“That one?” she said. “Is that one quite alive-quite?” Dickson curved his wide smiling mouth.
“It’s as wick as you or me,” he said; and Mary remembered that Martha had told her that “wick” meant “alive” or “lively.”
“I’m so glad it’s wick!” she cried out in her whisper. “I want them all to be wick. Let us go around the garden and count how many wick ones there are.”
~ The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illustrated by Tasha Tudor
I’m so glad there’s green, life, and hope YET! Spring is here! Thank You, Jesus!
From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.
Let me live forever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings!
Psalm 61: 2-4, NLT
What’s been inspiring me? ♥️🌿
•listening to•♥️🌿
BTS’ new ‘Arirang’ album. 💿 A bit different than what I expected but it’s growing on me. I don’t love lots of language or overly sexual themes, but there’s enough deeper lines/ideas that got me thinking. Hope to write a few of my own poems based on some of the lyrics.
💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
I’ve also started the audiobook of Quarter Labyrinth by Victoria McCombs on the recommendation of a friend! It’s included free with Audible currently! I really hope our weather will warm up a bit so I can get outside walking and listening. 📚🎧
•reading•♥️🌿
I always have a healthy stack 😏🤪 of things I’m dipping into! I’ve started my two buddy reads and I’m currently really enjoying slowly rereading my favorite Victorian novel of all time, Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. It’s almost an annual reread for me. My 14 yo is listening to it for the first time and enjoying it! I’ve also been craving a reread of The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge. It’s been awhile and it’s a perfect spring read.
If only I had this gorgeous vintage copy! 😍♥️🌿
I’ve also been enjoying the Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz about a 14 yo spy with M16. The fifth? one made me definitely warm up more to Alex who seemed a bit cold/distant at first. They are so adventurous and thrilling. Definitely super violent, but compelling. I also just dove back into Donna Leon’s Commasario Brunetti’s police series. She writes Venice and Brunetti’s family life SO well, that I’ve just fallen in love with Guido as a police detective. The crimes are gritty and disturbing, so if you don’t like police procedural type detective novels, these may not be for you. I feel so immersed in Venice and his friendships and his family that I’ve come to love them! They are a fast, great Kindle read that I get through the library!
This one ☝️ was 5 star 🌟 for me!
•watching•♥️🌿
I really haven’t watched much recently as I took a Booktube break for the Lenten season. I did put on hold at the library the first Season of Dr.Quinn Medicine Woman 🤪🤣 to see if I can get my hubby to watch with me during the chilly, spring nights.
•noticing• ♥️🌿
How cute my little guys hands are! He has bad dry skin in the winter and we’ve been rubbing Aloe Vera into them each night. He’s such a blessing. 🥹♥️🌿
I’ve really been noticing and remembering little tidbits from this lovely collection of quotes!
“God has not called me to be successful, He has called me to be faithful. When we stand before God, results are not important. Faithfulness is what matters.”
•Mother Teresa•
Happy Easter, my friends! 🩵💜🩵
How ‘bout you? What are you listening to, reading, watching, noticing? ♥️🌿📚 I’d love to hear! ~
“The face of the enigmatic Jew seemed weighted with an almost insupportable burden of anxiety. The eyes, narrowed as if in resigned acceptance of some inevitable catastrophe, stared straight ahead toward Jerusalem. Perhaps the man, intent upon larger responsibilities far removed from this pitiable little coronation farce, wasn’t really hearing the racket at all.
So deeply absorbed had Demetrius become, in his wide-eyed study of the young Jew’s face, that he too was beginning to be unmindful of the general clamor and confusion. He moved along with inching steps, slanting his body against the weight of the pressing crowd, so close now to the preoccupied rider that with one stride he could have touched him.
Now there was a temporary blocking of the way, and the noisy procession came to a complete stop. The man on the white donkey straightened, as if roused from a reverie, drew a deep sigh, and slowly turned his head. Demetrius watched, with parted lips and a pounding heat.
The meditative eyes, drifting about over the excited multitude, seemed to carry a sort of wistful compassion for these helpless victims of an aggression for which they thought he had a remedy. Everyone was shouting, shouting-all but the Corinthian slave, whose throat was so dry he couldn’t have shouted, who had no inclination to shout, who wished they would all be quiet, quiet! It wasn’t the time or place for shouting. Quiet! This man wasn’t the sort of person one shouted at, or shouted for. Quiet! That was what this moment called for-Quiet!
