This Week December 14, 2012 – What Nourished Me

After school I pulled Madeline onto my lap and we sunk deep into the red bean bag chair.  I memorized the smell of her hair and the beautiful dimple that comes out in her left cheek when she’s being tickled and couldn’t get enough.  I rubbed Caedmon’s cold cheeks with my hands and pulled his head onto my shoulder whispering that I was so glad I got to be his mama.  And Xavier?  We splashed in the Wellness Center therapy pool later and giggled as he emptied my water bottle on my head.  It was a halting giggle, but after today’s New Hope tragedy, I have baskets full of patience.  So thankful for my safe little family and so extremely sad that we live in the kind of world where some are not safe.

Jesus, Redeemer, Resurrection, bless with healing sleep those New Hope families in homes lit up for Christmas but heavy with grief.  Be present, risen Christ and walk through their walls, even those presently being built in fear.

And this last week?

I fell in love with this magazine, the simple life, at Barnes and Noble today.  The fresh Donna Hay-like photos, the message, the call to fully enjoy what we have already been given.    Plus, it is British and I get to vicariously enjoy spying on simple lives across the large water. The magazine is deliciously seasonal and makes you want to sink into an easy chair in front of a fireplace with a book and a full teapot complete with tea cozy.

In the simple life, I discovered Susannah Conway who guided the reader through thanksgiving by being fully present in their senses, a type of feasting on the present.  Thank you, Susannah, I love perusing those gorgeous polaroids strewn through your site.

To hers I add these simple joys:

My favorite Christmas humidifier? A simple pasta pot simmering throughout the hours filled with oranges, whole cloves and a cinnamon stick.

The elaborate notes my daughter leaves around the house.  This one found after decorating the Christmas tree.  “I love you mom and dad and brothers.  You bring so much color to my life.  My heart could burst.” (All in a first graders spelling, of course.)

Clementines

and our 17th wedding anniversary coming up.  The simple joy of a marriage that has traveled over hard bumps and found an open restful space.  Yup, that’s us.

Then, I found this, a post by Justin Zoradi, founder of the organization, These Numbers Have Faces which again grounded my ego.  Thank you.  And my favorite lines?

“Your relative smallness next to God’s great vastness enables us to do something small and to do it very well. Your calling to the small things is the great invitation from the light that the darkness cannot overtake.”

I am called to small things, not big things, and in fact, God’s small things, not even my small things.  Clarity.

And you friends?  How did God nourish you this week?  What are your simple joys? What are you reading, listening to?  How did the New Hope tragedy affect you?