Restoration

Wilderness beckons

From beyond the bend,

An ocean of earthy smells

Where core calls to core,

Deep to deep.

Lofty green falls yellow to the earth.

I tread leafy golden coins

Leading to greater treasure,

Persevering to Bethesda

To watch for angel wings

Troubling the water.

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Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up (troubled) the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 

The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. 

-John 5:2-8

A Colorful Fancy Day

My local 7-year-old granddaughter and I get together every so often for special one-on-one time we call Fancy Day.   Our most recent Fancy Day was unique, as usual, and colorful...in every sense of the word!

First we prepared dinner for her family.  Not a ready-to-eat, come-sit-at-the-table-right-now type dinner, but a crock pot mixture to be kept in the freezer until needed: Mexican Chicken. Later in the week, on a busy day when her mom spends the day hauling kids to homeschool co-op and elsewhere, she and her siblings and parents will enjoy her culinary efforts that have been bubbling away in the crock pot for hours.  Perhaps the Mexican Chicken will be rolled in tortillas, or served atop rice, and maybe topped with shredded lettuce and cheese or a dollop of sour cream.  Mmmmmm!

Crafts are a major focus on each Fancy Day, and I give her plenty of choices.  (You never know how the creative juices will be flowing, so it’s good to have options.) However this time, one was mandatory: a knitting project.  With a pair of huge needles, size 35, and some piping cord, she successfully knit a kitchen trivet for her mom, start to finish in one sitting!

String art was her favorite project du jour, something I remembered doing at Girl Scout camp when I was around her age.  She chose a palette of pink and lavender embroidery floss from a wide assortment of exhaustive rainbow colors, saying, “I love all the colors, but these are my absolute favorites." Then she wound the floss around nails in a board (prepared by grampa) to form an attractive pink-and-lavender heart.   

While looking around outside for a good spot to take a picture of her completed string art (“I think I should pose so nature is in the picture too, okay?”), we discovered a newly hatched baby turtle floating in the lake next to the seawall. I mentioned, “He’s so small, I hope he makes it through the winter,” which enabled a teachable moment with lively conversation about the pros and cons of bringing a wild animal into captivity.  Although she wanted to take him home, we agreed neither of us had any idea what to feed him.  So we kept him for the rest of the afternoon as an adored pet in a pan with a little water, and then set him free. 

She painted a couple of plaster figurines, one of which she proudly announced should be done in primary colors.  After initially rinsing her brush of yellow paint, and then blue, she pointed out an interesting-looking shape in the rinse water. 

“It’s becoming teal, isn’t it?” I said.

“What?  What’s teal?” she replied.  “I haven’t heard that word before.”

"It's a color. Here, let me show you." We looked online to see different shades of teal, and then stirred the water until it almost perfectly matched one of the samples.

“I really like teal.  Especially our shade,” she proclaimed, owning the newly discovered color.

This led to a conversation about the evolution of colors, how combined primary colors form secondary, and secondary formed tertiary – another in-the-moment lesson that seemed to fit right in with the activity.  She listened carefully.  “I love all the colors, but this figurine needed to be primary,” she explained.  As if to punctuate that decision, she accented her primary masterpiece with strands of matching red and blue clay, woven together.

All in all, it was a very colorful Fancy Day.

The Day Before the Last Day

We tend to count our years in summer around here, which means tomorrow will be sort of a last day for us.

We’ll take out the fishing boat, the only watercraft still left in the water.  Then the rest of the pier.  And the swim ladder.  Oh, and the grandkids’ water slide.

So. Today has been the day before the last day.  It started early, when my husband was out on the lake before dawn catching fish.  This was his last morning for a while with a pole in his hand.

Dry leaves drifted aimlessly along the seawall, going nowhere in particular, oblivious to end-of-season activities and nostalgia.



Around noon we shoved off for a final ride in the pontoon boat, before bringing it ashore.

Hours later, after trailering the pontoon into the yard and investing some serious elbow grease, another extraordinary sunset marked the close of the day...before the last day.  Tomorrow as the sun sets we'll be celebrating another year at the lake, counting our blessings here under the sun.

Holy Moment

Spilled liquid gold

Shimmers on the water:

Immeasurable wealth.  

Heavens overhead glow brazen

As if to penetrate time and matter,

To open a holy window.

A single white-tipped finger extends

With bold initiation (as in Michelangelo's fresco),

Suggesting creation never ends.

A Pair

The old man

Is 66 with heart issues,

A playful grandfather 

In love with life,

Who has never grown up.

The young man

Is 19 with brain cancer,

An insightful college student

In love with life,
Who is growing up before his time.