I wrote a poem earlier this month that I thought I’d share here. It’s a reminder I need often! What a gift it is to walk with a sovereign God through “ordinary” days.
I haven’t shared a poem on the blog in…a very long time. Let’s change that today, shall we?I’ve come to find that I love referencing seasons and months in my poetry, and this poem reflects that. I hope it can be an encouragement to you.🫶🏼
This June was sunshine and thunderstorms and wildflowers and good books.✨
And mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes.
When he bares his teeth, Winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, We shall have spring again.
C.S. Lewis
Things worth remembering
the start of the local farmers market
flower shopping with a brother
kayaking with the same brother in the rain
wandering through a newly-discovered cemetery
savoring slow mornings on vacation
reading on the dock
sand volleyball and Crossnet
Facetiming a dear friend
hayrides with cousins
wild costumes and Uno in the rain
late night cousin chats
scrounging wildflowers from the ditches
“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works…”
“What don’t you love?” he asked, looking at her intently.
She gazed back at him. “Oh, soggy mittens, chocolate without nuts, a man who can’t find it in himself to hold your hand when it’s sticking right out there in plain view.”
He took her hand that was resting on the table. “What else?” he said.
I finished this one on our family vacation, and it was a delight. I’m so glad there are so many more books set in Mitford!
Her life was pretty normal, but normal through rose-colored glasses. Normal with abstract colors thrown in. Normal in an intentionally romanticized way.
This book is a masterpiece. Both the pacing and narration are absolutely brilliant, and Rain is one of those characters who deserves to go down in literary history with the likes of Anne Shirley and Jo March.
When you’re brave enough to show your scars to others, you declare that both your celebrations and your sufferings belong to the Lord. In doing so, you steward them both well.
Yes, I’m STILL reading this book! XD It’s still good.
(I’ve also been beta reading a short story that will be published in this anthology!)
LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Nor with things too profound for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
psalm 131:1-2
From the journal
It is His strength within me. His love. His heart. His mind.
It was glorious this evening, and beauty is pulsing stronger on the horizon. God, You are so good to carry Your weak ones and give them hope’s whispers in unexpected places.
Let me not long for the cup You have not given.
What stood out to you from this June?
Oh! Just a note…I’ll be sending out a newsletter with some writing updates in a week or so here that you might not want to miss. You can click here to join my mailing list if you haven’t yet.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Encouragement is more than just giving a compliment. It is the passing on of courage. To encourage someone is to give them the courage to face an unknown future, the courage to trust an unseen God, the courage to stand firm in a turbulent culture.
I’m so glad I finally got this book. I’m marking it up all over the place! It’s been a gentle challenge for me to consider the way that I walk through life and treat the people that surround me…and what that lifestyle says about who God is.
He raised his head slightly, and froze. “Do not move,” he said. “That is a bull.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she whispered, “this happens in comic books, not real life. Will we be gored?”
I’m such a slow reader, but I was able to tear through this book while I was down after getting my wisdom teeth out! XD You can read my full review here.
…I looked past her to the counter and realized she’d baked more than muffins. There were also cupcakes. I felt my stomach plummet. “Oh, no, Lib.”
“It’s not what you think,” Libby promised. She was an apology cupcake baker. A guilty cupcake baker. A please-don’t-be-mad-at-me cupcake baker.
I did end up shelving this as DNF because the combination of teenage angst and implied content wasn’t my cup of tea. That and the plot just didn’t grab me like I’d hoped. I loved the MC’s snappy dialogue, though, and the glimpse of the tender heart beneath her armor, even in the first chapter.
“…we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”
2 chronicles 20:12
From the journal…
Let me see each day, each aspect of my life as a battleground; an opportunity to decrease and let You increase.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
It’s spring in my corner of the world…on the ridges and in my soul. Here’s a new poem to commemorate these days.
the world is coming alive again,
and so
am
I…
spring is yawning green,
pushing its delicate fingers through the loam
that knew death with such intimacy…
but it breathes again,
racing to meet a cloud-studded sky
at the horizon to dance a jig
where death has died.
words flow, inky black
yet so alive
from my pen.
funny how, in the months where
the world stretched barren,
my pen was barren, too…
and now,
as the fields are wooing my heart,
my fingertips spring to life with the words
I fought to snare all winter.
a gift, a gift,
it’s all a gift…
the chorus echoes through my mind
and thunders through my ribcage.
all these God-formed hands can do is
plant,
water,
weed,
gather the increase that comes
from the heart of God and never
from my own sweating brow.
fear melts with the last of the snowdrifts, and
I poke warming fingers into the grasp
of an Almighty hand…
grateful,
eager,
in love.
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Laurel Luehmann 