The October garden sighs flowers in celebration of having endured the summer heat. Autumn reawakens something in me as well. Following is a list of “blooms” in my garden and in my life over the past month. * ‘Country Girl’ chrysanthemums, waving pale pink happiness to passersby * A desire to play more with my children […]
The Lake District in England is overlaid with many a poem and book. Ten years ago, when I set foot there for the first (and only) time, it was already familiar, beloved even, for I had been touched by Wordsworth’s poems and delighted by Beatrix Potter’s picture books. Similarly, this month as I baked pumpkin […]
I met a fascinating clocksmith on Friday, when he visited my house to install a moon dial. It had fallen off during shipment of the grandfather clock I’d been dreaming about for much of my life. To me, a grandfather clock, with its carefully crafted workmanship, stands tall for the value of time well spent, […]
This summer, my boys and I were running errands, listening to Dragon of the Red Dawn, by the amazing Mary Pope Osborne,* when my heart was linked to a seventeenth-century Japanese poet: Basho. In the book, Basho’s character says, “[M]y banana tree is more beautiful to me than all the beauty of the Imperial Garden.” […]
The following “video essay” made me pause to look—really look—at a tree today . . . how its arms waved in the breeze, its green leaves in stark contrast to the blue sky. I thought about how, even though it has lived on this earth longer than I have and will be standing tall, shading […]
We listened to the audio version of Little House on the Prairie on our way to spend a weekend in the wilderness. In it, Pa says, “There’s no great loss without some small gain.” That comment lodged in my mind, the way a statement will when I want to test it, prove whether or not […]
“ ‘. . . You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ ” —Acts 2:28 (NKJV) This morning didn’t start differently than any other morning. I awoke early, made my older son’s lunch, and got him to school on time. Now, I’m feeding my little one diced strawberries in the breakfast nook. As […]
A Children's Book World 