in the neighborhood...

The entrance is quiet.
The tree is bare... instead of, well, bear.
Yes, there was a little excitement in our quiet little neighborhood yesterday.

not my photo: : a friend of my husband's took this

Eric sent me a text while I was at work, and I hoped and hoped and hoped that the bear might still be up in the tree when I got home. I've never seen a bear out of the zoo before!  I drove in, and there he was... still curled up in the branches of the tree-top. Like everyone else, we wanted to gawk...

uh, yes... the blurry picture IS mine! (along with the rest of them)

 Between the time we drove by and then walked up to our entrance, that bear had climbed down, wanting to go on across the street to his woodsy home. The deputies and FWC (fish & wildlife conservation) had traffic stopped, and they had a plan to get "Jim" across the street... but as more people gathered and cars backed up, he was scared back into the tree.  At last one of the deputies made the plea for everyone to please head on home...

It was more excitement than we've had for a while {only our neighorhood-wide garage sale draws more cars!} and it was fun until we were shuffled along.  The added bonus was this... a beautiful view of the moon.

{do you think this is a blue corn moon?}

when progress hurts

Some days I feel like Pocohontas... {even though I am not related to her, like some people I know.}
When your morning ride goes from this...

to this...



I want to wrap every tree in yellow ribbon and sing at the top of my lungs...

You think you own whatever land you land on {ok, they probably DO...}

The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon 

We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

(from Disney's Pocohontas)

It just makes me sad... especially when I see an osprey sitting atop a telephone pole surveying the destruction... and maybe even more so when I drive back home and see that the osprey has now reconstructed a nest on that same pole.  And it reminds me... of some very special trees that were cut down on our old preschool playground, and the tears that welcomed me at pick-up time. Of all the things my girl has ever forgotten, Laura has never, ever forgotten that day...

{see Suz? I do have a tint of green in this dessert-loving heart!}

florida snow day

We sit inside, watching Isaac swirl though... school is cancelled, and nothing makes me happier. I think most of the big stuff went through while we were sleeping, and now it is just the rain bands.  The sun will start to shine and then I hear the strong woosh of wind and the pounding of rain. It is a good day to be home. And even though I had decided it was a jammies day for me, someone said yoga pants were way cooler, as long as you weren't actually going to do yoga. But then... as long as I was dressed, we decided on an excursion to see the surf...

And when we were safely home once again, I coerced him into playing board games with me. 

All in all, it was a lovely day... the only kind of snow day we ever get.

in the storm

The wind whistles and the trees bow to its song.
The rain collects in a rushing stream, gathering little bits of earth along the way.
And I sit home, warm. Wrapped in light. Safe.
Life goes on within these walls. Washer spinning, dryer fluffing...

I am thankful and disappointed all at once. I love a storm. A storm that calls for board games and gathering close...junk food your only option. Maybe the storm wasn't what I expected... but here we sit, enjoying a Florida snow day, with little breaks of sunshine...

more than enough

I love to celebrate the little things...
Silly holidays. Firsts. Sunrise & sunset.
And the small moments that make life beautiful.
They define a part of my heart that makes me me.
They fill the space between the big celebrations, and somehow, make them brighter.

This weekend we were {almost} all together to celebrate sixty. Once upon a time, I thought that sixty was old... and I think that maybe she did too. But now that she is there, she is giddy-happy, wrapping her arms around me and proclaiming I love being sixty! before I was hardly in the door! She is anything but old. She is the Gramma we all hope to be...

Fun laced every part of the day... kayaking, swimming, visiting, dinner and birthday dessert. Sometimes I just have to shake my head and laugh at her... especially when she cannot get enough of her birthday Flubber. And among the cascades of laughter, there was a happy tear or two as she shared that Grampa said she should book another trip to Africa. My eyes filled because I know... I know that Africa calls to her heart, just waiting for her to return to its beauty.
.

Later in the day, we all squeezed in around the blazing candles to sing and bear witness to wish making. And along with the love and laughter, there was more than enough dessert. Cake and ice cream sundaes... oh yes, we know how to celebrate!

It was a beautiful day from start to finish. Celebrating her sixty years was pure joy. There may be a lot of life behind her, but when I look into her eyes I can tell, she has so much more living to do. More adventure to seek. And I truly believe what lies before her is pure joy!

wordless wednesday: riding along

My Mom celebrated her birthday over the weekend... and part of the fun was some kayaking. My sweet niece Chelsea thought Gramma should pull us for a while...

and summer ends...

