bean bags

A dear friend of mine told me this:
"Sometimes you take risks when God says you're ready, and other times He asks you to even when you're not."
Perhaps some of the best advice I've heard this year.

high-tails

I am wondering if a simple change of scenery is better than a simple listen to my heart.
(Thanks, X.)

"For They Shall Be Called Children of God"

I do not concern myself with things
too marvelous for me.

I pull young buckthorn after the rain
and watch the cranesbill fill in,

tie a clover around my child's wrist
to stop her from crying after a fall.

I do not concern myself with matters
too great. I skim the article

once or twice--rebel fighters,
refugees, tankers billowing smoke.

Shall I say each time my eyes wander
to the blue stars of lilac tumbling

from a jar on the table,
that I love those lilacs more?

I will die being no help to this man
curled around a broken IV

on a floor in Sri Lanka.
I would like to sink into his stare

and pray him through his nightmares.
But first I lie in the grass

and bury my face in the great skirts
of the sky, making peace

with the carpenter ants and the other
small brilliances of my life.

Tania Runyan.

boots, heavier.

Sometimes my chest feels like an old, bedraggled tomcat crawled in and filled its entirety with paws and half a tail and one scarred eye. And sometimes all I can hope is that a wild pack of dogs will come careening around the next corner and chase him off for a while.
Leaving room for the next critter to climb in.

antsy

Amidst all the moving and roving and re-arranging, it is easy for me to believe that I lack many things.
But besides all that, blessed are the peacemakers, the mourners, the comforters, & the innocence.
It's almost too normal to be encouraging.