Roadtrips & Ragtime

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“And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.”

~ Louis Armstrong

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Things that made me happy in June….

Reading Anne of Green Gables to Elsie in the hammock

Memorial Day cornhole, Spikeball, and Frisbee

Late phone call in the hammock and a bright moon in the branches

A buttoned skirt and white hair ribbon for a day in Sedalia, MO

The old train car turned into a carry-out restaurant

Eating in the old ticket booth of the Katy Train Depot

Ragtime music wafting through the walls

The grand Bothwell Hotel Lobby and a man wearing a gold vest with a pocket watch

Cold coffees and snow cones downtown

The stuffy concert tent on Fifth Street

Papa’s lovely tribute to his friend, Max Morath, and everyone in the theater singing “Bye, Bye, Blackbird”

Driving past the home where Dad grew up— a long ranch with green astroturf on the front stoop

Liberty Park

A chapel wedding that was made beautiful by the gospel

Bringing a basket full of lettuce back from the garden

Blooming zinnias, growing peppers, reddening tomatoes, and herbs bursting over the sides of their boxes

A roadtrip down South

Jared teaching me to skip rocks on the lakeshore at sundown

Kayaking

The knife shop and apple butter store, and watching the woodworker at his lathe

Night swim

Long morning conversation over coffee about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as thunder crept in

Making sourdough pancakes

Sitting cross-legged on the paddleboard after the sun had set and the motorboats had harbored, a touch of wind whispering over the water, and mostly stillness

Wrapped in towels, eating burgers and watermelon

Wiffle ball under an Arkansas sky

Zipping up a beekeeping hood and walking among the colonies— a buzzing, calming, astounding thing

Visiting his church on a misty Sunday morning and praying with him before he preached

Carrying soups and bread into the church, a hot wind whipping off the fields

Singing from a hymn book with the smell of chicken and meatballs coming from the fellowship hall

The sunset drive back

Tennis in the rain, then a walk to Sweet Bay Coffee

Spring Branch Kombucha

Rain pouring over the sanctuary roof as Pastor Bob prayed

Snapping green beans on the back porch with kiddo hands to help

Buckling the kids’ stuffed dogs and bunnies into the backseat of my car

A heron crossing the horizon

Early morning run and the sun golden in the trees

VBS mornings for quick coffee and breakfast on the gym floor and costumes and circle dances and looking kids I’ve never met in the eye to tell them, God is with you

How VBS set-up and take-down are living illustrations of the church at work— building a lion’s den from paper and practicing skits and baking pretzels and folding fabric and pulling staples out of the walls when it’s all over

Lunch and a writing session with friends

Getting caught in an afternoon thunderstorm

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