This Land

This photo speaks to me on so many levels. As I think about what September 11th means to us as a nation and to me personally, my mind roams to the beauty of the American people in the days and weeks and months following that awful tragedy. My heart fills with more of the joy of solidarity than with the remembrances of grief. Perhaps I have that luxury because I did not lose anyone close to me on that day. Or perhaps I have that remembrance because we are so often a nation divided, but in the aftermath of that tragedy we were so much more a nation unified...unified in supporting each other and helping each other, and in many ways appreciating each other more.

Perhaps I have the luxury of that sentiment because I am not a Muslim American and did not experience the suspicions and backlash of that day.

Our world is very complex and there is much I cannot fathom.

The photo above is of Montgomery playing in the street at our neighborhood's 4th of July bike parade this summer. At the end of the bike parade, our local fire station opens the hose in a primary neighborhood intersection while the kids dance and play in the spray, and a local church on that corner hands out free red/white/blue ice pops to the crowd. Usually the hose is mounted on top of the fire truck (just out of view on the left of the photo) and sprays in the air at varying intensities, creating showers that sprinkle or drench. The kids love it!

This year, however, something wasn't working properly on the truck's mounted sprayer, so the firefighters took turns on the ground holding the hose for the spray action. This is by far not my best photo of that day, but it is the one that compels me to linger for a moment. When I look at this photo, I almost don't even see Montgomery in the foreground, because the scene in the background always captures me.

For African Americans, fire hoses hold many disparate memories, but often the first one that leaps to mind is negative. The horrible images, and for some, the horrible memories, of fire hoses, created to protect and defend, but so often in the 1950's and 60's used to inflict pain and preserve a way of life that desecrated the ideals of our unique nation, are what instantly leap to mind. As a native of South Carolina, that is often the case for me.

So this photo, of an African American firefighter, holding a hose on (at that particular moment) Caucasian young people, always gives me pause. And then my eyes roam to the other firefighters and the easy camaraderie their body language displays, and the relaxed crowd all around, and the mother squatting in the lower right corner to take a photo of her children...and my daughter Montgomery, happily oblivious to anything but the fun of this particular day. There are no mixed messages in her mind when she turns to see the fire hose. She is living the dream of the dreamer, and doesn't even know it: "I have a dream that one day... little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Of course, one day I will have to show her the photos and footage from the Civil Rights movement, and plant that awful fire hose imagery in her mind. I will have to do this because a people who forget their history are doomed to repeat it, and in my motherly love and protection for her, I never want her to experience a fire hose turned in her direction for anything other than protection...or a little 4th of July fun. I need her, we all need her, as part of our nation's future, to know and remember all aspects of our country's history, both the wonderful and the awful, so that hopefully, we, as a nation, will never be doomed to willfully repeat the awful.

But...

...not that day...

...and not today...

...and not this year.

There will be time enough yet for her to know the uglies of the human heart.

And, so, on this September 11th, I choose the remembrance of the unification of the American people. I choose to see the silver lining. I choose to hear over and over again in my mind the lyrics of Woody Guthrie's old folk song...

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island

From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters

This land was made for you and me.

I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts

While all around me a voice was sounding

This land was made for you and me.

And I choose to delight in a photo that speaks to me something of how far our nation has come. We have much road yet to travel...but we have progressed.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord..." Psalm 33:12a

Much Love. Take Care.

A Beautiful Sight

When you've been without electrical power for nearly 72 hours, the electric company's truck in your alley is a beautiful sight indeed!

After a two-day Hurricane Irene delay, our city schools finally will open tomorrow for this school year. The kids are not particularly excited and have really enjoyed the unexpected extra days of summer vacation...swimming, teepee-building, hide-and-seeking, Monopoly-ing, Bey-Blading, water-hosing, scootering, playgrounding, Manga-reading, scavenger-hunting, and the list goes on...its amazing how creative kids (and their parents) can be when their electronic world comes to a screeching halt. As inconvenient as the ill-effects of Irene have been, they have also served to shine a light on our often too-plug-dependent-Westernized-world way of life. All in all, I realize I am grateful for the pause.

We live in a very neighborly community by any standards, but the past few days have brought about even greater degrees of neighborliness, as we have conversed at length with neighbors we usually only greet briefly, frequented local public places chatting while charging our phones, and wandered our nearby blocks to gape in unified amazement at the huge 100-year-old trees that were ripped up by the roots and crashed to the ground -- outrageously blocking streets and sidewalks but not even grazing houses. We are blessed, no?

