If I had One Wish...

If I had one wish to make, this is the wish I would choose, I’d want an old straw hat, a pair overalls, and a worn out pair of shoes…

Ok, so we can nix the shoes and just go barefoot.

This is the song sung by sweet Shirley Temple in the movie Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. I’m a big Shirley Temple fan, and yes I even dressed up as her for Halloween one year. I have a habit of dressing up like historical figures or in historical costumes for Halloween. {A different story for a different time.}

I sing this song in my head, it's a great tune to whistle, and I forget all the other words.
If I had one wish…

I’m not much of a wisher. I mean I say the phrase like most people do, but I don’t put my hope in wishes. I put my hope in other things. I would say that I am a dreamer and I love to use my imagination, but I don’t put my hope in my dreams.

These days I’m looking for simple. When I left the house I forgot something, went all the way home to go get it, only to leave yet another important object for my day at home. Flustered. Frustrated. Overwhelmed. These characterize my life at this point.

I long for summer nights of starry skies and fire pits. I long for vegetable gardens and backyard bbqs. I long for berry picking and jamming. I long for Italy and using olive oil for everything. I long for the smell of sweet honey and the sound of people laughing in good company.

A friend of mine and I went off in a frenzy as we gushed over the simple life, gardens and fresh produce, coffee, and dreams. I couldn’t be logical when my head was spinning and my mind racing, to these big plans of simple.

This last year I entered into the knowledge of the people that grow the foods I eat, that milk the cows, and produce the butter I delight in.  Today I walked through the crops unit and saw the calves at the dairy.  Longing for simple life.

Tuning and Pruning

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been thinking about tuning and pruning lately.  It’s the perfect season right now.  Spring is coming out in beautiful flowers, longer days, and peaceful sunsets.  And time is slipping and swishing past.

But the reason I’ve been thinking about tuning is for my love of music.  I was thinking about how I regret in some ways not pushing myself more to learn an instrument when I was young.  I think I was fearful of the time and commitment that it would take to practice.  I was fearful of failing expectations.

And now I sit in the coffee house just off campus.  There are so many things that are buzzing about this place, but the one that stands out is the man tuning the piano.  It’s the most atrocious sound.  It goes above all the other noises, above the people talking, and the typing, and paper crinkling. 

It stands out. 

It’s different and unusual, but that’s not why it stands out.  It stands out because it sounds awful.  It takes time hitting the keys and hearing horrible noises to make the piano just right.  And in the same way the tuning in our lives is accomplished.  It takes time to be refined, tuned, and form new habits.  It takes time to deal with the problems and the issues. 

Every so often we need to be tuned and it is a process.  Its takes work and it can be awful.  We want to run away from the pain that we hear or feel or that is a part of the process.  But there is hope.

In the end, after the tuning, the piano makes beautiful music.  The sound that was once horrible is one that draws people in.  From the broken and messiness comes the beautiful.  The process makes the end note that much sweeter.  Refining in the tuning and pruning becomes beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Conversations of Joy

I've been away for awhile.  Blogging could not be a priority.  And even in the midst of that, I was still writing.  My thoughts still poured out on a page.  Nothing bad happened, there was no catastrophe, I just wasn't posting.  There were things in life that were more important and those things took time and attention.

This was written awhile ago, but I can express these sediments today as well.  Happy Sunday!  Happy Cinco de Mayo!

How do we discover joy?  I think as others have said before me that joy is found in the little things, the things in which we stop and are thankful.  And if it true that we find joy in the things we are thankful for then I am thankful for conversations.  Conversations bring me joy; especially conversations that come from nowhere, in a coffee shop, in the park, on the bus.  They are of an introductory nature.  A catching up on life and the things that make it beautiful.   A way to see the world as a place where passion and discovery grows.  People know things.  They know what makes their world tick.  They know what makes them excited.  They know more than I will ever know.  And they can do more things than I will ever learn to do.

Oh life is beautiful.  Have a conversation and discover joy in relationship.