215 Lives not Lived

I have no words but yet the deep and dreadful ache of this horror can not be ignored Surely we as a people can not ignore the shame of our past that has shaped the indifference and acceptance of our present. These 215 children were loved and had futures that were taken from them. In taking their young lives the lives of their children,grandchildren and great grandchildren were also extinquished. Their families and communities were devastated. Generations were changed and impacted and a scar so deeply left. How can we not be raging with disgust and shout from the rooftops the injustice and disregard for human life that occured in this country? I guess I found some words but words are not enough. For the love of God think of your own children and grandchildren and imagine them ripped from your arms and treated in such inhumane ways.Imagine them dying alone crying for  you. Imagine them buried in mass graves.This is the only way we can truly understand and realize the magnitude of  the pain our indigenous people have endured.

Home Sweet Home

 Among my daily thankfuls I always include my home.Just like everything in our lives my home has flaws and shortcomings but so many wonderful aspects . It has evolved and changed and adapted but has been home since 1989. I look ahead  a few years and invision leaving this house and moving into a smaller one. But in this dream I see someone else loving it and building  a life within its thick cordwood walls and under its green tin roof and that makes leaving it all right. But for now and in this present season I will take comfort in the home we've created. I am thankful this morning for the chance Meg has been given to move into a house and settle after several moves since coming in August. Yesterday we went to see a house that could become a home and the relief I feel is huge. Boxes need unpacked, pictures hung, familiar items retrieved and seasons lived within the same walls. The future will unfold but for now a home can be enjoyed. For this I have prayed on my daily walks. Oh the lesson we need to keep learning to believe  blessings will come in their time. So today I take joy in my home and my place in this family. I breathe a huge sigh of relief and carry on.

  

What's in Your Garden

 Double digits of May and time to start thinking  GARDEN. The seeds are purchased, the tilling will happen soon and seeds will be dropped. Optimism reigns as I look to another gardening season. Yesterday I bought the fuchsias to make up my hanging baskets for the front veranda. It is quite hard to believe that it's that time again. Hard to believe but welcome. Meg and Caleb gave me a hanging swing chair for Mother's Day and I sit out there looking over at the hills where buds are bursting and color is returning. Hope abounds and fills my thoughts. I dream of my first plunge into my beloved lake and look ahead to summer. Seasons and the cycle they provide speak loudly to me about the cycle of life . Dark seasons of cold and hibernation give way to seasons of heat and growth and seasons of harvest and thanksgiving.Seasons in our own lives; young love and dreaming, middle years of nuturing and building, older years of  reflecting and  regretting. We are excited to see Caleb and Jenna begin  their dreaming and acting on their vision of a future.We enjoy the fruit of our labors with a twinge of regret at what didn't come to be or what we've lost. But in all this we get to be the grandparents who love and guide , who spoil and indulge, who watch and worry. The seeds were planted so many years ago and so many factors determined the crop. But still we plant, we believe, we hope and we tend to the garden. The garden is beautiful,miraculous and a gift beyond measure.