A couple of weeks ago, my dear uncle went home to be with Jesus. I miss him. The day of his funeral, my husband called home to tell me that his mother had passed away that morning. It was, to say the least, an interesting and challenging couple of weeks.

Strangely, I have felt at peace and have had a lot of joy. The day before my uncle Paul passed away, I was driving home from work and had a lot of those nagging sorts of worries. I was thinking about finances, about what I needed to get done, about how hard my husband and I were working. Then something caught my eye. It was a big pale moon, just peeking out of the still blue sky. Beethoven was playing on the radio. Suddenly I thought, "I own the moon!! I own Beethoven!! I am rich beyond belief!!" I spoke to my aunt and cousin that evening, none of us knowing what the night would bring, and we talked about that very quality of life. How in the midst of our busyness, our struggles, there is amazing, huge beauty all around us, just asking to be noticed. My aunt has told me many times to just "enjoy life."

I think she is very wise.

YOUNG ARTIST TAKES ON THE WEB!!

The artist is April Rose, she is 10 years old. She started drawing when she was 2. She likes to draw people and when she is older, she hopes to be a famous fashion designer and live in Paris, the fashion capital. She likes to design "street style" clothes and "cocktail dresses". She has drawn fashions for many people, and this is her first "premier" on the web! She is very excited.
Enjoy.

Rebel Yell Redux

Here is why I love genealogy. Out of the blue I recieved the gift of a portrait of my great-great grandfather, James Vaughan, and his wife, Elizabeth. Sent from Alice, a cousin I have yet to meet. (Thanks, Alice!)

Alice had clues and stories I had never heard or even suspected about James. She mentioned to me that he had gone to Cuba and brought back some sea shells. Cuba??? In the 1870's? She conjectured that he had gone as a soldier of fortune in the Cuban and Spanish wars. I had to do some research, as I had no recall of learning about such a conflict. I realized that if James had indeed traveled to the Spanish West Indies during this time period, he would have had to apply for a passport. I went to the NARA archives index found on Footnote.com and searched for James. Sure enough, I found his passport application, complete with a description of him and his signature. He was authorized to travel to the "Spanish West Indies", AND this was not his first trip, as the application is for a renewal.

The plot doth thicken.

Mister M

I'm hanging out in Florida again, visiting my sis and her hubby, and missing my mister. So here's a shout out to Mark, my dream come true once in a lifetime love.
It is a very wonderful thing to be married to your best friend, I highly reccomend it.
Mark is unique, reserved yet funny, lighthearted and independent, guileless and capable of surprise. Practical and yet very romantic. I'm a lucky woman indeed.

Tis a gift to be simple

It seems that I have entered a phase of time where I am to be under a certain way of learning, a discipline from Jesus that He has been gently leading me to, now more insistent. I know the time is NOW, because I am gaining clarity, urgency and peace about it. Not that I expect it to be easy. Not at all. But Simple, yes.

I don't want to explain much, because that goes against the very strictures of the discipline. This post is to leave some breadcrumbs on this path. And just to say I am listening.

Peace.

Kandice

The first time I met Kandice, my mother and dad came home from the hospital with her, but before mom Sylvia would get out of the car with the new babe, someone, I think my grandmother, was instructed to get the camera. Hence the initial meeting was recorded on film.
Many years have passed since that day, but I still have a pleasant memory of it - my other sister, Shelley, and I giggling with excitement to meet the new little girl, who would become our playmate, our friend and a witness to our lives, as we are to hers.
Kandice has been waging a valiant battle with a debilitating and frustrating disease, a battle I can only imagine. She is still one of the most creative, kind and generous women on the planet, and I'm very proud to call her friend.
Last Christmas, her husband  wrote this amazing poem about Kandice, and she has given me permission to share it here.

for kandice

a man climbs to the highest ridge of the mountain,
and stares
astonished.
at the highest tree .

only this tree has survived
the stingy soil
the blasting wind.

and lightning has struck.
only here
only the rarest tree,
cleaving, gut-wrenching the trunk
with the explosion of rapidly expanding essence.

does this tree fathom its own beauty
razor-silhouetted on the heights ridge
absent the bland symmetry of its crouching neighbors
recording the constant insult of gales and bolts in seared bark and half-dead branches?

once upon a time a spore caught in a rocky cranny,
a sapling struggled to life.
the highest tree would have chosen some safer berth in the lower loam,
no doubt.
but choiceless, it carves itself alone against the high sky
indifferent to any notion of picturesque valor
visited only by the highest climber.

steven taft, december 24, 2007

Flower Fairy Princess

A shout out to Kandice - thanks for the cool artfully enhanced photo. This is little Marsyl, age 9.

Comes at a good time, when I am needing to remember that this girl child deserves the best, and deserves kindness and respect. And I intend to see she gets that.