We've been soaking up every minute of spring around here. This year, I seem to have noticed unique flowers popping up everywhere. Maybe because toddlers walk at a snail's pace...ha! Well I'm thankful for the slowness that helps me to stop and notice just how detailed God is in creation.
"Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment."
~ Ellis Peters
{this moment} - A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by SouleMama
On the first day of spring, I wanted to share this meadow that's within a short walking distance of our home. To others it may just be an open field in the middle of a neighborhood, but you have to look more closely. And then you'll see it's filled with wild grape hyacinth, trees sweeping low to the ground for climbing, big rocks for collecting and jumping, tree stumps made into chairs. I found out it's owned by a nearby church but open for public use. We've probably returned 5 times since the initial discovery. What a treasure.
"The air was sweet with the breath of many apple orchards and the meadows sloped away in the distance to horizon mists of pearl and purple; while the little birds sang as if it were the one day of summer in all the year."
~ Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
I'm gonna find every spot of nature in this big city, yes I am.
I love that my daughter now asks regularly if we can go play "in the meadow." Why, yes we can. Happily.
My latest post is up on Club JellyTelly - a wonderful website with positive programming for kids. They have a subscription-based service (kind of like Netflix but only $5/month) for unlimited viewing of all their shows.
Here's the post if you'd like to check it out - "I just want to stay small." Enjoy!
It's time for another snail mail exchange! The first one was kind of an experiment, but it went so well that I've decided to organize another. It's simple...
If you decide to participate, I will randomly assign you a snail mail exchange buddy to whom you will send a small, fun snail mail package. Think handmade, simple, thoughtful. The point is just sending someone something to make them smile, not spending a ton of money. And you certainly don't have to make something if you don't feel comfortable with that. Just think of something YOU would enjoy receiving. I'm also thinking about giving this exchange a theme, like SPRING. Anything that has to do with spring.
Ideas:
Here are some of the items I received from my friend Ginny in the last exchange...
Colorful adorned paper clips, fun quotation cards that are now hanging in my craft room, and some beautiful pods from a sycamore in her hometown, with inspirational words attached to them. I still look at these every day.
So, are you in?
Post a comment below (if you don't know me personally, be sure to include your email address) and I'll contact you with details.
Here's to snail mail!
UPDATE: As of March 19th, this snail mail exchange is full. Stay tuned for the next one! Thanks!
It's arrived! I'm happily in the midst of reading Shauna Niequist's latest book, Bread & Wine. Shauna's people have once again been kind enough to include me in the group of bloggers reading and reviewing advance copies of the book, and I can't wait to officially share about it here once I'm done. But let's just say this - this book speaks my language in every way. I nearly wept reading the intro alone. As if I should be surprised...
Shauna's first book, Cold Tangerines, taught me that "this pedestrian life" is the best life I've got. Cold Tangerines began my love story with living more deeply - stopping, pausing my frantic, busy, married working-girl life to be more present in the details, to tell my story and invite others into it.
Her second book, Bittersweet, was read shortly after I became a mother, at a time when I could not be experiencing change more deeply, in the beautifully exhausting hours of caring for a newborn.
Two-and-a-half-years later, I still can say along with Shauna, "I’m so thankful to live in this physical, messy, blood-and-guts world." (Bittersweet)
How I love some bread and wine in my life on a regular basis - yes, I do love bread (hello, I'm Italian) and wine (apparently I also love white wine, who knew?) but together, "bread & wine" is communion. Community. This introvert loves having people over, sharing meals around our table. It's all part of this year's purpose of embracing who I really am.
Our home is centered around one very large, rustic farm table that my husband built from salvaged barn wood. In just a few years, I cannot even count the memorable meals we've shared around that table, crumbs falling through the holes in the table's imperfect surface, elbows touching, glasses being filled and refilled. So far, Bread & Wine resonates with these passions perfectly. I've already written the name of my friend "Linda" in the margin on page 13. And "Aunt Lucille" in the margin on page 14.
We're off to a good start, friends. More to come...
* This post includes Amazon affiliate links.
Someone gave us this book to read awhile back, but I was a little skeptical. Although keeping chickens seems rather trendy right now, and we own an organic farm market, I still thought it would be too much extra work and trouble.
Then, last minute, we happened upon three chickens who needed a temporary home until our new Urban Acres store is finished this spring, where they will eventually live. "Just for a few days" became a few weeks, and now they're happily living in our back yard.
Dolly, Polly, and Lolly
Let me tell you, there really is a joy about keeping chickens. The excitement begins with their muted balking that we can hear through the bedroom window first thing in the morning. Yet, they wait patiently to be let out of the coop. Once the door is open, they walk out slowly, calmly, single-file and go about their morning, pecking and grazing all day long.
