O
n Mother’s Day in the afternoon, I strip down our sheets and enfold them into the dark womb of the washing machine.
Because on Mother’s Day first thing in the morning, I had heard the clattering of bowls in the kitchen and I’d waited still and when a son brought breakfast to me in bed, I’d laid with the eyes closed and whispered, “Joshua… did you know that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights and there are even mornings we open our eyes — and He even sends breakfast in bed!”
I’d opened eyes just in time to see the grin escape before he could look nonchalant. I’d winked.
And laying out across sheets, I’d reached for the bowl with the spoon tucked in and the tray promptly tipped and the tall glass of orange juice spilled, baptizing the bed, the coverlet, me in a stream of citrus. I yelped and the pulpless river pooled at the lowest point, the crater under my bulk, and it was cold and it was wet and it was waking and Joshua dashed back, found a towel, sopped, son mopping the mother.
He filled me another glass. And, wiser, I set it on the night stand. I opened their cards. I ran my hand across penciled words in exquisite scrawl. We all hugged, kissed, hugged again. We went to church. Unlike last year, I bit my tongue when I looked over during the second hymn and noticed Kai was wearing mismatched socks.
And on Mother’s Day in the afternoon I wash our bedding.
The sheets where love made and milk ran and the thread count wraps around us laid out each night under the blue-white moon.
The washing machine begins its steady rhythm round, round, the blankets turning, turning.
And I keep counting, I keep counting, that single thread of thanks for grace, the string weaving a life into a one-piece, seamless apple blossom silk.
#1554. sheets warm out of the dryer
#1555. daring to be lonely
#1556. boy-made Mother’s Day cards adorned with hand drawn rockets and exploding ramps
#1557. breakfast in bed
#1558. the tractor dealership that hands out pink carnations to greasy-hand farmers come looking for parts — to take home to their wives for Mother’s Day
#1559. that one long moment of silence that rung me with the stillness: Hope and Levi copying Latin paradigms
#1560. giggles at door peepholes
#1561. a breaking heart
#1562. dandelion globes in all the ditches, planetary systems set to fly in May winds
#1563. a long-suffering sister
#1564. a Farmer-penned Mother’s Day poem — with winking smiley faces to boot!
#1565. soup recipe doubled, times two
#1566. new candles
#1567. grief
#1568. praying the hours
#1569. accepting… letting go… embracing what is…. repeat.
#1570. flash of red wing blackbirds in the fence bottoms
#1571. poetry
#1572. vow keeping
#1573. hugging my good mama
#1574. the sixth week of Easter
#1575. silver hair at temples
#1576. pregnant women
#1577. braving to name my sins their real names
#1578. direct messages in twitter, the hardly-there, private tweets
#1579. pinning down every thought, making it obedient to Jesus
#1580. an honest brother
#1518. being at peace with being me
#1582. the finished wreath stack growing at the back door (yes, Caleb’s working diligently through all interested orders — thank you for grace!)
#1583. straight backs, square shoulders
#1584. boundaries
#1585. the moment you put the microphone back in its stand and it’s over
#1586. fragility
#1587. the empty squares staring back at me from the calendar — all here and all home!
#1588. journaling down to the pain and the answers
#1589. the art of waiting
#1590. crackling fires on cold spring nights
#1591 … and apple blossoms after rain….
Want to drink the joy elixir? Become a Joy Finder? Consider joining the Gratitude Community – just jump in with your own counting!
How to begin your own 1000 Gift List ::: How Gratitude Can Change your Life
( Drop me a line if choose to begin giving intentional thanks and gather fresh joy and I will happily add either your name or a web link to the Gratitude Community I’m slowly getting caught up on meeting all you beautiful folks who have joined the Gratitude Community. Thank you for your kind grace and patience! I’m so looking forward to meeting you all soon!)
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Lanita at The Noa’s in Wa
Trisha at A Multitude of Mercies
Amy at Exquisite Grace
Alexis at Known
Jena at Organized Everyday
Catt at Catt’s Craftiness
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Photos: Mother’s Day and the Farmer and flowers blooming… after the rain
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