The enhanced neighborliness was especially visible in the many orange utility cord lines extended across several streets as neighbors with electricity intact on one side of the street reached out to extend (literally) electrical service to those (like our family) on the other sides of streets whose electrical lines were down. Thanks to a wonderful neighbor on the other side of our block, we even managed to get in a little Disney Channel Mulan movie-watching for Montgomery and a friend today (not to mention salvaged refrigeration!).

So, what are my final reflections tonight? Hmmm...

Many things, indeed, but especially gratitude for human kindness, increased appreciation for our western world modern conveniences like electricity and the appliances it powers, and, mostly, thankfulness for a loving God who knows when we need a pause to better remember the simple joys of living in community...and who makes sure we get it.

Feeling blessed and grateful tonight.

Much Love. Take Care.

A Little Light Humor

I tried (and thought I might have accomplished) posting this late last night via text message from my cell phone. Guess it didn't work out (gotta figure out why), so here I go now, a day late and an electricity supply short, gratefully juiced up on public library wi-fi  ;-) ................

What in the world are these?

And these...

...and these...

They are small children in a house without electricity (still!) playing with glowsticks...just before their mother sends them off to bed.

Our electricity is still out...and the word on the street is to plan for 72 hours. City schools have even been closed for tomorrow because so many people are without electricity due to Hurricane Irene. The kids are happy, but it seems a bit strange to have the first day of a new school year postponed. We'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow holds.

In the meantime...

...it's nice to have angels in golden halos in the house tonight.  ;-)

Take Care. Much Love.

Hurricane

Our power just went out, thanks to lady Irene. Rats...I think.

Quiet, calm, dark...peaceful. Just the sounds of the wind and the rain.

Hmmm...grateful.

Thank you Father for your peace.

Prayers for safety for those on the east coast. Trusting a faithful, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, loving, kind parent, we sleep in peace.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord..." Psalm 33:12a

Take care. Much Love.


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Sunday Evening Snacks

Early morning service at 8:00 a.m.

Hours of "Risk", the board game Josiah fell in love with this past school year during Games Club :~)

Great long-overdue catch-up conversation with Auntie Joanne...
and lots of oogling her new car.

Three hours of SAT Prep Class for Maia.

Lots of hours of college shopping for Job with Craig.

A little reading of The Paper Bag Princess,
a neat zany girl-power book, with Montgomery

..

A couple of joyful kid-soaked, mosquito-laden, sword-fighting, scooter-riding 

hours of fun outside with seven little neighborhood friends...

one dressed like a ballerina-princess, another like a cat.   :o)

A couple more hours of such inside, but with only four friends this time...

and a baby brother and a mom.

One extended over-tired Gommy meltdown.

A little bit of the (non-animated) 101 Dalmations movie.

And finally,

 a big tray of slightly unorthodox Sunday evening snacks

for an impromptu showing of Hoodwinked Too! with favorite next-door buddies.

Thanking God for a full, rich, blessed Sunday.

Much Love. Take Care.

 

 

Beautiful, Beautiful Hydrangeas

These are the flowers gracing my dining table this week. Beautiful late season hydrangeas that are more sagey green than blue. Aren't they glorious!

I used to enjoy the luxury of extravagant hydrangea blossoms overflowing in vases throughout our old home, without even realizing how much of a special treat it was. We had two huge old hydrangea bushes at that house, and they treated us to such a wealth of blossoms!

These hydrangea are cut from the bushes of a neighbor kind enough to let me fill vases as often as I please. So, this season I've enjoyed them in their glorious periwinkle blue-est several times, and now am so delighted to enjoy their sagier late season hues. I'm blessed to have them not just gracing dining tables and nightables inside our home, but also beautifying tables outside on our front porch as well. I'll try to get around to posting those photos also.

Hydrangeas just make me smile...in the summer, that is. In the winter, the poor bushes are so bare and scraggly and bereft I can hardly stand to glance at them. Then again, the huge (and I do mean HUGE) brown spider that crawled from the porch table hydrangea arrangement just after I'd finished handling it nearly made me rethink their benefit to my summer life...

...but then nature's beauty won out. Who can resist the beauty of hydrangea blossoms?

Thanks, Arnice, for the kind, generous sharing of your hydrangea bushes. I am truly grateful.

Next year Craig has promised me bushes of my own...I can't wait.

Take Care. Much Love.

 

Delighted to Have Her Home

Maia returned home this week after more than a month away at two different college summer programs. We were all so glad to have her back, and her siblings rushed her at the door as soon as she and Craig got in from the airport.

