Oh, Jen Hatmaker’s article “Hope for Spicy Families” is full of grace and is so GOOD. It’s good for all kinds of people — real people — but especially part-Italian people who never did learn how to whisper and still occasionally suffer from guilt over never quite getting that meek & quiet thing down.
I laughed — loudly.
Read it. You’ll laugh too.
There’s something so pure about the morning light. It falls through the sky in a way it does no other time of the day, it falls and dances and pulls the air around it into gossamer waves. The early hours pull and push and twist the light into an opaque filter that infuses the morning in possibility. Awash in new mercies, morning light stands up strong against uncertainty and tugs my eyes and heart upward, to the Light, to the Giver of light, to the Hope of all living things.
Jobs, plans, circumstances — these offer no promise of constancy, but Jesus does. When the future looks as temporary as words etched into sand at high tide, when faced with uncertainty, there is a Rock. There is an Anchor.
And there is morning light, a tiny glimpse of light eternal, to spring up each day and remind us all that He is constant, He is never-changing, He is rivers of light.
“You’re in a cosmos
star-flung with constellations by God,
A world God wakes up each morning
and puts to bed each night.
God dips water from the ocean
and gives the land a drink.
God, God-revealed, does all this.”
-Amos 5:8, The Message translation
Cut flowers or branches, a little houseplant on the edge of the sink, herbs in the kitchen — these little touches really brighten a room, don’t they? I have a few potted flowers in ceramic pots on the stoop outside our front door, but nothing inside right now. I should change that!
Plants in farmhouse kitchen via pages 50-51 of the Ikea Kitchen Dreambook
Muguet in Old Bottle via Tongue in Cheek by Corey Amaro
Citrus Branches in Vase via Jessica Comingore / Project Bly
Sink-side flowers via real estate listing by Alexander White as seen on Interior Stockholm
Fig tree in living room via Anna Malin of Helt enkelt on the Sköna Hem blog
Branch in blue mason jar via Mariefriis
How have you incorporated foliage into your home?
All I Need via the Lara Casey Shop
Sometimes I stumble upon a photographer’s portfolio and immediately, I am lost inside the photos. I can be sitting right here in my living room, but it feels like I’ve been transported to another world. Such was the case when I found Zachary Su’s photographs of Taiwan. Plus, I’ve been drawn to images of windows lately anyway (case in point) so I was especially enraptured by his work with light and windows.
Aren’t those incredible? I haven’t posted them here, but he takes a lot of black-and-white Taiwanese street scenes too. You can view all of Zachary Su’s photos on Flickr.
It’s been a week of sick days here, and not a restful one, either. It’s been a week of maintenance repair people traipsing in and out, of interrupted sleep, of cancellations, of Josiah working very late, a week of rain and a week of exhaustion.
But this one’s always happy. Even at 3am, even with a fever, she’s full of joy.
I can learn a lot from her.
This morning wasn’t anything special, not to me anyway. It was another in a string of long, tired, days. But to Aveline, this morning was, “SUNNY DAY!”
To Aveline, this morning was “Blue hair wears (barrettes)! G’een hair wears! FLOWERS on pants! Sit he-ah! Hold dis! TAKE PIH-UH!! Drink kefir! Eat beh-uss (breakfast)! WEAR BIB WITH DOTS! PWAY GAMES!”
To Aveline, every day is a reason to be “gankful”. Every day is a reason to jump with joy (and pose with a duster, apparently.)
“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings ; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” -Malachi 4:2
“Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and sound of a melody.” -Isaiah 51:3b
“So the ransomed of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” -Isaiah 51:11
Thank you, Lord, for this reminder.
Yangshuo, Guangxi, China via Ata Adnan
“We stand, when we are young, on the sunny slope among the pines, and look across an unknown country to the mountains. There are clouds, but they are edged with light. We do not fear as we dip into the valley; we do not fear the clouds. Thank God for the splendid fearlessness of youth. And as for older travelers whom the Lord has led over the hill and the dale, they have not been given the spirit of fear. They think of the way they have come since they stood on that bright hillside, and their word is always this: There are reasons and reasons for hope and for happiness, and never one for fear.” -Amy Carmichael
The Oaxacaborn Blog 