The Pruning Chore

Every January begins the time to prune. I arm myself with gloves and long sleeves to combat the roses' thorny stalks. How such a beautiful plant can have such a painful stem is beyond me. Even with my careful clipping I come away with bleeding pokes and scratches. I then begin to trim the vine that robustly rules our eastern yard. Amazing that it has grown so thick these past fourteen years. If only it had been that way when we had first moved in, maybe ol' Qausimoto, our terrier mix, never would have learned to scale and jump the fence it covers. Yet the vine hides the scars of our towering Palm tree that cracked and broke its blocks. Now to look at it all, you never would have guessed the former stories.

Pain is always a part of my life. It lurks among the beauty and the bounty of my days. It always comes with lessons for me to choose to learn. Like the lesson of faithful love, even when the one you love jumps the fence and runs away. Or the one who grows up so fast and tall that it cannot be contained by the boundaries of your wall. Or even when it seems such simple words to one another pierce one's heart so deep. I've learned to love in spite of; I've learned to let go of that I can't control; I've learned instead to trust the Creator instead of the created. I've learned the worth is in the waiting, and that every Spring time, the beauty will trump the pain.

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Hummingbird Lessons

My eye caught a small round mound stuck upon a branch. Looking closer, I found indeed it was the start of a hummingbird nest. And yes, I now had the mother hummingbird buzzing around my head, reminding me that I was in her space. I have been able to witness at least 3 other hummingbird families come to life, and I was always mesmerized by these "tiny vulnerabilities" becoming resilient birds in only a matter of five to six weeks. The nest was right out my patio door, and I had the best view to watch them daily. I was smiling. I had a hunch that babies would be coming soon, because our hummingbird feeder had been especially sucked dry only a few weeks earlier. One day I found at least 4 hummingbirds at one time feeding, which is highly unusual because most times they come one at a time and don't seem to want to share the space. If they would share, it was two only at a the bar and of course on opposite sides. I was filling that feeder at le...

Awe

The thunder resounded with a loud clap! Certainly, it came as an afternoon surprise. The expected rain seemed less than what was forecasted, but with the thunder came a bucket of heavy raindrops splashing against my kitchen window. I wanted to take it all in, the fresh aroma of falling rain and the beauty of water drops hitting the leaves of my nasturtium and petunia hanging baskets. Unfortunately, the rain cloud quickly fled, running away into the eastern sky. But then the sun made its way onto the scene, and I was drawn to a thick band of rainbow colors shining up at me. The western sky was magnificently orange, completely bound up tight with that solo color scheme. I went outside to catch it all before it would disappear. Creation again was causing me to pause in awe and wonder. . . Awe is that reverential wonder, that even includes fear and respect. It is only a 3 letter word, but it takes bigger and grander words to define it....

Complicated Relationship Living

Today is Mom's birthday. If she were here, we would be celebrating her 109th day of life. I can't believe that it has already been 20 years since she said goodbye to earthly living. I was much too young back then, at the age of 45, to lose my Mom. You always long for at least one more conversation to ask the questions you didn't get a chance to do. You often wished you would have had more talks, especially as you find yourself on a different side of life, other wise known as the senior years. As parents we always desire to keep our family ties together and close, but it doesn't always work out that way. When our parents were still living, and as they grew more elderly, they of course were the bond that brought my brothers and myself together. As adult children, we each had a unique relationship to them, but I am realizing now, that we didn't necessarily have a tie with one another. We were children of the nuclear family, ...

Mary's Heartbeats

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