Gaining a heart of wisdom
Very often, when picking beans or tomatoes in the garden, I work alongside the neighborhood honey bees. They're busy ransacking the blossoms and thinking about a honey supply for the long Maine winter ahead of us. At the same time, I'm picturing shiny and colorful jars of beans and spaghetti sauce to store on my… Continue reading What Kind of Fear is Pleasing to God?
Every spring, property owners here in Maine cede our rights over to the blackfly population. With their serrated jaws and overwhelming numbers, they swarm by the hundreds, drawn by breath and body heat. I've seen them drive even the most determined souls back into the safety of home. When my four sons were all small… Continue reading Rest for the Weary and Hope for a New Season
Every year in late spring, we till up an admirable crop of rocks as we prepare the garden soil for planting. Some years I have been diligent about collecting them. Other years . . . not so much. Regardless, there always seems to be a plentiful supply, and after twenty plus years of gardening in… Continue reading There’s a Big Purpose Behind Every Small, Unseen Task
My joyful sunflowers have bowed their heads in the garden, waiting for the long winter to begin, but I have picked my last tomatoes and green beans, dug up the beets with my grandkids, and all the pumpkins and squash can sit on the deck for a bit longer while we wait for the first… Continue reading The October Book Talk Where We Are Celebrating Abundance!
Sunday Scripture Labor Day weekend signals a winding down of summer, and this will likely go down in my own personal history as "The Summer of the Empty Nest." This stay-at-home mum has had all she could do this summer to simply stay at home, and while I've struggled to keep up with all the… Continue reading Sing a Summer Song of Praise for the Miracle of Beauty
I remember weeding our very first garden with white knuckles, in a cold sweat. All the sprouting vegetables in our tiny plot looked sort of alike to me. The weeds were just as green and leafy as the seedlings we'd planted, so I proceeded with great caution. Too afraid to be ruthless, I left behind… Continue reading When You Know What’s Important, You Find the Courage to Be Ruthless
Sunday Scripture Every Sunday morning I hunker down at a low table with the four and five year olds at my church. Everyone wants a blue chair, and there's almost always a tussle about something, but eventually, we put the attendance stickers on the bulletin board and settle down to business. There are crayons and… Continue reading The Purposes of God Fulfilled in the Blue Chairs
What verbs have defined your days of autumn in 2019? There's always something happening in this busy life under the sun, even if it's only talking or thinking--a couple of seriously under-rated verbs, in my opinion. Here at the end of November, I'm looking forward to celebrating around gratitude and pumpkin pie while taking one… Continue reading Concerning the Times and the Seasons: Autumn 2019
There are no minutes in the garden-- Only rows, A measure not of time, but of task. In the first garden, Adam was given the task of naming: Zebra and musk ox; Cheetah and gerbil. He punched no clock, but poured out creativity, fulfilling his role. Eve may have pruned apple trees for optimal fruition,… Continue reading The Work of the Garden
The garden is running late this year. Cold nights (making for cold soil) have resulted in pea plants that sprouted on schedule, grew to a fixed point, and then sputtered and stalled out, stunted. The prophet Isaiah had things to say about who is in charge of growth, both in the garden and in the… Continue reading The Quiet Miracle of Roots and Leaves
Living Our Days 