I couldn’t find a live version of John Denver (which I like a lot), so enjoy this original version, silly-but-o-so-true song by the extremely tomato-insightful Guy Clark:
There ain’t nothin’ a homegrown tomato won’t cure!
Thank-you for your faithfulness in arriving each day.
Quality time is my love-language, as you know!
Stay as long as possible, please!
;p
j
With the first gleam of morning rays, the garden is a prism
of a thousand hues refracted in tiny does of crystal dew, a
dazzling quilt of millefleur colors covering
the sleeping flower beds.
– Duane Michals, The Vanishing Act
Morning Glory is the best name,
it always refreshes me to see it.
– Henry David Thoreau
JUST SO YOU KNOW: Yes, I am well aware that there is not one Morning Glory pictured here even though I chose a quote using the flower’s name and even gave it a nod in the title. Do you know why? You don’t grow Morning Glories in Colorado so much because they become crazy yard-over-taking weeds in short order here. So I am told.
I will soon go a doula-ing (doula is Greek and means “a woman who serves”) for Stef and Wrex when Sawyer Joell is born. I’m not really a doula, I just get to play one with people I adore (Carol Ann is soon to do the same thing with Emma of Gospel Journey fame!).
“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies, Miss Scarlett…”
Actually, I do. I got to attend birthing class with the Phipps a few weeks back and recently checked out a few birthing books from the library. It is bringing back the memories, omygoodness! Because, you know, I had a few babies back in the day. And I was really good at it, if I do say so myself. Now-how will I be in this role? I am hoping not to faint or require constant fanning or smelling salts. I hope I don’t get too empathetic with Stef and start crying out to God for mercy in a loud voice. I just don’t think that will help.
The book.
Meanwhile I have been studying and researching and brushing up on my birthing knowledge. I have enlisted prayer support and continue to madly write in the litle journal I will leave with Stef and Wrex for Sawyer to enjoy someday. In it is advice on labor and delivery and some sound wisdom on raising kids. I have included lists of things I want to remember while at the hospital and signs to look for as labor progresses. There are make-you-sniffle baby quotes and prayers for Sawyer. I have given baby girl the inside scoop on who her parents really are and shared favorite scripture passages.
In short, I am hand-writing an entire book just for the occasion of the birth of Sawyer Joell Phipps.
It is good stuff! And yes…none of it is original, but I have collected it over the years and I am writing it in the book, so it is mine!
O Sawyer? Where are youoooo?
Now, truth to tell, we had actually sort of cleared our calendars for today seeing 8.9.10 as a wondrous day for a birth. But we know God has this thing all planned out and are just anxious for Him to let us in on His perfect plan. He seems to have us on a need-to-know basis for the moment. But we are ready, I tell ya!
Thoughts on the threat of C-Section during Labor
I do come across some very thought-provoking information these days. For instance, an article about the negative hormonal effect on a woman when she is laboring and is told “If you don’t start progressing/dilating/efacing (or whatever her shortcoming) soon, we’re going to have to do a C-Section” and how that actually is detrimental to her labor and begins to inhibit the process was explained thus:
If a man was told that he had to get an erection and ejaculate within a certain time or he’d be castrated, do you think it would be easy? To make it easier, perhaps he could have an IV put into his arm, be kept in one position, have straps placed around his penis, and be told not to move. He could be checked every few minutes; the sheet could be lifted to see if any “progress” had been made.
Guini’s birthday celebration was delayed by the Heaven Fest craziness. So how could I refuse when she asked for a really big cake, purple and yellow, chocolate with buttercream icing and lots and lots of color and flowers…plus sparklers on the top. Presents first, dinner and swimming, then cake and ice cream. A lovely way to spend a summer Sunday evening.
And as you feel it, you’ll know it’s true
that you are blessed and lucky
It’s true, that you are touched by Something
that will grow and bloom in you
Left: Amelie Belle is 4 and a half months now and she is good buddies her Aunt Stephanie. Center: Guini the birthday girl loves her baby cousin. Right: Aunt Tara is always popular with nieces Averi and Gemma May.
