Even February

has its moments of glad brightness.

Three Little Candles

A prayer for the third Sunday of Advent, 2012

 

Dear God,

You have promised us that Your Light has come into the world, and the darkness will not overcome it.

We confess that Your Light is hard to see in our darkness of senseless violence, hunger, homelessness and addiction. You Light can seem as frail and flickering as the fames of these candles.

But we know that our hope is in You. You are always returning to us, to bind up our broken hearts. Help us to be your Light-bringers. Help us to carry Your hope and help into our world.

In the name of Jesus, Who is our hope, our help, our strength, our peace.

Amen

Hymn for a Winter Morning

For indrawn breath at the chill

Beyond the covers,

For feet finding floor.

For the dusty furnace rumble

And the warm shush through the vents.

 

For windowpanes cloudy, condensed

Where the first rays  paint

Our coziness within, frost without.

For pen and ink tree etchings

Frozen against the lightening gallery of sky.

 

For the brown and bitter grace of coffee,

For butter melting into toasted bread,

For crumb-dusted fingertips licked clean.

 

For candle wax left sculpted

By last night’s flames.

For my love’s hands,

Knotting his tie, tying up shoes.

For lunch boxes banging against boy knees

In a dash into the cold, into the day.

 

For being the one left waving,

Slippered, on the doorstep.

For the swept span of a house made quiet

For hymn-singing.

Hello Monday!

Hello back and shoulder pain easing.

Hello morning workout.

Hello prayers for those in the path of a huge storm. 

Hello quiet day at home.

Hello rolling out pie crusts, chicken and vegetables, apples and cinnamon.

Hello one for the freezer and one for a friend.

Hello mulling over a life-changing book, finished over the weekend.

Hello Monday! What are you greeting this week?

I’m linking up at Lisa Leonard’s Hello Monday space. 

Hello Monday

Hello Monday!

Hello thinking back over the full goodness of the weekend.

Hello Triune Art Show, and Pastor Deb’s book, and miracles in word and brushstroke and stitch. And more art on our own walls.

Hello friends over for dinner, soup and bread, good wine and conversation.

Hello Boy Scout, studying first aid, setting goals.

Hello worship, hello art room, all of us with paint on our fingers.

Hello winding road up to Skytop, hello heavy bag of Galas, hello first bite of apple doughnut, all crisp sugar and spice, worth the wait in the long line.

Hello new library book I don’t want to put down.

And now, hello Monday!  Hello short week with Fall Break soon. Hello lacing up the shoes and filling the water bottle.

Hello good good life.

linking up at Lisa Leonard’s lovely space 

where she invites us to greet the week

 

Take One Step. . .

I have typed and hit delete several times, trying to formulate pretty sentences about what is going on in my life, how my inner life is merging into my outer one in some exciting and challenging ways. But the truth of it is that I feel I am in a season of feasting this autumn, sitting down to a rich stew of inspiration, opportunity, encouragement and grace. I’m learning the discipline of setting my place and picking up my spoon and tasting, perhaps, for the ingredients I might add.

So may I just share what is shaping up to be my recipe for this season?

• a writing workshop and concert with this amazing woman, who has been breathing life into my ears for almost two decades  (Clicking on the link will take you to her site, and a chance to hear a new song called “The Speed of Soul.” You might give yourself the gift of four minutes listening.)
• Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J Palmer. The book I’m cracking, the one I’m almost afraid to read.
• a dear friend, who is asking good questions and giving gentle but intentional nudges. My reconnection with her is all gift.
• A little yoga to start the day, which is making me feel stronger and more flexible, but kinder and more patient with my body as well.
• Traveling through the parables with my dear friend above, and a few other members of our Triune family, trying to find what Jesus’ stories might reveal about our own.
• poemcrazy. I mentioned it on Monday, but it bears repeating!
• the cool mornings and evening quickening my spirit as they do every year. “Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” –George Eliot
• The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Nightly rescuing my sense of humor from the election season.
• facing the blinking cursor, the blank page, the truly awful first draft Anne Lamott warns us about. And lots of coffee.

And finally, a few lyrics from one of the first Carrie Newcomer songs I fell in love with:

“I’ve been known to think too much
Get caught up in planning and choosing
I’ve sat down with my head in my hands trying to
Lose the fear of losing
But you can’t go back and you’re never the same when
Love’s left its mark on you
Whether stronger, bitter or better, or wiser it’s all up to you

Take one step a little bit closer
Take one step a little bit closer

I woke up yesterday morning I was smillin’ I was smillin’ wide
I heard wild geese calling
I called back and looked into your steady eyes saying

Take one step a little bit closer
Take one step a little bit closer. . . “

What’s filling your cupboard, your plate?

Hello Monday

Hello Monday.

Hello rusty blog. Hello waiting keyboard. Hello rather scary blinking cursor.

Helo new disciplines. Hello questions about calling. Hello journaling, reading, sitting quietly.

Hello wordplay. Hello poemcrazy.

Hello new habits and old insecurities.

Hello first really chilly morning, hello jeans and a sweater.

Hello trustworthy listeners.

Hello mercies, new every morning.

Hello to anyone out there, who needs a Monday morning, sheets thrown back, a new day “with no mistakes in it yet!”   

 

linked at Lisa Leonard’s beautiful “Hello Monday space