A Precious Piece of Mail

Today I opened up a precious piece of mail. Pictures of the little guy we sponsor in Guatemala. I reviewed his birthday remembering he was born in 2000 and I felt like he was one of MY kids. "He would be between Audrey and Lily," I thought. It's a small thing. Actually, it should be a bigger thing. We should pray more, write more. It's not a guilt thing. I love this boy, we are committed to him. But our rush of busy-ness too often impairs our outpouring of that love.

Then I read Ann Voskamp's blog who just happens to be in Guatemala right now visiting with Compassion. And she writes about this...piercing my soul with her words:

"How our lives full of cluttered ease, muffle out the songs. That when we go to the places that strip life back to its barest essence -- of courage and love and raw, unmasked pain -- our hearts feel again, beat again, hear again the haunting music of a beautiful, bleeding humanity.

Maybe it's this: God hides with the poor and in the pain and we can only witness Him at His most beautifully creative work in the places needing redemption.

Maybe we are only at our most beautiful work in the same places too --- the places where we don't hide behind the distractions of stuff, where we finally empty our hands of all our possessions and idols and come to God empty and ready. The places where we can make art with tears.

Where the notes can finally soar in the space.

No one tells you that wealth numbs you to life and consumerism callouses your soul to the sacred.

Or maybe Someone did: “"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Mark 10:25 NIV)

(For her full post go to: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2010/09/whats-really-muffling-out-music-of-our.html)

Oddly Contagious

We spent a few days at a B&B in Manheim, PA with incredible hospitality and amazing property. In addition to their nightly firefly display and charming animals they had a creek. Well now, "a creek," you say? Yes...with good ol' fashioned crawdads, salamanders and leeches. The kind I remember growing up with. Lily spent lots of time down there and even made her own makeshift fishing pole with a stick, string and a paper clip. With this she impaled slugs and worms to bait the crawfish and minnows. After catching her first few, her sisters were lured in. My city girls all caught their own crawdad and put them in cups for observation! I loved it. Made me happy. :)

Just Plain Silliness

So, Caramel the moth died in captivity. Lily was sad and wanted to bury him. Then she had bug mac and cheese in remembrance of him. There was always a smile lingering on her lips of sadness though... as if she knew how just plain silly it all was! And here am I documenting it! Am I derranged? Maybe. But I find my kid's sense of humor to be such a source of joy in my life. Even when it's connected to a death!

CLEAN Water...

Lily did a speech on poverty for her public speaking class recently. What seemed to get her attention the most was that SO many people do not have clean water to drink. In fact, SO many die every day because of the lack of something so basic. Wow. This clip says it in an amazing way. Please watch!

Solidarités International: Water talks from La Boite Concept on Vimeo.

To celebrate Lily's success, I sponsored her in her desire to buy a water filter for a family in Asia who needed clean water (through GFA). A perfect start to the end of her project...

Mint Becomes Caramel

We are not totally sure it's the same creature, but the morning we found Mint's cocoon empty we found this pretty moth hanging out by our window. So, Mint became Caramel. Not the Julia butterfly Lily was hoping for, but she still thinks he's beautiful!

Birthday Fun

Lily turned 8 last Wednesday and we had a wonderful family celebration. Just us. Lily designed the cake and we all decorated it together.

Mint the Calapiddar

Chris found this caterpillar climbing on our island next to a bouquet of flowers and it quickly became Lily's favored friend. She made a home for it, named it, played with it, fed it well (with too many of my geranium leaves...my plants now look sad) and watched it's changes. I just couldn't correct her lovely way of saying it...calapiddar.