These were the last words I read last night after a lovely Mother’s Day. Hannah Grieser’s book The Clouds Ye So Much Dread is my current favorite slow read. I’ve flagged so many pages that it looks like the United Nations. More quotes to come!
Joyous weddings nurture my spirit.
Daddy dance: our son and the flower girl (our Aria) dancing
Wine tasting with Dan and la Bella (my brother and sis-in-law, Valeri)
I’ve wanted one of these giant (= mellow) wind chimes for years. An early birthday gift!
Kizzy, Little Bit, Jemima, Baby Girl, Violet, Pony Boy, Cookie
The Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive” is this plant’s theme song.
Not to be dramatic, but sometimes keeping it alive seems my greatest challenge.
Reintroducing radishes to my palate.
A royal bloom
A byproduct of forced frugality early in life is the thrill of a matched set later in life!
Reading aloud to my grands is one of my passions. I often read during meals as they eat. Water colors, sketching, markers, or play dough also help occupy their hands during non-meal times. This was my oldest grandson’s creation during today’s read aloud session.
Five Seven. An unforgettable date. We may not remember Three Twenty-Three (her birthday). I don’t even know her wedding date (the year was 1945). But this day, oh I know Five Seven. The calendar starts fomenting emotions around the third or fourth.
I revisit my last goodbye as I trotted towards the car, facing forward out the front door, head turned on the final step as I sing-songed my farewell: ♪♫♪ Bye Mom! ♪♫♪ I see my father waiting for me at the edge of the school grounds, and I hear the deadly quiet when we entered the house.
Last night when I read about Kara Tippett’s family’s first event without her I burst into sobs. Have you followed Kara’s story? Her shimmering grace, her honest struggle, her big love. I look at her kids and I know a small piece of their story. The oldest girl, who will mother her siblings the rest of her life. The girl and boy in the middle whose grief might get overlooked, who will consider their dad’s cares. The youngest girl, the focus of concern for all, the girl who turned six this week.
Although Five Seven can never be the second Sunday in May, it is always in the suburbs of Mother’s Day. Sorrow scoots over and makes room for gratitude. For too many, the grief of Mother’s Day is the ache of having had a mom who couldn’t or wouldn’t, but clearly didn’t express love and kindness. Their focus is on breaking the chain of affliction, expunging the critical words, watching others to figure out how to be a good mom.
I learned the goodness and kindness of God through Mom. Sure, she taught us and corrected us; but she sang while she laundered, she cheerfully plowed through sandwich-making every school day morning, she wrapped her long arms around us, she prayed. What didn’t she do? She never gossiped, she didn’t complain, she didn’t worry, she didn’t fear. Sometimes she sighed, and I know she groaned. But she lived a simple, authentic life, a small life really, that influenced many for good. And she loved me, this I know. To know your mom’s love is a gift of unfathomable magnitude.
Thank you, Mom. I love you.
Nellie Arlene Stover Harper
3/23/1920 — 5/7/1968
I’m thankful for the gloaming,
old hymns in minor keys,
For Reepicheep the Valiant
and our comfortable Jeep.
Forgiveness for besetting sins;
wood that crackles while it heats,
Bach’s glorious Passacaglia,
fresh mint in my smoothie.
For long long-distance phone calls,
long interlibrary loans,
long BBC programmes,
long tables set with love.
I’m grateful for grandsons, boisterous and brave,
for solo granddaughter’s exuberant cheers,
for garlic in olive oil, for book-lined walls,
for Welsh men’s voices, giving me thrills.
Pumpkin soup, spicy cauliflower,
Billy Collins’ poems, a good red,
Jack Johnson on a Friday night,
and uninterrupted sleep.
Truth, beauty and goodness,
goodness and mercy —
a life bejeweled in mercy.
For bedtime laughter,
down comforters,
freedom from debt.
I praise God for reconciliation,
John Rutter and
friends who want my books.
For the long lens,
Hand-painted cards,
alliteration and articulation.
For the befluttering be-prefix,
Besotted am I—beguiled—,
Bespectacled, bestowed,
Beholden, begladdened,
Beloved.
Extended family, a wedding in Maine, lingering memories.
Gathering from distant corners,
beauty bedecked with generosity.
Reunions:
Finding new friendship with old friends,
Finding old friendship with new friends,
kinship renewed, connections rekindled.
For a sister who suffers
Yet bears it with grace,
choosing silence
When tempted to complain.
Pesto, bubble wrap, a man and guitar on a stage,
Asparagus, steam, good water from the tap.
Sons who move in with their elderly mothers,
Daughters-in-law who joyfully rearrange life.
I’m thankful for the death of death,
for mingled tears, for clean grief.
For new widows who’ve discovered joy (!)
in the suburbs of sorrow.
Asian noodle salad, cilantro, Athanasius.
I will always be grateful for Athanasius.
I give thanks for comfy sweaters, for jeans that fit,
Direct communication and southern windows.
For a working esophagus, for toenails and elbows,
For friends who travel and post pictures,
Different cultures, different customs,
same humanity.
Countless gifts of love.
We are afraid of death. We avoid the dying.
What does one say when the end is imminent?
My husband visited a friend who died within hours of Curt’s time with him..
There was no room for the banal.
Not the time for a false cheeriness.
What did he say?
Find out here.
A Living Pencil 