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To Gain Perspective, Sometimes You Just Need to Step Back
It’s been nearly a year now. For most of March and April last year I was living in a world centered around packed suitcases, car trips, and hospital visits. One hospital visit is one too many, and there were too many. I was anxious, tired, overwhelmed, sad, a mix of emotions really. Dad was dying. April 23rd was the last day I would see my dad this side of heaven. Much of that day is a blur as he passed in the very early hours of the morning. I was whisked out of the hospital and can barely remember walking through the corridors of the hospital or driving myself back…
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Are You in Need of a Little Hope Today? There is an Endless Source for it.
Spring is on the horizon. Everywhere I look life is beginning to awaken. Trees are budding, plants are pushing past the dead and the dirt to reveal the beautiful glimpse of fresh color, new hope. I love this time of year ALMOST as much as Fall. This was also one of my dad’s favorite seasons, perhaps the one he looked forward to more than any. He was a gardener with a green thumb that I DID NOT inherit. He knew the proper time to begin tilling the ground to ready it for planting. He knew what to plant and when. He knew the perfect spot for planting anything, that spot…
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Heads Up!
Happy Monday everyone! This is just a quick little head’s up to say this week is going to be a busy week on the blog. I have to apologize in advance as the blog will be undergoing some “construction” of sorts and moving to it’s own designated domain on the web. As I make the move there may be some re-working involved and more than likely a good share of kinks to work out so hang in there with me. I’m truly excited to get everything officially up and running. And I mean really excited! The kind of excited that has probably been driving my sweet husband a little nuts…
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The Father-Heart in “No”
Jesus was God walking with skin on. All the power and authority of God was also wrapped up in His son, but rather than exercising His own will and power to save, Jesus walked and acted in humble submission, fully trusting the will and heart of His father God.
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Three Things
Sit with me for just a moment. If we were face-to-face I’d probably wrap you in a tangible hug and open my tea and coffee cupboards up to you. I hope you like yours dark because I brew a mean cup of coffee strong enough to put hair on your chest, or so they say. I would also bend an ear your direction. This is a moment of full disclosure, a moment to openly share the hard. I know broken. I’ve been broken. I am broken. I’ve spent lonely nights walking circles in the rain trying desperately to find a second set of steps to calm the storm. Silence can…
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Ocean Deep
Have you been there? That feeling of being completely overtaken by something too large to wrap your head around? Have you stared out into the unknown only to be met with a vastness that was just too much to take in, too much to comprehend? You know, those waters that have left you tossed and gasping for breath? Drowning in the too deep for far too long. Yes, those deep waters of hard circumstances that wage war and churn at the heart. I get it. I really do. It’s been forever and a day ago, but I will never forget a particular evening when I keenly felt the vulnerability of…
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Sifting
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” ~ Luke 22: 31-31 The sum total of what is known, unknown and what remains of my childhood sit downstairs in stacked boxes. I’ve been putting off the going-through of them for sometime. I’ve been telling myself that I’ll wait until the business of estate handling is over, which has been a process to say the least. Now there is light at the end of that tunnel and so the “sifting” has begun. …
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Soul Days
I’ve always loved Fall. I love how the leaves turn all kinds of brilliant, especially the crimson and fire orange ones that I wish could linger longer than the Kansas wind. On the rare calm days, right after the leaves have just turned, it’s hard for me not to just stare and inhale the crispness of the air. There is simplistic beauty in changing seasons. Most days, especially as of late, my days have been brimming with a laundry list of to-do’s. There has been loud, lived-out noise in the chaos of a constant stream of life. Most of it all wonderful things I welcome. Such as racing my sweet…
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The White House
Nearly three years ago I received a random e-mail, “What do you think?” In the e-mail was a picture attached of a little white house with black shutters and a beautiful large tree in the front yard. The e-mail was from dad. Usually dad’s e-mails were short and to the point. This one, while short, was so exciting, special even. You see, for years my dad had lived adrift. My parents didn’t have much and they lived from one apartment complex or facility to another. My dad even spent the sum of a year living at a Rescue Mission shortly before my mother passed. He was broke and broken. When…
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Distraction
It’s been a struggle to stay focused. Opportunity for distraction, at least for the past two to three weeks, have come in beckoning waves. Waves that feel inescapable. Have you ever stood near the beach, just a venture’s jaunt from it’s edge in the water? There’s that wonderful cool feeling of the water and the rhythmic way the waves lap sand back and forth in between your toes that can erase worry away better than any doctor’s prescription. Couple that with the sound and sight of an ocean bigger and larger than your eye can see and you have a recipe for respite. Until the random rogue wave hits with…