Gradually the brooding eyes moved over the crowd until they came to rest on the strained, bewildered face of Demetrius. Perhaps, he wondered, the man’s gaze halted there because he alone-in all this welter of hysteria-refrained from shouting. His silence singled him out. The eyes calmly appraised Demetrius. They neither widened or smiled; but, in some indefinable manner, they held Demetrius’s a grip so firm it was almost a physical compulsion. The message they communicated was something other than sympathy, something more vital than friendly concern; a sort of stabilizing power that swept away all such negations as slavery, poverty, or any other afflicting circumstance. Demetrius was suffused with the glow of this curious kinship. Blind with sudden tears, he elbows through the throng and reached the roadside.”
The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas, p. 73-74
Happy Good Friday, my friends. A horrible, yet beautiful day I remember as a Christ-follower. I recently was privileged to read with three friends a stirring historical fiction centered around Marcellus, a Roman soldier and his slave, Demetrius. We follow Marcellus as he crucifies Jesus and wins his homespun robe in a gambling match. Douglas seeps us in the rich, historical setting of first century Rome and ultimately, we walk away with a profound sense of wonder. We who touch the presence of Jesus are never the same.
I was deeply moved by this novel and it made me rethink how I live day to day. How would my life look if I actively acknowledged His real presence right in and around me? I highly recommend this book! ♥️
A beautiful hymn we are singing in our homeschool co op has been hanging around in my heart as I think of what my Lord’s death and Resurrection mean to me. I used to love Christmas the most, but slowly as I’ve lived more life, the hope, spring-freshness, and LIFE to Easter have become a most meaningful time for me.
Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die…”
Millay’s poetry has been recently touching me deeply. Do you have a current favorite poet? Mine is constantly changing. I’m a lover of words and Beauty of poetry often waylays me! The other morning I stopped with great delight over my steaming coffee and knew that I was hearing the spring peepers on our little pond. It brought me so much joy. I received a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas last year and I’m sooo glad I picked this giant tome of her work. ♥️♥️♥️
My daughter and I admiring the rays we just got to pet! 😍♥️
Hello Friends! New fresh month, no mistakes in it yet! I’m hopping on to share that I’m going to attempt to do a bit of a 100 Day Project here! I’m excited to have a little something to challenge myself with and a place to dump all the beautiful ideas I’m gleaning. I have no format for what I will be sharing, it may be little more than a brain dump some days🤪😅, lists, a photo, a quote, and so on. My hope is that it will encourage and inspire you. What am I doing with the little I’ve been given? That is the question I’m asking myself currently. ☺️♥️🌿
Soooo, what prompted this plan? A couple things! My oldest child, my daughter, is engaged to be married later this year! 😳😭😍♥️Nothing like a family wedding to celebrate and work towards in multiple areas. Secondly, my sister kindly gifted me this book and we are going through it together:
I’m already a pretty established journal-er, but wanted to step it up a notch! By journaling HERE, my poor dark, quiet blog friend, 🤣 and using it as a catalyst for little writing creative projects. I see these as offerings of worship. 💜🌿
My goals and poetry writing notebook. Yes, weird combination, but it’s working currently. 😅💜 I found some fun graphics on Pinterest to color in as I go!
I also love my little to do/gratitude daily journal so will be keeping up with that! Another strange combo that works well for me!
My absolute favorite journaling is my reading journal and I have two buddy reads beginning this month! 😍💜
My reading journal spread where I will paste my April read book covers and short review! 💚🌿New this year has been favorite reads by month! 📚Buddy Read #1 📚♥️Buddy Read #2 📚♥️
I will be using the prompts in The Book of Alchemy and also continuing The Body Revelation questions, both with my sister. ☺️♥️Those are most likely private prayers/entries etc that go into my spiritual journal.
How ‘bout you? How do you ‘begin again’? How do you breathe life into creative or life projects? Having some sort of paper/stickers/glue and pens always motivates me! 🤷🏻♀️😂♥️ I’ll leave you with a quote that I saw that has me thinking deeply!
“…they fear love because it creates a world they can’t control.”
