Westwoods

  The week between Christmas and the New Year is one of my favorite...maybe I like it even more than Christmas. I love the cleaning up, evaluating, and closure of one year's accumulation.  I don't feel bad if I don't reach all my goals. This year I wanted to read at least 23 books in honor of 2023. I felt that should be fairly attainable since I would call myself an avid reader. However, I did not read that many books. Camper living while building a house is a lot harder than it looks. And I had a very nice "wait and see" garden to keep up with as well. But I am happy to say I still read 13 or 14 books plus my Bible quite faithfully. So that is better than not having made a goal and tried at all. Right? I put away Christmas on the 26th. By that, I mean, the decor. The pine and ribbons and tree. All gone. Put away. And the feeling of light and air and freshness inspires me greatly. I see surfaces again. My house plants take back their place in the living room under...

  I learned that a month goes by very slowly when one is challenging herself to write everyday. Also, I learned that a month goes by very quickly when you are noticing moments and thinking about what you will write next. I found that I didn't always know what was going to come out of my pen. And I was surprised by what did somedays. The uncovering of ones soul is refreshing and embarrassing at the same time. I realized I have a very good life and that I like it very much. I am deeply grateful for ordinary and boring moments. God's grace is abundant in my weakness. That makes living so very good. My dog teaches me lessons about my relationship with God. I'm not a dog person naturally but am morphing into one. For sure. I promise you however, I am not one of those people that tolerates dogs better than babies on an airplane. I will never forget flying with babies and being given the dirty eyeball, whilst the dog owner was doted on. I digress. I saw more what I value and also ...

  Sunday morning stillness... I stagger through the coffee making and water drinking, throw on a few dim lights, round up the lighter, my Bible, journal, and pens. In the living room, I light the tapers that came in the mail yesterday. They are beautiful in the dark morning, dripless as advertised. The deer arrived a couple days ago. One arrived without antlers. I'm too lazy to send it back or re-glue it, so maybe I will paint over the nubs where the antlers broke off. The coffee is good, warm, satisfying as I go over the Sunday School lesson and write down a few thoughts. I face a few difficult thoughts and bring praise to it, whisper the Lord's prayer over it. Thy kingdom Lord, in this... I can't change anything but God can and does...and for this I give Him praise. Coffee is gone. I get up and wake up the house, put the casserole in the oven, ready for church. It's a relaxed morning, there is time for a little jaunt in the woods for a few more twigs of greenery I pla...

  The giving of thanks. Can you imagine if it was the taking of thanks instead? Although, after the turkey dinner and pumpkin pie some might feel they have taken more than they should have. Not to take away from your cozy traditional thanksgiving bloom. Not at all. But rather, an inspiration to be a thanks giver to God Almighty for all He brings and allows as your daily bread. Or turkey. Or pumpkin pie. You can be a thanks taker too, but the attitude is more like this: I deserve this good thing of which I am thankful...I had this coming to me...I worked hard for this so now I am thankful. Thankful to who? Yourself? Anyway, around your thanksgiving table today, be humble, be kind, and listen to others. Let that be your giving of thanks. Taking is the habits of interrupting, speaking loudest and longest. Also eating too much pie and mashed potatoes. There will be more next year. Whereas next year, you never know what loved one may or may not be with us.

  I had a busy week, doing what? I don't even remember all of it. It flew. But one highlight that sticks out, is the randomness of my children's appearances. Now that they are all mostly gone out into the big, big world; it feels like a celebration when they are home. Shaunti works here locally, at The Animal Doctor. She is preparing for Bible School and dating a very nice young man. She still lives at home with us but our dwelling is more a bed and breakfast than a place where she lives. She is that busy. Toria moved out ages ago. I should be used to it, having her gone. But it still feels funny. Sometimes I feel like I can't fully breathe till she walks in the door. It's as if I have been holding my breath since the last time she was home. This is all subconscious thinking of course. Anyway. She pops in every now and then for the evening and stays the night. I am filled with great comfort.  One day this week, Laife resurfaced after much time passing (I don't remem...

  I do love Mondays. Something about a fresh week, makes it feel like a "Do Over" in school days. It was admitting defeat to get a do over in school, but it was also a second chance to learn the material. And hope for a better grade. I don't get graded for what I do these days, at least by other people. But Mondays are kinda like grace. I get to try again. Try again to figure out a schedule/routine that works for our new season of living...Try again to remember to take my vitamins and drink my water and eat more healthily... less on the run. Try again to love my people better. To be more patient and go to another room when someone chews chips or other foods loudly, like my good friend Luci, mentioned on her blog over at  three green doors .  Try again to praise better, more quickly, both people and God. To set my mind on things above not on things of the earth...to leave the scene of drama and the corners of secretive whispering...don't care to know insinuations or di...

  Around four in the afternoon, I get restless and NEED to go outside and walk around. Usually, I meander out to the mailbox and then on my way back, get distracted looking at moss, sticks, rocks, and whatever captures my attention in the woods. Funny how at my age those are the things that I notice just as I did when I was five or six. I get the same satisfied, completed feeling from examining them. Now I add on a little more worship to our Creator God for making the earth and all that grows. Probably because I need that grounding more than I did as an innocent child. Going out and walking in the woods keeps my soul steady. Those big trees, that boulder that doesn't budge, the plush green mosses like carpet...How can you not forget life's worrisome cares after being in the presence of that Abundant Life?