The arms you see around Maia's waist are Johngideon's, who is lost somewhere in the middle of the group hug. Wait, here he is...

Her brothers even cheerfully carried her bags upstairs.

It is our comfortable household pandemonium once again. (By the way, Josiah's not injured (thank goodness!)...just having fun with Maia's old crutches.)

It is so good to have everyone home again.   Such a luxury...and I am grateful.

Take care. Much Love.

     

Such Beautiful Skies

Craig and I spent a lot of time this past weekend driving through upstate New York to pick up kids from camps and summer programs. Along the way we saw these most beautiful skies.

They almost didn't seem real.

What a glorious luxury to live with such uncompromised beauty above you. With the mountains ranges all around us, and the air so clear, and the dense and absolutely lush forests at every turn, and the people so straight-forward and sincere, and eventually (when we reached Josiah's camp) the lake so sparkling and expansive, and the breeze so refreshing, I wondered why we aren't all making our way there...to live.

God is truly palpable in this place.

Take Care. Much Love.

Cycles

Nature has its regular cycles and I am recognizing more and more that I have mine too. This end of school year rhythm is chock full and overflowing with activity, from ceremonies and inductions to summer program applications to special field trips to concerts and stage productions to school festivals to open houses to dances and proms and on and on and on...and that's in addition to the regular rhythm of doctors appointments, sports practices, dance classes, swimming lessons, music classes, volunteer activities and the like. My heart starts to palpitate a bit just thinking about it all. My normal boundaries of time and place simply do not seem able to contain it all. Yet, this is the stuff of life, and what a joy and privilege to live it.

I am full to overflowing, or should I say our laptop is, with photographs that chronicle all of these special and wonderful moments of life. How will I ever find the time in this season to share them all? How will I ever find the time to contemplate and reflect on them, to cherish and savor and really emotionally process them? I really don't know. What I do know is that I am grateful and so very blessed. Thank you, Father.

Even now as I think of the thick beauty and rich wonder each day holds, despite its often frenetic activity, I am also sharply aware that many around our world and even more closely, around our nation, live in fear. Fear of rising flood waters from unbound loved rivers and what that means to their home-spaces and community places and family futures, fear of terrorist and ethnic violence and just plain agonizing war misery, that never seems to have an end. Fear of debilitating lack, fear of uncontrollable storms, fear of staggering loss and fear of inevitable change. I ache for those who ache in fear. I wonder why I am privileged to live in relative security. I wonder why I have been granted space to live free from oppressive, daily, tangible fear.

Sometimes I long to see Jesus return with His peace and His ultimate end to fear...yet...not yet...not just yet. So many still need to know Him. So many ache to love Him, not even knowing that their ache and gaping gashes of suffering have remedy and balm. So, not yet, please Lord, not quite yet.

Meanwhile, I love and soothe, I work and press, I pray and live. And sometimes the cycles of my life roll through these rushed and hurried and filled to the over-brim places, and sometimes they meander through quieter, contemplative, reflective, watchful spaces. Balance often seems unattainable, yet perhaps the balance of the rhythm of the whole thread of life in its entirety is indeed balanced? I'm not sure. It probably doesn't matter. What matters is that we live, grateful for life, that we love, grateful for love, that we worship, grateful for the one we worship, and that we share, grateful to have the something...and the someone...to share.

Love Much. Care.

  

I Know My Redeemer Lives!

...and He loves me!

and...He loves you!

There's a song I sang in church growing up in South Carolina and the refrain went: "Look to Jesus, look to Jesus, look to Jesus now and live!"

Hebrews 12:2 reads..."Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

 King James Version (KJV)

What was His joy? Eternal relationship with us was His joy. You are His joy! I am His joy! We are His joy!

The Amplified Bible (AMP) puts it this way..."Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.^(A") 

How amazing to be the joy of Jesus.  Look to Jesus now and live!

I know my Redeemer lives!!  How awesome.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Much Love! So Much Love!

A HodgePodge Kind of Day

Today was a little bit of everything...for everyone.

Maia didn't teach dance this morning, but instead got up early, ate a hearty breakfast (vegetarian...yes, she's still going strong)...

and hobbled off to take the SAT for the first time.

She and Job had spent some time working on test taking tips the night before, since he's pretty fresh from that experience, and she'd also done several rounds of practice tests with Craig throughout the week. When Craig picked her up later, she said she felt really good about the experience...so, we'll now just have to wait and see...agonizing.

Josiah went to his morning music lessons and Johngideon headed off to his awesome art class. (Look at the photos Craig took of what he did today - I'm not sure how the little man gets in and out - I'll have to ask JG for an explanation.)

