MISTY'S MORNINGS

Photo by M. Williams I am joining with  The Gypsy Mama     for a five minute un-edited free-write. Hard love... It begins so easily.  All infatuation and romance, breathless anticipation, dates, phone calls, just being together.  Only we two existing in the world of our own creation.   Wedding bells ring, flower petals fall, honeymoon days and nights continue long after the suitcase is unpacked.  All is a blur of bliss and oneness. But eventually the hard loving begins.  The love that must overlook, ignore, let it go, forgive.  This love is anything but easy.  It can grind and grate and before long the honeymoon days seem like a fantasy of someone else's life.  Suddenly the third member of the sacred union must intervene - the two that knelt before the altar now need more than they alone can provide.   But the surprise is that the hardest love is the most rewarding, fulfilling, uniting love.  It is...

This colorful collection of  Ukranian Eggs  was found by my sister on her trip to Kiev, Ukraine. On Wednesdays I will host a Worldwide Wednesday Linky Party! Each week will have a new theme meant to inspire you.  Today's linky theme is  EASTER .   What image can you share that says Easter to you? I can't wait to visit all your inspiring images.  If you link, please also visit the  two people who linked before you and share your thoughts with them. (Next week's theme will be mercy if you want to keep your eyes open all week.) Worldwide Wednesday {Easter}

While driving my boys to the park last week, I was compelled to stop and photograph this ethereal tree in full bloom.  From the road it appeared like a cloud of white butterflies on leafless branches.  As I zoomed my camera in on a single bloom, I was impressed with the thought that this tree's beauty is really a product of the sheer number of individual blooms grouped together.  Each is beautiful on its own but together, they are breathtaking.   As people of faith we can each be lovely in our own way, on our own, but I believe that we are   meant to gather together , to become a community of otherworldly radiance and strength.  When we meet together in church we not only shine our light for the world around us, but for one another too.   Being together helps to give us courage to walk the path of holiness all week until we can gather again, refresh and renew our spirits.  Like a free spa-day for the soul.  

My sister is a flight attendant.  She travels all over the world. She was recently in Ghana and took these pictures of her adventure climbing an abandoned lighthouse on the shore. At first I thought it looked like fun.  Then she showed me these photos of how eroded the spiraling staircase had become.  She climbed it anyway. These images stayed with me.  The staircase began to remind me of our lives.  That sometimes the going is smooth and we feel lighthearted and happy. Other times happiness erodes and we are left feeling angry and frustrated with people or situations.  We must decide how to manage these opposing emotions everyday.  Especially in family life, several people together can produce friction, fractious moments, erosion of self-control. Then I read this quotation from Eric Ripert, acclaimed French chef and a Buddist.  He said simply,  "Anger equals weakness."   While this statement feels very Zen, I began to link it w...

Once in a job interview I was asked the following question: "If you were a color crayon, what color would you be and why?" My answer was immediate and easy.   Magenta .  It has been my favorite crayon since I first laid eyes on the entire enticing box of 64 Crayolas.    I think this color represents femininity with a dash of independence and flair.  If I had to say what it reveals about me  - I have no idea - but I did get that job! Here's my interpretation of magenta for this week's photo project 64.  We had an added challenge to use a cell phone or point and shoot camera without editing the picture.  These were all taken with my point and shoot camera using the macro setting. *Please leave me a comment and let me know what color you would be and why.* Linking with Project 64 magenta .

I am joining with  Gypsymama   for a five minute un-edited free-write. On Distance... As Americans, distance does not phase us.  Traveling to Spain years ago I realized that it was not unusual for a Spaniard, who lives in a country roughly the size of Texas,  never to have traveled even to the coast of their own gorgeous land.   For me, a wide-open-plains kind of Mid-westerner, driving three hours to play a basketball game and home again the same day was normal.  Even driving cross country in two-or-three days is not a huge deal for most of us. Distance is part of the fiber of my adult life.  Since I left home for college, three hours away, I have progressively moved farther and farther from where I grew up.  My husband and I had to learn to be one another's entire family.  Friendships became essential parts of each new city we inhabited because without them, we were utterly alone.   Still there is a beauty to living so far aw...

I first read the Litany of Humility during a Women of Grace study at my former church.  It felt profound at the time and almost a little dangerous in a  "be careful what you *pray* for - it just might come true"  kind of way.  Lately, Lent has brought these thoughts back around to me and I wanted to share them here with you.  What would the world be like if we all prayed for humility rather than individual exceptionalism?  If we continuously wished better for those around us rather than ourselves?   For those new to a litany, the word comes from an ancient Greek word meaning supplication.  It is a form of prayer in which the participants are requesting something of God - in this case humility.  It is read by a leader and the respondents repeat the same response, in this case, Deliver me Jesus , and later,   Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it .   For the remaining days of Lent and through Holy Week I plan to recite this e...