point of view

like the moment during takeoff just before your ears pop the pressure of the quiet gets to me stillness is a song but silence is a tense hum waiting perhaps it's a struggle to catch up, to get ahead of the tick of the clock so that there's time to hear the music to pause, to observe the symphony between the lines to create the music that's already around there are riches in the drumming rain the pulsating surf the teeming streets riches waiting to be spoken but first, someone needs to pause and listen

Today, I thank You for A home that was always open How many birthdays I heard the story of my birth again, how she became a mom for the first time, how she saw her own face when she looked at mine The pushing, prying, once in a while tears because she wanted to know how I was doing Pizza and ice cream in the freezer and the knowledge that we could invite first and inform her second For the big dreams and enthusiasm for our futures That she prays for us. For the tea, always tea The orchids in the window, pansies in the garden peace that was always at Oma's place Always the listening and the special treatment like she was so honored that you were there. The recurrent gathering again, how she is a magnet in the drawing together of our family All the hearts that have been under that roof The foster kids who still send a note every now and then For the niece who is mine in a small way For those who let me hold their babies and rejoice with them For all the kids who...

wild rose in the churchyard watermelon, salty sandy sunscreen engine oil dandelion-rid soil dark roast coffee and open-window green grass clippings imagesource

Good Friday is my favorite holiday although sometimes I'd rather pass over the darkness quickly look to the Sunday sunrise but you've got to sit in the horror of it a little while make your home beneath the Cross and you'll see how He was torn the slow suffocation the life-blood that seeps away, congealed and continual how His loved ones must have prayed for death to hurry what agony to see Him suffer, exposed and shamed, for hours on end but they didn't even know the half of it all hell's darkest powers many eternity's worth of torture, concentrated into this slim span of time creation strains under the weight of this confusion something is terribly, terribly wrong the sun knows it, and dares not look on the horrible sight the earth shudders violently in fear the agonizing shriek rings out Forsaken and yet, He has asked for the bitter wine and vinegar He is willing to drink down the dregs of His Father's wrath The crumbs of His br...

I didn't categorize this as poetry because it's too long, and if it was a poem I would try to have some sort of understandable progression of thought instead of popping along from one thing to another.  In short, I don't really know what this is :) Today the sun warms the chilled February birdsong, yesterday the fog drifted sleepily I'm having trouble keeping up with this steady passing of time life continually slipping on past the days a blurring of the calendar,  trying for more sleep, more food, to remember my weakness but it would be much handier to be invincible, to have enough time to plan and dream and learn the nights are too short but my dreams are flashbacks moments and faces I've treasured and sometimes forgotten it's a strange place to be. Oh Love, that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee Odd, bumping into that loneliness whenever I turn but I have so so many to love so many to cry for and this ...

...yup I am that type.  I like that our family has random traditions like having an appetizer/finger food dinner while we open gifts, I like that my home church keeps the Dutch tradition of singing "Glory to God" after the annual Christmas program (we don't sing it in Dutch though, we're good Canadians that way) ...I have my own silly tradition of putting up a "tree" that consists of a couple fake branches in a vase and always has to be topped with a bow, rather than a star...  I guess it's the remembering part that I like about traditions.  I had a hard time remembering what I did last year for New Year's, but when we keep up our little traditions they bring back memories for me.  The tradition of choosing a word for the year helps me to remember in a different way. I guess it's a moment of looking back and looking for some particular way the Lord has led me and is teaching me.  Click on the "one word" label at the bottom of this post ...