We took Zach and Megan to one of my favorite places this week. The water was nearly still and the weather quite warm for January. I wish we had more time. But, don't we always wish that?
a little off the sides
Such a week. We have been walking, walking, walking. Walking the fens, walking the streets of cities large and small. Staying up way too late watching movies and playing board games. Reading the last of the Christmas library books and eating up the cookies. And taking pictures. And having heated fantasy football draft sessions.
That's my life this week. I hope your's is equally full of goofiness and exhaustion. Will be back to post more pics tomorrow. Probably. : ) Meantime a street shot from this afternoon.
a look back – 2012
What a year it was. We rang it in with fireworks in a tiny farming village on the highest peak in our part of the Rhineland Pfalz. We closed it out watching magnificent fireworks explode over the London Eye. (and can't wait to share!)
In between there was dancing
in Stuttgart, Ramstein, Munich…
and in Ireland. Beautiful Ireland.
There were parades big and small.
There was a lot of football. From little boys playing alongside the flight line to American pro football in Wembley Stadium
to English football in Manchester.
There were great celebrations. Holy Communion…
Confirmations.
As well as solemn memorials to a good man gone too soon for us.
We cheered at a high school graduation and a college graduation.
And then there were the road trips. Lots of them.
Luxembourg
Köln
Trier – a couple times.
Some of them hiked the French rock formations along the old Roman road.
another put her toes in the sand on the Italian coast
Others splashed along the Suffolk coast.
We watched another cross the finish line in Prague
Prague, the city which stole Abbie's heart.
And we boarded ship for the white cliffs of Dover, not a road trip but to make a home.
Where we pal around in Cambridge and London
From flowering rapeseed in Germany to the bowing fen grasses of East Anglia.
We have been blessed to share this year's adventures with over a half dozen American students as well. The one face you don't see in these pictures is our son Asher. He spent 2012 in Korea. Major goal of 2013 is a picture of him next to his mama.
It's been quite a ride y'all. I count it as a singular blessing to have been able to share it with the people I dearly love near and far, face to face and via this screen. 2012 saw a lot of boxes and suitcases and smiles – as well as tears. Life is full.
It is never easy.
It is always good.
Life is good. Hold on to that.
Shop til you Drop
So goes the saying. It took far less time than you'd imagine. Zach and Megan had tickets to a Manchester United soccer game and the girls and I thought it would be fun to drive up together and make a day or two of it. Turns out there is a Vegas-style mega mall in Manchester. We haven't been to any sort of mall in a couple years. Absence makes the heart grow fonder….and the memory dim. We freak out in malls. At least in malls boasting 11,000+ parking spots. We found ourselves in a vast sea of humanity pressing in from all sides. Even things the girls had hoped to see were hard to focus on in that crowd.
It took several hours to work our way from one end to the other of what is billed as "The People's Palace" a lavish tribute to retail utopia. We left with one bag between us, purchased just before we left. We will never win any shopping awards unless it is "Most Likely to be Overwhelmed."
This sabbath day finds us happily encircled by beech trees and hedgerows once more.
Home for the Holidays – lifestyle photography
I had a lifestyle session with a local family just before Christmas. We had a challenge on our hands given that it was the darkest day of the year – literally just hours after winter's solstice. Rain kept us inside their cozy English farmhouse where we worked to catch a few glimpses of Christmas at home in a large family like my own, with some kids close by and others spreading their wings and flying around the world.
I am grateful to have shared a little bit of it with them.
Christmas past
Not far past, but I am on a bit of a time delay due to our travel schedule this season. We have a blessedly full house with our kids and their friends, which is just how I like it.
tree trimming
counting down
Been feeling a a bit crunched for time this week. So much so I have been tongue tied over here. Looking at her sweet face I am reminding myself that it is more important to become like a little child this season than to be uber grown up and organized and caught up and any number of words I am not at this moment. Only one thing is needful and if I rush I am going to miss it.
Still, I really hope all the bathrooms are clean before company arrives.
That is about how my Martha vs Mary debate goes these days. : )
December’s breath
make bright the darkness
"Incline Thine ear, O Lord, and make bright the darkness…."
– prayer for Gaudete Sunday
Because isn't this what we really need? Like everyone else I have been deeply saddened by the innocents lost last week, as well as by the darkness which envelopes a heart and allows such a thing to come to pass. But in the end, great positive change doesn't come through policies, but through people. It does not come in big sweeping blasts of condemnation and commotion, but in tiny lights which come together to illuminate a dark world.
Some things will never be heard through bull horns. Messages of love and peace, like prayers, can only be heard through whispers. They are spread through clasped hands and never raised fists or pointed fingers. They spill forth, a heart overflow. Gentleness and awe cannot be coerced, but are often inspired.
So this is what we do. We slow down. We whisper joy. We share beauty. We find peace and take great care in a restless and reckless time. We try to forgive immense pains, extend grace, and to step back from heated arguments. Instead of shouting into the darkness, or fixing our gaze there, we stop and make light, right where we are.
And yes, there are those who are waiting, ready to extinguish our fragile flames.
Indeed they are there.
We must be as unceasing as they, quietly lighting vigil candles of charity in every corner of the world we find ourselves. There is no other way.
Be a light in your corner of the world today – a light-seeker, a light-bearer. Make a heart bright.
