“What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it.”

--C.S. Lewis

Happy birthday, C.S. Lewis!  When the world turns cold and frosty, I recall the beautiful scenes in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe where all of Narnia is covered in winter, awaiting the magic of Aslan and the Pevensie clan to release it from the spell of Jadis, the White Witch.  I have fond memories of reading the books to my younger siblings all across Montana and Wyoming in an un-airconditioned station wagon, and thinking how wonderful a world of ice would feel during that hot August trip!  My first car in college (a hand-me-down station wagon from my grandfather that was perfect for lcramming many girls in for late night bakery runs) was named the Dawn Treader, in honor of the mighty ship that bore Prince Caspian, Lucy, Edmund and nasty Eustace past the Lone Islands and on to the Easternmost Ocean.

Later, I had the joy of re-discovering Aslan and Mr. Tumnis all over again when my own little ones clamored to hear the stories of magical kingdoms filled with talking animals, including dashing little mice with deadly swords.  One of my favorite parts of the first book was the lovely friendship that blossomed between Lucy and Mr. Tumnis.  From two different worlds, these two were able to form a strong bond of trust and friendship and loyalty.  While The Chronicles of Narnia are labeled as children's literature, the underlying message is certainly for adults as well, and during this advent season of preparation it might be nice to revisit these perennial favorites as a way of preparing our hearts for the light of Christmas Day.  Thank you, C.S. Lewis, for sharing your beautiful stories with our world, which needs a little thawing also.

The Nativity C. S. Lewis

Among the oxen (like an ox I'm slow)
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with an ox's dullness might at length
Give me an ox's strength.

Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Saviour where I looked for hay;
So may my beastlike folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.

Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baa-ing nature would win thence
Some wooly innocence!

A dollar for daring to dream....

After all the hub-bub at my home over Thanksgiving, with relatives visiting, my daughter getting engaged, attending a holiday concert that my husband was helping produce, putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving so the kids could get their ornaments on it before heading back to college, and then celebrating my thirtieth anniversary yesterday....I hadn't given much thought to what I was going to write for today's post.  I am not quite ready to start talking about Christmas yet, but when I went to the convenience store for a cup of coffee this morning on my way to work, inspiration hit.  I had to stand in a rather long line and watched while person after person bought a cup of coffee and put a few dollars down for a dream.  A five hundred million dollar dream, to be exact.  Is that crazy money or what??!! 

Two years ago while we were camping in Door County, we spent one memorable night under the stars at the American Folklore Theater in Peninsula State Park, attending its premiere of Cheeseheads The Musical.  It is a rolicking story, based on the true events of a group of Sargento Cheese production workers in Fond du Lac, WI, who won $208 million in a 2006 lottery drawing.  There is a really cute song in the musical about daring to dream by purchasing a lottery ticket, a song that must be playing in millions of American heads today. 

Over the weekend my husband kept finding a quarter and a dime, everywhere he turned.  Pocket of his bathrobe...quarter and a dime.  Opened the kitchen pantry...quarter and a dime fell out onto the floor (from my pantry, what the heck?!).  Coat pocket...quarter and a dime.  So, needless to say, we succumbed to today's frenzy as well, and 25 and 10 are two of the numbers we used! 

Dashing to the store

To purchase just one more

Maybe I will win

Thinking with a grin

Lottery tickets, lottery tickets

Numbers one two three

Oh what fun it is to play

No need for a money tree

(it shouldn't come as a surprise that lottery poems were hard to find....!)



Win or lose, I love my life and feel so blessed - I guess I've already won in the lottery of life!

A One in a Million You

It feels a bit surreal, but today marks my 100th post!  What started as a 'creative outlet' this summer has turned into an important part of my day--planning what to write, hunting through poems and pictures to share something meaningful with you, and in the process rediscovering how much I love to write.  Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

And speaking of journeys....today is my husband and my thirtieth wedding anniversary!  I'm really not sure where the time went, but I know it has encompassed a lot of memories and adventures, plus mountains of laundry, house projects (advice for my young readers...you get to thirty years of marriage by NOT hanging wallpaper together!), and Tuesday night 'what's for supper?" conundrums.  It has spanned weddings, births, the loss of loved ones, family celebrations, camping trips, cross-country vacations in mini-vans, trips to the ER, health scares, and a staggering amount of soccer games, basketball games, baseball games, football games, ballet recitals, orchestra concerts, plays and piano recitals.  And lucky me, because through all of it I have had the best partner and friend one could hope for right by my side, through thick and thin, for better and for worse.  Happy anniversary to my amazing husband, and I'm looking forward to the next thirty!  Hopefully there will be even more fun and less laundry....

