40 Pines

I awake to a crackling fire. The good kind; contained in a metal ring. Husband is up early. 

Coffee is on. 

I open my eyes to sun streaming through 

onto my son's perfect, smooth, young skin. 

His hair is more blond than usual. 

The big kids rustle out to join their father, excited for the day. 

What will it behold? 

 Bathing in hot mineral water, climbing rocks, 

panning for gold, 

fishing, eating, reading stories. 

Mama and Dad take their turns in the hammock, counting the tall pines - 40 - surrounding them, while the kids run and ride. 

This weekend we celebrate life, specifically the life of our 12 year old first born and only daughter. 

We camp to commemorate the keeping of time. 

How long since the last trip? 

Almost four years, right before the birth of another sweet life, our third son, last child. 

A breeze flows through, chasing away the heat. I hear robins and some unknown insect chirping about the beauty of the day.

I hear the river skipping down, down, down. 

I smell nothing but the fresh mountain air. 

This is the perfect Summer day. 

Stop and stare

In a world that screams for our attention this way and that, all day, every day, I say, "No."

Life is made of a million little choices mixed with a few big ones. One of my big life choices was to move to a small town up in the mountains. We live here with next to no neighbors but for a few months of the year. It is quiet. It is brimming over with wildlife. It is beautiful every season of the year. But still, we can fill our time with activities, ignoring our surroundings and feeling the stress of the world. We can fill every hour, leaving no time for the wonderfulness of just being; resting and seeing and listening.

We must be intentional if we want to be rested, truly rested. We must take time to feed our souls with truth, beauty, and goodness.

Leisure for me, those things that really make me feel at peace and content, are Sunday morning worship with fellow believers, reading a good book, and being outside with my family.

We turn up the music at home and sing together but there is something so magical that happens at church when a group of us sing to the Lord and sit, receiving the Word of God in harmony. The Spirit of God meets with us and there is nothing like it.

This poem had me contemplating life's gift of leisure:

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care, 

We have no time to stand and stare. 

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows. 

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. 

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night. 

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance. 

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began. 

A poor life this is if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare. 

William Henry Davies  

This week

Outside this week. 

In nature. 

Walks. 

Cleaning the front room. 

Kids making a house. :) 

Jumping in melting snow puddles. 

Finding lichen and realizing it's not moss. 

Finding more lichen! 

Drawing lichen. 

And pine cones. Those are hard! 

Reading Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver.

Thoroughly enjoying those poems. 

Daughter entering art into an exhibit for kids. 

Selling one of her pieces. 

Playing basketball. 

Piano lessons. 

Cabinet maker came to measure kitchen. 

Cooking dinner with husband while listening to French cafe station on pandora. 

Drinking tea with honey. 

Nap on Sunday afternoon. 

These are the things I am thankful for this week. 

I count them and remember. 

I am humbled by this life filled with such things. 

I am happy. 

No, I am more than that. 

Content. 

Joy overflowing. 

 

Poetry

Not all that long ago I was terrified of poetry. I didn't know how to interpret it and didn't want to take the time to truly chew on what I was reading. I'm known as a very black and white personality. Tell me how it is. Don't beat around the bush. Don't try to hint. Just tell me already! Symbolism? Alliteration? Couplets? Nope. 

Well, after reading blogs post, listening to podcasts, and just deciding to jump in, here I am a few months later, enjoying poetry!! 

I don't understand it all. I don't know all the rules. But I am having fun with it and that, to me, is one of the most important reasons to do something. 

I started with Robert Frost. I mean who doesn't love and appreciate his famous, The Road Not Taken?  I picked up this picture book from our local library and read it a few times with my kiddos. I LOVE this book!  Then I borrowed another book on his life with some of his poems spread throughout. Then I got yet another book that the kids and I read through about Mr. Frost and it's been no looking back since! 

We have a few printed sheets of small poems to memorize that have been fun. Edward Lear is hilarious and Ogden Nash, too! My daughter and I enjoy Christina Rossetti. 

I found A Child's Anthology of Poetry at a thrift store a few weeks back and we have gobbled up so many great poems in our morning time. A fave has been Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou. It seems fitting too, as we (and when I say we I mean, "I", because why would my kids have a fear of poetry? That's just silly. :)) have found that when you don't fear something, you can take it full on and you can discover that the thing you really feared was just a misunderstanding, an unknowing, and that thing just might turn into something you love. 

My husband challenged the whole family tonight to write a poem about Winter turning to Spring. It didn't have to rhyme or be anything but your thoughts on paper. This is what we came up with:

The light of days 
begins to grow,
thoughts of summer's
warm glow. 
The snow of Christmas
flows down the road,
melted flakes fill the
river banks. 
Our thoughts turn to 
flowers, apples and bikes. 
Campfires and floats will soon replace 
the snowball and sledding
we've long embraced. 
Spring is near and in our hearts,
it's always welcome and held dear. 
                               - Micheal 


 The Great Thawing Time    

The Bible says there is a time for everything. 
Right now I find myself slipping from Winter to Spring. 

Snow heaps melting,
Days warming,
Happy face on me. 

Days are getting longer, 
Nature is calling out. 
After the last of the melt off
All will be asprout. 

So long nights of roaring fire!
Lazy days of reading!
Hello days of mud and mire! 
Filled days of seeding. 
                         - Rebecca

Spring  

The Spring is coming. The flowers are blooming, petal by petal. All the trees
are blooming, too. And people are having fun in new Spring air. 
                                                                                          - Grace

Flower Bloom 

The flower blooms, the flower is opening into the sunshine. It's a beautiful sight if you see it in late Winter. It's fun to watch it grow and open. It is opening itself to the sun, a flower on the hillside with a big blue sky, some people come and steal it's seeds. They also salt them, then they spit the seeds and the flower is sad that he will not be able to make more. He is a sunflower. 
                                                                                       - Zade

Sun is bright.
Winter cold. 
Wild trees and woods. 
And even seeds.  
                 - August

Raging fire,
cold snow. 
Where did all the heat go?
                         - August


I never want to let fear stop me. I never want to stop growing because I'm allowing something to get the best of me. I want to press on and continue to learn and have fun doing it! I want my kids to see their Mama and Daddy learning right alongside them! For them to know that education doesn't stop after "school hours" or graduation, but that you can enjoy the ride for your whole life! 

I am thrilled to have jumped into poetry. 
Shakespeare is next on my list. 
And Homer. 

What fears are you conquering right now?