My amazing and insightful sister-in-law, Dawn recently commented that these family times together, the little cousins playing tug-of-war over some toy or the other and whatever mischieviousness they can all find to get into will be memories they will cherish as they grow up. I hope they’ll know that they ARE “blessed and lucky” and that the love of these days will grow and bloom in their lives, too.
These are days you’ll remember
when May is rushing over you with desire
to be part of the miracles you see in every hour
Here we are, Dave and I and our 6, very longsuffering grandbebes. They pose for us, they smile and coo and endure photo ops. They act silly and one day, when they are old enough, they will really wonder about us! Perhaps they already do.
You’ll know it’s true, that you are blessed and lucky
It’s true, that you are touched by Something
that will grow and bloom in you
It was Guinivere’s birthday celebration. She just turned 5. Hunter is 5 and a half. Gavin who is holding baby Amelie Belle, is 7 and baby girl is 4 1/2 months now. Best friends and cousins Gemma May and Averi are 3 and 2 1/2 respectively. These are the grandbebes on a summer’s evening in August.
These are the days
that you might fill with laughter
until you break
Left: Jovan is such a good mommy to her girls. My son married well. Middle: These are the men of the family – Dave and Tristan, 2 sons-in-law who could not be more wonderful if they tried, my husband and lover of 29 years (and a very flirtacious friend for almost 3 years before that), Dave and Rocker-Bo, the kid probably most like me in the world…only waaaaay better. Right: And my beautiful firstborn, Tara with her beautiful firstborn, The Little Prince.
These days you might feel a shaft of light
make its way across your face
Dave’s hair looks really gray in these pictures, but not in real, up-close-and-personal life (except for the salt and pepper facial hair and a little in the temples). Hmmm…wonder what is up with that? I KNEW that camera was trying to make me look old against my will. This is proof! The little girlie-grandbebes rely on Poppa to keep them safe from the splashing boys in the water.
And when you do
you’ll know how it was meant to be
Left: Averi following the grandbebe swimming ritual, which is, you get out and dry off so you can go right back in again. Middle: Steph loves her cake. Right, Gemma and Averi are always in deep discussion and generally some disagreement about some topic or another. But they are besties.
See the signs and know their meaning, it’s true
You’ll know how it was meant to be
The grandbebe painted, wooden stools…crazy-looking-maybe-I-should-have-planned-before-baking-but-the-brithday-girl-loves-it-anyway cakes…a zinnia that both Amelie Belle and I took a fancy to last night on our way around the yard (where new bikes for Stormie and Rocky, no less, were being assembled, a game of catch was going on, kiddies were splashing in a pool and sweet conversation floated on the summer air). These are the signs…
Hear the signs and
know they’re speaking to you, to you*
NOTE TO SELF: To get over myself {for the love!} and get over my ridiculous heartbreaks…See the signs, hear the signs…it’s true. These are the days…
* LYRICS: “These are the Days” by Natalie Merchant
“A sigh is an audible exhalation of air arising from tiredness or emotion, usually sadness, which itself could be stemming from feelings of sadness or futility. A sigh can also arise from positive emotions such as relief. Some people do it just to cool down organs or suppress emotions”. -Wikipedia
A recent stay at Marriott’s Springhill Suites presented something intriguing. A card on the mirror in the sitting room asked: “Can you sigh backwards?” And below mentioned the smoke-free policy, or some request to refrain from smoking, or something like that. I wasn’t quite sure how they went together? Were they asking, based on a sigh being a relief from stress or a sign of relaxation, ‘how can you be relaxed fully if you are inhaling a cigarette?'” Perhaps.
But the way I first took it, I guess, was as the opposite of a sigh of exasperation or a sigh of frustrated resignation. I thought they meant, of the “backward sigh,” the thought of enjoying life by your breath being taken away, or the way you gasp in a breath with delight at a wonderful event or a sweet surprise, like Will Smith said in the movie, Hitch (2005),
“Life is not about how many breaths you take, it’s about the moments that take your breath away.”
How many ways can you sigh, anyway?
