Open for Business

Open for Business
It’s all stretched out,
this giving:
the open hands,
the empty palms,
arms raised in surrender.
I don’t give once, walk away
and say:
Now I have given and
It is finished.
The open is stationary
a 24 hour mini-mart,
remaining fixed in time
but perhaps never fixed in space.
And so I wear a sign:
We never close.
A reminder that even if there are
locks on the door,
open for business all day, every day,
means all day, every day.

And was His giving the same?
It remains, transfixed, once and for all,
but is it as if even this day He must say:
Not my will?
Are His eternal, always and forever hours of business posted
with the slogan:
Still emptying Myself,
and, after all these years,
still taking on the form of a servant.
Is His giving
stretched out like His body?
True Love self-donated:
open hands,
empty palms,
arms raised in surrender.
Because this is a love that cannot close
Whose giving does not end,
Laying down my life for my friends.

Image is the San Damiano cross by Tom Kelly

Our Little Valentine

As of today, I'm at 35 weeks...can't believe the end so close, and yet, isn't close enough.
We had an ultrasound last week and learned the baby is (was) 5lbs 5oz (so, right on track) and everything is developing as it should.
She let us see her face and while in these photos she looks a bit otherworldly, it's a delight to gaze upon her and imagine what she'll be when those eyeball sockets and nose are filled in.
On examining the profile, I'm thinking she has my nose and forehead. Which, I'll be honest, may be a good thing. While my husband is terribly handsome, I wasn't so sure his nose would work for our little girl...but, this all has yet to be seen. And you can bet that we'll be enamoured with her from the get go.
Finally, today at Nubi yogurt, they had buy-one-get-one-free. This is my newest favorite thing, Nubi yogurt, and so we were excited to get lots of yogurt for free.

At the center: revisited

I'm reposting this poem from several years ago....




At the Center

Today the sky is Italian blue.
The blue of sapphires and Mediterranean seas,
the kind of blue that seems almost too good to be true.
The kind that makes clouds pristinely white,
the kind that causes you to gaze in wonder at the place you find yourself.

Breezes blow and grape vines shift,
their giant leaves casting shadows,
framed by that Italian blue.
And in their wandering waving
I find my own wavering,
no matter how blue a sky.

The hill steeply climbs
graded into plots, gardened into life.
In late afternoon it sits in shade,
this part of the yard catches morning sun.
The sky above it, though, is still Italian blue.
And as I sit watching vegetables and children grow,
I see my reflection in a yellow building’s window.
I am older than I remember,
more tired; weary with wrestling.

When I was young
I knew how to pray.
And in my prayers life was framed in Italian blue,
because I believed,
and so it would be.
And that blue made clouds white,
caused earth to catch morning sun,
and afternoon shade.

Today the sky is Italian blue,
and I beneath it can only groan
and ache, uncertain of words and
undiminishing desires, lost in a maze of yellow buildings,
reaching for a cloud, smiling at a child;
knowing her ache, though young, is old for one so young.
Still, I smile and I reach, now a little afraid of a sky so blue, too blue.
I gaze in wonder
I groan
I wrestle
I waver
I believe.

A weekend for Kris

This past weekend we not only celebrated the impending birth of Baby B (Kris's baby boy), but also her 40th birthday. Here are a few pictures...



Cute baby boy cakes that were oh-so-tasty! (I never really enjoyed frosting before I was pregnant like I do right now...)



Kris opening my gift...



and if you know Kris and her husband, you'll truly appreciate how cute this guitar studded outfit is...and how perfect it is for them!



For future bath times...




Two big bellied mamas!



Celebrating the big 4-0! (although, as I've said before, she looks like she's 15...)



Kris pointing out the fire hazard that is her belly...



so her family stepped in to help get all those candles blown out!

It was a fun weekend celebrating Kris and her life and the little life she is carrying.