Right now, they're living in a makeshift, rickety coop that my husband threw together with old wood pallets and wire, beacuse the much more fashionable coop they came with didn't fit through our gate. But these girls don't care. There's covering, a place for them to roost, and a door. They could care less if it's a Pinterest-worthy dwelling.
Each day, we look forward to our family scavenger hunt around the yard, looking for eggs. Here's the first one we got - isn't it beautiful?
Chickens are easy enough that our 2-year-old can help take care of them, giggling and smiling as she spreads chicken scratch and other kitchen scraps on the ground. She can even do it in a ballerina dress!
"This is my work, my mission."
I'll never forget these words spoken by my dear friend Pria* in India one day, in January 2005. The words flowed from her mouth boldly yet humbly. Over the course of 10 days, I watched her go about her home tidying, cooking from scratch for multiple people, mothering two young boys, taking care of her duties as a pastor's wife, hosting a guest from America (me) that spoke a foreign language, and doing it all with joy and a peaceful smile.
Eight years ago this past January, I did one of the scariest and bravest things I've ever done - boarded a plane alone, with a back injury from falling a few days before, and flew 21 hours across the world to Chennai, India. There, without even a cell phone, I waited to be retrieved by Pria and her husband Pastor Samuel*, both of whom I had only ever seen in photos. We met and traveled another 5 hours by train to their town, where I stayed for the next 10 days working with the organization Peace Gospel, visiting children in an orphanage, embracing the culture, helping tsunami victims, and making new friends (I wrote about my experience here and here).
When I think about that trip now, I can't believe I did it. I barely got on the plane. I remember crying to my then fiancé/now husband the night before on the phone, telling him I was too scared to go. But the ticket was bought, and I went. Turns out it was absolutely watershed - a shattering, humbling, encouraging, emotional experience in which I saw for the first time just how much Christ could sustain me, how sinful I was, how much I cling to my luxuries of everyday life, how in the minority I am. And how far, far-reaching the love of God is, all the way to a concrete single-room church in the tiniest Indian village.
Today is International Women's Day, and as my Instagram feed fills with breathtaking photos of women all over the world, my mind is occupied with memories of Pria, this one woman who changed me forever, whose gentle hands I can almost still feel on my back.
On my last few hours in India, I was tired, homesick, sad to be leaving my new friends but eager to return to my routine and family and friends in Texas. Pria, Pastor Samuel, and I spent several late night hours in a hotel room watching Indian television and resting before it was time for them to take me to the airport. I was wearing my sari (which had become familiar garb over the course of the trip), lying face-down on the hotel bed with my head resting sideways on my elbows, drowsily watching TV. Then, without a word, Pria reached out and touched my dirty, curly, frizzy hair, ran it through her fingers. She placed her hand on my back and ran it up and down, up and down, gently, sending shivers throughout my body. She must have done this for a solid hour. At first it felt strange to be accepting so much physical touch from someone I was supposed to be serving. But my injured back began to feel like it was healing, and tension and tiredness from this scary, wonderful trip began to leave my body. Her touch was absolutely the touch of Christ to me in that moment, and I felt enveloped in His love, His care. I didn't want to leave her and my new friends. At the same time I so desperately wanted to return home. From this point on, a part of my heart would be left among these people in India. And she would always be my sister.
~ ~ ~
There are many other stunning women I met in a remote Indian village near the coast, where the tsunami had just taken the lives of many of their men who were out fishing for the day. We delivered food, Bibles, and clothes to the widows. Their vibrant smiles, the lines on their faces, their colorful garments, their shyness mingled with strength...I couldn't get enough.
~ ~ ~
Today as a mother and a wife, I think of Pria’s words often. On days (all too often) when I'm anxious and grumbling and overwhelmed by everything that's on my plate, by how many directions I feel pulled, I hear her voice saying, "This is my work, my mission," and I stop in my tracks. I feel her love and encouragement across the oceans that separate us. If she can do it with joy and a smile, certainly so can I.
I cannot begin to imagine the daily lives of some of the women I met and these women that Peace Gospel serves today, but I know their smiles and lives have touched me more than they'll ever know. I'm thankful to be a small part of this tribe of women that traverses the globe and to have held their gazes in my eyes, their hands in mine, even for a short time.
* Names have been changed to protect privacy.
I'm Christine. believer. idealist. writer. artist. treehugger. wife. mama. daughter. sister. friend.
just trying to see the beauty and share with others along the way. {learn more}
"This is your life, this is your real life, and you are living it. Your life is not going to start later. This is it, it is now. It's funny how a person can be so busy that they forget that this is it. This is my life."
~ Lee Smith
