1. Arriving at the hotel after a long day's drive, it feels good to be off the road and finally relax.
2. A forty-eight year old episode of the Lawrence Welk show is on the TV. I never had much interest in the show but my parents sure did. It reminds me of home, my mom's singing, and the innocence of childhood. I am alone in a New York hotel room and feeling sentimental. Thanks Mr. Welk.
3. Well...I stopped to stretch my legs and I bought a new outfit.
2. The mountains are really beautiful in the Appalachian spring, especially on a rainy day. Redbuds and new green leaves line the way up the winding road. Pockets of mist settle in the hollows and everything feels gentle and still.
3. The asparagus is up in the garden!
1. My wise, elderly friend and I sat across from one another at her dining table. We sipped mugs of tea and I asked her questions about life. I asked her how does a mother endure the helplessness of seeing her child suffer? My heart needed to know. She closed her eyes and remembered her own pain. Rocking forward in her chair, she opened her eyes, raised her arms up and said with emotion, "We hold up their arms for them when they can't hold them up on their own."
2. I am waiting in my car in a parking lot. Shortly after noon, small groups of people dressed all in black begin strolling out of, "Paul Mitchell, The School". They all have trendy hair in various cuts, colors, and styles. I think to myself, here comes our future hair stylists!
3. Steve and I take a walk up our road. "Something smells sweet!", I say. We look around and cannot find the source.
1. Lilacs don't seem to thrive in the south and I feel bad that I ask mine to stay. I grow it because this one scraggly bush produces puny clusters of blooms for one week of the year. When I inhale their magical scent I am transported to my aunt's yard in New York where a row of gorgeous lilacs bloomed every May. We would pluck the tiny purple flowers and suck the nectar from their ends. We cut bouquets of lilacs to give our school teachers every spring, and bouquets would fill the kitchen with their heady aroma. I adore the scent of lilacs and I appreciate the fortitude of my unhappy bush to survive the heat.
2. Another day of trimming trees and shrubs, trenching a diameter under each, and spreading mulch. The work feels good and the tidiness is both appealing and rewarding.
3. Life is pulling us along in a strong current for which we have little control. After feeling dropped by a wave and picked by up on the next crest, my first inclination is to look up to God and ask, "What are you doing!?"I am still waiting for the answer.
1. There is so much to see outside the windows that it is hard to walk by without pausing for a moment. I see flowering crab apple, beautiful cloud formations, fresh dirt in the vegetable beds, and fresh mulch on the perennial beds. Some of it is nature's handiwork and some of it, our own.
2. One of the daughters has spent the night. We have fresh biscuits and coffee for breakfast.
3. Experiencing difficult and stressful life events is not a good thing at all. It does not belong in these lists. But the deep search for meaning and the longing for hope in the midst of pain propels us forward. We come together in our pain and give one another hope.
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2. My morning cup of coffee. I like it more than something should be liked and I am not sorry for admitting that. Actually, I may love it.
3. I have two pencils with fresh erasers that I sharpened in the electric pencil sharpener. The sharp tip of the pencil improves my hand writing, even if it is only adding and subtracting numbers.
1. The first thunder storms of the season arrive at bedtime. The rumbles are gentle and friendly. My mind connects them to the summer storms I remember as a child and they lull me to sleep.
2. I am reading this sweet little book given to me by a friend. I find that I have become fully invested in the life of a fictional little hen.
3. The desire to sew a garment has reared it's fickle head. It usually shows up this time of year, in the spring. I call it fickle because I only achieve a successful outcome thirty percent of the time. But I wear those thirty percent with one hundred percent confidence in my ability to sew garments.
