"If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”

--Pooh Bear

One of my favorite Pooh Bear quotes!
Last week a friend and I were talking about these sweet stories.
If you've never read them to your kids, you must!
I always get choked up when
Christopher Robin is about to go off to school.
As wonderful as it is to watch our kids grow and learn new things,
why is it also one of the hardest things to do?

This past month, my oldest son turned 8.
Eight!
That's one more than 7, one less than 9!
I'm not quite sure how this happened.
This afternoon, I studied his sweet face as he spoke to me of nintendo,
and I noticed that his jaw is widening, as that of a young man's.
Little by little he has turned his attention toward what we've always called "big boy toys."
And in case you didn't know, big boy toys are just a little more expensive than little boy toys.

in the secret of his presence

(click here to listen)

Would you like to know the sweetness
Of the secret of the Lord?

Go and hide beneath His shadow:
This shall then be your reward;

And whene'er you leave the silence
Of that happy meeting place,

You must mind and bear the image
Of the Master in you face.

my winter eden

glorious red in my winter eden

A winter garden...lifts existence on a plane of snow
One level higher than the earth below,
One level nearer heaven overhead,
And last year's berries shining scarlet red.

from "A Winter Eden" by Robert Frost