I Am Volunteer

The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)

I thought I knew all of my daughter's smiles. You know, kind of like smiles-in-a-closet, hanging in order from the brightest, sunshiny-est, to the bite-your-lip, I'm-trying-to-hide-that-this-is-funny, to the shaky-mouthed, teary-eyed, barely-there shadow of a smile. Just like she hangs her clothes, by color and by type, dark to light, short to long. I thought I knew them all, until I saw a new one.

She stood at the front of the room with this new smile on her face. A complicated one. It didn't start with her mouth. Her mouth was serious.  It started with her eyes.

She was planted at the front of the room to receive an award. My favorite army guy and I had gone over protocol and procedure with her beforehand. I had him take the lead because, after all, this was a military event and he knew best. He told her she could not, under any circumstances, hug. Handshakes only. And we practiced the handshake that she is surprisingly good at.

So, the smile started with her eyes. For a half a second, I thought she wasn't going to smile at all, her face was so focused, there didn't seem to be room for a smile. She was focused on the rows of chairs filled with rows of people sitting before her, on the certificate in the hand of the woman next to her, on the uniforms milling about in the back by the door. Mostly, she was focused on the words being said. Words about her work, about her attitude, about her joy.

That's when it started. With her eyes, at the word joy, like the word was a cue to turn on a light.

Her eyes crinkled. Then her eyebrows raised, as if the crinkling had surprised her in some way. Those eyebrows raised, and that lifted her hairline up, which created a chain reaction with her mouth and her nose. First the corners of her mouth turned up, every so slightly. Then her nose wrinkled up, just a tad, right between those laughing eyes. Then the lips parted. Then the corners of her mouth curved up more, which opened it wider. The eye crinkles had deepened and eyebrows were back home, but the mouth stayed in its full-on grin. By the time my girl went to shake the hand of the presenter, she was smiling all the way from the inside out. You could hear it in her voice.

"Thank you," she said. Then, holding the certificate with great, tender pride, she looked at me and her dad and winked.

"I am volunteer." She told me later.

Yes. She is.

Heavenly Father, 

You have shined your face on us in ways we never dreamed of. 

Thank you for the many blessings you have given us. 

Thank you for my daughter's many smiles.

Sharing with #TellHisStory and Unite

Ah...Sunday

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13 (NIV)

Ah...Sunday

Breath of rest

Breath of peace

Early coffee morning

With my girl and my man

Dog warms my feet

Rain

Chapel service

Lights turned low

Voices raised

Faces raised

Joyful tears

This and that

need doing

eventually

they will be done

Without measure

Without limits

Without stress

Moments 

Ah...Sunday

Breath of rest

Breath of peace

Thank you, God,

For Sundays

Joining with Sunday Stillness, and Hear It On Sunday

Saturday Stillness: Spring Up

Sharing with the community at Saturday Stillness

God's Blue

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-5

It has been so very long ago, that I've forgotten the name of the special paper we had to buy for that class we had to take, that class called Color. I remember it was expensive back then, in my make-every-penny-count college days. I probably could have eaten for a couple of weeks on the amount that precious pack of paper cost. But I wouldn't have eaten steak.

And the blades for our knives had to be sharp, sharp enough to slice through the clay-coat layer without chipping it. One clean, hard, sweeping press at exactly ninety degrees. Some taped the paper to the glass before cutting, some held it with gloved fingers. Tongues touching teeth in concentration, eyes focused on the straightedge and the knife.

We changed color in that class, made optical illusions by placing one against a variety of others to fool our brains into seeing what wasn't there. We learned about hue and shade and shadow, how sunlight casts violet into the green of the grass, how to squinch the color out of an object in order to find its value.

I learned that no matter how expensive the paper, no matter if I bought the packet of 256 sheets, or the packet of 512 sheets, there weren't enough blues to satisfy my hunger for sky and water.

My family went camping last weekend and I drank in the blue of the sky and the blue of the river. I noticed how the green leaves framed the water and deepened its hue. God's blue. It is more than enough.

Sharing today with the 5-Minute Friday community

Yay, It's Spring!

See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

Song of Solomon 2:11-12 (NIV)

It is official. Spring has sprung in the North Country.

Every year I am awed by the wonder of new growth and spreading greenery.  My heart sings and I am glad. Warmer days, rustling leaves, freshly mowed grass and fields. I hear birds sing, children play outside, my daughter switches out her clothes in the closet.

Imagine if we, saved by grace, given hope for new life, are God's springtime buds and blossoms. Imagine we are his bulbs, planted before and enduring the winter, ready to bloom at the changing of the season.

Just thoughts. Just wanting to share these beautiful days. Thanking God for spring.

All photos were taken between April 29, 2015 and May 25, 2015 - Amazing month!

Linking with TellHisStory, and ThreeWordWednesday