Background Music

 

Hello.  This morning I am listening to Chris Rice's The Living Room Sessions and reading Gladys Taber's Stillmeadow Daybook.  Peaceful.  

Do you like the bird embroidery?  A nice young girl stitched the birds for my mother and father-in-law many years ago.  Handmade gifts.  The best gifts.   

 Yesterday I accomplished a little "deknitting" while watching Lark Rise to Candleford (I know, AGAIN!)  A yellow sweater I had been working on for a few years (gasp!) was not quite right.  I knew all along the pattern and the stitches were not leaning toward sweater success.  It took an hour to unravel the back, the fronts, one sleeve.  I'm not sorry.  Fresh start.

 Here's a little line-up of hospitality.  The granddaughters are drawn to tea cups.  We've experienced a little breakage, thus the mismatched collection. 

 The birds are singing outside.  It's misty.  We've had a lot more rain than we're used to and the earth is thriving.  Yesterday, I walked the trail with a friend and it is so green!  Bill got up in the night to watch a huge thunderstorm.  Nature is so romantic.  Right now, Chris Rice's rendition of "Great is Thy Faithfulness" makes my soul respond, "Yes. Yes. Yes." 

 I have piles of books to read, but I keep popping back into the pages of Anne.  Isn't this a pretty copy?  What an inspiring character Anne is.  She likes beauty, friendship, imaginative freedom, and she embraces all the potential of happiness.  

I believe people are rather starved for attention.  Sometimes we don't believe our story is quite entertaining enough.  Isn't it a gift when we allow those around us to talk and talk and talk as we listen to the cadence of their voice, the chosen words they use to tell their tale?  How long has it been since we've said to someone, "I love to hear you talk."?  I've been thinking about this.  What do you think?

 I made a little collage on a blank page of the Bible I'm doodling in. 

Here's a little Gladys Taber July "talk" for you:
"Summer is so brief, so packed with living, I hate to see each day end.  The long twilights are like separate amethysts strung on a silver chain."
"And the moon is right over my apple tree, and this is July in New England.  The mind makes many journeys, but the heart stays home."
May your heart be comfortable at home.  May someone sit before you today, so you can listen to their voice, hear their story.  May you reap the silent invisible offerings of joy that lodge in your soul-home, girding you up for forever.  Now is good.  Forever is better.