Quiet Down, Cobwebs

Cleaning and scrubbing
Can wait ’til tomorrow—
For babies grow up,
We have learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs,
And dust, go to sleep—
I’m rocking my baby
‘Cause babies don’t keep.

 

{A couplet from Mom, from we don’t know where…}

The Slits

One eye barely open. One eye hermetically-sealed shut. It might be the dead o’night. But we’ve got work to do. A tiny tummy needs topping off. And so we stare at each other through our single slits. Taking each other in. Willing but exhausted. Keeping our lactose vigil.

To Preserve the Grace

To preserve the grace of your birth. It is a sacred privilege. To remember the purity of those hours. The laboring for someone. For you. For your daddy. For our family. To meet you. To know you. I want to remember. That self-emptying is life-giving. That humbled bones will rejoice. That suffering for another person enlarges the heart and hardly feels like suffering at all. I would have done this for you for days, sweetest baby. And I hope, by God’s grace, to labor always. For your sake, for Daddy’s sake, for the sake of our neighbors, and our long-suffering Savior. To remember always. And always to love.

Inside Out

Oh, sweet baby. Welcome to the outside. Inside was all mystery and movement. Precious in its silence. Where you were, shrouded only a skin’s width away. We wondered about your ways. Marveled at your presence. Your very person wrapped in a bundle of waiting, a bundle of prayers. And now our imaginings have melted into the miracle of your little face, your tiny toes, your milky grin. All our hopes fulfilled in your safe delivery, your grace-filled journey to the outside… to the inside forever of our grateful hearts.

Body & Matter In Spiritual Life

Here is a link to a beautiful article about the role of the body (and of the physical world itself) in spiritual life. This has been a very important issue to me through the years. But more on that another time…

 

 

Janet

Some guests feel at home. And that is lovely. Some guests make themselves at home. And that is lovely, too. But lovelier still is the guest who makes you feel, yourself, more at home. Such is my friend, Janet. And such was her stay. And such is the deeper, sweeter, fuller, and richer sense of home I have in this place. Thanks to her.

Easter Praise

Let us who have beheld the Resurrection of Christ worship our holy Lord Jesus, Who is alone without sin. We worship Thy Cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection. For Thou art our God, and we know none other beside Thee, and we call upon Thy Name. Come, all ye faithful, let us worship Christ’s holy Resurrection, for behold, through the Cross joy hath come to the whole world. Forever blessing the Lord, we praise His Resurrection. He endured the Cross for us, and by death destroyed death.