Nancy

Summer Reading

June 29, 2017 by Nancy 13 Comments

Any book we read in the summer seems to have staying power. As refreshing as a cool glass of iced tea, it seeps into our subconscious and stays there. Reading outdoors in the fresh air may be part of the stimulation.

I just finished reading A Voice in the Wind and An Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers. These are the first two books in the three-part Mark of the Lion series. I’m dying to jump into the third book but have to pace myself since our summer book club won’t discuss that book until the end of August. Still, this series will always remind me of the Summer of ’17!

Maybe it isn’t really reading in the summer that makes the content more memorable, but the fact that we take the time to read a book in sittings long enough to absorb what’s being said. I’m in one of those “reading periods” right now, before all our summer visitors descend, and it’s glorious. Since the days grew longer and the television programming grew even less desirable, I’m loving making reading my pastime of choice. When I read before bed, it seems like the cadence of the author’s writing lulls me to sleep and dwells in my dreams. It just stays with me.

Our passion to read, and to read with the intent to retain and be changed, is what we hope to pass on to our kids and grandkids. You know the ones—the kids listening to their ipods while text messaging their friends. If only they could know the thrill we knew of coming out of the library each summer carrying a stack of books that went from our waists to our chins—and knowing we had two whole weeks to read them! Or waiting with bare feet in the hot summer sun to enter the air-conditioned bookmobile, where the cool air combined with the smell of leather-bound books was intoxicating. E-readers are wonderful, especially when traveling because you can take many books without adding weight to your luggage. But there’s just nothing like the smell and feel of a real book.

How well I remember reading as a child. If I didn’t have a library book to read, I would just start in on my collection of Nancy Drew mysteries and read them over and over. I would have loved it if a free lending library, the birdhouse-sized ones which have popped up recently in towns everywhere, had been within walking distance from my house.

Whatever else we lose, we must not lose reading. We have to pass along our passion for escaping with a good book and allowing it to educate us, restore us, change us, and so become a small part of who we are. Happy summer reading!

Where Have All the Hummers Gone?

June 20, 2017 by Nancy 14 Comments

As much as I love hummingbirds, the only ones in my life right now are the ceramic magnetic ones on my refrigerator. I knew moving east of town, farther away from the mountains, would mean fewer hummers at our house. Still, last year we had a slow but steady trickle of visitors. This year? Not a one so far.

I’m beginning to have hummingbird hallucinations. Was that the telltale sound of a hummer in flight? Nope. Probably a visiting grandson with his fidget toy. Was that a hummer headed to the feeder? Nope. Just a small finch hoping to peck at the holes with the sweet water and get an energy boost.

I haven’t given up hope. I know that there’s always an influx of the amazing little birds in July. That’s when the rufouses appear. Even if my only visitors are those rude and belligerent rufouses, I would happily settle for them during this hummer drought.

I’ve tried to figure out what might be detaining them. I put the feeder out on tax day as recommended. I change the nectar often. Yes, the cats hang out on the deck but that’s never deterred the birds before. I bought a fancy new feeder and wondered if they weren’t impressed, so I put up the old feeder. Still no visits. Just a forlorn feeder.

Now I’m beginning to imagine they met some ill fate on the trip here. Could they have been held up in customs crossing the borders in South America or Mexico? Their little tiny suitcases rifled through? Or maybe they were all captured and forced to join some hummingbird circus where attendees are charged sugar cubes to watch their aerial antics!

Wherever they are, I hope they are well. And I hope they come here soon.

Yardening

May 26, 2017 by Nancy 10 Comments

It’s Memorial Day Weekend and if local nurseries are any indication almost everyone is ready to get into gardening. Or is what you do really yardening instead? There’s a difference, you know.

First, the wardrobe differs drastically. Gardeners wear floppy straw hats, sturdy pants with big pockets and loops for hanging tools, and clogs. Yardeners work in the yard wearing a hat from Disney World, cut-off blue jeans, and the tennis shoes they bought the year they graduated from high school.

Then there are the tools themselves. Gardeners have tools with matching handles. Each tool has a special function—and a special spot in the wooden gardener’s bench at the end of the day. Yardeners are more likely to be out digging with an old serving spoon from the kitchen. They just toss it in the kids’ sandbox once they have the petunias in the ground.

Gardeners have a master calendar for all their gardening tasks, such as dividing seedlings, rotating rose bushes, whatever it is Martha Stewart finds to fill up her calendar even in the dead of winter. They wouldn’t dream of pulling weeds unless it was on the schedule.

Yardeners, on the other hand, may lapse into their yardening tasks quite spontaneously. I once talked to a freelance artist who explained she had missed her deadline because she went out to get the mail and noticed a few weeds growing by the mailbox. Naturally, she stopped to pull them up, and four hours later she was still out in the yard pulling weeds. I understood completely. That’s yardening at its best.

