Each piece of glass has a place. I don’t know what the big picture is. I don’t know which piece goes where. I pick up the tiny pieces and begin to fit them like a puzzle, plotting a design, seeing a picture here and there…I begin to think I should plan it all out before …
Category Archives: Refiner’s Fire
It’s In the Inches
The wealth I have is not to be taken lightly. I am a rich woman when I hold a small baby in my arms for long stretches of quiet. I am further enriched by the challenge of stretching out my hand to the unlovely. I am full as I am surrounded by grandchildren that are …
The Flag
It is so easy to take up offense and wave it around, carrying it proudly, declaring it loudly, to all who will listen. The intent is to get as many people who will, to join you in the parade. The flag…Offense. Even the word on my tongue produces a bitter taste. I am tempted to …
Mom Hugs
This is my second Mother’s Day without my mama. Many of you have been without your moms a lot longer. Yet every Mother’s Day our thoughts turn to them, by choosing, or not. I struggled for a few years with unpleasant and broken memories about my mother. Her last years were miserable and sadly, those …
Surrendering the Vision
Forgive me dear readers for my lack these days. I am not usually one to be without words. I am writing, but haphazardly in my journal with scattered thoughts, broken sentences and lots of ellipsises (…) I HAVE been preoccupied. I have been walking along grief’s highway. I have been in a deep, dull, cold …
More For You Bess
My mama wore her little hoe down to a nub. She worked that garden every chance she got right up until the year before she died. I guess she came by that work ethic honestly. She grew up on a farm, picking cotton at the ripe old age of five. Everyone worked. The heat of …
The Scent of a Life
We cling so tightly to this earth. We hold ‘things’ so dear. We save and store and display and fill our houses with the pieces of life along the way. This collecting is part of ‘hunting and gathering’ and preparing and protecting our families. We pass our treasures along to our children and our children’s …
Eyes to Weep
Today has been an especially hard day. A difficult walk. Standing on a precipice. Holding a hand. Allowing my tears to fall. The tears have been closely guarded. I have walked the caregiver road and separated my heart from this painful process. I have wondered why my little Mama has been holding on so desperately …
Eyes To See
The enemy does his best to destroy the house. The body that houses the Spirit of God; the home that holds the family; the family that grows the inheritance. Every attempt is but a stab in the dark. The LIGHT floods in and reveals the futile tactics of a defeated enemy. Known weaknesses are revealed …
Hope
O Lord! The face of Your earth is so changing! Every minute, as the seasons roll, there are subtle turns of color and land. The trees so full of life one minute, stripped bare the next. Rolling storm with wind and torrents of water shred the branches and trunks of giant splendor. The creek, a …