Looking Like Spring

May 4, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

A visible reminder that life comes from something so small and succeeds against all odds…like five-year old gardeners and excessive watering.

It was good to notice these small shoots of green on a morning like this as my beloved granddaddy waits in the cardiac care unit for a procedure that will hopefully solve the blood clot that caused his heart attacks on Friday night.

This spring I am being renewed and reminded that among all the tragedies and burdens of life…so much beauty abounds.

Everyday we have a thousand gifts of love….even when they are hard to find.

27. granddaddy’s silver hair so neatly combed
28. his pants pressed crisp
29. Aunt Kathy’s presence so Daddy isn’t alone
30. spring magazines full of beauty

I started my list last week and in the early hours of Saturday after the call that shattered a tranquil night, I felt the challenge. If we lose him, can I find the gift? In that moment of fear and grief, what will I thank God for?

Heavy questions for such a light spring day.

holidays · http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · project 52

Project 52.Easter

May 3, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

Just a visual of our Easter and the blessings I am learning to count each day.

http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday

April 29, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

The storms are past. And here we were just between the bands, so even though folks at school told me we were actually under a warning about 1 a.m. last night, I heard nothing save intermittent patters of sporadic rain that seemed playful in comparison to some of the downpours we’ve had recently.

The lightening was frightening though. Pulsing like it was sitting right over our house and waiting to strike. I was afraid to go to sleep for fear of what the night would be bring and afraid to stay awake for fear of the day…but sometime as I lay in my bed after viewing all the damage to my alma mater and praying earnestly that God would wake me in time to gather my girls…I felt a calmness that told me we were safe.

And so I slept. And so we were.

But so many others were not and I could beg the question all night long of how and why, but we don’t know and there is only One who does. But as I look at photographs of those, who in only a week will join me in the ranks of alumni, cleaning debris (which is a small word for a might tree that I sat under on spring afternoons and read Faulkner and Shakespeare and contemplated clouds) and I hear stories of children who survived though their homes are crushed and twisted beyond recognition, and I know we are not alone.

Photo taken at Berry College. This is the dorm I lived in when I was a student.

So today I am thankful for so many little things…for twenty-four precious gifts that are small, but that somehow might help save me from the weight of despair and destruction and desensitization….

10. a small paci with a pink handle abandoned on the table by a baby who loves pop-tarts
15. bubbling up the bath with foam
16. daddy walking in the door to squeals of baby delight
18. thunder that rolls over the house and keeps on going
19. bacon sizzling in the pan hungry mouths to feed
22. a belief to rebuild a life upon

reflections

Before the Storms Come…

April 28, 2011 Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

There are flashlights and bicycle helmets on my kitchen table because I read the “alert and alive” article on weather.gov that said bicycle helmets are good things for covering your kids’ head in a tornado.

Makes sense, huh?

Our tornado plan is pretty simple. No basement, no cellar, interior closet. So if the storms come as predicted we’ll be in the bathtub with bicycle helmets. Which is the next best thing.

Preparing for a storm that may or may not come made me think today about how we prepare for the storms in our lives.

Sometimes they crop up out of nowhere, darkening the sky and taking the sun and all our hopes into cyclones of despair.

But sometimes there’s enough warning to get out of the way. And you find yourself in the bathtub thankful enough for that.

http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · monday · reflections

The Monday After

April 26, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

What does the Monday after Easter look like? The day after hours filled with study led by a radical? The day after moments cherished and remembered and sanctified? The day after I didn’t go to church because my baby was sick, but while at home felt God speaking to my heart through words that are more than letters and syllables and affixes of Latin and Greek. Words that calm the soul and break the heart…….

“For in that day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and….I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them day after day.” Jeremiah 7:21-26

I don’t need to try harder. God is trying more than enough.

He commands me to obey and walk. Persistently he reminds.

But so often I ignore and limp. Everyday a trial for a weary soul that knows it should be rejoicing rather than restricting life to a grinding whine.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

It’s not my own doing. It’s a gift.

A gift I can choose each day to open and receive. And then share with others.

A dear friend who is mentoring me through the end of my career and the beginning of a new journey shared this experience with me.

Because to read this and ponder and wonder and delight in the words is to surrender myself to something I have perhaps never truly experienced.

The unyielding, unchanging, unfathomable grace and goodness of God.

My list began today….

1. fresh bathmats that tickle my feet

2. laundry warm from the dryer

3. Easter bunny cookie my mama made

4. vacuums that get hard boiled egg out of carpet

5. hugging Madelynne her head beneath my chin

6. silliness of six years old

7. saying “it’s a blessing” and meaning it…thank you new bank for taking away that choice…

we truly are grateful

so many Thursdays I have linked up with Julia and struggled to find something to be thankful for, so today I made myself look around and see the goodness in the everyday.

Please, God, let me unwrap tomorrow and treasure the gift.

For it is by faith….grace….hope….names I chose because I believe.

Names I must choose to live by.