Leave Your Treasures at the Door...

...is what Lily told Jeremy the other night when he almost walked in the house with a stick.

So proud.

"Don’t tell me what you hope for. Tell me what you are doing to bring it. Then you will know both patience and justice."

- Joan Chittister

"We are talking about God. What wonder is it that you do not understand? If you do understand, then it is not God."

- St. Augustine

Dreamer

"Show me a dreamer and I’ll show you one of God’s heartbeats for the human race."

- Joan Chittister

Hope

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”

- Anne Lamott

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

--Frederick Buechner

Big Window Photo Shoot

I really love taking pictures. I really, REALLY love taking pictures of Lily. I hope you enjoy these; they are some of my favorites - not because they are outstanding quality or especially creative or brilliant in any capacity, but because this was the day that Lily spotted her first cardinal out of the window reflected in her eyes.I know the peace that looking out of a good window offers. Dont you see it on her face?

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles." - Anne Frank

Happy Resurrection Day!

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.

- Pope John Paul II

The art of praying, as we grow, is really the art of learning to waste time gracefully—to be simply the clay in the hands of the potter. This may sound easy—too easy to be true—but it is really the most difficult thing we ever learn to do.... This is the real reason why so few of us ever come, in this life, to the full experience of God’s love for us.

- Thomas H. Green When the Well Runs Dry

A Whole New World

This morning I gave Lily rice cereal for the first time. We did our regular nursing time, and then I gave her a few bites of the cereal mixed with breastmilk. I thought it went really well. I have been feeling like she is ready for a few weeks, but am just now getting up the nerve to try it.
I really love nursing, and I plan to nurse until she's at least 1 year old. I can totally relate to what Anne Lamott says in Operating Instructions: "This is the easiest, purest communication I've ever known"