I prefer to look backwards at the holiday season. This hairy woodpecker is the symbol of all that happens under the title “Holidays”. We travel more, eat more, laugh more, cry more, want more, give more and all this affects the rhythm of our families and our lives.
The reason I like to look backwards is because it give me a better perspective on the hairy holidays. I can remember the good and forget the bad. The task list which is so big late in the year in now finished, forgotten or not applicable any more. I can take a deep breath and believe again.
What bothers me is the energy that is pushing the holidays. I want to believe that it is a spiritual energy, but I think it is consumerism. I want to turn off consumerism and not feel guilty. It is hard.
This gorgeous Hairy Woodpecker helps me remember even something beautiful can peck away at our lives and be destructive. This family friend from my yard gets suet balls to keep him off my wooden swing. He’s back every day with beauty and a little bit of pecking to remind me that everything is not good or bad, just real and inspired by a loving presence.

Happy Post Holidays! I hope your time was full of love and life, crying and laughing and reminds you that family is a gift even as it pecks away.

When I moved out into Christmas Tree Land 10 years ago, I saw a sign that said “Spruce Tops – $14.95″ This was new to me. I knew what spruces were but what do you do with the tops? Well, as usual, I was behind the times.

These little bundles of spruce tops are used for all sorts of decorating. The Christmas Tree farms cut off the extra tops to prune the tree and then they sell the tops to others. With 2,000 pines on my property I went to see what was in my spruce tops.

Plodding through snow and looking up, I discovered this new use for spruce tops. This red tailed hawk was using the spruce top to look for dinner. Well that’s a good use.

When we are with our families, no matter human or bird, we are constantly looking for good uses for things that are gifts from our Creator. This sense of survival by using everything to it’s best is part of our instincts. AT times of high consumerism, sometimes we forget to reuse and find new ways to use items. We get so good at getting more and throwing away.

As a family take a spruce top walk. Walk through your home and surrounding area and look up and look down to see new ways to reuse things that might have been thrown away. Gee, I wonder how this relates to the holidays and to being good stewards?

I heard the weather yesterday. A chirpy man said, “fall is gone the leaves are gone and winter is here.”

I looked around in my yard and saw tons of color. The grasses amaze me at the hues and colors especially in the wind. The berries are abundant on trees as they wait to be food for the winter birds. The pine trees are shedding needles in the wind and they are brown piles on the ground. Milkweed has lingering white seeds. Anyway you get the idea.

Sometimes chirpy people like to tell us that our faith is gone, too. We can keep looking for faith even when others cannot see it. Faith is always present. The beliefs around the faith may change but the faith can be found in the smallest berry. Keep looking! No matter what others say, faith is still there.

One of the things I like about traveling is the diversity. In rural America where I live we kinda all look alike and quite honestly, unless I bring plants from outside the area, most of the flowers are predictable. In Mexico, I found this gorgeous flower that I assumed was another variety of hibiscus. I still think it is, but I don’t speak Spanish and a gardener and I had a difficult conversation trying to ID the plant.

Then I thought, “It doesn’t really matter the name of the flower. I can like it because it is different.” Different is great just because it is different. And diversity is great just because it is diverse. I have an orange hibiscus in my living room. It is in the leaf dropping stage right now, but it is blooming along. This yellow one in Mexico made me think about mine and appreciate it. Diversity is not something to be afraid of but a celebration of all gifts.

When you are out and about this week, look for diversity. Look for diversity in food in the grocery store, cars in the parking lot, people on the bus, plants in yards and so on. Just keep celebrating diversity all week. Celebrating does NOT mean you like something else better or are being disloyal. Celebrating diversity is just acknowledging differences and being glad to be in a place where differences are okay.

Have some fun and celebrate diversity this week

I love waves. They crash and I feel my heart flutter with anxiety about how high they will crest or if the water will come up enough to soak my feet. When the water safely recedes, I calm down expecting that again the waves will come and bring uncertainty. Waves have a rhythm so I know they will alternately excite me and challenge me. Something unseen is pushing the waves and I love the anticipation of what will come.

I wonder why it is that family waves are less exciting. As a young Mom with two little girls and a husband that traveled, waves came looking like laundry baskets full of dirty clothes to wash, too tired kids who couldn’t settle down for bed, bills we barely paid, meals to prepare when I wasn’t hungry and car repairs. Waves now look more like health issues, decisions about retirement, business decisions, travel decisions and how much is too much gardening. These waves of daily existence don’t seem to bring the same anticipation even though, they too are pushed by the unseen.

