After my six year old nephew, Finn got out of the shower and was standing in all his confident glory, my sister said to her youngest child, "You are perfect...."  Finn replies, "Yeah, I'm happy with how God made me. And he or she made you beautiful, too."
These little moments are much needed taps on the shoulder to remind us that in the midst of our running and planning and scheduling and obsessing we are doing alright by our children.
I don't get enough time with this fearfully and wonderfully made creature who has been brought into my life through my sister and her husband. He is a gleaming gem in a pond of miracles...
Thank you, Finn, for the gift of an ordinary turned holy observation.

My parents arrived the other day to a little spot on the planet called Akumal in Mexico. I found these treasures there recently while lying on my stomach and without moving from where I settled. All there before me, long before me, beneath the sand.

And will be there long after me I pray. Vaya con Dios, madre y padre.

I have been traveling lately with garden clippers in my car.
I suppose I shouldn't be proud of the fact that I don't have a
problem pilfering random flowers, but they just make me so happy!

I have been given the gift of traveling this frightening and gorgeous trail with incredible people. Each one is a gift, presented to me over and over again at exactly the right moment. I am humbled to know not what waits around the bend, but to have enough courage to just keep moving. I believe what I need I have, and what I do not know I will learn. I am not alone; we travel together, all of us, tripping, stumbling, even slowing down to a crawl at times, but leaning on each other, carrying each other or maybe simply holding hands. Somehow, though, we are getting somewhere, and when I pay attention to where I am at any given moment, I am happier.

Life has a beautiful way of asserting itself, and just in time. I was beginning to wonder if spring was actually going to happen this year and my nephew, Finn, showed me this proof - with the zeal only he possesses! Thank you, Finn, for reminding me to try and see the planet in the fabulous four-year-old way that you do!