I ran Gommy over to her "dancie-girl class" then hustled back to make Josiah's spring trombone recital at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

He did great, but I must admit I am usually holding my breath until he's finished, because although this child is musically gifted, he does not particularly care for the whole practice bit. So even though I'd heard him practicing for this recital lately, I wasn't sure it was enough...but it was...his sound was so smooth and mellow...just beautiful to listen to.

Both his BSA TWIGS trombone instructor, Milton Aldana, and his school band teacher, Danni Schmitt, were present, and it was great to get a shot of Josie with both of these wonderful music educators who have taught him so much.

Right after the recital, I ran back to grab Gommy from dance class, where she was in great spirits, while Craig picked up Maia from the SAT site, and then took Josie to his lacrosse practice.

I spent some relaxing time on the couch (with the sun streaming in on me through the deck doors...I absolutely love the greenhouse effect!) with Maia, watching the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables (which was wonderful). Maia is still on crutches (this is like week nine), but we think we see light at the end of the tunnel, with a new foot and ankle specialist, who has prescribed additional Calcium, Vitamin D and chamomile...and, an interesting little device we'd never heard of called a bone stimulator, which is proven to help broken bones heal up to 68 days quicker.

So Maia pleasantly pulls it out twice a day and spends the 20 minutes necessary to stimulate her bones to draw more of the necessary healing internals to her foot area to help along the bone building and mending. She has been a real trouper throughout this ordeal, and somehow manages to keep her spirits up even as her movement is so limited.

The Gommy girl finally convinced me to head outside with her, and I peaked into the guest bedroom on my way to find shoes and found Job and Johngideon engaged in a brotherly instructional chess game.

Gommy was wearing one of her delightful clothing ensembles that only real "princesses" can put together, and spent time on the swings, and practicing running up the slide (something she learned how to do very recently after much effort), and then scootering on the sidewalk.

In the brisk fresh air, I felt motivated to clean out the garden bed of the daylillies...who are beginning to make their annual appearance!

Can't wait! And, I even was motivated to clear out the petunias' strip of earth by the sidewalk. Maia came outside and encouraged Gommy to hopscotch, and insisted on joining her (on crutches!), Craig arrived home with take-out dinner and groceries, and after the boys all trouped out to help carry them in, they all returned outside to just enjoy the cool-but-pleasant-near-dusk air. Craig pulled out the leaf-blower (he calls my hand rake archaic.  :-)  So the boys scootered, and rode bikes, and chased each other with lacrosse sticks, while Maia watched from the porch steps and I suddenly realized that we were all home together on a Saturday evening...and it felt great!

When it got too dark to see, we all headed inside for clean-ups and "Chinese chicken" and tofu and vegetables, and watched Disney movies and sports and it was wonderful to have everyone under one roof.

And then Job left to go celebrate a friend's birthday, and Maia lay down for a "nap" (she's still "napping" ;o)  and the kiddies eventually went up to bed. And all is well. And I am grateful for the simple joys of home.

Take Care. Much Love.

Missing Journey

Today I saw the most beautiful sunset. The clouds and sky looked like the ocean. The colors were so exquisite. It was almost painfully beautiful. It was as if God had painted it just to create breathtaking beauty. Just to make our hearts stop for a moment. Just to give us a reason to pause and to contemplate the beauty and the wonder of life. I wondered if this was the beauty seen all around you in heaven.

It caught me by surprise as I was driving west. I didn't have my camera and couldn't take a picture to be able to keep it, to hold on to it and see it forever. I drank the moment in and it nourished my soul, and then the road curved and that bit of splendor was gone and I had to look in my rearview mirror to catch the last glimpses. Now that small handful of beautiful wonder lives forever in my memory.

Tonight we are missing Journey.

Much love. Much love.

                                       

Gratefulness

Tonight I am grateful for...

the absolutely breathtaking beauty of nature,
a God who is faithful,

good food, a warm house and a safe neighborhood,

good warm safe schools,

reliable transportation and a washer and dryer,

a loving healing nurturing serving church,

an expanding community of caring women friends,

family who choose to love us from near and afar,

friends-like-family who choose to journey close with us,

a loving husband who's like sunshine,

seventeen year olds who do their own laundry,
brave young hearts who do their own things -
who're not afraid to love God and His people,

snugly, sleepy small children,

the heart joy of everyone under one roof,

seventy or so minutes alone in a quiet house,

the peace of the presence of God,
the promise the future holds.

Much love. Much love.