Do you ever feel stuck? I was recently struck by how stuck I am, this overwhelming sense of not living in the joy and resurrection power of the Lord Jesus. I was actually listening to an audiobook, about the fictional and unflappable Mrs. Pollifax. In the first of this novel series, the widowed, aging Mrs. Pollifax, questions her worth and what she is doing with her life. Her solution is to go and do something she has always been interested in. Join the CIA! 😂 I was struck to the quick about my wallowing, woe-is-me attitudes. Where is the resurrection power being lived out in me? Why am I hiding? Why am I cowering? Worrying? Trying to control my circumstances?
His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
2 Peter 1:3, CSB
These verses in 2 Peter and Wendell Berry’s poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, challenges me to live fully and wholly. To live like there is something beyond myself and my woes. 🪴🪴🪴
So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love somebody who does not deserve it.
-Wendell Berry 🌿
I don’t want to be worry-driven, short-fused, and impatient. I want to ‘dwell in possibility’, living simply, patiently with others, myself, and the Lord. I want to rest in my daily ‘round and find my delight again in listening, learning, deeply loving. No need for fretting, guilty-thought trains, or shoulda-woulda-coulda junk. Pay attention. Walk and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Live with an ‘expectant attention’ (mishmash from Charlotte Mason, Amy Carmichael, and Scripture) and practice living resurrection.
~first time making hot cross buns in honor of Good Friday~
A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
John 10:10 CSB 🌷
Ask questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
~Wendell Berry ☕️
Laughter is immeasurable.Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
~Wendell Berry 🪺
Take the first step, Oh my soul…♥️🌿
I’m determined in my heart 💜 to choose again (and again and again) Jesus’ joy and resurrection power. Just making conscious choices that I know help me pay attention and relax into the Lord. Prioritizing my quiet time. Going outside. Holding online things very lightly, getting dressed in comfortable clothing I love, doing a little summer mom learning project with a IRL friend, taking good care of myself and my family, finishing little projects I love, and doing small, short trips. Not giving into overconsumption in any area of my life – frantic reading, buying random stuff, food, media, but a soaking in the Life-Giving Abundance of Jesus!
You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.
I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches from secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD. I am the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
Isaiah 45:3, CSB
And as they sang, the fear and the suffering of the long winter seemed to rise like a dark cloud and float away on the music. Spring had come. The sun was shining warm, the winds soft, and the green grass growing.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter
Shadows and coolness, Lord,
Art Thou to me;
Cloud of my soul, lead on,
I follow Thee.
What though the hot winds blow,
Fierce heat beats up below?
Fountains of water flow-
Praise, praise to Thee.
Clearness and glory, Lord,
Art Thou to me;
Light of my soul, lead on,
I follow Thee.
All through the moonless night,
Making its darkness bright,
Thou Art my Heavenly Light-
Praise, praise to Thee.
Shadow and shine art Thou,
Dear Lord, to me;
Pillar of cloud and fire,
I follow Thee.
What though the way is long,
In Thee my heart is strong,
Thou art my joy, my song –
Praise, praise to Thee.
Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways
I’ve been thinking about shadows. Without the darkness of life, how can we see the light? It’s easy to forget my deep need of Jesus when things are smooth and relatively calm. I love strolling under cloud shadows and how they seemingly race across the road. The sun bursts out eventually, drenching all that was dim for a moment. I want to remember that even though my back is bent with my burdens, He is there with me, His presence making them light. How are you today? Weary and heavy-laden? Under dark shadows of life? He has given us His divine power for everything pertaining to life and godliness. The Light flickers and flares in the shadows. ♥️🌿
dense shadows blindfolding dark drinks hope strike match flicker of faithlight look straight into the eyes of Shadow arrow of The Light slices through
I’m excited to start a new little ‘something something’ here. Just as we celebrate National Poetry Month, Letter Writing Month, (thanks for telling me, Kim!), Easter, and soak in the earth coming alive. A month to celebrate newness, resurrection, and the wheel of seasons turning again. I have a few things I’m simmering, so I hope you are as encouraged and inspired as I am about a freshness blowing through the windows…
How ‘bout you? Anything brewing in your heart? 🌿🌷✨
Novelist Katherine Anne Porter wrote, “Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist-the only thing he’s good for- is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.”
“There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But-and this is the point-who gets excited by a mere penny?”
“It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won’t stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is simple. What you see is what you get.”
~Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, p. 17, emphasis mine
What pennies are lying around just waiting for us to pick up? ☀️💕🥰☕️🌿🍄
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 