Possibly, it is the diversity of the many possibilities that daily life waves bring. Life can be creative. Just when you think you have down the best way to decide ahead of time about an ER trip with kids, you are hit with a new wave. And you didn’t see it coming!!!!

When I watch waves, I like to take a deep breath and hold it until the wave crests. Then I breath out the anxiety rides the wave back out to sea. Try using deep breathing when waves hit you in your family. Breath in the “unseen” and breath out to face the next wave.

Remember the unseen is a greater part of life than the seen.

Blessings on your day.

School begins and church programming goes into full swing. It interesting over the years how faith communities try to change a few things each fall as member return from summer. Sometimes everything is new; staff, buildings, programs. Sometimes nothing seems new. And more often a few things have changed.

Old and new pieces work side by side in the faith garden. This is an old pine branch from a dead tree that I laid in the garden under an arbor. The annuals on it climb and sneak under the old branch to make a new creation each day. I have to look carefully for how the blooms have changed.

This fall as you return to full programming at your faith community, ask members to look for changes. Put a poster on your door and ask people to write a short description of all the changes they see. It is good for faith communities to look for subtle changes. It is even better for them to realize that change is a constant.

Well, the robin who is the harbinger of Spring is getting ready to crash this party. It is still warm, but those of us in tune with nature know that Fall is here. This robin knows, too and is thinking about the path to somewhere else.

So what does this mean? For those of us with seasonal allergies, it’s leaf mold. For those of us with children it means backpacks or new supplies. For those of us with church affiliation it means signing up and getting back to the choir or education time.

If you are “falling” today, take a moment to think back to Spring. What are the blessings? What are the excitements? How can you transfer those to fall? I guarantee this little robin is hoping he remembers the previous path!

This is a tiger swallowtail butterfly. I spent hours with my little Identification book and that’s what I decided. If you know better, let me know.It’s such a beautiful butterfly, it reminds me of the grace and beauty of my mother. Mom was what society called “a lady”. As I grew up I had no idea what that meant. Did it means dresses and panty hose at all functions? Does being a lady mean politeness? Well, I wasn’t sure then and I’m still unsure.

For me, some descriptive words like “lady” are so subjective. Being a lady might be a sexist term to some. It isn’t a behavior term. Being a lady is more about service. Not that baking pies for the potluck is being a lady, more that seeing the potluck as a gift to lonely people and inviting those who have nothing to bring.

Recently I tried to get some silver place settings from my Grandmothers appraised for insurance. The guy actually laughed at me. He said, “Lady, nobody uses that stuff. Melt it down and figure out how much it’s worth.” I was being a lady when I saw the bigger picture. Of course, behavior wise I didn’t hit him either!!! I went right home and polished the silver for my Grandmas and for any use they might get or just because I could care for something. Maybe that’s the real definition of “lady” –someone who cares enough to try.

Here’s a little fellow that always makes me smile. This is a humming bird. He is so little it is hard to get perspective in this picture. But doesn’t he just look like he is in heaven.

Grand parenting seems easier to me in the summer. If I do see the kids it is around fun and time together. The school year seems fraught with holiday dos and don’ts and teams and lessons. There is an intensity to all those activities from Aug. to May.

When I was with the kids this summer, it was great. They climbed into bed with me in the morning. We added number three to grandma’s bed. “Me, too” is about to turn three. Although with two older siblings and being a girl I forget she’s not already three. My oldest grand son turns 8 this month.

Perhaps the most important celebration is on the 29th of Aug. It is the anniversary of the death of little Kenna, my granddaughter. It’s a quiet day for me. I have already said “no” to 3 invitations for the day. I’ll call my daughter and I’ll sit in the sun and hope that Kenna and my Mom are going on magic walks. Mom can teach Kenna about fairy paintbrushes and sing songs.

There I am just humming along buying birthday surprises and then it hits me. One of my darlings is missing. I am so glad she is with God.

This is Sweet William. It is so beautiful in it’s clusters of blooms. They come out so perfect and then the color starts to fade in each cluster and the individual blooms drop.

This reminds me of families. We are more beautiful when we cluster. Alone things start to fade. In a cluster we show a beauty that is God’s gift to the world.

As my husband and I learn to live without our kids and grandkids nearby, we recognize that we are still family. The world wants to define family as adults and children, but a widow who lives alone is family as are my husband and I. Families need to self define.

As you think of your sweet family, consider how it will change. It will always be family if you choose to call it such. Maybe that is what God meant by “family of God”.