Hope for a weary world….
Three years ago this month, this child from my parents homeland stole my heart.
Her family lived in the nipa huts of my family’s ancestry
Homes made of woven palm leaves and bamboo poles suspended above the ground
These homes are meant to protect from flooding when the rains come.
These huts could not survive the three typhoons that slammed into the Philippine islands last month. Three typhoons. The virus. Lives devastated.
advent for the empty nester…..
These handcrafted nativity figures used to crown our yearly birthday cake for Jesus I would bake for my four children every Christmas Eve.
The traditions transition as the children get older.
This year, the children are gone.
Three of them are married now.
Celebrations will be scattered across the country, literally from one end to the other, as they foster their own traditions.
This season, like the entire year, will look different.
Restoration Heartware
A heart beats differently
once the nest has emptied
when the center of her life,
for me, four children, empty out one by one.
Scattered to the opposite corners of the country
with two in the middle.
My heart is literally stretched across the map.
The Space In Between
The space in between darkness and dawn…..
the space where the morning star hovers and the sun’s rays have not yet touched the sky.
where the wash of a rising canopy warms the earth.
that is where God restores our stories.
The Best Things in Life are Sweet
The best things in life are sweet.
Freshly baked cinnamon rolls are paired with a cup of local Cutters Point coffee while I watch the seagulls drift by in the morning sun.
It doesn’t get much sweeter than that, does it?
Sea glass: Broken Pieces
My friend told me the story of sea glass: That true sea glass has rounded edges and pieces like bottle tops and bottoms are most rare, as are the colors blue and aqua. And in a piece of true sea glass the original color remains the same, only gilded by a polished coat from the sea .A myth about sea glass Is to return the broken pieces not yet polished back to the sea as you make a wish.
Lantern....
This weekend my youngest son will marry. She is a gift, this answer to the Ephesians 3:20 prayer I have been sending up for my children these past two years. He will marry a beautiful girl whose light shines from her eyes when she tells stories about her second-grade students at the dinner table. When she expresses her concerns about their antics. When she voices she just wants them to be the best person they could be.
