The Farmers' Market

Summer has officially arrived. The local farmers' market is now open. I went yesterday for the first time this year before braving the local grocery store. I bought a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables--sweet Texas onions, yellow squash, beets with the greens still attached, tomatoes, blackberries and peaches. God's bounty is so beautiful and so delicious! Last night I washed and chopped the greens before sauteing them and roasted the beets. Along with pot stickers (I've become a Chinese dumpling addict!), they made a great supper. Besides the wonderful, healthy eating, I find it a blessing to visit with the farmers who bring the fruits of their hard work to share. Time seems to slow down in their presence. Perhaps that's because they are used to waiting patiently for the plants to mature. Some things cannot be forced or sped up, but must wait for God's time to reach their fullness. I'm going to try to remember that in the coming days as I go about my writing work.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Poetry Patrol

I latched onto Ted Kooser's phrase, "poetry patrol," in his book The Poetry Home Repair Manual. I realized that I had been on poetry patrol on our recent trip to Philadelphia. While my husband attended a conference, I walked around the city seeing the sights, some I searched out, like Galileo's telescope, and some found me, like the protest against Lockheed Martin's corporate contribution to war efforts. I came home with notes and ideas for several poems, which I now need to sit down and write.

I still have trouble making myself sit down to do the actual writing, though it's slowly becoming more of a habit. Why God has called me to the work of writing is still a mystery, but I'm trying to put one foot in front of another on this path upon which God seems to be directing me at present. I try to focus on the immediate rather than think too much about long term. After all, I have no idea how much long term I have. None of us know that for sure. My immediate problem is to find a way to describe the march of a half dozen individuals who chose to devote their time to protesting war and its profits, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were a dozen at most heading to a confrontation with a politically well-connected mega-corporation. But then I learned as a child in Sunday school that when God is with us, our own size and strength are irrelevant. All that matters is our faithfulness.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue

Thin Places

I have enjoyed my writing class at the local community center taught by a retired English professor with a gentle spirit and a gift for teaching. Each week he challenges us with assignments. This week one of those was to write about thin places--a Celtic concept that refers to those places where the veil between heaven and earth is thin, bringing us closer to God. I think of these as places the Holy Spirit haunts, reliably if not regularly. My favorite such place is the Presbyterian conference ground at Mo-Ranch outside Hunt, Texas. I never fail to encounter God each time I visit there.

This week, however, as I was thinking about the assignment, I discovered an unexpected thin place close to home. Last Friday our middle son, Greg, his wife and their two kids, came to visit. They took me for a picnic at Salado Creek for Mother's Day. The cool, clear creek meanders over pebbles and between tall oak and elm trees in the small tourist town of Salado, Texas. The creek has drawn visitors since Native Americans first frequented the spot. Our three sons loved to visit the creek when they were young, wading and catching all sorts of creatures they carted home. On Friday as I sat beside the creek and watched my son splash in the creek and look for tadpoles and minnows with his son, eternity stretched out before me and for a moment time stood still. I sensed God smiling upon us in that beautiful place. Perhaps one day Greg's son will take his son there as well, as life continues to spool from one generation to the next in God's endless blessing.

Grace and Peace,
Donna Sue