It’s the heart
Jeff and Matt in Central Park, Manhattan, 2007
“It is not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us fathers and sons.” -Friedrich von Schiller
No matter what cares may be weighing on you today, make time to enjoy the people you love. Life is short. Spend it well.
The true measure of our thanksgiving
Union Square, San Francisco, 2002
“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” —W.T. Purkiser
Black Friday has become almost as much an American tradition as Thanksgiving itself. Yet our shopping on this day is not always a selfish pursuit. Many of us are seeking gifts for people we love, hoping for bargains that will stretch our dollars. Although the crowds can get nasty at times, my experiences on this day have been mostly positive, with patience and good cheer on display to offset the irritability that often crops up. I find it amusing and festive to see people lined up outside stores several hours before dawn, almost as if the world was having a big slumber party to which everyone was invited.
It’s important, though, to remember that gifts are only one way to share our blessings and show our love for others. However you choose to spend this day, here’s hoping that it will find you enjoying life with a thankful heart.
Unlock the fullness of life
Our Thanksgiving centerpiece, 2009
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” –Melody Beattie
Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful for each and every person who visits us here. I wish you all a year full of bounty and blessing.
Unknown blessings
Pasha dreams the impossible dream, Thanksgiving 2004
“Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.” — Native American Saying
I wish I could always have as much hope as our dog has when he smells food being prepared. Although he’s an expert beggar, he is successful relatively rarely because we watch his diet carefully. Still, he never stops trying, and alway seems grateful for whatever is tossed his way. May we all live in the hope of unexpected graces and future gifts we cannot yet imagine.
An untroubled spirit
Jeff at Natural Bridge Virginia, 2005
“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.” —Marcus Aurelius
I’ve always admired my husband’s stoic nature, even as I get frustrated and impatient when he seems unable to share my highs and lows. In the face of his catastrophic illness, with wave upon wave of bad news overtaking us, that quality takes on huge dimensions and increases my admiration exponentially. It provides a stark context for the deep faith that has always been the foundation of his life. May we all have access to such a firm foundation when the storms of life pound away at us.
Pleasure in the pathless woods
Our yard and lot in Yorktown, somewhere around 2007
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more…” —Lord Byron
There’s something very calming about nature that neutralizes the toxic overload of a cold-hearted, techno-crazy world. I love the serenity of the mountains, the hypnotic motion of the sea, the dazzling colors of a flower garden. But just as well, or even more, I love my own backyard and the wooded lot we own behind it. I cannot go back there even briefly without feeling closer to God, as if He is telling me “I am still here, with you.”
If only we tune in
Taken near Cooperstown, New York, June 2009
I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which
God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. –George Washington Carver
How can we make the time to “tune in” today and experience God’s love through creation?
Can we really afford NOT to?
Even in darkness
The moon over San Francisco, as seen from Fort Point, February 2004
Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.” Psalm 112:4
This photo is posted in gratitude for the ongoing prayers of so many who are following this blog, and in tribute to my beloved husband who is facing grave illness with faith, courage and strength.
Beyond all reason
The view from my parents’ room at the Banff Springs Hotel, 1999
“God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.” – Dag Hammarskjold
Something in the autumn
Our Yorktown, Virginia neighborhood, November 2008
There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood —
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time. — Bliss Carman
Autumn reminds us of the brevity of life as the lush blossoms of summer fade and die away, replaced by the dazzling final act of foliage that will soon be gone. The coming onset of winter can be depressing, yet somehow fall retains a unique splendor that makes it the favorite season for many of us. That first snap of chill in the air after the summer heat breaks, followed by the excitement of the harvest holidays and winter merriment, help to take the sting out of the months of cold that will follow.
Little advantages
London street scene, 2005
“Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.” — Benjamin Franklin
Just as it’s often the minor irritations that distract us and wear us down, so too the power of small blessings can transform our lives. The trick is becoming aware of them. Sunny weather, fragrant blooms, a cup of hot tea on a chilly morning, the delicious smell of food when we’re hungry…what little advantages are brightening your day today?
Promises to keep and miles to go
Muir Woods, Marin County, CA 2003
And miles to go before I sleep…” — Robert Frost
It’s tempting to be drawn into our own ruminations. Trouble can be an isolating experience, and solitude is a seductive force, both healing and dangerous. If we withdraw too long or too often from others, we neglect our responsibility to ourselves as well as to them. Most of us really do have promises to keep and miles to go, no matter how exhausted or discouraged we become.
How can we find the balance between contemplative, wholesome solitude and the daily activities that maintain the connections to others that are so vital to our existence? How can we discern whether a suffering person needs our company, our words or our silence? What are some ways we can be open to the help that others can provide?
How the light gets in
The Statue of Liberty as seen from the Staten Island Ferry, 2007
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in. — Leonard Cohen
If you can…
This is our older son, Drew, at Bodega Bay, CA, around 2002.
Lines from one of my favorite poems, If by Rudyard Kipling:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools…
An Invincible Summer
“In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.”
— Albert Camus
I took this photo in the garden at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, somewhere around 2003.
Defeat Despair 