If you see people strolling their grounds, or setting up tents for a garden party, they are probably gardeners. Yardeners are more likely to be seen standing in their front yards on a Saturday morning drinking coffee, contemplating brown spots, and staring down the dandelions. The only grounds on their minds are the ones in the bottom of the coffee mug.

Of course gardeners don’t have to deal with dandelions because, you guessed it—they don’t have any. The anti-weed substance spread with their lawn fertilizer takes care of them. Yardeners, on the other hand, wield little spray bottles of environmentally friendly “Dandelion DOA,” and pop each stubborn dandelion root up with an old screwdriver. (The screwdriver conveniently fits in the back pocket of the cut-off jeans and is equally useful for setting the choke on the lawn mower.)

The aesthetic results differ, too. Gardeners carefully coordinate the shades of green they combine in any given area of the landscape, and are careful to plant flowers which bloom sequentially, clustered in color groups of cool or hot tones. Yardeners, however, are happy whenever anything turns green, and they’ve been known to water weeds for weeks before realizing they weren’t zinnias.

I have to admit I’m basically a yardener. Thinking I could actually improve my skills, however, I checked out a book on gardening from the library. Unfortunately it isn’t much help, as it was written by two perfectly lovely people in Pennsylvania who are completely spoiled by being able to plant with the assumption that whatever they plant will grow. The “casual gardens” in their yard, photographed for the book, could easily be paid-admission botanical gardens anywhere west of the Mississippi.

Gardener or yardener? Whichever you are, it’s time to get out there. And remember, those dandelions grow while you sleep.

Encouraging Moms of All Ages

May 11, 2017 by Nancy 10 Comments

“I can handle anything,” the T-shirt slogan reads. “I’m a mother.”

Certainly it often seems as if mothers can handle anything. Who else can talk on the phone while making the kids’ lunches, feeding the dog, and checking the newspaper for coupons? Moms who work outside of the home do all that before leaving for work in the morning—not to mention getting the kids out the door, picking up the house, and setting the pork chops out to thaw.

Is it any wonder mothers need encouragement? Even the most competent of mothers has moments in the middle of the night, or when she’s racing to pick up a sick child at school, when she thinks, “I just don’t know if I can do this any longer.” The truth is, she has to. No one can replace a mother.

One thing I’ve realized as my own kids have grown up and married is that while the role of mothering changes with time, a mother is a mother until the day she dies. Women in different stages of mothering need our encouragement in different ways.

More than anything else, the young mom at home with toddlers needs a sanity break. The most encouraging thing we can do for her is to give her time to restore herself emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Movie tickets, a gift certificate to a beauty salon, or just a coupon for “two hours all to yourself” are extremely encouraging as long as any offer we make is accompanied by babysitting arrangements. If you stay with the kids, when the mom comes back tell her all the ways you observe that she is positively molding the lives of her little charges.

The mother of a teenager may need more encouragement than anyone. One day everything is going great and she’s just sure her teen is going to change the world for the better. The next day a phone call comes, or a discussion explodes, and things look bleak at best, impossible at worst. The most effective encouragement for these moms often comes from mothers who have been through the teen years and seen their kids emerge on the other side stable and whole. (They really DO grow through the angst of being a teenager. And they really will tell you that they love you again!) If you know a mom struggling with a teenager now, write a note or call to say “hang in there” in an encouraging way.

Those blessed to still have moms in their seventies, eighties, and beyond know that these moms deserve and need our encouragement, too. They need to hear that they did a good job of rearing their children, and that they are doing a good job of leaving a legacy of love to their families. If we believe this to be true, we must never miss an opportunity to tell them so.

My mother was always encouraged when someone outside the family said something complimentary about one of her three grown girls. If you are acquainted with the mother of a friend, consider writing her a note and letting her know how much of her you see in the friend you love—or just thank her for rearing such a wonderful daughter.

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children,” wrote William Makepeace Thackeray. Every mother knows that it’s only by God’s grace, and with His help, that she is worthy of the name and able to “handle anything.” Let’s give the moms we know and love His encouragement through us. Happy Mother’s Day!

Retired & Inspired

April 27, 2017 by Nancy 22 Comments

No matter how many articles I read saying Baby Boomers can’t or won’t retire, it seems quite a few of us are! Friends and acquaintances seem to be canceling their commutes, rolling over their 401Ks, and wearing more comfortable shoes at a fairly regular pace. Baby Boomers are retiring, but we’re doing it with a bit more inspiration, and a lot more activity, than past generations.

The Boomers probably haven’t held one job through out their careers but several, with a few entrepreneurial adventures (like giving up a good-paying job to be a freelance writer!) along the way. We still appreciate the classic retirement stories, however.

Driving down a street in Colorado Springs I was captivated by this sign in the window of a shuttered barber shop: “Sorry, the Barber Shop is CLOSED. After 54 years, I have retired. To all my customers, THANK YOU!” It was simply signed, “Benny.”

