Writing in Faith

Wordless Wednesday: Where Lincoln Spoke, Silence and Respect

2013-05-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

Our World Tuesday: Queen Maeve, Our Carolina Girl

2013-05-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

Back in February, my cousin brought her boss's Havanese puppy to visit in North Carolina--along with her three well-behaved, very beautiful Doberman pinschers. I fell in love with Beau, the Havanese, as I watched him shepherd the Dobies and my parents' elderly and wandering Heinz 57 up and down the beech. When the dogs slept on the couches, he poked them in the snout with his wet little nose as if to say, "Let's go, dogs. Time for the beach!" I fell in love.

Also, he thoroughly enjoyed the ocean and could keep up with the big guys.

So I told my cousin if she came across a Havanese to let me know. In April, she did just that. Enter Queen Maeve onto our family landscape:

My cousin picked her up from the breeder for me and has been taking care of her until I can pick her up next month. I named her for Queen Maeve of Connacht, a mighty warrior with a considerable place in Irish mythology. Her story is long and complicated (the way stories usually are in mythology), but the bottom line is that you don't mess with Maeve and Maeve ain't afraid.

She's so tiny (3.5 lbs.) that she fits through the garden fence without any problem. But tiny is not the same as fearful. Not at all. This little three-pounder runs with the big guys already. And when they get on her nerves, she plays dead. Check this out:

Have a great week!

Our World Tuesday

Today's Flowers: Cherry Blossoms

2013-05-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

Today's Flowers

Skywatch Friday: Peace and Symmetry

2013-05-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday: Little Crab, I Fear Thee

2013-05-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

Our World Tuesday: Flying High...and Low

2013-05-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

I love that this guy doesn't take that tumbling wall of water under his notice. Just doing his seagull thing, thank you very much.

These guys actually know exactly what they're doing. Just looks a little messy from time to time.

They're actually trying to figure out where to go for breakfast.

They landed here:

Some don't fly with the usual bunch. They make going solo an exquisite sight.

Which part of the wave knows to go first?

There are moments that say "yes" and teach you to fly.

Our World Tuesday

Happy Mother's Day

2013-05-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

Today's Flowers: Sweet and Lovely Violet

2013-05-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

I love violets. They are sweet and beautiful and close to the ground and humble and bright. It's a nice surprise when the grass turns purple in spring. They don't last long enough.

Today's Flowers

Skywatch Friday: Good Morning

2013-05-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

Rain has at long last come....and it's great. Grey days can be so quiet and peaceful. Happy day!

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday: Clyde Catches Air

2013-05-08T00:00:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

Our World Tuesday: Snead's Ferry

2013-05-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

Snead's Ferry is the shrimp capitol of North Carolina and an interesting little village. The locals resent the heck out of the tourists who come in and reshape things to suit themselves, but they don't mind the tourist dollar at the seafood shacks. Shrimping is big business and hard work. Still, we found our share of shrimpers sitting back and taking in the day when we took a ride around the village a few weeks ago.

As the Marine Corps expands its presence in the area, new subdivisions are appearing left and right. Still, life goes on the old way in the Ferry.

I love it.

There is a meeting house in the village that is surrounded by burying grounds full of all kinds of grave markers. Some are poured concrete with the names and dates drawn in. Here is Debrid, who was loved by Jesus. The figurine is part of the statement.

Here's a baby who lived a day 43 years ago who has not been forgotten. This stuff breaks your heart.

Here's another life that has earned a lot of remembering.

And some more poured concrete--and a carefully wrought backwards N. This place reminded me how so may of us--most of us--do what we can with what we have where we are. Life chooses us. That's important, and it's very beautiful--and humbling.

Our World Tuesday

Today's Flowers: Tropical Colors in Springtime

2013-05-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

Orange and fuschia--tropical colors and the colors of Dunkin Donuts--dominate the landscape these spring days. The colors were prolific at Airlie Gardens, and we drank them up.

Today's Flowers

Skywatch Friday: Breathe Out

2013-05-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

The sky leaves me speechless these days. I can't--and don't want to--add a syllable. Each day is a deep breath, and the final exhalation, the peace that comes with the realization of a dream.

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday: Itchin'

2013-05-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

Our World Tuesday: Daffodil Festival

2013-04-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

We went to the daffodil festival in Meriden, Connecticut, on Saturday. What a crowd those little flowers drew. We had to park miles away and take a school bus to Hubbard Park.

It was worth it. the 600,001 daffodils were bright, fragrant, and beautiful. They are my favorite flower, so it was a real treat to see so many on a clear, bright Saturday.

There was even a parade to celebrate the yellow blossoms. There was a fife-and-drum band playing patriotic tunes.

The cormorants seemed not to be speaking to the gulls, or vice versa, but they sure did pose nicely.

These folks take their daffodils seriously. I'm glad--because the daffs come back every year. It's a nice neighborhood.

