Oh what hath Jesus

 Done for me

Before my raptured eyes?

Rivers of Life 

Divine I see

and 

Trees of Paradise.

saturday hooplas

Along about Friday Mama decided to start sewing skirts for us girls.  Five skirts that we all had to wear by the next night.  So we stayed up until midnight or so, stitching the 'invisible stitch' and listening to as many Doris Day, Cascades, Sam Cooke and Disney songs  as we could until we got slower and tireder…and slower. and sillier and sleepier. The question, of course, was 'would they be finished'???…I felt a little like I was living in one of those atrocious reality shows where there's all this drama and bug eyed tears and a SCRIPT and a happy ending. But there wasn't a script, even though we knew of course that Mama would finish them in time, just because Mama is Mama. And that's that.  We took our skirts to Dawn's soccer game and sewed them there. Dawn almost scored twice, almost tackled a very hideous ref (you know the type) and we all yelled like a good southern family should.  We got things done.  Picked okra in our okra forest after the game, cleaned my room, worked out…. seems like we got more stuff done. I can't remember exactly.  But I know that everyone was 'laid out like flies' as GrandPatty would say. Zonked.  It was a dreadfully good day for an afternoon nap, I'll admit. But then it was time to go, and Dawn needed her hair done, and Milly couldn't find a belt and Chris came - he's so handsome.   Daddy had shined all our boots, so five clomping gals, plus Daddy and Chris and Mama, all shipped off to FSH Benefit for Muscular Dystrophy and the concert we sang in. Cowboy's attire. Amen. A good Saturday.

{to listen to a clip from the concert, click here}

this is saturday all summed up. look at our maple, poor thing. she's all wrinkly and cracked. but she's 

a dear old friend.

cowboy up

villain = merry's nickname for melody

merry to melody tonight:
'villain, i'm going to bed. wake me up in the morning, won't you?
just shake me then talk to me for a while.  but don't do that horrible 'maaayyylaaah…
time to get uuhhhhhhp…uhhhp..up up up!!!!
it's in the moorrrrning….'
because that will make me
 resolve to go back
to sleep.'

night, kids.

Dickens at Sea

 {    Life is so full sometimes I can't seem to pick out one thing from my brain and just write about it because all the other topics are equally bursting at the seams to be written about; so I have to compromise.  Turn away altogether from those thoughts that occupy so much of my time and write or copy something completely unattached to those eager topics. 

 Hence, a sea post, as we just visited it last week and more conveniently a journal excerpt.   }

                                                                                                                      Thursday, Aug. 

16, 2012 

I like the sound of laughter coming from inside our sea cottage and the continual scraping of furniture being shoved around, for there is always a new reason to move it again.  Move it all together for a movie, shove it apart for daily traffic; move it to corners for cozy, low conversations and all facing each other for devotions.
  Our house is a tall thing on stilts and with ivy in a canopy over the archways. 
  We have been happily situated in a quiet nook at the southern tip of the island.  Daddy was preparing to begin Dicken's "Our Mutual Friend" and he said 'Y'all boys come in here and learn how to get a girl!"
It's a stormy day and we've been snugly tucked away with pillows, blankets and arms, hands and hair cuddled and intwined together as we're heaped on couches, much like puppies. 
The dialogue in-between the script is almost as entertaining as the script itself. 
"What is happening? Why are they digging in the heap?"
"It is the bone man and the one - legged guy…" 
"He is a REALLY bad guy now, isn't he?"
"If you get attached to him, believe me, he'll die," said Mercy morbidly.
Uncle Zack nervously rubbed his fingers together, "Oh…gohllly…good grief…get out. shoot, man…this is gettin' kinda…scary…"
"Oh no! Oh no!" Mama shouted. We were all on edge.  "Not the river! not the RIVERRRR!!!" 
"…Goodness…she's going to refuse him…." And Grandmama looked dubious and perplexed.  "She's going to refuse him and he's going to drown…"
"Yep." said Uncle Zack, rubbing furiously and shaking his head with an intensely blank look on his face. "They're gonna drown together…Gohhhly…"
 At the sight of two men struggling at the river drop off, and both drowning, Grandmama exclaimed, 
"Dickens went a little far with that one!………..a little too far, I think."
At the end, Uncle Zack vowed off Dickens forever, Chris sighed heavily and said, pacing, "Boy! I'm just gonna have to think about all' at…." and Grandmama looked at her book "Christy" and said after a moment of silence…"My….Christy just may not be that exciting after Dickens…"
  Grandmama reads and I lie here, my head on her lap. She strokes my face and plays with my hair. Her hands are cool and strong. 

summer grass and thoughts...

     Are our minds not incredible things?  We live with them for decades and become accustomed to the unruffled method of thinking.  We take it for granted that we've settled into the State of Being in that thought place, which we'll be forever. But then a passage in a book, an unexpected conversation, a scene of particularly blended, light, texture, pattern and we're spirited away, as it were, to tunnels of thought we never knew existed. Nor would we have ever thought to ask if they existed as the natures of these thought tunnels are so wholly unimaginable.  And so then, from those mind caverns which we find ourselves in, we concoct experiments, we imagine theories, and connect potential dots to puzzlements of life in general.  Could there be a whole part of our minds that is simply bursting with brilliance and new thoughts??? How many times have we dreamed of beautiful compositions - music we've never heard, places we've never seen and poems we've never read, yet when we wake up it's fresh, almost vivid and just beyond our grasp? …  How masterfully crafted, how intricately designed!  We live in them and are them, and yet, we learn from them, in a way, discovering and exploring their unknown wilderness.

   Today was grass cutting and I do believe cutting grass is not only therapeutic but inspirational. I made two important discoveries today, namely:

* the combination of a hint of sweet grass, crushed {aged} pine cones, a pinch of summer dust and a little dab of lawnmower engine scent, would make an excellent cologne.
* i can pressure wash the dirt from my nails much more easily, quickly and comfortably than I can attempt to remove all such matter with jabby metal points.

 Oh goodness!!! the preacher was right when he said "Vaniy and vexation of spirit"!…That's all this world is! But thanks be to God our Father for His unspeakable gift and that He's begotten us unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 Heaven is going to be so good. 

So. good.

if i were a rabbit i would run here.

...daddy's tomatoes…

please note the dirt line. one of the dirtiest mowings yet, for some reason.

that He would wash me over

again

with that realization of His 

incredible sacrifice

and the love which prompted Him to do it,

the power which sustained him as He hung in agony on the cross.

i desire to know. 

Him.

that He would grow my heart to be that flourishing garden

where the warmth, comfort, strength, constancy of His presence

is ever known. 

this world is empty, empty. and wasted breath on everything we care about in it. 

God help me to be 

immersed 

in Yourself, lost to the world, won over to you

completely.