Talk about a big sky!

We went to see the wild mustangs (2300 of them) who roam on the Shadow Valley Ranch--it is such a wide open space. The mustang pasture is 5500 acres!

4th of July picnic

Gram-gram always enjoys fishing!
Sophie is celebrating her 1/2 birthday:

Brady & Mason on the rope swing:

2 cute girls!

We took Savannah and Chloe to camp in Arkansas today. Chloe spilled syrup all over her shorts and then a little later, spilled a cooler of ice water in her lap. 660 miles later, we are home, safe and sound. I hope the camp is ready for these two!

Trying to get 1 good picture

Visit to Aunt Irene's

Lena and I had such a good time visiting Aunt Irene in Oak Ridge, Tennessee! We talked a mile a minute, about everything from A to Z. We both loved her house--it sits on 3 wooded acres. She and Uncle Jerry built it about 45 years ago. Sadly, he passed away about a year and a half ago. It is such a peaceful place and filled with lots of memories.

We had a spectacular dinner--she made Greek stuffed chicken breasts and all the fixings to go with them. Then she topped it off with a homemade cheesecake--delicious! All by candlelight.

The next day we had a candle lit lunch with her. We were able to spend the entire day together while the guys were out riding the Tail of the Dragon. We spent most of the time on our knees praying they would get back safely : )

Easter 1943

I found an old picture of Mom & Dad that I had never seen before--love it!

Matthew 5:5 (The Message)

⁵"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

Western Kansas - May 2010

Playtime

I took my camera on my bike ride today...

and I found the perfect place to practice yoga, so I'm going to strap my mat on the carrier of my bike and zip over there! There is a lot of eye candy on the way there, so enjoy the pictures.

Mama geese with their goslings

See that gazebo at the end of the bike path?

My roses are blooming

My blue flowers are blooming (Lobelia)

More of the 3 Ts

Our little Sophie girl cut herself a fine mullet this last weekend. She very proudly asked me if I liked her haircut. It is a pritty scary piece of work! However, KT and I think she is pretty cute with bangs!

Movie trailer from "Babies":

I went to see this movie last night with Melanie and Chloe--we loved it! Here are a few scenes from it...

Mother's Day 2010 - flying kites

Babysitting the 3 Ts

(All 3 love the massage "papa bear chair")

Lena's turn--April 29

My brother's birthday today--April 28, 1946

1974

For Grief

When you lose someone you love,
Your life becomes strange,
The ground beneath you becomes fragile,
Your thoughts make your eyes unsure;
And some dead echo drags your voice down
Where words have no confidence
Your heart has grown heavy with loss;
And though this loss has wounded others too,
No one knows what has been taken from you
When the silence of absence deepens.

Flickers of guilt kindle regret
For all that was left unsaid or undone.

There are days when you wake up happy;
Again inside the fullness of life,
Until the moment breaks
And you are thrown back
Onto the black tide of loss.

Days when you have your heart back,
You are able to function well
Until in the middle of work or encounter,
Suddenly with no warning,
You are ambushed by grief.

It becomes hard to trust yourself.
All you can depend on now is that
Sorrow will remain faithful to itself.

More than you, it knows its way
And will find the right time
To pull and pull the rope of grief
Until that coiled hill of tears
Has reduced to its last drop.

Gradually, you will learn acquaintance
With the invisible form of your departed;
And when the work of grief is done,
The wound of loss will heal
And you will have learned
To wean your eyes
From that gap in the air
And be able to enter the hearth
In your soul where your loved one
Has awaited your return
All the time.

-- John O’Donohue

Presents

I give you emptiness

I give you plenitude,

unwrap them carefully –

One’s as fragile as the other –

and when you thank me

I’ll pretend to notice the doubt in your voice

when you say they’re just what you wanted.

Put them on the table by your bed.

