friday five: spring is getting ready to be sprung!

Snowdrops making an appearance at the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland

Here in Nashville the annual Antiques and Garden Show is getting underway.  The temperatures are more cold and windy than is typical, and the garden displays with colorful spring blooms are going to be tonic for many of the souls that visit the show this weekend. Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted another six weeks of winter when he saw his shadow, but spring is on the minds of many!

With that in mind,

1) What do you anticipate with the coming of spring?

Spring is a favorite season, in part because I have a spring birthday. I also welcome the return of color and beauty to the world following the grays and browns of winter.  I love the parade of blooming things that begin with snow drops and croci, and leads us into the greening of the world and the enduring blooms of summer.  On a more intimate and spiritual level spring also heralds the promise of hope, whether that means fanning the flames of dreams or experiencing the transforming redemption that is part of healing and new life.

2) Is there anything you will miss about winter?

Call me crazy, but I love sweaters and cold-weather food. Soups and casseroles, and the comfort of cool fingers wrapped around my morning coffee mug are sweet companions to my introverted nature. 

3) Is there an occasion on the horizon to which you’re looking forward?

In May I will serve again as chaplain to a week-long icon-writing workshop. That week of holy and creative community enriches my soul, and the icon that results from it feeds me continually afterward.

 4) Do you have a favorite spring memory?

Where I grew up spring vacations took place in April. Each year my family journeyed from Connecticut to my family's tree farm in South Carolina where my grandmother spent a couple of months each spring. The highlight of that time was always being there at Melrose, but we often combined the trip with sightseeing detours to historic places along the way. I'm thankful for those visits to Gettysburg, Monticello, Williamsburg, Valley Forge, and other sites that helped instill in me a love for our country's history.

 
5) Do you have a favorite spring flower/bloom, and if so, what makes it special to you?

Tulips and dogwood top the list. Tulips were a favorite of my grandfather, so that created a bond for us, and dogwoods bloomed around my birthday. I also adore daffodils, and when they grew in my yard I loved to cut a huge bunch of them to display in the house. 

yesterday's views

While waiting for Ken to complete an appointment at the eye doctor I grabbed my camera and snapped some shots of blooms around town. I LOVE the brilliance of forsythia. Wish we had some in our yard (some day...). And the tulip magnolias are so showy, like a sweet young thing showing off her new spring frock. Doncha think?

Enjoy the views, and have a blooming weekend!

friday five: spiritual spring cleaning

At RevGals Sally invites us to consider this text:

The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.
(2 Corninthians 5: 17-20 The Message)

All this got me thinking that if we traditionally think of spring as a time for new life, then maybe a spiritual spring clean might not be a bad thing to clear the way for the new thing that God wants to do in us! So with all of that in mind I offer you this Friday Five:


1. Is there a part of your spiritual life that is dry and dusty at the moment, something that could do with a good spring clean?
Journaling. It has been a looooonnnnnnngggggg time since journaling was a regular part of my life, spiritual or otherwise. Lately (in the last 18 months or so) God has given me glimpses of a path for which I have longed and to which he is beckoning. Those glimpses become lost without some way to remember them and peer more deeply into them. Journaling offers that very opportunity. I've got one right here at my desk, but I am so out of the habit...

2. Spiritual disciplines- life-giving/ terrifying: discuss
Life-giving: Music. Walking. Creating. I don't utilize enough of either.
Terrifying: I recently told God that I surrendered. I have been afraid of doing that. It hasn't hurt me yet.

3. Share a practice that keeps you spiritually alive that you think others might benefit from...
Reading the psalms out loud in prayer (when I am alone). It is the rare reading when, at the end, there aren't tears on my cheeks. To me this is a sign of the presence of the Spirit, and restores my soul.

4.Alone or together, how do you pray best?
Yes.

5.If your spiritual life were to burgeon and bloom into a spring flower what would it be and why?

Daffodil, hands down. First, they're glorious. Who doesn't want to be glorious? Second, they retain the benefit of their bloom and store it for future blooming. Third, they give life to themselves and produce additional blooms. Fourth. They make people smile. Yes, I definitely want my spiritual life to be all those things.

Bonus, a piece of music a picture or a prayer that speaks to you of new life....

friday five: staving off gloom

At RevGals Sally writes: Candlemass is past, and Christmas is well and truly over, here in the UK February looks set to be its usual grey and cold self. Signs of spring are yet to emerge; if like me you long for them perhaps you need ways to get through these long dark days. So lets share a few tips for a cold and rainy/ snowy day....

