turtle

Gratitude Questions

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

  

Gratitudes, in Question Form:
1. What brought you sudden joy? Walking the labyrinth I mowed into the parking lot, and hearing the screech owls begin their whinnying conversation as I was on the outward laps. What do I take with me into this season? Screech owls calling in the bamboo.
2. What was a relief? Coming home to the air conditioned room.
3. What made you smile? Hearing a boy, as he set up a puzzle in the living room: “We can call ourselves puzzle people, can’t we? We’re puzzle people.”
4. What made you think? Reflecting on the themes and ideas in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” And Michael Booth’s words in chapel about owning our stories instead of letting them own us.
5. What challenge did you face? Heat. Being exhausted from heat. Talking over the sound of the fans and air conditioning unit. I made it through, faced the challenge. I can’t do this for too many more days, but I think I can do another day.

May we walk in Beauty!

Ducklings

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Here are the links to my books:
Song of the Toad   Book Cover

Yesterday’s prompt was to write a poem about family.

Down in the wetland
where the creeks divide
and reunite,

a pair of mallards dabbles
in the shallows
of the swiftest bubbling waterway.

Among the grasses
of a little pool nearby
twelve ducklings

dip and bob,
muddying the water.
Up on the grassy bank,

wide-eyed and watchful
a young snapping turtle
bides its time.

 

Gratitude List:
1. All the fragile, tender life of springtime.  How tenacious it so often is, against the odds.
2. Stories of holy surprise
3. Rebirth.  Every day.  Every leaf unfurling, every flower opening, every bee in a flower.
4. Reminders, no matter how painful, to strive, to become more compassionate, to open, to open, to open.
5. How a little of of practice, every day, begins to develop muscles: yoga, piano, memory, compassion, letting go. . .

May we walk in Beauty!