travel light

things are merely 

things and yet 

they carry 

and contain memories

leaving them behind

we lose markers, road signs

ways of getting back

to who and where

we were

a cost deeper

than my heart 

would choose to bear

still, I travel light

Street Life - just a normal day

I am the product of an urban/suburban upbringing. The dirt and rush, noise and crush of Chicago streets remains a part of me even as I have escaped into a much simpler, rural, country life.

Nothing in my past, however, prepared me for the street life that was part of a normal day in Kampala, Uganda. We didn't walk the streets, but perhaps would have made more progress if we were on foot as traffic varied from less than a crawl to a dead stand still for more than an hour.

Check out other perspectives on street life and leave a shot of your own.

Time to breathe and share

It's been an intense time of prayer and battle for our church and region and I am taking some time to rest, breathe and share some of the love the Lord has poured into me.

Tomorrow I fly south to the Chicago area to spend a week with my mom. She is feeling well these days, not receiving any chemo treatments and I thought it would be nice for us to have time to just hang out and do things that would be fun for both of us.

There are so many things she has missed during the years she was taking care of Dad.

So, we might go to the zoo, to the botanical gardens, to the theater and perhaps even a riverboat casino. We will share memories and laughter and tears.

At times I know I will again feel just like the little girl that looked to Mom and Dad for all of my needs. That was before I knew the only One Who provides and I pray for opportunity to speak of Him.

Flashback Friday - In the Mirror

This is a poem I wrote in the first year of knowing Jesus as my Lord. I post it today as part of Flashback Friday currently hosted by Erin at Together for Good while Jo takes a break and also in response to Lisa-Jo The Gypsy Mama as she asked what we see when we look in the mirror.

I'm not sure
what to look for
in the mirror anymore

Once a mosaic
of the stories
only years can build
history
written in my eyes

Now wiped clean
by tears
that flow
with joy and wonder
leaving a glow

A mark of peace
A seal of love

Let my face serve
as a road-map
that leads
to the doorway
of my Lord

so those who see me
might find Him

Come join in at Together for Good and add your own flashback.

Check out The Gypsy Mama too, she always brings light and encouragement.

Places I'd love to be...

Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama posted about some of her favourite places in the world and challenged us to link-up with places of our own.

Here's a few places that are dearest to my heart --

Rapids on the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda

Rainbow over Murchison Falls, Uganda

Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba

Cabin at Barrier Bay Resort, Whiteshell Provincial Park, Manitoba


Sunrise in my own backyard

Why not visit Lisa-Jo and add some favourite places of your own?

Flashback Friday - Rite of Passage

This week Jo said:

This week's prompt is ALL GROWN UP. You can take any direction you like with it, but here are a couple of ideas:

The time it dawned on you that you were one of the grown ups
The moment you first felt like a mother (or a father)
A personal rite of passage

As a girl just growing into womanhood, I carried my mother's disappointment. I was the youngest of three children and the only girl and I knew I was not the pretty little thing my mother had hoped for when she dreamed and waited for a female child. I wasn't a popular, social insect, fluttering about. I was smart. My mother gave me credit for that, and urged me to continue to excel in my studies. Smart indeed, but smart girls didn't have boys knocking on their doors, not the cute ones anyway. So smart, and fat and ashamed, I made friends with others who didn't fit the mold which was deemed correct at the time.

One day in an attempt to appear normal (where normal meant being like the majority of other girls at school) I put on makeup and a necklace that I had just found while out shopping with a friend. My mother came home to find me in front of a mirror, looking at myself from various angles, trying to find some pleasure in what I saw.

Maybe it had been a particularly rough day at work for my mother. Maybe she had just seen some pretty little girls my age gathered happily somewhere. Whatever the reason, the sight of her obese daughter trying to look better triggered an explosion that may have been building for years. All of the bitterness and disappointment erupted in a few violent moments. She grabbed the string of beads around my neck and pulled, hard enough to break the strand. Beads flew about the room. Using the fingers of one hand she attempted to wipe the makeup off of my eyes.

“You don't need this stuff” she said, her voice loud and harsh. “Why bother with jewelry or makeup? Why bother?”

I was trembling as she grabbed hold of my tee shirt and continued in this new, frantic voice. “What difference will it make?”

She slapped me across the cheek. I hardly felt the blow as I spun wildly in the sting of my mother's next words.

“No one will ever want you anyway!”

This was a rite of passage that lead me to many years of searching for the very thing my mother said I would never have, the approval of man.

Thankfully I discovered a loving heavenly Father who is teaching me that His approval is all that I need. Part of growing up is realizing we do not have to allow things from the past to continue to shape our lives.

Stop by at Mylestones to read more of our stories and share one of your own.

Flashback Friday - Remembering a sad song

This week on Flashback Friday Jo asks us to offer a musical memory. The following song was popular during my junior high school years and fits right in with today's earlier post Rejection Revisited. The pitiful, overly dramatic lyrics helped many a pre-teen wallow in emotion.

Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat

Blue, blue, my world is blue
Blue is my world now I'm without you
Gray, gray, my life is gray
Cold is my heart since you went away

Red, red, my eyes are red
Crying for you alone in my bed
Green, green, my jealous heart
I doubted you and now we're apart

When we met how the bright sun shone
Then love died, now the rainbow is gone

Black, black, the nights I've known
Longing for you so lost and alone

Stop by at Mylestones and add a musical memory of your own!