Where I would love to go for a walk...

more from this photographer...

There is a certain peace in nature not to be found anywhere else.

It's cold outside, blowing snow and more than anything
my soul needs a quiet, peaceful place to go and just walk for awhile.

Solitude lets the world along with her demands and expectations
of daily living fade away for awhile and I need that. I'm tired.

I'm going to find some rest...

Thought for The Day...

Yours are REALLY important.
Try not to lose them.
Profound ain't it? I KNOW...like, wow.
Excuse me for a minute...I find I have to
...PAUSE...
and really just let that sink in....
(little secret...mine are already gone ;))

nOte...parenting small children brings
unadulterated JoY BUT it also obliterates brain cells.
I can't find anything today...
WHERE IS THE POOL PASS?

MATT...r u getting a new one?

Reflections Out of My Kitchen Window...

Lots of thoughts today...hmmmnnn...

I spend a good deal of my time
standing in my kitchen at the sink with wet hands either
washing potatoes, produce, preparing food or cleaning up as
I imagine nearly all of the women in my family have,
at some point, before me.

Often, in the course of these normal, everyday activities
my thoughts wander as my hands perform a familiar task and
I usually end up gazing out of my kitchen window as AGAIN I imagine
nearly all of the women in my family have done before me.

In these moments...I feel profoundly connected to the women
of my family...women who I never had the opportunity to
meet or who I knew only as a child. I imagine them
standing at the sinks in the homes that they made making
meals, cleaning up, gazing out of their kitchen windows AND
I miss them. HOW is that possible? Women I barely knew
but whose love and care of their families in other times and places
has powerfully influenced the love and care and
quality of my own life and family.

I MISS them...my heart aches and I wish way down
to the depths of me that I could talk to them...KNOW them.
I would love to spend some time working
at the sink, elbow to elbow,
with my grandmothers and listen to them talk
about ANYTHING and for hours, please.

I feel compelled to name these women who on the surface,
seemed to live simple, nondescript lives because they
were "only" mothers or farmer's wives or factory workers but
who in reality were, very likely, so much more
(I know I am). SO, they were named
Hannah, Elizabeth, Nora, Lula, Cledaus, Florence, Olive, and Betty.

I want to know, firsthand, what their favorite flowers were.
I want to hear their jokes. I want to sing in church beside them.
I want to ask them things when I'm worried about my children.
I want to hear all of their stories about when they were
young and when they were old and everything in between.

Just another thing that makes waiting on heaven so hard, I suppose.

ANYWAYS...gosh, did you really read all of that? Thanks.
So, the thought was, "Man, I miss my grandmas..."
as I'm making this soup.


Homemade chicken noodle...yum.
AND (this is the point by the way)
in the simple act of preparing a meal and
longing for my grandmothers
on a beautiful Sunday morning before church...I find that
Holy God is present with me and we're working
elbow to elbow at the sink.
I felt surprised. I smiled, big. HIS presence humbled
me and I was thankful.
SO, I worshiped, right there in my bare feet.
I love that...being snuck up on by God.
I don't recall making soup with HIM before.

My mother has taught me to pray and ask God to
bless the work of my hands and I must say
yesterday morning, HE did...


After church, the soup was good and as I've pondered
all these "kitchen window" thoughts that have been
rumbling around in my head this last day or two,
I realize a couple of things.

First, God is ALWAYS present...ALWAYS
(it was even in the sermon that day,
HE was making a point with me, you see).
God will find you in the most unexpected places...
even if you're not looking but especially when you are.

Second, missing my grandparents and wanting to
know more of them is the very essence of why I blog.
I'm intentionally leaving something of myself
for my children and grandchildren.
Call it what you will...oral history, autobiographical, journaling.
Legacy? Perhaps...

At any rate, those that are growing and
who are to come, will know more of me because I do this.
(Hopefully, they will know I love them like crazy cakes
and that I prayed for them.)

Because I do this,
when they miss me, long for me...
a tangible part of me will be there and they can wrap
up warm and cozy in
my words and stories and pictures.

BUT mostly, in spite of my effort to ease
any potential loneliness for them, I want to leave my own
experience of the unshakable truth that we are NEVER alone.
Almighty God holds us in his hand ALL THE TIME
even when you're bare foot in your kitchen
daydreaming out the window making soup.

How's that for a story? I think it's a humdinger!