When you wake in the morning

they’ll have gone through the door of sleep

into your head. Wherever you go

they’ll go with you and

wherever you are you’ll wonder,

smiling about the fullness

you can’t add to and the emptiness

that you can fill.

Norman MacCaig.

For Melanie-Pearl:

"If you could imagine the most incredible story ever, it would be less incredible than the story of being here. And the ironic thing is that story is not a story, it is true. It takes us so long to see where we are. It takes us even longer to see who we are. This is why the greatest gift you could ever dream is a gift that you can only receive from one person. And that person is you yourself. Therefore, the most subversive invitation you could ever accept is the invitation to awaken to who you are and where you have landed. Plato said in The Symposium that one of the greatest privileges of a human life is to become midwife to the birth of the soul in another. When your soul awakens, you begin to truly inherit your life. You leave the kingdom of fake surfaces, repetitive talk and weary roles and slip deeper into the true adventure of who you are and who you are called to become. The greatest friend of the soul is the unknown. Yet we are afraid of the unknown because it lies outside our vision and our control. We avoid it or quell it by filtering it through our protective barriers of domestication and control. The normal way never leads home.

Once you start to awaken, no one can ever claim you again for the old patterns. Now you realise how precious your time here is. You are no longer willing to squander your essence on undertakings that do not nourish your true self; your patience grows thin with tired talk and dead language. You see through the rosters of expectation which promise you safety and the confirmation of your outer identity. Now you are impatient for growth, willing to put yourself in the way of change. You want your work to become an expression of your gift. You want your relationship to voyage beyond the pallid frontiers to where the danger of transformation dwells. You want your God to be wild and to call you to where your destiny awaits." --John O'Donohue

Dad's 90th birthday--April 13, 1920

Been climbing trees I've skinned my knees

My hands are black the sun is going down
She scruffs my hair in the kitchen steam
She's listening to the dream I weaved today
Crosswords through the bathroom door
While someone sings the theme-tune to the news
And my sister buzzes through the room leaving perfume in the air
And that's what triggered this.
I come back here from time to time
I shelter here some days.

A high-back chair. He sits and stares
A thousand yards and whistles
Marching-band (Boom-ching)
Kneeling by and speaking up
He reaches out and I take a
Massive hand. Disjointed tales
That flit between short trousers
And a full dress uniform
And he talks of people ten years
Gone like I've known them all my life
Like scattered black 'n' whites….

(Thanks, Chloe, for the sad Elbow song)

Babysitting the 3 Ts

My little 9 year old grand-monkey

Happy Birthday, KT⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡The Big 6-Oh!

May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where there is great love, warmth, feeling and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant or cold in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship and affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them, may they bring you all blessings, challenges, truth and light that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your anam cara (soul friend).

John O’Donohue, from Anam Cara, a book of Celtic Wisdom.

Thoughts on the Seder Meal

The Foundry joined Wheatland Mission last evening for a Passover Seder meal. Since we are studying the Tabernacle at the Foundry during 2010, it was great to get into more Jewish lessons.

My favorite parts of the seder?

I love the way children ask the questions--"Why is this night different from all other nights?"

I love being "obligated" to drink 4 glasses of wine. I had never polished off a bottle of wine before.

I love to taste things I have never tasted before. Who would have thought that the symbol for mortar (charoset) could be so good? Chopped apples, red wine, honey, walnuts & cinnamon.

I loved the "Dayenu", the account of all of the things God did for the Israelites. Even if He would not have done them all, "it would have been enough for us."

I loved it that of all the children, Kalon found the afikomen!

I love the way grace is said all through the meal--we gave thanks for the fruit of the vine with each glass of wine. It made me want to keep the gratitude going with each blessed meal I am so fortunate to eat.

I loved celebrating with friends whose hearts were also very touched with the retelling of the story of the Exodus.

"L'shanah haba'ah b'Yerushalayim hab'nuyah!" (Next year in Jeruselem!)

Easter Grand-Chicks