Dreaming of Silver Roses

            It’s Stogner family fun night. Friday nights are a time where we are just together. I know it won’t always be that way, so I plan to maximize these sacred moments. How did we do it tonight?

First we four …and the dog… ate a nice home cooked meal. Simple, but I pray that meals like this one will be in their memories forever. They are a symbol of family, relationship, and fellowship. They are a sharing of way more than meat, potatoes, bread, and vegetables.  There is something more brought to the table by each member…and even by the dog who sneaks a bite beneath a little girl’s chair or from a young man’s hand.

         

We all watched Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium which I proudly profess that I fell hopelessly in love with. We laughed as “The Mutant” didn’t get the magic and the dinosaur puzzle made faces behind him in the store window. We all wept audibly and I held Abbey firmly against my chest and Diallo held Mat as the tombstone appeared on the screen. We all hoped along with Eric that Mahoney would in fact keep the store and find her song. I prayed that each member of my house….including the dog… will find their song. To quote Carolyn Arends, “Your laughter is the music of universe!” Amen. His Divine pleasure is the laughter of universe. “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight”, says Psalms 16:3. You are the reason for divine glee! As St. Irenaeus was paraphrased by Sara Grove, “the glory of God is man fully alive”!

           

Then we went outside where we took crate paper and turned it into wings. We let it stream down the kids arms and tied it on their arms in doubled up strips and they ran. The strips streamed out behind them as they “flapped their wings”. Again really simple, but I pray an eternal memory. I took pictures to post later. We looked into the sky calling to the other birds, “I can fly!” We made imaginary “jet streams” with the jets that passed over head leaving their white wakes. We had ribbon dances with the paper tied to long sticks and swirling and whirling around us. We laughed and fell to the ground dizzy. We got up with grass stained jeans and put wild flowers in our hair. Mat and Abbey and the dog and me!

            Right before bath time I held this conversation with Abbey.

“Mom?”

“Yes,ma’am, ‘Bug (Short for her daddy’s pet name for her that stuck-Ladybug)

 “Mom, thank you for doing that outside stuff with us. It was fun.” I got a big smile.

“You’re welcome. I had lots of fun, too.” I returned an ear to ear smile .

“When I’m happy, you’re happy?” she asked very thoughtfully.

“Yes. Very.”

“How much?” I got a mischievous grin.

“Very much. As much as my heart can hold.”

“As much as heaven can hold?” she turns her head slightly from stepping into the tub to squint a little and cut a grin my direction.

“Close.”

“Maybe more?”

“Maybe.” And my little girl giggles.

Welcome one and all to my house on Friday. Not every Friday, but tonight.

So many words to say, but I’m opting for silence.
So many days to live.
I thinking I’m sitting this one out.
Cause something I’ve been chasing finally stop to let me catch it.
Something I’ve been longing for and dreaming about..
It’s a whisper in my ear.
It’s a shiver up my spine.
It’s the gratitude I feel for all that’s right.
It’s a mystery appeal that’s been granted me tonight.
This peace..
It’s something so elusive.
Something close but far away.
It’s the home that I can’t live in yet somewhere in outer space.
And sometimes I barely miss it when I walk into the room.
The curtains are still swaying and I feel the air move..
And it whispers in my ear and it shivers up my spine.
It’s the gratitude I feel for all that’s right.
It’s a mystery appeal that’s been granted me tonight.
This peace..
No time to grab a camera.
No time to write it down.
Just time enough to breathe it in.
And linger….
It’s a whisper in my ear.
It’s a shiver up my spine.
It’s the gratitude I feel for all that’s right.
It’s a mystery appeal that’s been granted me tonight.
This peace.
This peace..

~ Sara Groves, This Peace, album: All Right Here, 2002
 

Filed under: kids, life, purpose, relating well, relationships on April 11th, 2008