Category Archives: Musings

To whom, child, are you offering?To self-glory, or to Me?Acclaim? The world’s acceptance? What gods do you really seek?Yes, excellence may be a goal As you work, create, and strive Yet, who is that truly, deeply for? For Me? Or for your pride? The world demands you to conformRise above the churning fray I’ve conqueredContinue reading “The Offering”

“Oh, how exquisite!” she exclaimed, while gazing out her window. The old woman’s yearning was rewarded with a delightful surprise, a very small red bird perched on her porch railing, looking this way and that. “I wonder what he is thinking?” she thought to herself. “He is so tiny, so different from the other birdsContinue reading “A Curious Bird”

Holidays passed, the New Year firmly entrenched, a lapse in time seems to hang in the air. Emotions have run high for so long… is this what it feels like when the swells of rising tide recede back into the deep, away from the rocky, sandy shores that have been beaten and lapped and carvedContinue reading “Before Sailing On”

It was a little thing. Just business cards. A handy way to share information about my blog. But for some reason the image on the front looked off-center, the font on the back so small I could barely read it. According to company policy I could call if not completely satisfied, so I did. IContinue reading “Unexpected Grace”

It is a wonder to me that each of us are adopted sons and daughters into the Body of Christ, grafted in, if you will. Wild unruly things, some thorny and rigid, others more easily flexible and supple, grafted into the Vine of Christ, He the Vine, we the branches, grafted amongst those naturally growingContinue reading “Accepting Graft-hood”

Considering those years long ago when grade-school relationships were hard and capricious, I wonder at the differing abilities we each employ to cope with hurtful ways people treat us, and one another. Some laugh off the taunts of others, ignore them, or serve back a bucket full of the same. Others become insecure, even depressive,Continue reading “The Win of Forgiveness”

You’d think a scar would fully meanThe wound has finally healed Then years go by and suddenly A festering’s revealed Mind and heart scroll upon Themselves a memory deep “Pain-body” is a term I’ve heard For wounds, once sound asleep Then anything remotely close To the cause of that old pain Renews the memories ofContinue reading “Beneath the Scars”

Battered, bruised, wrapped around Poles, like lanyards where I’m foundExtended beyond my earthly reachTo realms of questions, concerns too deepFor my shallow mindYet while I whip and freely waveOn stormy winds, or balmy days,I find myself securely heldBy ties that bind, cannot be felled,Contain my fragile mindWhat keeps me fast to life secure?That floats meContinue reading “Tether Sure”

The doorbell rang, I looked outside There stood a tiny childBundled warm from top to toe She stood in winter mild Curious I ope’ed the doorWondering what she’d brought With luminous eyes she looked at meAnd our gazes locked In moments brief she calmly spokeWithout an uttered word She read my soul of weighty griefContinue reading “The Tiny Tree”

As I ponder the New Year, and think of the past, evidences of disdain continue to pop up in my world, like an unexpected booming firework, its sound and lights startling. Webster defines disdain as: a feeling of contempt for someone or something regarded as unworthy or inferior : SCORN. As a verb it means:Continue reading “Fighting Disdain”

The timer started, wrestlers tense staring into each other’s eyes, mocking, watching, anticipating the first move. The high school gym was hot, fans, referees, athletes all dripping in the late afternoon heat. It was the final match, everyone was ready for the long day to be over, yet this was the finale, the peak ofContinue reading “World Class Wrestling”

Some days I wonder about purpose, how important my life really is in the big scheme of things. Sure, I birthed two children, step-mothered two more, and am loving them all, plus seven grands. Over forty-three years I have loved and stayed faithful to one husband, worked and served in nursing, have ridden the rockyContinue reading ““Can Ya Hear Me Now?””