I never met Benny, don’t know him at all, but I’m so proud of him and wish him well. Can you imagine the number of lives he touched in 54 years of working as a barber? How many military haircuts did he give to brave, young soldiers? How many teenage suiters did he make presentable for their proms? How many businessmen felt more confident after a little time spent with Benny? Think of how the topics of conversation, the political debates, and even the jokes would have changed over 54 years. A lot of life was lived out in that small shop. And the world was improved one head of hair at a time. Job well done, Benny!

Mary and her husband Bob at Flying Horse.

Another retirement story caught my eye, this time the work span was 57 years. The Associated Press reported that a man named Mel, living in Gloversville, NY, delivered newspapers for The Leader-Herald. He delivered 220 to 300 newspapers a day, seven days a week, for 57 consecutive years before retiring at age 87. That’s more than five million papers! I think we can also say to Mel, job well done.

I don’t know how Benny and Mel plan to spend their retirement years, but for the Boomers there may not be a rocking chair in sight. This spring both my sister and my husband are entering into stages of retirement. My sister Mary left the residential construction company she founded and managed for almost 30 years. Whenever she wants to revisit her work life, all she has to do is drive around Knoxville, TN, and admire the many beautiful custom homes she built. She’s still waiting to see what her retirement will look like, but I’m sure it will include service to others, grandkids, and golf.

And then there’s my husband, Jim, who hits a milestone birthday on April 30 and simultan- eously retires from a significant portion of the business he has built over 33 years of self-employment. He will still continue with another segment of his business, and will maintain an office routine (whew!), but I’m excited to see what more free time will bring. I hope his semi-retirement includes more travel, more golf, and more personal ministry. Having watched him “self-motivate” day after day, with no boss to prod him nor employees to support him, I stand amazed and proud of him for the wonderful living he has made for us. My admiration, gratitude, and love overflow.

And me? Well, here’s the thing. When you are a writer, that’s just what you are, not your job. Someday I may be a little old lady scratching out poems on napkins in coffee shops, but I’m pretty sure I’ll always be writing something. It’s a good life. And now it’s one that affords me plenty of time to embrace anything else life has to offer. God willing, I’ll just join in with the other Boomers who are retired and inspired, but far from expired!

Blessed by Bunnies

April 13, 2017 by Nancy 15 Comments

Since the time I was a very little girl watching them scamper around our grassy yard in East Tennessee, stopping only to munch on clover stems, I have loved those “wascally wabbits” also known as bunnies. In junior high school I actually raised rabbits, showing them in the Tennessee State Fair. I even served briefly as secretary of the Smoky Mountain Rabbit Breeders Association!

As Easter approaches our grandchildren know that the bunnies burrowed in storage bins most of the year will soon be hopping into position all around our house—joining the year-round bunnies on display. We have bunny bands, bunny families, and even an Easter egg tree with bunny ornaments. Bunnies, bunnies everywhere!

Of course, as a follower of Jesus Christ, I know that Easter is only about His glorious Resurrection. It’s about how He came to earth to close the gap between us and His Heavenly Father. It’s about how believers can exchange a life of sin for an eternal life with God! I know all that to be true, and I’m grateful to my soul for the true meaning of Easter. I would never begin to idolize or worship the Easter Bunny, but I’m hoping it’s OK to adore God’s fuzzy creatures that dart across the path in front of me on my walks, stopping just long enough to twitch an ear or wiggle a nose in my direction.

I’ve learned a lot from bunnies—including the facts of life after I ran to my grandmother crying, “one of my rabbits is playing too rough with the other one!” In my book Simply the Savior, I wrote about learning to abide by watching the little rabbit that lived in an overgrown juniper at the end of our driveway. Every morning when I opened the drapes to look out she would be nibbling dew-covered grass. But if the golden retriever next door came galloping by, or the wind and rain came up, the little rabbit would quickly retreat to her bush where she was safe. Seeing her abide in the bush helped me understand how Jesus wants us to abide in Him (John 15:4).

Many authors have personified bunnies. I decorated my grandchild nursery in prints and fabric depicting Beatrix Potter’s beloved Peter Rabbit and his friends. One year I read the novel Watership Down, a fictitious account of life in a rabbit warren, while riding a train through the British countryside. Gazing out the window I couldn’t help but fantasize that the bunnies I was reading about were out there somewhere.

Yet bunnies are just charming, sometimes aggravating (why do they eat just one bite of each ripe strawberry?) creatures. I believe God made them in part for our pleasure, so let it be to His glory that we enjoy them at Easter.

Which leads me to wonder if bunnies could have been present at the Cross. When the ground shook and the sky turned darker than dark, did they scurry under a rosemary bush for protection? Maybe they also watched from a distance that bright, early morning of the third day as the women ran to the tomb only to find it empty. We can only imagine…and be blessed.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
–Cecil F. Alexander