to make her decision while I wandered happily through the garden center.  Alas, this was before my husband had enlightened me about these differences, so I stood there getting more and more irritated while she debated the relative merits of pencil thicknesses.  Just get some pencils, already!

Now I know.  I am a satisficer.  Coty is an optimizer (that child above takes after her father).  Sometimes Coty's optimizing behavior drives me crazy, but mostly, it is very good for both of us.  To be married to your opposite balances your extremes and strengthens your weaknesses.  When I just want to go ahead a make a purchase, Coty makes me wait while he does the research.  When he is agonizing over details and waffling in optimizing indecision, I act.  We purchase and move on. 

Here's how our satisficer/optimizer dynamic worked out yesterday.  Coty is traveling this month.  He needed a new carry-on suitcase, but he didn't have much time to shop for it before he left.  So, yesterday, I went to the store for him.  Before going, I asked what he wanted in a carry-on and since his mind was on lots of other trip preparations, he gave me only one requirement, zippers that make the bag expandable.  Easy.

At the store, I had many carry-on suitcase choices.  I looked them over and in about ten minutes, narrowed the choices down to two.  Both had expandable zippers, four wheels, and retractable pull handles.  One was black, one was red.  They had similar interiors but different types of inner and outer pockets and different handles.  I bought both and brought them home for Coty to choose.  The one he rejected would get returned later. I would have been happy, quite frankly, with either one of them.  I would probably have gone with the red just because it was prettier!

Anyway, when I got home and showed him the two choices, I had to chuckle.  His optimizing kicked in and he spent about three times as long deciding between the two suitcases as I had spent choosing them from among the many available.  He examined them, repeatedly zipping and unzipping the zippers, raising and lowering the handles, rolling them back and forth, assessing the merits of pocket placement, comparing, optimizing...

He finally chose the black one.  Good choice.  No... best choice.

Why do I tell you this story?  Certainly not to poke fun at my husband, though after nearly 31 years of marriage, we are well aware of and able to laugh at each others foibles.  But I don't write to tease.

I write, instead, to honor the unity that has grown in our marriage over those 3 decades, unity that is lived out in big things like standing beside each other in hardship and in little things like suitcase purchases.

When we were first married, we affirmed that God had taken two people and in a profoundly mysterious way, made us one flesh.  As young marrieds, we acknowledged, but didn't really understand that.  It took hardship, pain, betrayal, and the limitless grace of God to show us that unity is both a steel cable and a spider's web.  It is both strong and fragile.  It is an ongoing project that takes work.

For Coty and me, unity has required the work of examining and understanding how we are different.  The satisficer/optimizer distinction is just one example.  We have had to look at how and why we do things the way we do, what we like and dislike, how we relate and function.  He's an analyzer, I'm a feeler; he's functional, I'm relational; he was a math major, I'm math phobic.  Go figure - or if you're me, don't. 

Quite often, couples see their differences as threats. The work of unity requires, instead, that we see them as potential strengths.  I have come to see that some of the ways in which Coty is different from me are precisely the strengths I lack, and vice versa.  When you look at differences in this way, they become not threats, but complements.  You are not torn down, but completed.  You are not two people competing to get your way, but allies working toward a common end.

Tonight, as Coty sits at Kennedy waiting to board a trans-Pacific flight with that new carry-on suitcase, I face several weeks of separation.  I said good-bye at the airport curb very bravely, but I will miss him terribly.   I am incredibly thankful, though, for the God-given, work-forged unity we have, unity that is ours across the miles. I am thankful that even when we are continents apart, we, one satisficer and one optimizer, are not two, but one.

"...and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh."  Mark 10:8

Yellow

Everywhere I look...

From top left clockwise around to bottom left:  black-eyed susans in a pot on my deck, redbud leaves, pansies ready to go in the ground, tulip poplar leaves littering the floor of the woods path, meyer lemon on the deck almost ready to pick.

For more yellow love, enjoy this excellent nature photo essay on Autumn's True Color from the folks at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History.  Click over and scroll down the page to the yellow article.

Conference champs again!

Well, we skipped a year, but now we've regained the title!  Covenant Classical - Conference champs in 2008 and again in 2010!

Today's game against a strong Queensgrant team was tied at the end of regular time.  In the first overtime, Joel headed a corner kick for the tie-breaking goal.  His team went on to score another goal and win, 3-1.  I'm sooo glad it didn't go to penalty kicks!

