Tag: Parenting

Delight, Refresh and Restore – A Trio of Words For Healing

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 4 Comments

Today is Day 24. The collective can be found here by taking a hop, skip and a jump over here.

Yesterday I wrote of the words standing in line with their resumes.

It is as if the words have their own hourglass tipped over measuring the days left in their series. They watch the time slipping like particles of sand and they shout choose me, choose me.

So I do. I choose to bundle some words, package them in prose, let them out to breathe and serve. To  pack them up and let them run with me,  play,  escape. To shout and dance. Release and restore.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

Twyla Thorp

So I pick and I bundle them  like fresh cuts from the Fresh Market and plop them down to both soak and suck the water through their straws. And to  give life-affirming beauty to the eyes. Even one. And especially His. Because there will be a day for audience. It has been planned since the beginning.

There is a struggle in focusing on the audience of One. Of writing and art making just for Him and Him alone. The day is coming soon for audience.

But today. For today I give the day to delight.

For delighting in the simple. Delighting in the restorative refreshing power of soaking in the absolute remarkable of a single moment.

A memory blazed in blues.

It is worthy of delighting under the microscope.

Viewing it closely, squinting intensely at the art. Peering at it all, while seeking the seemingly unseen beauty in everything.

I see anew when my soul is delighted by beauty. By a walk by the water, splashing childlike, dodging the surf. Seeking the simple in the treasures washed up on shore, strewn like confetti after the ocean threw a party for the world.

I am restored when my eyes wrap around driftwood masterpieces anchored in sand for study. I stand. Feet planted, toes wriggling, in October sand. Bleached and beautiful.Looking at the bleached woods, worn smooth , its limbs of death.

It was waiting to meet me this day, this wood. To meet me in the salt and sea.

With my child, grown, a man – by my side. WIth the dogs laughing, pink tongues wagging, they swim out and back in. Each a furry metaphor for living, the old the young, the brave, the timid. The energetic and the weary.

All in a dance on the shore. All in a restorative time by the blue blending, water with sky, sky with water, inseparable blues, a melange and mix of azures and others.

So the young call me out, and build me up and restore my hope in possibility and longing for living. And we laughed.

And all looks hopeful and healed at the art gallery by the sea.

My soul delights in the beauty of family and blue looks as blue should look. Strong and beautiful, a backdrop, a canvas for the art of simply living.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

—Thomas Merton

Linking with Ann at A Holy Experience dot com and Michelle. And continuing on the 31 Day journey at The Nester.

To follow along this blog on a regular basis and for the rest of this series click here to subscribe. It is a joy to have you along. Grateful for co-travellers.

Day 19 – Peace In A Sea of Change

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 10 Comments

Today is Day 19.

{Writer’s Prologue – Strangely my spirit grieves the two/third’s way through, my math mind is icky, or so, I find myself in this Series. It has brought so much richness and fullness and I release to God the Day 32 which is to say the first day without the Series guiding and shaping.  And your eyes and heart here provide me a richness of community. If you would like to receive posts via email click here. The future is full of endless possibility and words beyond this series. Thanks for being a Pilgrim with me. ]

There is what is called the “cushion of the sea.” Down beneath the surface…there is a part of the sea that is never stirred. The peace of God is that eternal calm which, like the cushion of the sea, lies far too deep down to be reached by any external trouble or disturbance…
Dr. A.T. Pierson

Do you know this place where change looms all around. And it feels like sediment stirred up from ocean’s floor. You seek the sieve to filter what of it is good. Perhaps its all. Good. From the God of Good.

Can you hear the seas roar loud like Lion’s roar, a strong bold change.

We sit for long sessions now, The Patient One and I. And there is so much for us it takes my breath away. So much for us to discuss and navigate through. This ship, our lives.

Our church is experiencing deep and wide and profound change. We may make one too as it makes its, change. I walk around with a grievous spirit. And fear that I will weep on Sunday as I serve communion at the rail. I look in eyes that experience a ripping kind of change. Division and confusion. We vote on change.

In our church in days, in our country in days.

And colleges will vote on whether my child comes to them or not. Or maybe its a sweeping decision of a committee of one at these institutions.

But God knows. And he loves. And we desperately seek His will in a sea of change.

For us it may involve boxes and change of address forms, but it may not. That is the way of releasing all to Him. That is the way of abandoning plans while seeking His.

There may be changes in schools and there is a deep desire to seek this path He has for the middle one, the one who looks at schools for art and schools based on Military dictums or simply coming out into the world.

It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean revel in Him.

The Message, Philippians 4:4-7

And maybe peace in a sea of change is handing him the oars, the paddle, the motor, any steering mechanism on board and drifting.

Drifting on the swells of trust into His arms.

And praying for Him to guide and steer and love us.

Into oceans of change. While we release and abandon our compasses, our course.

He the Map Holder. We fall into His arms.

And I weep.

My ocean is one of tears. May they be salted with sweet and savory knowing that His ways roar with excellence and perfection.

And that the cross is squarely in our cross-hairs, our plumb line His horizon.

{Writer’s postscipt- Thankful for a community of tear-catchers. You know who you are}

To read the collective click here. Today is Day 19. I weep. Todays word is Change.

Linking this post with my friend, Shelly at Redemption’s Beauty. She is writing for 31 Days. Can you hear the release in the air.