1. Exercise, what do you do if you can't face getting out into the cold and damp?
Ha! The last month has been nothing but bitter cold and wet days. I had gotten into a routine of taking the oldest dog for a long walk, and the weather has put a huge and heavy wrench into what had become a daily ritual and anticipated joy. Tucked inside, well, there's always the morning exercise of raising my coffee cup to my lips, multiple trips to the door to let dogs out, trips to the laundry room, running the vacuum. Sadly, I do not have an indoor routine. I keep meaning to order a dvd for learning tai chi that a friend recommended. Perhaps this morning (yet another rainy day!) I will hunker down and do just that!

2. Food; time to comfort eat, or time to prepare your body for the coming spring/summer?
Having just returned from a three-day retreat where we were served thoughtful menus of healthy food, I am going to endeavor, once again, to do some menu planning. My husband and I both need to shed some pounds, never mind eat better, so this should help some. Yes, yes, that's the ticket!

3. Brainpower; do you like me need to stave off depression, if so how do you do it?
I'm a crossword puzzle junkie, and I'm working on one daily. Even if it's the same one! And sudoku! I'm in a good book now that I've been reading while on retreat, and I would like to 1) finish it before the weekend is out, and 2) start another one and continue the practice. I have been really bad about getting my reading done.

4. How about a story that lifts your spirits, is there a book or film that you return to to stave off the gloom?
Nothing comes to mind at the moment, but if I think of something I'll update this post!

5. Looking forward, do you have a favourite spring flower/ is there something that says spring is here more than anything else?
I love, Love, LOVE Daffodils! They are the harbinger of spring that perks my spirits and reminds me that the world will be green again soon.

Bonus; post a poem/ piece of music that points to the coming spring......

Well, we have this to look forward to in April! We're so excited that our son has found a wonderful partner in life. We love Trisha!

last call

I know this comes across as desperate. That's because I am!

This lovely necklace is what I want to wear to Trisha's graduation. Think of making a Silpada purchase as treating yourself to a lovely piece of jewelry for my birthday. Your purchase helps me earn this, which means we both come out winners. Now is that so hard? Go ahead, you can do it. There are some really beautiful items and I'm confident that everyone can find something they like. Mother's day is coming! Graduation is coming! A "just because" day is right around the corner! Just visit this sight (easy to navigate) and then contact my consultant, Shannon (who is an absolute delight) to let her know what you want. You will have my deepest appreciation.

Okay, now I'll stop begging--I know it's not becoming and I don't do it well.

Other news? Spring is beautiful here. We're at that "early greening" stage with the dogwood and first iris in bloom. I'm seeing a lot of first light since McKinlee gets me up early, and there's something magical about the hues of this phase of spring at dawn that makes me want to freeze the images. (I can actually do that in my mind without too much trouble. As a senior in high school I remember traveling a road plentiful in dogwood and thinking that I might never see its beauty again at that time of year--several weeks later in northern latitudes--and I burned the scenery into my memory. I can still picture it.) I really need to make a visit to Cheekwood, our local botanical garden, to capture the fullest sweep of what blooms right now. If the weather cooperates I might just head over there this afternoon after making a couple of pastoral calls this morning.

And you--have you had a good weekend? Is spring in bloom where you live? And wouldn't you love a new piece of jewelry?

palm saturday

I'm heading out this morning to join some friends at their yard sale. I have about one bag of stuff to sell--we're about yard-saled out at this house after our last one. But I plan to take Pampered Chef stuff, and a Silpada catalog (hosting a part soon!) and maybe I'll get some business. It looks to be a beautiful day, and after the sale is over comes the best part. No, not counting our money, but cooking out!

The only challenge is what to do with McKinlee. I will probably take her with me and take the portable kennel along so that she is not overly confined. But then again...

Have I mentioned how challenging it is to take a shower and dry your hair with a new puppy? Unlike babies these critters are quite mobile! The other day she needed a bit of a rinse herself so she came in with me, but I sure can't do that everytime!

What I want most from this day is to enjoy the everydayness of it. Tomorrow Holy Week begins, and no matter what sort of ordinariness occurs through the week it will be tinged with the hue of this annual, holy, rollercoaster journey. No matter how familiar the events, the readings, the music or the liturgies, it is never the same. We are never the same. That is the awful blessing of it.

But today I'm wearing jeans and working my Pampered Chef business. And loving on my dogs.

Love to you, as well.