When I was very young the goal of becoming perfect seemed the highest ideal I could imagine. From where that thought germinated I have no idea. It is only in the last several years I have more pointedly pondered the meaning of that desire, perhaps endeavoring to solve a mystery in me. In reading God’sContinue reading “A Circle Of Rainbows”

It’s snowing! It’s snowing!White flakes floating downCrystalline stars of iceBearing from above Pristine gifts from Heaven A welcomed sight amidst Bright or dreary days Reminders that far beyond Is One who emanates Exquisite unending Love

The sun shown brightly on a light glazing of snow that gave hope for a white Christmas. My brother popped by, early morning elf delivering family gifts, and as we visited asked, “Have you read your email?” While I searched the cousins’ thread of news, he quietly announced, “Ron died last week.” It took someContinue reading “Tsunami Christmas Eve 2021”

All the gifts were wrapped for Christmas, but this one box of sparkly white wooden snowflake ornaments. The exquisite snowflakes, most likely laser cut, were intricate, nine different designs, two of each. Somehow they had captured me one day as I shopped for a birthday gift. Who needs more ornaments? Were we even putting upContinue reading “Eighteen Ornaments”

Millions of tiny paratroopers invaded my yard today Falling from an overcast sky, dark and cold and grey“Whence come you?” I wondered aloud as my gaze was castTo watch the snow flakes tumble down, winter here at lastOr could they be but dandelion seeds blowing on the windOn a balmy summer day, to lift andContinue reading “Wondrous Invasion”

Pregnant pause, the muffled din Ceases clamor, listens in To the sounds of silence Tires crackle an icy road Pierce the quiet, presence told Then vanish in the silence The lingering laugh of children pulled Toboggans careening round the woodTil bedtime claims their silence Trees and bushes heavy full Wear coverings of frozen wool Birds,Continue reading “A Snowy Night”

As Christmas time comes round againOur hearts review of life beginsTo ponder truths or whys beneathThe things we do, prospects to meetThe yearnings deep beneath the smilesLonely, wounds, unending trialsAnd still the night returns to dayThen night again as carols play And deep within our hearts we wonder“Why, oh why is all a blunder?”Yet, deeplyContinue reading “At Christmas Time”

“Ho! Ho! Ho!” sang a sweet voice across the expanse of snow. I sat slumped in my car, wrapped in fleece jacket and down coat, unsure of what to do next. Christmas was less than three weeks away, and although I was near “ready” in the secular sense, I could tell my spirit was illContinue reading “Christmas Greetings”

Tiny crystals began to formFrom whisps of dew drops floating highGathered in a cloudy shape Rising in a dawning skyBefore the sun peeked o’re the hillsThe cloud rose higher joining more Droplet crystals merging there Glittering unique icy forms The cloudy weight could not hold That beauty all within itself Released its tiny flakes toContinue reading “Snowfall”

Skimming along with the wind through America’s heartland I am impressed with the vast fields that go on as far as the eye can see, the rise and fall of the land a great ocean tide. Dotted here and there, miles in between, a single low-slung building, or two, hiccup the horizon, companioned by aContinue reading “Of Land And Wind”

Rocketing along at seventy miles per hour, our black Subaru stuck to the highway with all of its however many pounds fully loaded. We were literally left in the swirling dust by tanker trucks and a curiously fuzzy fishing boat. Covered with dead bushes and branches, at first it appeared someone was hauling dead woodContinue reading “Somewhere In Kansas”

Undulating plats of rich plowed earthPimpled with rounded bales of hay Stubbled whiskers glisten the dirtRemnants of corn from harvest day Wind gusts swirl o’er endless seas Fallow lands renew once moreWheat and corn to sprout again Repeat the cycle o’er and o’erMetal cones with pointed hats Squatty silos filled with grain Sentinel outposts inContinue reading “Nebraska Fields”

For some reason my psyche just was not up to it, walking into a situation that made me very uncomfortable. A place I had been many times before, and yet this time seemed threatening. I looked woefully at my husband…”I feel like I’m walking into the lions’ den.” In the Old Testament the prophet DanielContinue reading “Facing The Lions’ Den”