• Tea

    Thursday, January 27, 2011



    Tea steam spills around me, I pour a cup to warm me on a day I feel so far. My thoughts afloat, given this day to the celebrations of a Mother. A memorable Birthday and I ache to have missed another milestone.
    My fingers trace hand made pottery ~ the first of my wedding gifts. You used words with emotions only a mother could feel. You said this gift would go into every home, around the deep conversations of my new life, would hold the warmth of tea on cold moments, it would be part of the tears, seep nine months of baby growth, and top cups of smiles. You knew it would go with me, where you could no longer come. And that teapot has been the first thing unpacked in all eight of my homes, in distant cities and countries.
    And parts of you were always with me.
    Three pots have made their way from your heart to our homes and some day eleven will sit on the sills of lives you gentle and carefully helped shape.



    This letter comes late, but I know your grace will cover, because that is what I think of when my mind wonders to you, Mom,
    ~ Grace ~
    Grace enough to guide eleven children through the torrents of life, Grace enough to be the testimony of the power of Grace, and it is Grace that years of debilitating pain never escaped with complaints, your Grace has made you brave and strong and true. And I know your life shines brilliant on that back caribou road, because your life has been about serving the least of these. But your Grace slips farther then those dirt roads and child raising it has been the source of many people’s victories. Your life the touches of healing so many of us have craved needed and received. You grace this earth!



    I sip slowly my tea. I think of you. How precious you are. How your life has made the difference for me.

    I thank you for this clay that has comforted me, for your insight to know I would need your touch in my homes, so far away from you.

    I thank you for your never wavering Grace.

    I thank you that Grace was not a word you used, but a life you lived.

    I know heaven will spill its perfect Grace over your next days.

    And your story of Grace will continue, as always through your life.

    Happy Birthday Mom

    I will always Love You!