School has begun.
Sunday, and even Monday I knew that I wasn't quite ready. And now on the dawn of Tuesday, I'd give anything for another month or so of summer! Sunday I would have said that Camden is really not ready... but thankfully, he has jumped right back in.  All told, it was minimal preparation this year. Maybe we spent  two hours of preparation... and that would include my incessant checking in on a summer assignment... how much of the book have you read now? And finding these...in size 12.

Yesterday we headed out early to school... long before the light. I may have been exhausted, but he was set to go. And when it was time to pick him up he met us with a smile and endless chatter. It was a good day. Friends in most of his classes, familiar teacher faces, and a table full of friends at lunchtime. He even spotted an old friend and invited her over to eat with him...

During dinner, the phone rang... and it was passed to me. A friend's voice full of praise and thankfulness. That invitation to lunch from Cam? It made a mother's day. She was hardly breathing as her daughter headed off to high school yesterday... and when she got a text at lunchtime that said I'm sitting with Cam, she could breathe a little easier. Her breathing made me teary... and reminds me how much difference it makes to not just think a compliment, but to say it outloud.

just us... still

I wore these then...

and couldn't help but recall the moments as I spritzed lily of the valley and fastened the tiny gold clasp last night. The dress was black instead of white... because black is slimming. But beyond the need for slimming, there is so much more to me now than there was then, and the layers, while tattered and scuffed and mended, are beautiful... motherhood, bravery, faith, knowledge and capability. I have grown in a thousand ways... stepping forward, seeking love and life, and finding it in his eyes. Always.

I could never have imagined this journey... and in that, I offer thanks. If I had even a small inkling, I might not have felt I was enough to travel it, might not have believed our relationship could stretch to fit all of the joy and the sorrow... and the dreams, broken and new. But never have I doubted the road... the faith that God made us to share it together has brought us through it all. Sweet babies and sleepless nights, scary diagnosis and surgeries, laughter and tears, swing-sets and graduations, Africa and home.

Today begins a new year of the life we love and share... one where I have been married to him longer than I haven't been...

wordless wednesday...today

i'm not quite sure how this can be...

what is real...

Some things are tangible... real beneath our hand.
A quilted blanked that has stood the test of time. Her face still fits in the palm of my hand. His laughter shakes the sofa. The dinner he prepared steams in front of me and tastes divine.
But some things are too far to reach, and doubt can slip into the space.
A friendship across the miles. The dreams I dream.

But His glory... it is real. And once in a while He paints a picture and lets His love for us reach right through it. And I can feel it, heart and soul.

all in a weekend

Our life spins in a two week cycle... and every other weekend we have him all to ourselves.   I often waste away the weekends he is working, as if the three lovely days barely exist... watching the clock until he walks in the door, and hoping he has some small bit of energy left for fun. But on our weekends, we work around the have-tos and try to carve out time for an outing. And sometimes, we abandon the have-tos all together and just create a weekend of adventure. 

We took the long road that stretches across our state... and added in the adventure of Camden behind the wheel. I am amazed at how well he drives and I am chalking it up to "boy." He turned the wheel over to Eric though, to navigate the city streets and find our destination...

We had to brave a huge storm to get home in time for our double date... and enjoyed the night out. Sitting in an English Pub, watching the Olympics over fish & chips seemed just right.

And as if we hadn't packed enough fun into the weekend, we decided to throw in a movie yesterday after church. I started to feel guilty about the extravagance of the weekend, but decided instead to be thankful for the time together. School is just around the bend, and with it comes marching season and Boy Scout camping and real life that holds us back from adventure, even on our weekends.

So it was a large popcorn and dancing on the big screen for us... and there may have been some cheering, too, as the four of us became totally immersed in Step Up. 

quick feet, still soul

My feet are keeping a moderate pace while my heart races. My breathing is ragged, but not wheezing. And while my arms swing, keeping time, my soul is somehow as still as it has been in weeks. The shuffle of songs pouring through my body wash my heart from the grime and worry of the world... and keep peace.

i made you promises a thousand times, i tried to hear from heaven but talked the whole time.

 i think i made you too small.  are You fire? are You fury? are You sacred? are You beautiful?

what do i know? what do i know of holy?

draw me close to You, never let me go
You are my desire, no one else will do...cause nothing else can take Your place...

what if Your blessings come through raindrops, what if Your healing comes through tears?

what if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life,

is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy?
and what if trials of this life...the rain, the storms, the hardest nights...

are Your mercies in disguise?

there could never be a more beautiful you

oh, how He loves us so...

And with my ever so still soul, it was as if I could feel Him reaching down, wiping my salty tears away.

lyrics...addison road, kathy troccoli, laura story, jonny diaz, david crowder band  thank you for your beautiful inspiration