Mindful Living
-
Echoes
Another post I’m moving over from my old blog, Windscraps. This one is from April, 2005. Zac was only two when we started our goat adventure. No doubt, that played a big part in our decision to name the two brother goats “Grover” and “Elmo.” I have no idea why we named the third “Mama Goat,” unless it was the fact that she was old enough to have given birth to the other two. Or maybe our brains were tuckered. Mama Goat had horns – sharp, scary horns. I liked her fine when I went out alone to feed her, and didn’t give her pointy weapons a second thought, but…
-
Renew Your Awe – Part 1
Last summer I spent some time with a friend who was going through a time of despondency. She just couldn’t seem to pull herself out of her sadness, although there wasn’t any one thing in particular making her sad. But she also admitted her focus had been on herself, and she hadn’t spent much time in prayer or in the Word. After our conversation, I thought about how easy it is to spiral when we’ve wandered a bit from God. As I do so often when I’m processing something, I started writing down my thoughts. And when I looked at the many pages I ended up with, I realized it…
-
Chick Wisdom
She came out of the woods one day and sauntered around the corner of the house with four unexpected fluff balls in tow. She’d never let on that she had a nest out there. She’d been holding out–and this day was show-and-tell. If ever a hen exuded pride, she was it. She had a right to that pride. Those chicks are perfect little hen-lets. Teensy eyes, stick-figure legs, miniature bodies so downy-light, the yellow seems to hover about them like an aura. That first day, they followed her across the sea of gray concrete with their tiny hearts beating madly in their mini chests. Where was she taking them?…
-
10 Questions to Help you Conquer Clutter
Catchy title, isn’t it? I have to mention this book by Margareta Magnusson because it happens to encompass all of my thoughts and motivations for decluttering. It describes the practice of elderly Swedish people who, facing their final years, purge their homes of unnecessary items so their children don’t have to do it when they’re gone. Sound familiar? 🙂 So I was browsing a minimalist website last January, and I stumbled on Nourishing Minimalism. Within a few clicks, I found a post about a yearly decluttering challenge. The challenge for last year was to get rid of 2018 things in 2018.
-
Here, Kitty
The skies are gray and the rain has begun, but I can’t say there’s a storm brewing like the one in this post from a few years back. I wish I could! 🙂 Mocha came home two days ago. It’s not that she ever really left, but before I heard and saw her scratching at the back window forty-eight hours ago, I knew her only as a hushed whisper that watched me from shadows and teased me from between the top row of hay bales. I’d sense she was up there and try to lure her out, but in the last two or three years, I’ve probably touched her only…
-
A Life Recorded
Her name was Martha, and she was born eleven years, two months and thirty-eight days before me. She was covered by Farmers Insurance and adhered to a strict regimen of minerals and supplements; her daily dose included 300 mgs of Passionfever and 500 mg of Psyllium. Her blood type was A+ and she had no allergies. I learned all this when I found and skimmed Martha’s six-ring, refillable, 2001 personal planner in a nearby thrift store. Tucked in among the other planners—some oversized, some slightly scuffed, some just plain nasty looking—the small, earthy-colored tapestry cover caught my eye and drew my hand into the book bin. I loved the feel…