Wise men say only fools rush in

But I can't help falling in love with you

Shall I stay

Would it be a sin

If I can't help falling in love with you

Engagement Photo

Like a river flows surely to the sea

Darling so it goes

Some things are meant to be

Take my hand, take my whole life too

For I can't help falling in love with you

November 27, 1982

I can't remember when you weren't there

When I didn't care for anyone but you

I swear we've been through everything there is

Can't imagine anything we've missed

Can't imagine anything the two of us can't do



Honeymoon, Cancun, Mexico

Through the years, you've never let me down

You turned my life around, the sweetest days I've found

I've found with you ... Through the years

I've never been afraid, I've loved the life we've made

And I'm so glad I've stayed, right here with you

Through the years

25th anniversary, Santorini, Greece

Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you there's no one else above you
Fill my heart with gladness
Take away all my sadness
Ease my troubles that's what you do

For the morning sun in all it's glory

Greets the day with hope and comfort too

You fill my life with laughter

And somehow you make it better

Ease my troubles that's what you do

There's a love that's divine

And it's yours and it's mine like the sun

And at the end of the day

We should give thanks and pray

To the one, to the one



All the precious time
Like the wind the years go by
Precious butterfly
Spread your wings and fly

Good morning!  I hope you had a wonderful time over Thanksgiving--that your heart was filled with joy and love and gratitude.  My holiday was filled with hellos and goodbyes.  My mother, my sister and brother-in-law, their two children and their exchange student from Sardinia arrived Wednesday evening and filled my home with happy laughter.  It was so wonderful to have them visit and so hard to say goodbye yesterday.  It's difficult when loved ones live so far away and visits are limited to a few times a year.  But along with the bittersweet arrival and departure of my family, my husband and I also welcomed into our family....our daughter's fiance!  Oh my! 

My 'baby girl' arrived home from college late Wednesday night with a beautiful heirloom ring on her finger and a happy light in her eyes.  Her fiance is the kind of man parents dream of their daughters meeting--kind, steadfast, caring, and so in love with my daughter.  Welcome, Andrew, to our family!  But even the happy news of an engagement brings another type of goodbye, doesn't it?  Farewell to my sweet little girl, and hello to the lovely young woman that has taken her place.  Being a mother can really pull at the heartstrings....

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning

Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness

And I have to sit down for a while

The feeling that I'm losing her forever

And without really entering her world

I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter

That funny little girl

(Slipping through my fingers, ABBA)

Where are you going, my little one, little one,
Where are you going, my baby, my own?
Turn around and you're two,
Turn around and you're four,
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.
Turn around, turn around,
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.

(Turn Around, Harry Belafonte)

 

You're beautiful baby from the outside in.
Chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again.
Go on, take on this whole world.
But to me you know you'll always be, my little girl.

(My Little Girl, Tim McGraw)

In my daughter's eyes I am a hero
I am strong and wise and I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal
Darkness turns to light and the
world is at peace
This miracle God gave to me gives me
strength when I am weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter's eyes

And when she wraps her hand
around my finger
Oh it puts a smile in my heart
Everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about

It's hangin' on when your heart
has had enough
It's giving more when you feel like giving up
I've seen the light
It's in my daugter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
Though she'll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I'm gone I hope you see how happy
she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes

(In my Daughter's Eyes, Martina McBride)

Andrew and Caitlin

Someday, some boy will come and ask me for your hand

But I won't say "yes" to him unless I know, he's the half

That makes you whole, he has a poet's soul, and the heart of a man's man...

(My Little Girl, Tim McGraw)

May God richly bless both of you!

Many years ago at one of the Thanksgiving dinners we were hosting, my schoolteacher cousin arrived with a gem of a book in her hand, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.  It is a bouncy, exuberant book about bouncy, exuberant relatives who arrive for a long awaited visit.  It's filled with love and the simple joys of being family--doing chores together, squeezing way too many bodies into too few beds, and sharing the stories that become part of the family oral history.  My mother, my sister and her family will load up their car today (a very respectable mini-van my sister will want me to point out, and nothing at all like the car below!) and make their way from South Dakota to my front door tonight.  We'll cook together, we'll laugh together, we'll distribute kids and sleeping bags in various rooms, and we will definitely eat way too much pumpkin pie, but oh my, it will be so wonderful to share this weekend with them.  I wish all of you a Thanksgiving filled with love and gratitude, and I will be back next Monday....time to bring out the Christmas poems! 