Our World Tuesday

One Single Impression: Liquid

2013-04-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

Liquid:
Melting. Flowing. Running.
As the clouds that shroud
The sea from the stars in the cold night
Melt in the dawn light
To become the dew that dampens the sand
That claims the mark of my foot
That vanishes in the flow of the rising tide,
So am I:
I run
Without a trace
Along the edge of dreams
I would, but cannot, claim:
Everywhere, nowhere,
And cool with spent passion,
They belong to a dawn
That makes use of them.

One Single Impression

Today's Flowers: Camellia

2013-04-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

The camellias were in bloom when we were in Wilmington two weeks ago. The red, white, pink, and red-and-white variegated blossoms were all kinds of stunning. They don't smell like much, but they sure are pretty.

Today's Flowers

Skywatch Friday: The Center Holds

2013-04-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday: Gettysburg Window

2013-04-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

Our World Tuesday: Airlie Gardens

2013-04-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Last week, we took in Airlie Gardens with one of Adella's friends. It was great to be there when the azaleas and the camellias were in bloom.

Then there's the Bottle Chapel. I tried to see it in a new way since we've been there a few times before.

This time around, I saw the faces more than the butterflies in the bottles. The chapel and surrounding sculptures honor the visionary artist Minnie Evans, who was a gatekeeper there for many years.

It's a joy-filled place that is new every time.

It's a mad world. Seize your happiness and love it.

Our World Tuesday

Skywatch Friday: Pelicans on Patrol

2013-04-18T10:20:00.005-04:00

My daughter, her friend, and I were taking sunset photos of Surf City last night. When we were done, we headed for the car and noticed these pelicans perched atop a pedestrian walkway through the marshlands behind the park. They made us smile after a week of one disastrous news story after another. Wishing you health and safety, good friends and family.

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday: Being Flexible

2013-04-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

Our World Tuesday: Carolina Roads

2013-04-15T08:46:00.003-04:00

You don't need a road sign to detect the crossing into North Carolina; the pine trees tell you all about it. They become taller, leaner, neater, and just plain better looking. The smell of pine and tar and earth are rich. I love it, and I always wish I could take pictures as I'm zooming along. (I could stop, but I don't because stopping just screws up the driving mojo and makes a long trip longer....)

This time around, I asked Adella to take some drive-by photos for me to capture what makes Carolina itself unlike any other place. These photos are from her phone. She did a great job of snapping-to every time I said, "How about that?" And that, and that, and that....

We pass many fields like this one, where a house from years gone by sits alongside a barn and outbuildings, and there are signs of life but nobody around.

If you have any hang-ups about the importance of spelling, this is not the place for you.

Neat brick churches are everywhere, and so are those giant ones made of those big metal sheets that make for the quick construction of very large buildings. There are also these storefront models that serve the purpose.

Fields have been ploughed and sown with seeds or drilled with seedlings. And it's quiet.

It's home, and it's someplace else.

Our World Tuesday

Movie Review: '42'

2013-04-14T00:39:00.000-04:00

Jackie Robinson was a man of considerable character, and Brooklyn Dodger's GM Branch Rickey was shrewd enough to recognize this when he chose Robinson for the special project of breaking the race barrier in Major League Baseball almost 50 years ago.

Actor Harrison Ford's interpretation of Rickey in 42, which opened April 12, captures a shrewd businessman, a keen observer of human nature, a Methodist, and a thoroughly decent human being who knew what he was doing and where he was going when he signed Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946.

In the movie, Rickey tells Robinson he made the move for his love of the game as well as to redress an instance of racial abuse he witnessed years earlier but did nothing to correct at the time.

Actor Chadwick Boseman does an admirable job of interpreting Robinson as a man of integrity whose self-respect made enduring the insults of the ignorant--in the form of teammates, team managers, gas station attendants, hotel managers, and Klansmen--a brutal challenge.

Watching "42" with my family--who range in age from 10 to 47--I thought it was both challenging and slow. But my daughter helped me see that the pace of the movie made palpable feeling the challenges Rickey and Robinson faced. Like Spielberg's Lincoln, Helgeland's "42" asks you to pay attention, think about the story, and feel for the main characters. Unlike the apocolyptic,hyperactive CGI junk on offer in the previews, 42 offers the viewer to connect with the heroes; it requires some intellectual and emotional engagement with the problem; it is not a simple matter of siding with whomever remains standing. Rather, it is a matter of understanding the story of the ones who stand up and stay standing for a principal and wanting to be there with them.

42 is a tough movie about two tough guys. It was a great pleasure to stay with it and smile with Robinson when he smiled in the end--which is to say, when he had changed the world for the better.

42 offers a glimpse of the lives of Rickey and Robinson. The movie is not a comprehensive biography of Rickey and Robinson but a glimpse. It is enough. In fact it is more than enough. Watch it and see what's possible if you want to (as they say) be the change.

Skywatch Friday: And so it Begins...

2013-04-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

Skywatch Friday