To Behold

I got to spend part of the day with my friend’s (almost) one year old daughter today. While I was giving her a bottle before her afternoon nap, she looked up at me with her big brown eyes and stared at my face. She just kept staring right at me and I felt like everything in the world was okay.

I was okay.

There is just something about children and the way they look at the world with such sincere curiosity. It’s alarmingly comforting to me.

Of course, as they get older those eyes see more and store more and their gaze is not as innocent as it started out. It happens to us all, somewhere in those first few years on this planet.

I don’t really remember what it is like to look at something or someone and simply behold them, like my friends daughter did with me today.

Instead, behind my eyes is often skepticism, self-doubt, mixed motives, fear.

But oh, to see the world as a child does, to accept a person for who they are and not for what they’ve done or haven’t done, to trust without fear, to cry without shame, to eat without worrying about the next meal.
I desire that kind of abandon.

Mr. Rogers

Okay, so I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I've lost it. I've been posting mostly about books lately, have used the word wonderful like 3 times in the last week and now I'm posting about Mr. Rogers. Next I'll be posting about what my favorite variety of Daisy's are, right? Well, before you write me and Mr. Rogers off, just give these videos a chance. You have to watch this first one in it's entirety to really feel it, I think. It takes a minute to get used to how slow he talks but I think it's good for us. So If you have 6 minutes and 50 seconds to spare, watch this clip of Fred Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate in 1969.



I mean, there really was something about this man, huh? I never thought I'd be so inspired by Mr. Rogers. I feel especially connected having the same name and sharing a love for sweaters. :) If you have another 6 minutes (it's well worth it, in my opinion) here he is accepting his lifetime acheivement award at the Emmy's in 1997.

Gilead

I just finished a wonderful book called Gilead by Marylin Robinson. It is quickly climbing my list of favorite books. The book captures the inner monologue of a dying man in a long letter to his young son. It's really beautiful. Here is one of my favorite sections. I don't have children but I just thought this was profound, the way it's said.

"The story of Hagar and Ishmael came to mind while I was praying this morning, and I found a great assurance in it. The story says that it is not only the father a of a child who cares for it’s life, who protects its mother , and it says that even if the mother can’t find a way to provide for it, or herself, provision will be made. At that level it is a story full of comfort. That is how life goes-- we send our children in to the wilderness. Some of them on the day they are born, it seems, for all the help we can give them. Some of them seem to be a kind of wilderness unto themselves. But there must be angels there, too, and springs of water. Even that wilderness, the very habitation of jackals, is the Lord’s. I need to bear this in mind."

Nashville Summers

It’s not every day you can take your dog to the symphony. In Nashville there are two days in a year and tonight was one of them. The Nashville symphony plays in Centennial Park a couple nights in the summertime and I was so grateful that it didn’t rain tonight. Oso and I got to the park right before they started playing the theme from Superman. We found a spot near the back of the crowd and I laid down the sheet I brought for us to sit on. My plan was to tire Oso out before things got rolling but I didn’t get there in time to do that so... Oso was extra alert. Luckily, even when he’s excited he’s still pretty chill. So he stood and sat and looked around anxiously, watching the kids playing next to us. One of them had red croc-like shoes that looked like cars and came up to show me how proud he was of them. His version of petting Oso was more of a tapping, but Oso seemed happy for the attention. My favorite song they played was the Olympic Fanfare and Theme by John Williams. I just love that piece of music and every time they use it in Olympic commercials I get so excited! (looking forward to the games this summer) It was great to hear it live.

10 reasons I love Nashville in the Summer
1. symphony in the park
2. Shakespeare in the park
3. movies in the park
4. the flea market (happens all year but is more exciting in the summer)
5. the farmers market, especially when the blackberries are ripe
6. fireworks on friday’s at the Sounds games
7. Sounds games
8. iced coffee drinks. (I know I can get these most places, but I have my favorites here..)
9. The green. It’s very green here. I love it.
10. Summer Concert series... these don’t really happen anymore but I keep hoping they’ll bring em back. Who is they? Who do I need to call?

Add your own town list if you want, or just come visit Nashville in the summer! But not in August if you can avoid it, you’ll melt.

Thomas Merton's Wonderful Reminder

A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him. It "consents," so to speak, to His creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree.

The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him. If it tried to be like something else which it was never intended to be, it would be less like God and therefore it would give Him less glory.

No two created things are exactly alike. And their individuality is no imperfection. On the contrary, the perfection of each created thing is not merely in its conformity to an abstract type but in it's own individual identity with itself. This particular tree will give glory to God by spreading out its roots in the earth and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after it ever did or will do.

-Thomas Merton, From the book New Seeds of Contemplation

*Thanks Alice For quoting this during your teaching the other day. I needed to hear it...

This painting is "An Old Acquaintance" by Megan Lightell

Life Lessons From Baking #2

#2 Never justify making a recipe that you know you can't resist eating by telling yourself you'll give most of it away. You won't, you'll eat it.

There is only one recipe I've found that is like this for me and I made it today. It's a vanilla wafer- like recipe. It's basically just butter, sugar and vanilla (and eggs and baking powder and salt...) and for whatever reason, every time I make it I end up standing at the counter staring at the tray of cookies saying "just one more" until the tray is almost gone. This results in feeling absolutely gross for the rest of the day. Cookie baking is a hobby of mine, and I can normally get by with a finger-full of dough and 2 cookies fresh out of the oven. I'm fine with sending the rest with my husband to work. But apparently, this vanilla cookie recipe will never make it to Kirk's office.

If I ever make them again.... I'll be sure there are about 10 friends over to witness the moment when they come out of the oven, because I won't make such a fool of myself with all of them watching.

Lesson I learned this afternoon?

If you can't resist the temptation of the cookie, then don't give yourself the opportunity to eat it.

A Path Drawn by Man, Soul-Audio Blog #3

I forgot to put up a link to another Soul-Audio blog that I wrote.

Read about a walk Oso and I took a couple weeks ago. Exciting, I know. But somewhere in there are the words earthquake, spike, and umm.... turtle? Did that make it more interesting or more strange?

Either way, read about it here if you'd like to. I've been impressed by Soul-Audio's content, be sure to check out the rest of their site if you have a chance.