When Love Is Hard

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 28 Comments

When misunderstanding shakes rattles rolls off the tongue
And harsh meets abrasive in the middle of the ear canal
Where unintended unfurls rough and callous, words always words
When gruff and course mingle and moan and say the things, broken through the filter,
Broken through love
When she says and they say and we say and she doesn’t say
And it all falls down
With a bruise and a bump and a scar
And love is left on the sidelines
Love is a latchkey child
Left in a shadow waiting to love ,the verb
Left on the bench, injured but the action verb wants to get in the game
And be patient be kind
Just be
Where pride puffs up and the battle is fought and pride puffs up some more
While the battle plays on but the war has just begun
And love love love
Is all you need
And holds tight and he slips through and she holds tight and
He holds tight
And you never give up
They are children
We are all children
Children of the Most High
Then why is it hard
When the me and the we and the I
Fight for the leading role
And its my way or the highway, love
Bends in humility
Love keeps no record of wrongs and the love verb
Is quick to forgive.
To the moon and back
Till death do us part
On this side of eternity
Love hard
Love very hard
I do
I will
Love hard back
Forever
This is my solemn vow
By grace, by gosh, by golly
Love is all you need
Praying hard
Loving Hard
Praying and loving hard.

Linking with Jennifer and Duane and Ann and Emily and with Joy, with joy.


Also linking with Mary Beth and over at Women Living Well

What Happens When A Monkey Mind Writes A Blog Post?

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 28 Comments

I wish you were here.

Well not really because you’d see the laundry basket and quite frankly it would scare you. Well maybe not scare, but it might freak you out. Well not that either, but you might not want to stay long because you’d want to free me up to “Just Do It.”

And if you were here I might ask you to run a soccer shirt to one school and a phone and a volleyball jersey to another school. And I might ask you to feed the cat and dogs.

And then I’d ask you to be a good listener. So I could tell you what it felt like to sit beside a man with Parkinson’s Disease and a single mother, with another single mother two down, last night at a volleyball match. I was in the middle.

Did you read the title of this post? Ok. Do you think I should change it? I don’t either.

And I might take you with me to the window to see the HUGE, I mean two HUGE spider webs that are like goal posts outside the window. And we could talk about the God Art and how lovely the sun is on them. And whether you think they are as spectacular as I do.

Now tell me are you still here? Did I run you off yet. Sheesh, I hope not. Because I know you have a choice and you may unsubscribe or not come back or unfollow which are all your choice. And BELIEVE ME, I would understand.

Did you think I was going to tell you more about my friend with Parkinson’s Disease? I was. I am. (Do you think I am rushing today a little too much? I am.) He asked me last night if I was still working. Then I asked him the same thing. He said he’s not because of his “mind” and he then told me of his recent diagnosis. I saw his right hand quivering. He said he misses work because he misses having something to do. I gave him a lollypop. No really I did.

Did I tell you dementia runs in my family. It does. Did I tell you two people in my family have ADD. I have written about that. Did I tell you I don’t. Wait, don’t look so surprised.

Did you think there was a point to that.

Well I want to ask you to help me with the running around and the washing of clothes so I can sit and write, and do art, and make art. And write my hybrid proety, proems and such.

And write my friend in Peru, the little girl I sponsor Erlita. Because did I tell you it can take three months for her to receive my letter? For the Compassion children to receive letters. So I want to write one now.

For some reason, and I believe God put it on my heart, while I can I want to help Compassion International.

And I want to pray for my family member with Dementia and my friend with Parkinson’s Disease and my really good friend who is a single mother. And I want to figure out the best way to love my children while discipling them and encouraging them as they grown into responsible people.

It is really important  that I raise responsible children who don’t leave their phones and sports stuff at home. Because I get one chance to get it right with them. I don’t really know what that means because there is nothing left to chance to raising children. God’s got this with me. Oh yeah that other chance, like opportunity.

Did you read the title of this blog post? Do you think I should change it. Good, I don’t either.

I want to tell you more but its gotten quiet and I think some of you have left. Before you leave will you visit the Compassion Sponsorship page and pray for the kids who need sponsors. And will you join me in praying for my new friend Erlita?

I can’t wait to hear from her. I will tell you about it when the letter arrives, if any of you are still reading by then. (This is Ella and she has nothing to do with the post but I am trying not to forget to go feed three dogs).

While I can write I want to write. While I can pray I want to pray. If you all could help with the laundry, I could go write the prayer I am trying to write to pray for Compassion. Well big C compassion and little c compassion, but mostly big C.

You know if you have never left a comment, today would be a really good day to. Because my monkey mind and I are feeling like we lost all our friends with our laundry and our craziness. So saying hello would be particularly well-timed. And you can go to my facebook page (wynnegraceappears on Facebook) if you are handing out affirmation and cyber-hugs today. And if you are feeling exceptionally generous you can share this on your facebook page.

Oh, I saw you click over to Compassion and pray. That was awesome. Thank you. I know it means a lot to the children.

Linking with Jennifer today.
And with Duane at Unwrapping His Promises at Scribing The Journey dot com.

And with Mary Beth at New Life Steward dot com.

And with Ann at A Holy Experience dot com for Walk With Him Wednesdays

And also with Emily
The purple zinnia and butterfly photograph used above is a gift from my friend H.M. Miller (isn’t she talented). I love her to pieces. She sent me the picture I used for the Mother Teresa quote. Thanks Harriett.