Grace has been asking me non-stop when she can get her own Instagram account. I’m not letting her yet, but this weekend she guest-posted on mine. She took this picture, cropped, filtered, and posted it on her own. I’ve written before about how much I love to swing (even though sometimes it gives me vertigo), but I also love the palpable joy on my face in this picture.
We spent a couple of days last week in New Hampshire. Our dearest friends generously let us stay in their house for two nights. It snowed heavily the second night. On the third day I went for a walk by myself in the new, deep snow. In one secluded bower of trees I fell to my knees and, overcome with something I can’t name, bowed my head. And then I looked up, all around, absorbing the beauty of this undisturbed corner of the world, that was mine alone to see covered with fresh snow. And then, as I trudged back to the house, I stopped to make a snow angel.
Hanging the lights. And, below, one of my favorite pictures from this month, with lines from one of my favorite hymns.
This is our olive wood creche, that my sister Hilary brought home from Bethlehem for us. While we were in Bethlehem we bought several special pieces, including a nativity scene for dear friends, but this one Hilary picked out. I have vivid memories of standing on the roof of a building just outside Nativity Square, the view dotted with Christian churches, Muslim mosques, and Jewish temples. It was also in Bethlehem that I experienced the most profound moment of a trip that was jammed full of extraordinary experiences. I love seeing this nativity scene on our kitchen counter every morning.
I had a Chinese scroll of my grandfather’s framed, and after I unwrapped it at home I was about to throw away these four pieces of cardboard from the corners. Grace asked if she could have them. Sighing, I agreed, thinking of clutter, and of how our house seems to always be filling up with things. That night, when I tucked her in, she showed me what she’d made of the four corners. Peace, love, hope, smile. This is not clutter, it is loveliness, it is my daughter taking someone’s trash and making out of it treasure. Peace, love, hope, smile, indeed.