That Joel of mine is a very tough competitor, a player who gives his all in every game.  He certainly gave it today.  He is a solid center back - not much gets past that CCS defense - and he can head the ball like no one else!  In addition, he has grown as a team leader, encouraging his teammates and setting an example as a sportsman of class.  I have watched him carry the water cooler countless times this year.  You know, in past years, it seems that was something that was relegated to the younger, newer players, not the team captain.

Sweetheart, you make your mama proud - not just because you win games, but because in both winning and losing, on the field and off, your character shines through.  Thanks for another great fall of soccer!

 

A hug for Grammie

Happy teammates

Jackson, who with Joel, anchors the defense, 

and John, top scorer for the season

Out back

While the front is a mess, it's nice to walk out back and see...

raindrops like jewels on a cabbage leaf necklace...

richly textured mustard leaves...

fall veggies filling out in the top terrace...

and almost ripe meyer lemons!

Trying to decide...

-aggregate stone (like crush and run, or is it crusher run??) or wood chips for the path

-lined with bricks, pavers, river rock????

-how wide?

-how to handle the slope - a step, leveling, landscape timber??

And those are just decisions to make about the path.  Hardscape first.  Then come the plants.  I'll have plenty more questions, then!

Mighty hunter

If you've ever had a cat, you know how they like to share their predatory victories with their families.  Dead birds and mice on the doorstep, as if to announce, "Look what I caught and killed.  Aren't you proud of me!"

Well, for the second time in three days, Madison the cat has brought his prey indoors.  Saturday night, it was dead and I called Thomas to come and take it outside.  Tonight it was ALIVE and HOPPING AROUND THE ROOM!

Apparently, mighty hunger kitty has found a rabbit nest.  Tonight he had not killed the bunny, but instead must have carried it inside through the open back door (that opens onto the screen porch that has a hole in the screen of the door, kitty usually comes and goes as he pleases).  Joel was sitting in the classroom, heard a squeak and looked around to see Madison stalking his prey. 

Thomas, the animal catcher in our family,  jumped to action, shooed kitty away, and caught the bunny.

Isn't it cute????

 

His little heart was beating so fast, poor frightened thing!

 We stroked his so soft fur, and then Thomas took the little guy out to the edge of the woods.  He sat completely still for a few seconds and then hopped quickly away.  I hope he knows his way home.  And I hope Madison will give up on his bunny hunting!

Forty-first Monday

In the cool of the early morning, I sat on the porch, Bible on my lap, coffee on the table beside me.  I curled my legs up under me and huddled under a blanket.  I pulled my hood up over my head.  A cricket chirped.  Slowly, as the sky in the east got lighter, the birds began to wake up.  A cardinal chipped, one single note after another. The vultures flapped and left their perch on the high tension poles in the power cut behind the woods and then soared overhead.  An acorn fell on the roof. 

I listened to the waking day.  I cradled my mug to warm my hands and read this morning...

"My times are in your hand"

I am incredibly thankful that the creator of all this beauty, the one that gives the song to the cardinal and makes the raptors soar, knows me and holds, in his powerful hands, the moments of each of my days...

I give thanks for...

1354.  God's sovereignty

1355.  His wisdom and patience

1356.  Friends who encourage

1357.  Family - physical and spiritual

1358.  the woods around me

1359.  bird song

1360.  the gift of morning quiet time

1361.  reminders that cross bearing is normal life

1362.  good health and the ability to work

1363.  opportunities for creativity
1364.  community lived out in our church family
1365.  dear elderly friends facing hard choices
1366.  time for rest

Front yard re-do

I have begun a new and long overdo project - a front yard re-do.  I have several goals to accomplish in this landscaping project which include:

-decreasing the amount of lawn in front (we have lots of shade, grass doesn't grow well, i want less to mow) 

-adding a lighted path from the middle of the driveway that cuts across the front and leads past the front garden defining a new planting bed (which will eliminate more grass!).  Most people who visit us park on the street and this will be a nicer entry to the front door.

-correcting the erosion of bare ground down the driveway when it rains

-mulching the fris-cup area where the grass had been killed by heavy traffic

-moving the overgrown azaleas that crowd the front of the house and are very unsightly, especially when filled with brown oak leaves that fall in abundance.  I want something simpler, neater, with some spaces for perennial color.

Here are a few views of the project so far...

