Goatsbeard and Peony
When I look at this little bouquet, I remember that simple combinations of a few items create lovely results. Recently, a friend helped me clear more surfaces in my home and display just a few items (rather than ten). I remember sparse decorating ushers in elegance. In past years, I would have stuffed fifteen peony blooms into this […]
Inconvenient Beauty
Today my friend invites me to observe the robin’s nest on her back porch. It’s a funny story: she leaves the porch screen door open, and in the time that it stayed propped open, a brazen bird builds a nest in that space. So there’s an enormously inconvenient nest between her door and her screen […]
The Ballistic Ball Bounce that Baffles Even the Best
Every year, I volunteer to help with Field Day at the elementary school. I’m always assigned the activity that requires the least athleticism on my part (the P.E. teacher knows me well, bless her heart). I watch all the other amazing events going around me with all their fancy equipment. Me? I stand on the […]
So You Can See
My enormous Winterberry (there’s still debate about what kind of bush it is) overtakes the back porch. My husband announces that he’s going to “cut it all back.” It’s an overflowing mass of greenery that looks like it’s taking down the house. For hours, he chops away at those precious branches until a stack of […]
Garden Scene
6 Times Repeated: God Keeps You
I’m reading Psalm 121, and I see the same verb six times. It’s shamar in Hebrew; this verb means to keep, guard, protect, and watch carefully. If you remember this beautiful psalm, it reads like this: I life up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?My help comes from the Lord,who made heaven and […]
Not Imagining They Feel What You Feel
Whenever I’m in social settings with my daughters, I try to connect them with everyone, set up groups, and engage these friends in lively conversation. This, of course, would delight and energize me, but it’s stressful and overwhelming for my more introverted family. So I’ve learned to remember that they do not experience what I […]
I Forget Until Someone Asks Me
Yesterday, a new friend who teaches high school English asks for my opinion on what I wish incoming college freshmen knew better. I recently complained–like I do every May–that teaching wears me down, that maybe I’ll retire, that I’ve lost my love of it. And then someone asks me about teaching, and I start clapping […]
New Pace
With the pool opening today, I find myself gathering books to read. The children don’t need me in the pool with them. They don’t want me in the pool with them. But they do wish for me to be generally around, just available with snacks and emergency repair of broken goggles. They insist I stay […]
Disappointment, Then Searching
We peer in upon the Chipping Sparrow nest on the walk to school only to find it emptied of eggs. Some predator! Some storm! We’re so sad and disappointed. But we know that the Chipping Sparrow will build another nest in another place. By late afternoon, I’m burrowed inside the Weeping Cherry or elbow deep in […]