(extra)ordinary day

I pulled weeds out of the cracks in our driveway tonight. Less poetic than the Bishop's evening garden walks, but equally therapeutic. (Another reference to Les Mis...I'll try to pace myself. I'm only on page 98 of 1463). When my heart and mind are calm, I love doing yard work. I make joking references to transforming our house so that it outshines those in Better Homes & Gardens, but immediately wonder why. Don't I hate everything that magazine stands for? (What does it stand for?)

Anyway.

I find joy in creating spaces where people feel loved, comforted, relaxed. Charlie and I shared a hearty breakfast of applesauce and watery coffee on the back patio this morning. It was the sun and the music and green vines reaching for our hair...

Memories of moments like these sustain me through our nine months of wet and cold, when I gaze not out the window but at dull folds of window coverings and a million shades of gray and warm my soul by the golden glow of nutmeg-scented tea lights.

I squinted down at seaweed and crashing waves through sandy toes this afternoon as I lounged on a sheet with Clarissa at the Edmonds Beach. She noticed but forgot to mention that my shoulders were burning. A bit tender tonight, but I don't mind - bring on the cancer! (I don't actually mean that.) I resolve to suck the life out of every last ray of sun and twilight bird song God provides this summer. Each day is precious.

When I visited Alaska two years ago I was struck by how much they valued daylight. We frequently stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning because the moon never shooed us to bed. It's a shame to sleep while the sky remains illuminated...

I copied the following quote into my journal tonight, and to it say "yes and amen." God is steadily broadening and deepening my understanding of what it actually looks like to be a follower. Sometimes it's messy.

"Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself" (Unamino, quoted in Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle).

This post made possible by the accommodating folks at www.flickr.com/photos/charlier.