"They had an old station wagon that smelled like a real car, and in it they put an ice chest full of soda pop and some boxes of crackers and some bologna sandwiches...they drove all day and they drove all night and while they traveled along they looked at the strange houses and different mountains and they thought about their almost purple grapes back home.  They thought about Virginia--but they thought about us too.  Waiting for them."

Thanksgiving

(Edgar Albert Guest, 1881-1959)

Gettin' together to smile an' rejoice,
An' eatin' an' laughin' with folks of your choice;
An' kissin' the girls an' declarin' that they
Are growin more beautiful day after day;
Chattin' an' braggin' a bit with the men,
Buildin' the old family circle again;
Livin' the wholesome an' old-fashioned cheer,
Just for awhile at the end of the year.

Greetings fly fast as we crowd through the door
And under the old roof we gather once more
Just as we did when the youngsters were small;
Mother's a little bit grayer, that's all.
Father's a little bit older, but still
Ready to romp an' to laugh with a will.
Here we are back at the table again
Tellin' our stories as women an men.

Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;
Oh, but we're grateful an' glad to be there.
Home from the east land an' home from the west,
Home with the folks that are dearest an' best.
Out of the sham of the cities afar
We've come for a time to be just what we are.
Here we can talk of ourselves an' be frank,
Forgettin' position an' station an' rank.

Give me the end of the year an' its fun
When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;
Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,
Let me sit down with the ones I love best,
Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,
See the old faces unblemished by wrong,
See the old table with all of its chairs
An I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers.

 

 

In 1945 the Saturday Evening Post depicted a Norman Rockwell painting of a soldier home on leave, enjoying Thanksgiving preparations with his mother.  And while many of us are busy preparing our homes for the arrival of relatives and friends for this wonderful American holiday, there are so very many men and women deployed around the world who will be celebrating with their loved ones in spirit only.  On Thursday, when we gather around the table I hope all of us will take a moment to remember our patriots who defend our freedoms each and every day.  I am filled with gratitude to live in America, and so very thankful for those who keep our loved ones safe from harm.  Thank you, troops, and God bless each and every one of you.

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-great-thanksgiving-prayers/#ixzz2ClYF4Ltg

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-great-thanksgiving-prayers/#ixzz2ClYF4Ltg

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-great-thanksgiving-prayers/#ixzz2ClYF4Ltg

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-great-thanksgiving-prayers/#ixzz2ClYF4Ltg

Thanksgiving Prayer

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-great-thanksgiving-prayers/#ixzz2ClYF4Ltg

For each new morning with it's light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

For everything thy goodness sends.

                   --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Norman Rockwell's The Four Freedoms

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-great-thanksgiving-prayers/#ixzz2ClYF4Ltg

There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old  pump looks than it used to. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.            

---O. Henry

I have always loved Thanksgiving.  When I still lived near my family in South Dakota my husband and I welcomed my parents, my siblings and their families, their in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends to our home.  We'd borrow extra banquet tables and folding chairs from the church and set up 'children's tables' in the family room.  We still use the turkey napkin holders my children made so many years ago--it's part and parcel of all the lovely traditions that families develop over the years.  Now that my son is married, he and his wife are starting new traditions that involve both our family and her family, a beautiful blending of people who come together to celebrate life and love and the union of our children.  

Perhaps because my ancestors were Pilgrims the day has always held a special meaning for me, and I have tried through the years to incorporate as much history as possible, along with the mashed potatoes, turkey and pumpkin pies.  I serve George Washington's ragout of onions and Thomas Jefferson's special apple pudding.  After the movie I saw this weekend, I'm thinking I need to find a recipe that Abe Lincoln would have enjoyed to add to the menu.  My husband and I watched one of the world's finest actors, Daniel Day Lewis, become Abraham Lincoln in an Oscar-worthy performance.  The movies centers on the last four months of the Civil War, as Lincoln and his Secretary of State, William Seward, fight to bring the 13th Amendment, the Abolition of Slavery, to a vote in Congress.  It is a stirring and emotional movie, and I loved every minute of it.  Did you know Lincoln established the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving in 1863?  So today I leave you with his proclamation, hoping that all of us can join together in a spirit of 'peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.'

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State