Turning Seven

"The boys crowded into the kitchen, where they made a wonderful mess as they creamed the sugar into the butter, pounding fiercely with wooden spoons until they had achieved a perfectly smooth emulsion. They each broke one egg into a bowl, stirring with such vigor I was glad I hadn't given them a bowl made of glass. They measured flour and baking soda with enormous concentration, and buttered the pan so carefully that not a millimeter remained bare. Then they dusted it with clouds of flour. As I surveyed my ruined kitchen, it occurred to me that life really couldn't get any better than this." -froom Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires 

Russell chose carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, which he didn't eat.

Elliot chose chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream, which Russell did eat.

Happy Seventh Birthday to the Sons of Thunder!

Lovely to be Thy guest

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is...because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee...because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice. 

- from Psalm 63

There is a stillness enveloping this day. Inside I hear the rhythmic patter of feet running up and down the stairs, the flip of a light switch off and on; laughter pure and without reservation. I am roused from my drowsiness by a bird chattering her laud outside the kitchen window; the cicadas relentless in their droning song; the leaves gently fanning away the heat of the day; the slight ripple of water in the birdbath.

All of creation praises You but I do not.

What was I created for? To feed these children? To wash these dishes? To create a home? To hold a hand? To empty myself and embrace each person surrounding me, my sacred trust?

I am small, insignificant but the Lord is at my side.

I am here. "Be still. Listen," Christ seems to whisper. "You are not alone." 

The morning light flickers on the faces of the saints all around me and beckons me to remember. To remember that I am a part of a greater whole; a living thread in this crushingly beautiful tapestry of all creation, the Body of Christ.

Glory to Thee, O God, for the Feast Day of Life.

Cleaning up my kitchen today and found these thoughts from nearly a year ago scrawled on a piece of paper. The title and quotes were taken from my favorite akathist, http://www.saintjonah.org/services/thanksgiving.htm

A parent's prayer

Love begins at home, love lives in homes, and that is why there is so much suffering 
and so much unhappiness in the world today. If we listen to Jesus, He will tell us what He said before: 'Love one another, as I have loved you.' He  has loved us through suffering, dying on the Cross for us, and so if we are to love one another, if we are to bring that love into life again, 
we have to begin at home.
-Mother Teresa

O Heavenly Father, make me a better parent. 

Teach me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say, 

and to answer all their questions kindly. Keep me from interrupting them 

or contradicting them. Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me.

Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame or ridicule 

when they displease me. May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction 

or to show my power. Let me not tempt my children to lie or steal. And guide me

 hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all that I say and do that honesty produces happiness.

When I’m out of sorts, help me, 0 Lord, to hold my tongue.
 May I ever be mindful that my children are children
and I should not expect of them the judgments of adults.

Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.
Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests 

and the courage to deny them privileges I know will do them harm. 

Make me fair and just and kind and fit me, O Lord, 

to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.

Amen

By Fr. James Meena, The Word, May 1978
Peace and Goodness.

I don't care if I never get back

Take me out to the ball game...

Take me out with the crowd.

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack...

I don't care if I never get back...

Let me root, root, root for the home team...

If they don't win it's a shame.

For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out...

At the old ball game.

Simple gifts

We do not have to do or be anything special in order to bring hope to the world.

We may not even know when God has used one of us as an angel unaware,

and that's just as well. Our part lies in being open, not to God Out There, 

but In Here, with us, in us.

 from A Stone for a Pillow, Madeline L'Engle

Then said a rich man, Speak to us of Giving,

And he answered : You give but little when you give of your possessions. 

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

There are those who give little of the much which they have-and they give it for recognition

 and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome. 

And there are those who have little and give it all.

These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy,

nor give with mindfulness of virtue.

They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Through the hands of such as these God speaks,

and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;

And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive 

is joy greater than giving.

And is there aught you would withhold?

All you have shall some day be given;

Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours

and not your inheritors.

You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."

The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks of your pasture.

They give that they may live, 

for to withhold is to perish.

excerpts from "On Giving," from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet

May Day 2014

Thank you to our friends and neighbors for your gifts!

And despite nearly freezing, Thomas's team won their baseball game tonight!!!

Peace and goodness.

Thank you

"It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour."
-from Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Listen

with the night falling we are saying thank you

we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings

we are running out of the glass rooms

with our mouths full of food to look at the sky

and say thank you

we are standing by the water looking out

in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging

after funerals we are saying thank you

after the news of the dead

whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

in a culture up to its chin in shame

living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you

in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators

remembering wars and the police at the back door

and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you

in the banks that use us we are saying thank you

with the crooks in the office with the rich and fashionable

unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us

our lost feelings we are saying thank you

with the forests falling faster than the minutes

of our lives we are saying thank you

with the words going out like cells of a brain

with the cities growing over us like the earth

we are saying thank you faster and faster

with nobody listening we are saying thank you

we are saying thank you and waving

dark though it is

 

-W.S. Merwin