Sighing does show up during both stress and negative emotions like panic or pain and extreme fatigue (Tredessa and I have both been accused of sighing a lot). But also during positive emotions like ralaxation or relief (*whew!).
But since you actually have to breathe in to be able to exhale a sigh, I am not quite sure how you can actually “sigh backwards,” as the Marriott sign seems to suggest (would you have to breathe out first and then in??), though, if my original thoughts were to hold (which they should, I believe, naturally), I kind of like the reminder. Look for the “catch your breath” moments in life. They are they ones to hold onto and cherish!
A *sigh in a song
Turns out there are quite a few songs about sighing. Here is one I like. It sounds like a sigh, too. A really good, long, soft sigh.
And then sometimes you’ve just been waiting to exhale…Sighs in scripture:
Isaiah 35:8
There will be a highway called the Holy Road. No one rude or rebellious is permitted on this road. It’s for God’s people exclusively— impossible to get lost on this road…The people God has ransomed will come back on this road. They’ll sing as they make their way home to Zion, unfading halos of joy encircling their heads, Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.
Romans 8:26
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans…
Psalm 31:6
I hate all this silly religion, but you, God, I trust. I’m leaping and singing in the circle of your love; you saw my pain, you disarmed my tormentors, You didn’t leave me in their clutches but gave me room to breathe. Be kind to me, God— I’m in deep, deep trouble again. I’ve cried my eyes out; I feel hollow inside. My life leaks away, groan by groan; my years fade out in sighs…
Psalm 55:16
I call to God; God will help me. At dusk, dawn, and noon I sigh deep sighs—he hears, he rescues. My life is well and whole, secure in the middle of danger…
From The Message…”I sigh deep sighs and He hears…”
Kari Jobe (one of my all-time favorites) leading worship at main stage near the end of the night, mixed with scenes from the day. This is just 4 minutes of over a week of cool stuff, because as soon as volunteers set foot on the property, the miracles and love started flowing! THANKS FOR THIS VIDEO, GREG “HD” VERSPOHL! Love ya!Seriously!
“I do not believe that…birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It’s a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you’re relentless…And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I’m married to someone who is very jealous and you’re married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come.”
S I S T E R S ~ A song I adore! Dedicated to Tamara Dawn Moslander Ayento!
BTW – I am definitely the Rosemary Clooney (blue eyes/Bing Crosby) of this scenario, and Tami is Vera Ellen (brown eyes/Danny Kaye). ;p
The Preacher’s Wife
My little sister (both little at barely 5 feet AND younger by 6 years), Tami Ayento, is a preacher’s wife. They recently took a pastorate in the heart of Chicago, so the neighborhood reminds you of the movie by the same name starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington (The Preacher’s Wife, 1996). I think it is cruel and unusual punishment that I got her when I was almost 6 and we shared a room for many years and then suddenly, we both marry and move thousands of miles apart. She knows my faults, my secrets, the worst of me. And has yet to disown me. She is and will always be the sister of my family heritage, and the sister of my heart.
The Moslander crew at Tami and Gerron’s 1987 wedding. I had already provided 5 of the 7 grandchildren and nieces and nephews for this family. Come on, people!
If your friend {neighbor, relative, co-worker, acquaintance, lover, brother or siser-in-Christ} gave you some of the little emerald jewels as seen on the left {baby zucchini, succulent and moist, tender and appetizing}, they love you, no question. You don’t have to worry about whether they are truly devoted to you. They are!
If they gave you something resembling a baseball bat like the one on the right, you MUST figure out what you did to offend them and why they would give you something that would have to be prepared/hammered/shredded/chopped into submission to be fit for even a Kansas-church-casserole dish.
Drop everything, now, before it is too late.
Go to your friend {or neighbor, relative, co-worker, acquaintance, lover, brother or siser-in-Christ}. Seriously – leave your gift (of the gigantic zucchini) and go quickly and be reconciled with the giver and find out why you have been the recipient of this huge, tough, monstrosity. Make things right.
NOTE: I picked a basketful of babies on Friday morning before heading to Longmont for the weekend. I was shocked to find another basketful this morning upon my return, including several giants. Tsk. They were plotting against me.
