Gladden Our Spirits

One afternoon something flitting around the bushes caught my eye. She was tiny and quick. Put your pointer finger and thumb together and she could have fit in the middle, her legs thinner than toothpicks. Wisps really. Her hopping like a falling leaf and her sweet olive green complexion to match gave her away. As rapid as her movements were, her presence was gentle, calming, heart-warming.

I had never seen a ruby-crowned kinglet before. I didn’t even know they existed, but there she was a beautiful gift on a cold winter’s day.

She’s come to see me each winter for the last several years now, and I find myself waiting and hoping each time for her return. Happy to see her each year and breathing a sigh of relief when I do, I wondered if I would ever meet her boyfriend, that ruby-crowned fellow.

Over Christmas, while visiting my parents house, I noticed a certain familiar hippity hop in the bushes. “Hello,” I said. “Who do we have here?” I bent down slowly to take a peek and there he was getting a good looksee at me, too, a little ruby-crowned kinglet himself! I about fell over in surprise and excitement at which point he promptly said good bye, and I ran off practically skipping towards the house with childlike delight to tell my parents and sisters.

That wasn’t the end of my creative Christmas gifts for the year. After returning home after our family visit, I was making trips back and forth to the car. As I paused to catch my breath, I noticed a flit and flutter to my right. I couldn’t believe my eyes: three eastern bluebirds in my yard. A first for my home and aptly named the birds of happiness, they filled my heart with such joy.

And today, after weeks and months of good but hard work and in desperate need of sunshine and repose, I caught a true glimpse of beauty as I glanced out the window to see not one but two rose-breasted grosbeaks at our feeders. One even shone brightly with the shape of a heart on his chest.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-27, New International Version NIV)

Oh, God, you catch our eyes just when we need you to and you capture our imagination and gladden our spirits. Many thanks for flashing that beauty at us and reminding us to take a minute to breathe and to enjoy this life we’ve been given, to let go of everything else and just marvel in your gift of life.

Take a moment not to worry. Look at a bird or close your eyes and listen for one. Both song and sight will help your heart take flight.

With love and light,

LT

We Were Caught

Suddenly in a panic we were plummeting and falling fast. Then stop. A net was holding us. We didn’t know what was happening so we reached out to those who might. We held tight to the line and trusted.

Print after Thomas Hart Benton "Little Fisherman"
image borrowed from www.liveauctioneers.com

Eventually we were breathing easier, realizing we were somewhat secure for the time being. We had been caught.

As I was later reflecting on our stressful event, strangely or interestingly enough, “…I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19) came to mind. As I worked through the emotions of the harrowing memories, I began to see an image of many hands joined together. Not just hand-to-hand but hand-over-hand and hand-upon-hand. I could see them all connecting, stretching further than I could imagine.

I smiled, remembering, and gave thanks for the many hands and hearts who had readily come to our aid. I could feel their strong connections holding us, helping us.

Previously hearing “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” had always found me focused on the fishermen and the fish. Never before we were caught that day had I felt so strongly the strength and the role of the net!

Oh the power of being knit together into the net of God to catch those who need to be caught. I could see the many hands coming together adding comfort, the many hearts giving their prayers of hope, the many gifts and talents being used to add strength, to bring answers, and to share kindness.

Oh what a powerful and giving net it is.

I still feel it. Thank God. I still feel it. I’m letting it hold us right now, and I hope we, too, when and where we are able will also each bring what we can to strengthen the bonds.

Hold the next hand, give the next gift, share the next kindness, you are already part of the net whether you know it or not, and I thank you for it.

With love and light,

LT

The Coffee’s On

My grandparents used to drive across three states in the middle of the night to reach my great grandmother. No matter the time of their arrival, there was always a pot of coffee on to welcome them. My grandparents and great grandmother would tuck my father and uncle into bed and stay up all night talking. They couldn’t wait to catch up.

I wonder how many millions and billions of relationships have been strengthened by coffee chats? How many of us have found comfort in starting our days with that first cup? Perhaps it’s been in the kitchen with a loved one or silently greeting God’s creation at the window? Maybe you’ve groggily yet cheerfully gathered around the coffee pot at work? Possibly it’s been around a table at noon with others who understand or at a café where you finally met?

Look at the Starbucks and coffee shops that have spread like wildfire across this country and around the world as people not only seek out the caffeine but also the warm smiles shared over the counter as joyful baristas ask your name or already know it. Hours and hours are spent in these coffee shops in the comfort of friends or even in the comfort of just not being alone.

Oh, coffee, yes, I am thankful for you.

I’m thankful for the memories of meeting my friends almost daily as teenagers at the Hillcrest coffee shop in Little Rock drinking giant chai tea lattes not worrying about the world revolving around us only caring about each other and that moment. It really was all ok.

I’m thankful for the ways you kept us awake giggling through our studies in college and leading us to the completion of those papers and preparing us for exams.

I’m thankful for the strength you gave me to lift my head and push my cart through Target and smile through every aisle the first time I left my daughter at home with my husband after she was born.

I’m thankful that you bring new people into my life and that you give me time with my dearest friends and colleagues. That you give us a time out to catch up, to listen, to share, to solve, to just be.

I’m thankful for every cup and conversation shared, especially with my parents and my mother-in-law, who always make sure the coffee’s on, and I’m thankful to my husband, who may not drink coffee but who knows how important putting the coffee on can be.

Here’s to sharing that next cup, everyone.

With love and light,

LT