"Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks riseAround; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviourOf silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavierMeal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?" ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins, from "Hurrahing in Harvest" Good things in August: Fat rolls of hay in the fields Jared coming home from his shift at the … Continue reading Sunday Potlucks & Summer’s Long End
I sowed a seed in doubtthat it could ever bloom---can a California poppy weatheran Arkansas high noon? I tended it with the resteach morning during spring,telling my hands in faith to worktoward a beauty I could not see. Midsummer came in jewels,the myrtles finely dressed,just as they were a summer beforewhen we laid our baby … Continue reading Where the Poppy Blooms
"[God] often makes the fairest flowers of man's endeavors to wither and brings improbable things to pass, in order that the glory of the undertaking may be given to Himself." ~ Jeremiah Burroughs Early June in the garden, when everything seems about to burst Driving Highway 22 with Jared on a Saturday morning to do … Continue reading Zinnias, Gingham, & Zucchini Season
"O dear friend, when thy grief presses thee to the very dust, worship there!" ~ Charles Spurgeon The story of August: Fans running throughout the house and strawberry lemonade on days of 100 degrees Summer marigolds in the garden On a day of hospital visits---Christians who stand firm in the surgery waiting room, quoting James, … Continue reading Sorrow, Psalm 139, & the Good Shepherd
"On warm evenings, we would sit out on the front porch from supper until bedtime. There was no TV then, of course, and on weeknights little traffic on the road. It would be so quiet that you could hear other people talking on their front porches or a bunch of children off playing somewhere. ...Sometimes … Continue reading Summer Canning & Slow Afternoons
We saved pickling for the hottest afternoons in July, letting the big round thermometer beneath Papa Jay’s sunroom swing well over 90, the humidity souping up like the moss on his pond. It was a big job, with loads of cucumbers to harvest between our garden and Papa’s. Over a few weeks, Mom would save … Continue reading Pickling Day
“My heart exults in the Lord;my horn is exalted in the Lord.My mouth derides my enemies,because I rejoice in your salvation.There is none holy like the Lord:for there is none besides you;there is no rock like our God." ~ 1 Samuel 2:1-2 Good things in June: Sunday rain and coming home to a Crockpot of soup How Don wears a cover over his cowboy hat when it rains Discovering the weekly grocery ad Eden Annalise, a new niece who is beautiful and calm -- a perfect third child Finding out we are … Continue reading Fresh Basil, June Babies, & Other Growing Things
I remember the way I described the Atlantic Ocean in my letters to Papa Larry from Cape Cod, when we walked the easternmost hem of Race Point Beach with the sea "rising and falling at our sides." But the Pacific, I now realize, does not "rise and fall" like some prim lady curtsying. It cracks … Continue reading Consider the Hummingbirds and the Seas
"The good of my life and comforts and my happiness are more in God than in myself."~ Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment Things that made me happy in August: Long evenings of light to read on the swing Making Mema's cucumber salad from all the cucumbers in the garden Little Ozark mountain … Continue reading Redwood Trees & Rocks in the Sea
"We reflect the greater storyof our King and His bride."~ Bethany Barnard, Covenant These are the things that made me happy in July: On the first day of July: watering the garden in a sweatshirt, walking in rubber boots around the pond, making granola, sewing a dress Flying down the slippin' slide on the big … Continue reading Fireworks & Wedding Flowers
bethanyjlincks.com 