Holy Hope
Thanksgiving has passed and the pumpkins are shriveled, ready for the compost pile that will feed next year’s crop. We’re waiting for snow here. It’s December in Wisconsin and we love white blanketed farm fields and the still quiet that comes in winter. Yes, we’re waiting for stillness and quiet and white. The whole world’s […]
Thanks Giving in Pain
Our farm has been dusted in powder sugar snow and flakes are flying as I write. I love the climate changes here in Wisconsin—the unique beauty of every season. The horses are now blanketed for the harsh northwest winds. The cats are snuggled in their polar-fleeced hay igloo in the barn. The tractor has been […]
Our God Sees
Just recently, I learned of a hidden discipline going on in our home. Nick thought it up and has been implementing it daily for two months. He makes me laugh. Like me, Nick loves country music. We laugh when singers croon about trucks and tractors and beer. I break into my scolding Granny voice and wag […]
Moving Movies and the First Snow
Some movies move us. Last night, our family watched an extraordinary documentary listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest film screening in history. On August 11, 2012, in Milwaukee’s Miller Park Stadium, 28,442 people gathered to see Honor Flight—The Movie. They also came to honor the last of a dying generation—dying […]
True Friends, True Love, True Life
A true friend sent me a picture this morning on Facebook. A man and his horse in the background with these words in the foreground . . . Your greatest test is when you are able to bless someone else when you are going through your own storm. How do we bless others when we’re […]
Out of Sight
We wait at the end of the driveway for the school bus, Nick and I. Drizzle and gray and damp cold with no sun seen for three days straight—we know this weather well here, this time of year. Sometimes it’s hard to keep believing there’s a sun up there when all looks dreary. But […]
Seeds of Courage
Courage. That’s what I need. And comfort. My heart hurts. And rest. I’m soul tired. Courage. Comfort. Rest. Where do I go? I went to the lake—to our cottage on Lake Michigan, just ten miles north of our home. I went alone after church on Sunday because I craved solitude and quiet more than I’ve […]
Dry and Rattled
Is dry and rattled ever a good thing? Around here it is. Our south field is full of soybeans waiting. Dried up and rattling with the wind blowing through, plant leaves have gone from green to gold to brown, all in a season. And the beans are about ready for harvest. Am I? I have […]
Loser
Not for those in a hurry, but for those who crave real. After a week of observation—seeing human patterns and needs—this is for seekers and believers . . . I’m a loser. Aren’t we all? We’re all losers because we’ve all lost something, somewhere along the way. We know, in our deepest, darkest cracks. And […]
All I Know
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. These words were in my mind as I woke this morning looking out our bedroom window over paddock with horses blurred in fog and raised sun haloed, beams dissipated by water droplets floating. Autumn. My favorite season—one of many reasons I […]
Golden Day
Today’s the day. Your golden birthday. Twenty years old on September 20th. Officially, you are no longer a teenager. And you look like a man with your hairy legs, lean and muscled body from running, and face that Dad and I still have to remind you to shave—at least on Sunday mornings. Twenty years old. […]
The Harvester Tree
I have never written a poem. There is my disclaimer. But I can’t get the image of a particular tree in Alaska out of my mind. And so I wrote words—words that tumbled out of my mind and onto a page. Perhaps you might find some meaning, some hope, from these few words spilled, even if […]