Category: Family

  • It might seem unusual to wander through a cemetery on your birthday, but that's what I did yesterday. There's a small one dating from the 1850's down the highway toward Marble Falls. When I heard it was blanketed with bluebonnets, I couldn't wait to visit it. There's just something about wildflowers growing beside a headstone that…

  • Butterflies flitted around me on my walk this morning, hopping from flower to flower too fast for me to capture in my camera. (The one above is from last week!) I imagined they were celebrating the beautiful morning… dancing a springtime jig of joy. It was contagious – I felt joy rising inside of me…

  •   Hope you're all having a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! Perhaps it seems odd to post a photo of a cemetery on this day, but this is no ordinary cemetery. It's a Shallue plot in Ireland. I didn't take the photograph, but I hope to visit it one day and pay my respects to my…

  • I haven't blogged in a whole week. I think that's a record.  Snippets and ideas for posts have popped in my head – random words are scribbled on scraps of paper all over the house and in the car – but I haven't been able to stop long enough to work them into full posts.…

  • Sky Blue is my favorite crayon color of all time. Today, God picked it to color the sky. I could imagine him sprawled on the floor of heaven, opening that big box of 96 (the one with the sharpener,) pulling out the Sky Blue, then, with side to side strokes, filling in the entire sky. …

  • Last week I helped celebrate my cousin Ronnie's life.  Looking through the photos afterward, Claire Bidwell Smith's words kept coming back to me… "Even in the midst of all this pain and sadness I see something beautiful."   I snapped this one of Ronnie's sister Cindy surrounded by her daughters, grandkids, and great-granddaughter because of the…

  • I'm late with my sweet!s. It feels like a whole month was stuffed into last week…highs and lows, late nights and early mornings, and miles and miles on the road. I've only been home long enough to sleep the past few days. I haven't even gone on a morning walk with my puppies since Friday!…

  •     It's somehow fitting that I've been reading Claire Bidwell Smith's The Rules of Inheritance for the past few weeks. Last night I dove into the final chapters, my mind still swirling with sorrow and joy that lingered from a quick trip to Houston for my cousin's funeral. Sorrow for friends and family wrapped tight in…

  • Today I'm driving to Houston. My cousin died a few days ago and I want to be there for his funeral tomorrow, Ash Wednesday. Ronnie was only 64. Not old, but not young, either. I guess "just enough time", as the Band Perry sings… but I can't imagine ever thinking I've had enough time. I'd…

  • Bonfire sparks drifted up to the sky where clouds parted like curtains and stars crowded the stage, accompanied by the singing creek beside us. No moon softened the darkness – the pitch wall of night rose just beyond the reach of the firelight.  There was a time not too long ago when I would have…