I often think of Einstein’s words: “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” Children live with a sense of awe. Sometimes I’m afraid that the pain in this life will chip away at my sense of wonder until […]
“This is one I’ll keep when the kids are grown,” my friend said as she handed me a picture book a weekend ago. Reading it made me happy. As my friend put it, the book “sentimentalizes modern life.” I vowed to myself to remember the title, but all I recalled two days later was that […]
I woke up in the pitch black to the ringing of my alarm and thought of a children’s book. “I know it’s autumn when the morning light comes late . . . .” So begins Eileen Spinelli’s picture book, I Know It’s Autumn. It is a mood piece (the kind of picture book children’s writing […]
Has the change in the air given you energy? Are dreams reawakening in your heart? Do you feel a glimmer of holiday anticipation? Then, you have tasted the sweetness of September! The following is a list of “blooms,” some tended, some unexpected, in my actual garden and in the garden of my life during this […]
August has been a blur of blessings: beach, back to school, boy’s birthday, and blooms! As I was rushing to prepare for the first three blessings in the list, the blossoms caused me to slow long enough to drink in a scent, to admire a swirl of petals, or just to splash their leaves with […]
A haiku is a short poem about nature. At its best, it lets the reader experience a scene—causes her to feel the emotions of being there! I think you’ll find, like I have, that the structure (five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third) creates […]
I looked out the window one morning to see a soccer ball, like a black and white gazing ball, on the ground beside the garden shed. Maybe because I’d recently been thinking about Basho’s influence on me, the scene inspired this haiku: A still soccer ball Hiding beneath iris leaves— How I love my boys! […]
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2b Isaiah prophesied that Jesus wouldn’t be physically beautiful. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first read Isaiah 53: 2-3, but I felt its truth in my heart. Would the Servant King, born […]
July has been gentle this year. We’ve had miraculously cool breezes and refreshing summer rainstorms. There has been no string of days over 100° F. Friends and family have had the energy to visit, and the flowers have had enough pep to welcome them with petaled smiles. Here is a list of “blooms” in my […]
I’m sitting beside the window, sorting through a box of books, listening to Christmas carols. I turned on the music to cheer me up, thinking I could get away with it because of “Christmas in July.” The sun is streaming in as the grandfather clock ticks beside me. Time—changes—things. The scene around me is happy. […]
A Children's Book World 