It doesn't seem like MONDAY

Childe Hassam's
The
Avenue
in
the
Rain
1917




















We have a steady rain now on this
Memorial Day. It looks a bit like this
painting. Drippy.

Today seems like an extra day.
An extra weekend day.
A gift of time to have a cookout
or family and friends in or be
out on a lake or to go away. I
went up to Boone on Saturday
so I am very thankful for another
extra day that is not really a weekday!
None of the things I listed are what
we are doing! But many have their
plans changed with the rain. Me.
I love rainy days to puddle around
inside.

If you dropped in , you would find
Oreo ( our kitten) asleep ON the kitchen
table and some of us humming Wicked
songs. The some of us are only two of
us! Emma and myself. Defying Gravity!
We belt it out just like we are on Broadway!

We say goodbye this week to dear friends.
They will be back to move when the house
sells. We will see them again as they move
to the next state West of here. But it is not
the same. So Emma and I tear up with the
last song from Wicked: For Good.
(Glinda):
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you...
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend...

(Glinda):
Because I knew you

(Both):
I have been changed for good

Such great words.
Such good lyrics.
Such a great tune to celebrate
friendship! I am thankful for
my friends in the same way.

Late Mother's Day Celebration

It was a Mother and Daughter Evening with my neighbor
last night to see Wicked! We were up on the second to last
row with binoculars. Amazing costumes and scenery !
We'll be singing today some of the most popular songs
( Popular is one of them) and chuckling at the humor.
We were glad to have Leann with us . She saw it on the
last tour, so at Intermission , she told us to think about
who is going to become the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the
Lion! There were clues.
What are you doing this weekend?

Wonder and wow.....

I was in wonder.
I was in awe.
Gordan got to go to the RUF
cookout last night and start
Tim Keller's new study:
Gospel in Life: Grace changes
Everything. Not part of Orientation
which starts today. Part of
having an older brother who is
working up in Blowing Rock this
summer. But then, was it part of
Gordan's orientation. Now he knows
the RUF leader. WOW.

Heading to the mts.

A glorious morning to take
Gordan ( 4th son) up to the mts.
for Freshman Orientation. It
will be quieter around here in the
Fall. I'll miss this guy!



I've always wondered at the paths my children
take as God leads them on His plan
for their lives. So I'm watching, praying,
and listening about this son!

I prayed my gratitude.

That is a sentence that Wendell
Berry wrote. It is on page 252 of Jayber
Crow. Jayber is struggling with what
prayer is. So this morning as another
Monday of Gratitude is here again,
I prayed and thought about gratitude.
Pray it.

The weekend was busy. New baby coming
to a dear friend's son and his wife. I am
thankful for this first grandchild to be born
this summer and my friend becoming a
grandma! No one knows the baby's sex or
the names picked out. That family likes
surprises! Times of celebration mean
a baby shower. This one was for both
the dad and mom to be. I liked that!


All the choirs led worship last night at our
church. I realized if choirs don't exist that
hymns will probably not be written , esp.
for choirs. Revivals came in the beginning
of the last 3 centuries and hymn writing
flowed out to strengthen and bring praises
unto the Lord for worship. I am so thankful
for good music. Could be humming some
from last night as the fragrance lingers!

One year ago our oldest married ( yesterday).
I am so thankful for them. He takes the last
CPA exam tomorrow and needs to pass!
( pray if you read this today! thanks!)

"I prayed that terrible prayer: 'Thy Will
Be Done.' Having so prayed , I prayed for
strength. That seemed reasonable and right
enough. As did praying for forgiveness and
the grace to forgive. I prayed unreasonably,
foolishly, hopelessly, that everybody in
Port William might be blessed and happy--
the ones I loved and the ones I did not.
I prayed for gratitude."
from Jayber Crow

A good thing to pray for!
Practice it today.
It was Pentacost Sunday yesterday.
I am thankful for the Holy Spirit,
teaching and bringing light unto
my path:

From Luci Shaw's Angles of Light


If we understood everything we wouldn't
be baffled. But mystery lives; somehow
without witchcraft or chicanery

we collect sounds and colors in a skyward
dish, like fruit in a bowl, and channel them
into verisimilitude--faces talking at us

from the tube's glass eye. Hallways of fog
enfold us in enigma. And then, the marvel of
window glass--how can anything be

hard enough to stop the hand and
hold its smudge while letting through this
soft light? The one wheat kernel that

breeds a thousand--a miracle of
loaves over and over again.
The stars, invisible in the blind day

revealed, thick as pollen, by the absence
of light. A billion spiky grass blades that melt
into a perfectly flat horizon. The Holy Ghost

waking me in my bedroom, drenching my
dry heart with fluid syllables, breathing
flesh into the fetal bones of this poem.

Mercy, the daughter of Grace

All of these booklets got gone
when they were put on a few
Sundays ago: 50 Days of Prayer
for the PCA. It is written by my
pastor and is online. It is based
this year on The Sermon on the
Mount. I'm getting
them daily for prayer for a church
wide missions trip, right here in
our City: Seek the City.

I love these words in red:

You can't make yourself merciful any more than you can make yourself pitiful. Being merciful grows out of receiving mercy, just as forgiveness flows from the heart of the forgiven (6:14-15). Mercy and Forgiveness are twin sisters, the daughters of Grace. Mercy judges not. It could care less how you got in such a mess or why you can't get yourself out of trouble. Mercy simply stops, bends down, begins to bind up the wounds, and quietly whispers, "I'm here to help." Mercy is the grace that relieves the consequences of sin in the lives of both the sinner and those sinned against. Mercy is grace in action. Tim Keller says, "Jesus uses the work of mercy to show us the essence of righteousness God requires in our relationships."

Still on the backporch

Here is a beautiful children's book
that a friend showed me this morning.
We are almost out of this age level
books, except we do love a good
children's book even if "we" means
me!

A Nest for Celeste: A Story about Art,
Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home
by Henry Cole,
who is an excellent illustrator.
Take a look: