starts

Generally speaking, we have a last frost date of May 15 around here.  That means  we shouldn’t  put any seeds in the ground before this.  But this year, it is still too cold this first week of June to plant seeds.  That is actually fine with me since digging and raking are forbidden activities right now.  I mean, I would love to have some sunny days or see the temperature get above 60 degrees.  But I am a tiny bit happy that I have more than one reason for not digging in the garden.

I received this container with some basil seeds for a birthday gift.  A few weeks ago, we had a sunny day so I poured in the package of soil and planted the seeds.  For two days, my little seeds languished in the sunshine that splashed across the kitchen counter.  And then the rains returned.  Each day I peek in to see the little green and purple sprouts pushing through the soil.  This picture was taken over a week ago.  And they continue to grow.  I love that these small plants are called starts.  Such hope in that word.  So I watch and I wait and I hope for some fresh basil.  It is a good thing to have some starts in my life.

Read Full Post »

don’t move on too quickly

I woke yesterday with a dull, ache in my heart.  I attributed this to the idea of saying goodbye to our daughter and son-in-law later in the day.  I  had to leave early to do some more packing at mom and dad’s house and I just wasn’t ready for saying goodbye.  We were able to rearrange the day a bit and by the time we dropped them off, it didn’t hurt so much.

This morning I read this post and it occurred to me that this rushing away from Christmas is another part of this ache – something that seems to arrive every year about this time and keeps me from being able to start the process of putting Christmas away.  As read this post, I thought of those years in the classroom where it seemed incongruous to tell the children the story of the birth of this baby in December and then come back in January and begin the stories of Jesus that would lead us to the cross.  I was teaching three and four-year olds and I needed stories of Jesus as a child.  I wanted to let them linger with that idea of Jesus growing up for a bit longer.

So today, as I contemplate taking down Christmas, I am thinking I might just keep one of my little nativity scenes up for a while to remind me that this baby was a baby, for more than a few days.  To remind myself to slow down the way I urge the parents of our students to enjoy and savor these early years with their children.

Read Full Post »

Slice of life – another early morning

There must be a reason for this early morning routine – waking about 3:45am, trying every trick in my bag to get back to sleep but finally admitting defeat about 4:15 am.  This morning my mind was going in so many directions that I couldn’t  wait to get downstairs and do some reading and writing to curb the flow of ideas.  When I talk about this pattern I have fallen into, the first response is that I must be stressed.  I don’t feel stressed.  When I get up, I am not tired, groggy, or fatigued.  Sure, about 4:00pm those words might describe me but not in the early morning.  I might even be coming to cherish this time to read and write and think and pray.  I am trying to listen – to give up fighting it and just settle into this early morning pattern, to see if there isn’t something I can learn.  Of course that goes against my nature of wanting to be in control, in charge.  I want to be the one who chooses to rise early.  So for now, at least, I am trying to just sink into it, to let whatever it is that I need to learn or understand rise to a place where I might be able to grasp it.  And as long as I can go to bed at 9:00pm, I think I might just survive.

Read Full Post »

Day 4 – Enough

I have been thinking about this word a lot lately.  What is enough?  I imagine it will be different for everyone.  I often define enough in terms of lack – not enough time, not enough money, not enough patience.  In our staff devotions I listened as someone prayer, Lord, let what you give me today be enough, and it sent my thoughts in a new direction.  I found these verses in Exodus 36: 6-7;

Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

I am thinking this might be my one little word for 2010.  Enough.

Read Full Post »

You’ve got mail

I got a card in the mail last week.  Unexpected.   A wonderful little perk at the end of my week.

I try to write letters, try to take the time to pen a little note just to say hello, to let someone now I am thinking of them.  I have gotten over the notion that I need to have something “important” to say.  And maybe that little hello, that message that someone is thinking of you, is what’s important. 

“All through the day we inadvertantly speak words that enter people’s lives and change them in minor or major ways and we never know it.” Eugene Peterson

Read Full Post »