Comfort

Through a difficult week for many friends over the loss of a dear mother, friend and Warrior. She's blazed a trail for many mothers many years ago, having a career as a nurse, then getting married later, only to really enjoy having seven kids and raising them well. Her daughter blogs about her in a tribute. 

In the same week, there was a terrible accident at the high school I attended, where a teen girl was killed and another girl seriously injured.

The loss of those two beautiful women is striking and severe. We all must face loss in our life. We might not lose our mother or our friend or our daughter, but every day we must confront our own mortality and limitations.  

Grief isn't just over great loss, it can be experienced every single day.  We might see them as frustrations or disappointments. But they are losses. The kids break the radio. The meat you took out for dinner is bad. School is delayed two hours again. Our friend let us down. The struggles we face might seem simple in light of a greater loss, but we still have to ask   How do we move through grief?

Every person has their own way through; and if you are currently experiences, I pray you will find your way through the comforts of Christ. But you will have your own time, methods, pace, momentum and stalling. That is why I love poetry; because it is always a reflection of someone else's process. It reassures me that I am not alone in my experience, nor am I supposed to make it look a certain way.

Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet

From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low

Lest I should fear and fall, and miss Thee so

Who art not missed by any that entreat.

Speak to me as to Mary at thy feet!

And if no precious gems my hands bestow,

Let my tears drop like amber while I go

In reach of thy divinest voice complete

In humanest affection -- thus, in sooth,

To lose the sense of losing. As a child,

Whose song-bird seeks the wood for evermore

Is sung to in its stead by mother's mouth

Till, sinking on her breast, love-reconciled,

He sleeps the faster that he wept before. 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

There is a way through, one where you reach a place of rest from your sorrows and disappointments. There will be a time when we will "lose our sense of losing." A small psalm understands the smallness we feel when we grieve: Psalm 131 gives us a simple image: that of a resting child.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;

my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord

from this time forth and forevermore.

As Browning writes, there will be a time when we will have sweet rest faster than the tears come down so quickly.

To a real friend...

Do you have THAT wonderful friend? Mine is the kind that would make me Pinterest worthy lunches just because. She loves my kids almost more than I do. She always answers the phone in a crisis moment. And she is a smokin' hot wife to her husband that puts my love language to shame. Put it this way: she inspires me.

It's her 30th birthday and I am off flying off this weekend to celebrate. I'm so excited!

First of all, she's totally worth it. And, second, o. my. goodness. I am leaving my family behind for five whole days! Yes, it's another beach vacation (which, if you've been paying attention, is like the seventh beach trip this year) but more so, it's about quality time with some awesome women.

Do you have THAT friend? What makes elevates a normal friend to that upper status? All I know is that I sure learn alot from her-- she's the kind that tells me I'm crazy, or overreacting, or both. The truth is we all need someone like that in our life. Someone that can see us from the outside (not inside a family) and tell us the bracing, unabashed truth.

I think it's what is called fellowship.

Have you found that? Do you seek it out?

True fellowship sure takes a lot of work and it isn't for the faint of heart, because it involves lots of driving back and forth, late nights, lots of money, talking on the phone again to talk about that one thing over and over again, rescuing them from their own children, loving sacrificially, and letting them borrow your clothes (or their husband borrowing your husband's clothes-- shhh! don't tell them we did that!) along with a million cups of coffee and other, shall we say, sustaining beverages.

So, this is a homage to my friend. I never knew that someone could be closer than a sister. She proved me wrong, and I am so grateful, because I am so much of a better person. I am so excited to not even pretend to be a skinny as her (lucky!) and do what we do best: enjoy good food, drink calorie-laden mochas and keep on talking.

The Hoarded Recipe

We hosted dinner club and cooked up an extra-special meal to celebrate Travis' graduation. I have been saving the recipe from my Inn at Little Washington cookbook for several years now, waiting for an appropriate occasion to celebrate. And who better to celebrate with than our dear friends and foodies?? Travis and I aren't the only ones to celebrate a big year; we have all been through major changes- adding children, changing jobs, Matt's loss of his stepmother, moving, and more pregnancies. And God has been faithful to us all. We enjoyed recounting God's blessings along the way as well as celebrating upcoming adventures in our future.
The menu was simple but delicious:

Surf and Turf: Grilled Beef Tenderloin and Steamed Lobster Tails
with a Red Pepper Coulis and Sweet Corn Saute
Hot Popovers with Butter
Creme Brulee

Happy Birthday Tory!

Water Baby

Look at my new swimsuit that Grammy gave me! Miss Becky and my friend, Bella, came over and gave me my first swim lesson (of many) this afternoon...and my cute new hat! I loved the warm water. Miss Becky dipped my ears in side to side and I was so relaxed! The water tasted a lot different from my bath and shower time but this was a new adventure that apparently is good for my developing neurological system.

Home Again...

You might have noticed that the title changed...again.
We've moved!
It is our fourth move together.
It was Travis' fifteenth move in his life. I am generously behind that with seven now under my belt.
The adventure continues.

Where are we? We are home sharing and house-sitting with our wonderful friends, the Nams in North Mesa, another corner of Phoenix we have yet to explore. The family generously gave up space so we could have two of their five bedrooms for a "Summer Suite".
The changes.
Losses: Leaving Travis' family and all that entails-- things like a separate A/C unit, for which we thank Connor for enduring my sub-polar pregnancy temperatures. We will miss our "hot sauce" men-- their love of Mexican food and BBQ sauce was seemingly bottomless. I will miss the companionship of Travis' mother, nana and sister-- especially on talking walks and I will never forgot their help through my pregnancy by lightening my load and giving me time for my husband during an incredibly busy season of life.

Gains: Loving the Nams and gaining time together as a couple. Travis will cut his commute to work and school enormously. We will also have space for a baby room as well as the "calvary" when they report for baby duty as the Nam's travel to Maryland for a month. We can't wait to benefit from their friendship as we already have this past year. We anticipate more times of golf, fellowship, food and learning all the Asian ways!

More update tommorrow....