Thinking on these things . . .

I just knit 126 knots. Can you tell? No? Me either... The 126 stitches I have added equal two rows of a project, that when complete will have approximately 260 rows. At 63 stitches per row that would be, wait let me get my calculator... 16,380 knots (give or take a few hundred) I just completed .7 percent of the finished project... No wonder the 126 I've just added don't make any discernible difference!! Do you ever feel like that too? Like all you're doing, no matter how diligent you are being, just isn't adding up to much? I think about the repetitive tasks that consume most days; preparing meals that take ten minutes to consume but that take all that planning and shopping and preparation and then, a mere four or five hours later, everyone is hungry again! How many times have I washed this particular t-shirt, or vacuumed this floor, or hung up this coat yet again? How many pencils have I sharpened and homework papers have I gone over with my children? How many times ...

I am currently a baseball mom and, truth be told, not a very good one either. I go to the game for only one reason; to watch my child play, and when they are not playing, I'm usually doing something else, like I am now... I look around I see other attendees, and each one has a role they play. Here are three moms with their fold up chairs huddled together as they share stories and cheer for their sons that have known each other since kindergarten. Scattered throughout are grandparents, complete with head scarves and blankets: here the middle age men all wearing the team’s hat; they are the coaches and the guy with the stat book and the man at third base telling the kids to run, steal, or stay. Within the diamond is the umpire behind the catcher, whose identity is indiscernible as he's wearing so much protective covering. And now the batter stands tall and proud as he holds out his bat to the boy in the opposite colored shirt who is winding up for the pitch. Sixteen other sets of...

I look like a grown up but still possess the mind of a child. Or perhaps I should say, I am still fascinated by the simplest things. We are hoping for a garden this summer so this morning the kids and I were at the dinning room table planting seeds in a little domed tray. In this tray were small hard peat pellets: an inch in diameter, maybe a 1/4 inch high. However when you added a scant 2 tablespoons of water they magically grew into 1 1/2 inch tall peat pots filled with moist soil all ready for seeds. We did this with 72 pellets and marveled each time! I am part of a group that is thinking and talking through a book by Chris and Kerry Shook, One Month to Live: 30 Days to a No Regrets Life. The premise of the book is simple: if you knew you had only 30 days to live, how would you live your life? The hope is that after thinking through how you are currently living and how you would live, that you will start to really live your life instead of just slogging through your time here on th...

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? well...? If a man speaks and no woman hears him is he still wrong? Of course! :) (sorry guys!) If a person forwards an email to exactly 11 people in the next 5 minutes, will they receive an unexpected blessing? Not a chance. If a person serves the Lord faithfully and yet sees no apparent success from their endeavors, is the Lord honored? Absolutely! Isaiah is in this very situation and he laments "But all my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose at all." (Isaiah 49:4) Do you hear the slight whine in his voice masking his frustration and defeat? Sure you do, if you've been in that situation, you're hearing it just like I am. In many, many areas we labor and don't see the reward we expect to: we do the work and someone else gets the credit, we're faithful in our responsibilities yet someone who never seems to care lives an easier life than...

Planting Seeds I'm planting seeds today - basil to be exact. I bought basil this winter and couldn't believe how much it cost me. So now I'm planting seeds. They're so small though; it's hard to remember what they'll become in three months. There are other seeds I'm planting:tucking my children in at night emails, chats, and phone calls times for coffee smiles hugs listening purposefully I don't know, exactly, what these will blossom into but I can suspect the high price I could pay later if I don't invest now - children who are not confident in a parent's love, friends with whom I'm no longer connected, loneliness as love needs to be given to be received, and poor judgment as I have not learned from the experience of others. I know that if I eat a 1/4 cup of blueberries a day it lowers my chance of something by a significant percentage, if I exercise regularly I may not pay the price of an infirmed body as I age - seeds I'm sowing; tiny,...