Ordinary Life

  Wasn't there always warm welcome,  plenty to go around?  With heads bowed in gratitude,  Here love once was found. 

There's a table, You've prepared for me  in the presence, of my enemies... 2011 Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.” ~ Rom12 As I walk through this season of mourning, I stop along the way sometimes, wondering if these promise are still true for me, despite my own humanity. I believe that my heart was in the right place, but I am told, too, that hearts are wicked and deceptive above all else.  I hope that I have been obedient.  I hope that the desire for peace and love is not a seed wasted.  Motives are harder to be sure of when denied a share of the harvest.  Still, I will trust. It's all I can do. 

In their homes, and more intimately, their kitchens, I was always warmly welcomed. Warm, probably because there was always something delicious being cooked. Even at a young age, I was offered a helping role, a listening ear and the priceless gift of examples to follow. There are days in those kitchens I wish I could visit again, recipes I wish I had watched more closely, and soft, fleshy old women I wish that I could still glean advice from. This series of short essays and stories is an overdue payment of homage on the investments they made in me, a bank note of gratitude for those who are still, thankfully, with me.

Some stuff he won't be needing anymore... things that remind us he was here... and that he was our very own.

I started to write a post about loss (and legacy reels) back when my grandpaw passed away ...and then tried again recently when my uncle departed. Days got busy, I'm easily distracted and all of my attempts felt too frilly...too feely. What I'm really aiming to say has been said in countless ways so, maybe that is why I feel too antsy to pin the words down ( pen the words down?). It amounts to "Life is beautiful." though there are plenty of other worthy and valid things to be said about lives well-lived and legacies left behind. Like the following statements: "The Grand Canyon is large." "Niagara Falls is wet."  "There's gold in dem dar hills."  improvements could be made but the fundamental idea is present and accounted for. Sometimes that's the best one can do. So, here I am, sharing the video made in tribute to my uncle as a stand-alone excuse for where I've been lately, a picture-postcard from this other place for which ...

There's just something special about Walt Disney's Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. It is my favorite park for several reasons, and it seems to me one of the most fitting monuments to the man behind Mickey Mouse. At its inception, Walt said of EPCOT:  "EPCOT will be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise." Ingenuity. Imagination. America.  I think that's all of it in a nutshell.  Walking through the park makes me nostalgic. Not only for past visits and childhood adventures, but also for the strong broth of a certain philosophy, spooned to me steadily f...

When asked what she was most looking forward to at Disney, Riley hoped to meet Princess Aurora. Everyone else agreed that watching RyeBird explore the Magic Kingdom for her first time would be the highlight of our experience. While we didn't catch Sleeping Beauty this go around, Riley hardly seemed to notice once she got inside the park.  And we enjoyed watching her have a big day every bit as much as had been anticipated...even the part where she was scared of Daisy & Minnie... a decision she made only after we waited in a considerably long line, and only once we were close enough to judge they were just too big, too real for her comfort.  At the end of the day, Rye's favorite part was "Dream Along With Mickey"- the stage show at Cinderella's castle where we all defeated Malificent by chanting 'Dreams DO Come True!" until the jilted sorceress had no choice but to storm off in a huff and puff of smoke, promising we hadn't seem the last of her... (...

In a serendipitous turn of events various cousins from various corners converged on Amelia... I was delighted to be caught in the cross-hairs.  Christian is my cousin Joni's baby boy- he's from Augusta. Fisher & Logan are mine. Charley is my second cousin Chuck's baby girl~ she was there with her momma, Donna (and a BOY!). They're all from around Waycross.  Tyler is Joni's oldest girl, also from Augusta. Riley is also mine.  (Chandler was  @ the golf course)  We couldn't have planned it.  But we have proof it happened... Once Upon Amelia.  :)  

I love it when family comes to the island. Rye & Kayden catch up over ice cream.  Kayden is my younger cousin Corey's son (on momma's side.) This is his baby sister Coralyn. She's one of those babies I was privileged to help  pray into the world ;) Before the day was over, they were positively pirates!

It has been three years since Riley Wren flew into our life.  Happy Birthday RyeBird! We Love You! From Terrific Two to Tremendous Three... Oh, what fun this will be!

   Happy Eleventh Birthday, Fisher Kai! You are a wonderful part of our family. It is a joy to watch you grow and explore your world.  We love you! 

Some days we walk across the street for lunch... Blue Sky Day:  ...still wearing our tutu:  "SMPHELLING" flowers (scrunch your nose when you read that)  Finally convinced the tutu can skip lunch:  Lunch in the sand (and maybe a little sand in the lunch, if you get the seat next to PrincessTot) Happy campers headed home.

And in this segment, I finally finish up the Fourth of July photos. There are a LOT of them. This is because I can't bear to toss out any picture with a human element in it- fingers, knees, toes... whatever... if I can make out a person in the picture, I have to keep it (because, who knows when you may wish you had all the pictures you could ever want of a person, even only their toes...yes, this is how I think. I've grown used to it)  I've included far too many of them in this little post for this reason: Sometimes children move when you are trying to take their photo. I have often found that from one frame to the next a child may go from resembling themselves to an uncle or aunt or parent. With just the shift of a smile, the lift of a brow... all of a sudden a new resemblance is discovered. I don't want to cut any possibilities out for those family members who stay in touch via photos posted here.  For those of you who aren't related or somehow beholden to these c...