Dwarf mondo grass planted in a triangle along the drive and lining the newly hacked out path.

More work on the new path.  The first step involved skimming of the grass and clearing.  Notice the hose that is being used to define the outline of the lawn area that will remain.

Fris-cup area worn bare - this will be mulched. 

Unsightly azaleas will be moved away from the house.

I got a good upper body workout yesterday clearing the path.  Today I'm spending fall break time in this book, perusing old Fine Gardening magazines, and dreaming!  I may try and dig out a couple of azaleas later, and tomorrow, a trip to a nursery, I hope!

A new mac 'n cheese

over here...

Because Jenn requested it!

October birthdays

Several of us in our small group Bible study share October birthdays.  We celebrated with Carla's amazing pound cake, Lauren's apple crisp, Cindy's peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and my espresso ginger snaps.

On Friday, Mama and Daddy came up and I celebrated again with lunch at Lava Bistro.  Terrace seating lakeside was perfect on a glorious, warm fall day.  Cheesecake with caramel sauce was a delightful ending to a great meal.  Yum!

Wednesday bird walk

On Wednesday, my field biology classes went on a bird walk at McAlpine Creek Park with Sally Miller of the Mecklenburg Audubon Society.


At the pond, we watched chimney swifts, dart and turn, swoop and dip.  At one point, ten or so birds were dipping in the pond in what looked like a dance over the water.  Fascinating!  We weren't sure if the birds that were dipping were swifts or bank swallows.  They were moving so fast, it was hard to tell.  We also think we may have seen a tree swallow.

In addition to the swallows, we saw a phoebe, great blue heron, belted kingfisher, red-bellied woodpecker, yellow-shafted flicker, black throated blue warbler, American crows, bluebirds, cardinals, Canada geese, mockingbirds, mallards, and robins. 

Here we are after two and a half hours of birding.  These are the kids from both my Tuesday and Friday classes and that's Sally at the back, right next to me.  What a great morning!  More field trips are in the works in the weeks ahead....

Grace comes in many forms...

"The comedy of grace is that it so often comes to us as loss, sorrow, and foul-smelling waste; if it came as gain, gladness and sweetly scented flowers, we would not be grateful.  We would, as we are wont to do, take personal credit for the unwarranted gifts of God.  It is easy to be attracted to the idea of grace - which one dictionary defines as 'divine love and protection bestowed freely on people' - but much harder to recognize this grace when it comes as pain and unwelcome change.  In the depths of our confusion and anger, we ask: 'How can this be God's love?  Where is God in this disaster?'  For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn't know we needed, take us to places where we didn't want to go.  As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before.  And maybe that's the point." Kathleen Norris from Acedia and Me

 and another....

"The fruit we are given is not always what we want or expect; it may even be bitter, but we are secure in knowing that it is given to us out of love.  The capacity for trust that begins in such ordinary human encounters, as between a mother and a child, can come to have deep ... significance, not only for ourselves, but for the whole community of faith.  As we come to know a God of limitless compassion, [a God who] makes oranges, and life itself "new every morning" we can find great mercy even in the midst of lamentation." (also Kathleen Norris, on seeing her young niece's reaction to the gift of an orange)

This life can be crazy and confusing, emotionally overwhelming and unbearably sad.  It is full of anger, apathy, meanness, and ugliness in many, many forms.  Some days it feels like too much.  I am sure I am not the only one that feels this way.

But then, God shows me...

-through a timely email from a friend for whom our simple prayer for restful sleep in the midst of a trying circumstance was graciously, abundantly answered with the felt peace and presence of God and a good night's sleep.

-through the sun on the trees, bright and clear this cool morning

-through the laughter of my boys, their hugs and teasing

-through the faithful, tender, thoughtful love of my husband

-through the sweet greetings of family and friends near and far

-through a long, beautifully written, precious letter from a dear one I've never met in person

-through quiet minutes to read and think

-through the pressing on and looking up of one who has walked through mental illness, job changes, financial hardship, and more and keeps on pointing to the glories of Christ, and who always makes me laugh and smile

-through a sweet baby trying to say Gramma, feeding herself with a spoon, and pushing her doll

-through chimney swifts darting and dipping over a pond in the morning and a great blue heron perched on a beaver dam, through the colors of berries and the roughness of an elm leaf

-through a happy family time on a glorious fall day

-through tears

-through His word, read on the porch, in the early morning

...through all these and more, He shows me that His grace, which comes in so many forms, never stops flowing.  It is like manna - daily grace.

