My grandparents lived in a house with no central air conditioning. As spoiled as I am today, I probably wouldn’t last one summer afternoon inside their house. Of course, we didn’t stay inside the house on hot summer days. The house sat in a flat little clearing that was surrounded with trees–God’s natural air conditioning! Each summer, my sister and I would go stay a week or so with our grandparents. We played outside much of the time. Granny had those fold-up aluminum lawn chairs with the colorful plastic webbed seats, and each day we carried those out and found a cool spot in the shade. Those were glorious summers. Not a care in the world, sitting under the trees that had provided shade to previous generations of our family.
Now, over 40 years later, though the house no longer stands, I find myself returning often to the memories made under those trees, by the creek down the lane, and in the foundational presence of my family. Those memories bring me peace in the midst of a chaotic world. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I started a little newsletter for the nursing home residents inside the care home in which my mother-in-law lives. I wrote short devotionals geared specifically for them–large font, simple words, easy to understand concepts, and stories of things that I knew would resonate with them. Often, it ended up being stories and analogies based on my childhood with my grandparents. The newsletter grew in popularity, and soon over 1000 copies were being printed and handed out each week.
I’ve always loved to write. My first story (quite fittingly) was about the trees in my backyard. Though I enjoyed writing, I never imagined myself to be a great wordsmith. During my adult years of staying home with children and homeschooling, the only writing I did was to help my husband edit emails or to send an occasional letter to the editor of the newspaper. Frankly, I never imaged that anyone would have any interest in anything I would have to say. Yet here I am in a season where it seems God is leading me to put my thoughts into print, and people are reading and being touched by what I write. It’s been humbling, surprising, and truthfully, a quite exciting to experience this season in life when my brain seems to be freed up to write things that people actually enjoy.
Thank you for stopping by my little blog. Grab your lawn chair and relax in the shade with me. In a world that is complicated, chaotic, and harsh, let’s sit down together and enjoy a few moments of reflection, simplicity, gentleness and kindness.
