kitchen

Listen

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / 2 Comments

cairns

Gratitude List:
1. Kitchen work.  I don’t consider myself to be particularly cheffy, though I like to eat and occasional experimentation in the kitchen can get the creative juices flowing.  I have been getting meals ready to freeze for a family trip, and I have been loving puttering about in the kitchen, making this dough and that filling, and testing sauces.  Yesterday I started using the word bechamel. I just may become insufferable.
2. Sitting out on the front porch reading with snuggly kiddos.  This is overlaid on my memories of sitting on the front porch of the house on Ann Street in Philippi, West Virginia, snuggling up to my own mother as she read to us.  May these boys continue to layer such memories themselves in some distant future.
3. Water.  I just take it so much for granted.  Open a tap, and fresh, clean water pours out.  We drink spring water here in the hollow, and it is some of the best water I have ever tasted, almost wild. May the waters all run free.  May everyone have access to good, clean water.
4. There are sane and wise voices out there, even in the political realm.  You may have to listen carefully amid the clamor, but there are sane and wise perspectives here and there.  (I am struggling to hold on to this one, but I have to.)
5. You.  You’re steady.  You’re thoughtful.  You look at things with clear and wise eyes. As long as I know you’re out there, caring and tending and watching with me, I can keep up hope.  Here we go: we’ve got this day at least!

May we walk in Beauty!

How it Begins

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / 2 Comments

 

Have you caught the rustle of wings

as the train rushes through,
hardly slowing to stop at the station?

Have you felt the breath in your ear
as the quiet sun leaps from the ridge
and touches your face like a lover?

Have you noticed the shadow that darts
just at the edge of your vision
as the river flows with purpose
under your ancient bridge?

And suddenly, before you–
before you can take another breath,
the madness is upon you,
the craving has taken you,
the pen is in your hand,
the words glow and bleed
beneath your fingers.

Gratitude List:
1.  Major kitchen renovations that cost less than $200.
2.  Book Faeries.  They keep coming back to this list.  After last night’s discussion of My Side of the Mountain, we got the recommendation for the lovely book We Were Tired Of Living in a House, which we have checked out of the library and which we love.  That reminded me of the books that one of our Book Faeries gave us last year: Miss Twiggley’s Tree, and Andrew Henry’s Meadow.  I am beginning to find great hope for us all when there’s such a theme running through children’s literature of people living outside of civilization.
3.  Grandma Jane’s stories.  And poems.  And songs.  A little boy was too shy to appear to be listening, but he followed it all with an eager heart despite his quiet face.
4.  Dandelion wine
5.  New ideas blazing through

May we walk in Beauty.