He shows me that hope in Him is the anchor that holds me fast in the times when grace feels sweet and the times it feels severe. 

He shows me that I have an inheritance, for the future, yes...but one in which I can live right now.  An inheritance of grace, not earning.

He shows me the fullness of His steadfast love and bids me walk in it.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  Ephesians 2:4-10


Through [Jesus] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. - Romans 5:2

Fortieth Monday!

"Sitting there in the moonlight, I came to the knowledge I had so hungered to find. God is the lover and maker, the friend and creator. He reveals his goodness in the tastable, touchable wonder of his world. His love is felt in the fellowship of his people. His joy is what sings in the wind and spices the best wine, and glimmers in the gold of sunset. In the savor of feasts, the cadence of seasons, in apples crunched and friends touched, God is known for the eternal Good that he is."  -Sarah Clarkson at The Rabbit Room

 My husband went out of town this past week.  He left Wednesday night.  He is due back here in a couple of hours.  A few weeks back, as I contemplated his absence, I expected a quiet weekend of reading, sewing, and working outside.  I thought that the boys would be busy with their jobs and other activities and I would be alone for a good bit.  The approaching solitude was a welcome break in what has so far been a full, busy, fall.

It was not to be.  Ten days or so ago, one of our adopted, honorary Pinckneys sent me an email asking if his aunt and uncle, who were to be visiting this weekend, could stay at our house.  I confess that my very first and very selfish thought was, "Well, there goes my weekend."  My second thought, which thankfully, followed closely was more gracious, "Of course.  They're your family.   You're part of our family here.  Of course, they can stay."

Fast forward to this Saturday.  I was busy cleaning - scrubbing the tub, washing the mildewed shower curtain, covering up the hole in the bathroom shower tile, changing sheets, vacuuming - hurrying so that everything would be ready when our guests arrived.  As expected, the boys were gone and I was alone.  But I wasn't doing what I had anticipated.  Instead of sewing, I was cleaning.  Instead of working in the yard, I was on my knees in the bathroom.  But I was not unhappy with it.  I was glad to be doing some of that deep cleaning that gets passed over most weeks. More than that, I was really and truly happy to be welcoming Albert's relatives and looking forward to dinner with them.

Then a phone call came.  From Thomas.  At my sister's house.  Asking if my two nephews and niece could come back with him and spend the night.  Three more people.  Well, I'd already let go of the idea of solitude, so why not three more.  The more the merrier, right?!

Exactly right.  The kids arrived in an hour or so.  The house was mostly clean and I had turned my sights to dinner.  Kay and Annsley wanted to cook, so they got busy in the kitchen.  John and Linda arrived a couple of hours later.  Albert showed up soon after.  Full house, smells of ginger chicken on the stove, piles of bok choy in the sink.  Rice cooker going. 

Over a delicious meal, prepared by several hands, instead of mine alone, we laughed and talked. Through the evening, we shared coffee and tea and goodies brought by Linda.  We watched a homemade video starring my youngest nephew, we discovered mutual friends and connections as we lingered at the table. 

This morning, in a quiet house again, the guests all gone, the boys still asleep, Coty on a plane headed home, I am thankful for a weekend that turned out very differently from the one I was expecting.  I am thankful that God's love was tastably, touchably experienced in the goodness of food and fellowship this weekend. I add to this weekly numbering of God's endless gifts:

1333.  New friends
1334.  Old friends that feel at home here
1335.  Fellowship around the table
1336.  Delicious food
1337.  The smell of ginger, garlic, onions
1338.  The slightly bitter goodness of greens
1339.  The way vinegar enhances that flavor
1340.  Connections - across miles and years
1341.  Connections - because of fellowship in Christ
1342.  A son who is a very wonderful older cousin
1343.  Girls who like to cook
1344.  Sitting and knitting with those same girls!
1345.  Worship
1346.  Fred's sermon or should I say Santo Frederico!  Listen.  You'll understand.
1347. Coffee time
1348. An afternoon, even with a house full, to sit and rest
1349.  The opportunity for hospitality
1350.  The bonds of physical family and church family
1351.  A dear friend and the sharing of hearts and concerns over coffee
1352.  And joy, the showers and crisp cool air - so welcome

1353.  But most of all, for God, the eternal Good, lover, maker, friend, creator, who is the source of every one of these very good gifts.