Above Rubies

The newest issue of Above Rubies came in the mail today. I always look at this magazine with a bit of amazment when I get it. It represents all that has changed in me in the last year. It represents to me how close we all actually are, despite the illusion of differences.

This magazine is a small magazine published by a woman and her family. A very biblical family. I have always been on the fringes of religious traditions, and publications that involved extensive biblical rhetoric tended to not be on my reading list. And yet here I stand with a magazine saturated with verses and prayers and it is my most cherished reading.

As far as I perceive myself from fundamental Christian movements, I find I am living my life in much the same ways as they. Stephen and I feel whatever souls we are given to care for, we will be honored to do it. We want to raise our family with a permeating spirituality. We want our children to feel sacredness in even the most ordinary tasks. I want my children to know they are more than their material body, and they have higher purposes. We want to make our own place on our own plot of land, growing our own food and building our shelters as a family. We want to homeschool. All the things that these women do, I do or want to do.

But most of all, we have in common the belief that mothering is a sacred calling. That is what the magazine is devoted to: uplifting and inspiring mothers in answering such a calling. And it does that with a vengeance.

The title comes from this verse from Proverbs:

"A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman

Who is he who can find her?

She is far more precious than jewels

And her value is far above rubies or pearls."

When I think of that, I think of all the mothers out there, perhaps wondering what their true purpose is because they have been told mothering is not one, or perhaps wondering if someone else could do their job better, or wondering if the fact that they had a breakdown at lunch means they aren't fit to be a mother. I want to tell them all how precious they are, how beautiful they are, how beautiful what they are doing is. They are loving and teaching the next generation, and those will love and teach the next generation. The more children are loved and taught, the more they will love and teach, until one day the world is love.

"A mother's heart is the child's schoolroom"

Our hearts are our degrees. Our love is our work. Our children are our reward.

And there is no price on what we do.

It is above rubies or pearls.

Baby's First Geocache

Stephen and I are returning to a forgotten but much loved hobby we used to enjoy together in Austin -- geocaching.

Except we are bringing along a new adventurer. A little wanderer. And we are going to keep track of it all on this blog, http://www.littlewanderers.blogspot.com/. There is a link at the side of the page, as well.

For those who don't know, geocaching is like a treasure hunt, except the prizes aren't coin but sweeping views, or hidden away groves, or swathes of land one might never see without the search for a cache. Basically, people hide little containers full of odds and ends. They record the coordinates of this treasure and post them here, http://www.geocache.com/, for people to enter into their own GPS. Then the hunt begins. It is always surprising and exciting to see where a cache brings you. It is the embodiment of immersing oneself in the journey, rather than the goal. And it is just darn fun.

Our first cache is part of a series bringing us to small, sometimes abandoned, cemeteries around Parker County. It wound us through the less affluent parts of Weatherford which eventually opened into rolling hills and large barb-wired patches of land.

This cemetery actually had more new graves than old. But it still had that peace that always seems to guard the resting places of those who have passed on.

The cache was hidden in the wooden post.

New Initiates of the Secret Garden

Here are the pictures of my nieces and nephews from their first visit to the gardens, the Secret Garden, as they call it.


Kaylee doing what I think everyone thinks of doing when they see a waterfall.




Cole contemplating

Emma checking out the pansies.

Mom and baby

Toddlin' Emma

Walking Tall with Kaylee

Walking Tall

Last week, Noelle's cousins visited the gardens for the first time. Noelle was quite the little hostess and thoroughly enjoyed showing everyone around. She also loved walking to Cole and Kaylee. Since then she has been walking with us nonstop. She has yet to walk far on her own, but she is very close.

It made me realize something about cousins and siblings -- they push each other to new heights. My bravest moments often came from dares handed down from another who knew the depths of my courage better than I, knew I had the stuff to do what was challenged. Or from an emboldening glance that said without I doubt "You can do it. I believe in you."

Either way, it seems to carry more weight when it comes from someone who can stand toe to toe, eye to eye with you.
Someone who doesn't have to say those things because it is their job.
Someone who knows what you are made of and is willing to stand up to you and tell you when you don't.

And somehow all that makes you stand up and walk tall.

Spring Queen

First Glimpses

We are having the first glimpses of Spring in these parts. Little by little, layer by layer, the earth is being painted in color and bathed in the heady aromas of early spring blooms. The honey sweet touched with a sharp bite of dandelion. The delicate floral 0f violets. The full body of rosemary.

And the first breaths of Earth, soft and rich and moist, settle over thirsty skin. I feel it so keenly I could almost drink the air. My face is already softer, the skin plumper and beginning to show its own signs of new color.

And there is an aliveness that comes with the changing of winter to spring, or summer to fall. The world seems to pulse with life, resonating with the life I am suddenly aware of pulsing through me.

And there is a sort of intoxication of the senses, a giddiness that leaves adults skipping and bright eyed. And you find yourself walking along, warmth swelling from your belly to your throat, fountaining into a smile that never quite leaves until Spring has gone its way.

Last year, Noelle saw all this from the warm confines of her Daddy's sling. It is quite another experience with movin'- and- a- shakin' Noelle. I think she is just as enchanted as her mama.