Looking back

If I had a penny for every time I looked back. . .

I'd be filthy stinking rich right now.

So what? Looking back is normal, right?

I guess it depends on how you are looking back. I really wish that I could focus on the warm memories. There are lots of shadows that cloud the sunshine though. But the grace of God is evident through the cloud-cover. The blessings are endless, all the way around.

Sometimes I wonder how things might have been if this or that didn't change. . . life would be so completely different, so completely not what God has set out for this life. And that brings me to these things called memories. Memories are like photos. Still life. Time, frozen.

Some of these photos strike the core of me, making me feel everything in that moment all over again. And then I have a lot of pictures that baffle me, what was so important to me then is now so trivial now.

But at some point, you have to put those pictures away, slipping them back into an album, or a box, tucking them in an envelope or putting the frame back on the wall. You walk away and you thank the Lord for yesterday, but you embrace today and you look longingly toward the future.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, we turned off all the lights and lit all the candles around the living room - our advent candles, our mantle candles, and turned on the Christmas lights. Then, we snuggled on the couch and listened to The Festival of Carols cd that is a family tradition for Haven.

How dear this tradition has become to me. . .

This year especially, listening to it, the Lord gave me such peace and contentment as we look back on the year reflectively, and look forward to the year ahead with excitement.

Amen, God is so good to His children!

Nativity, Texas-Style

Last week, we did something really special. After bundling up with coats, we made a quick stop at Starbucks for mochas and brownies, and then went to an event that a local church was putting on: A 'Drive-Thru Nativity'. Lines of cars weaved around the church parking lot, making stops at each point, as the story of Jesus' birth was told on a cd.

This was all free, all a ministry outreach. What a touching time!

Okay, and we did kind of joke that it was the 'Texas way' to have a 'Drive thru nativity' ;)

Click here for a link to a video someone posted on YouTube

This is where I grew up, I think the present owner fixed it up . . .

Oh, little house on Bethany Drive

I spent 17 wonderful years in this cozy house of barely 750 square feet. Squished in a bedroom split down the middle with my brother, and one tiny bathroom with 4 others, the memories are many. My maternal great grandfather Obera originally built this cottage, and he left his prints all over (he planted the leafy green plum tree blocking the house :) That same tree saved my brother in the '89 earthquake). My great grandfather used to bury his garbage on the mountainside, and there were numerous times we would literally stumble upon it (in our bare feet, of course!). My dad added the spacious deck - we used to bbq and stargaze out there. The original windows were french, and I used to love swinging them open for the fresh mountain breezes to come in.


We were nestled in these beautiful redwoods, backed against a climbing hill, with a trickling creek just beyond this 'fort' I once had (below). Above was one of the coolest forts, which gave one the perfect 'spy' advantage because it was set on an incline overlooking the road.

You are probably still mouth-agape at the 750 sq. ft. right? ;)

There were good times, hard times, cramped times, sad times, angry times, and times when we all wished we could kick out the walls and move to a bigger place, but by the time mom and my sister and I moved from there in 2001, we really realized our 'treasure is in heaven' in a new way. . .

I am so thankful we grew up here - what awesome stories I have for my children someday :)

Places are places I am when I'm not where you are . . .

In a whirlwind trip, I was able to make a little journey back to California, my birth state. For some strange reason, a lot of emotions, mainly melancholy swept my heart up during this time. Perhaps it was also, intensified by the keen sense of 'missing my husband syndrome' which tends to happen a lot more when I am away from our home.

Anyway. I flew out on Friday, and was again captured by the lovely places where I used to go. I stayed with my precious grandparents in Walnut Creek, and got to see my cousins and aunt, take a quick trip to San Francisco to see the new Ferry Station Building (I will post some pictures next time around), and have some really good 'Noni time' over coffee and pastries.

Saturday, the Lord blessed the day with stunning weather, perfect for a wedding - Nate and Jenny's to be precise :) What a special event - the bride was so beautiful that the groom cried at the altar when he saw her walk down. . . now, how often does that happen? :) Fall colors covered the tables in flower arrangements, centerpieces and tablecloths. The cake had polka dots, and the bridesmaids wore flip- flops ;)

As I soaked in the lush landscape of seascape gold resort, and chatted with dear friends, I thanked the Lord for allowing me to make a quick escape out. It doesn't exactly happen everyday that I am able to go back to where my roots first started. It always makes me so aware of what a blessed phase of life it was to live in such a paradise.
But, as I drove back to the airport this morning, on a dark highway now unfamiliar to me, it dawned on me how God has made such a place for me in Texas now. I am not ashamed to say that I am a Texan anymore. Maybe not a true one, but one enough to want to be back where the gas is cheap and the drinks are big.

I truly do miss the California ocean breezes, the tall redwood trees, and the rugged mountains. Like I said here, you can't take that out of me. But in the end, these are just places, and God can put His children anywhere and He always blesses them wherever they go. I feel that blessing each time I walk in the door of the house He provided. I feel that blessing every time my husband hugs me, I feel that blessing in the embrace of our church, and just overall, in every area of our lives here in Texas. God is so good.

So, I thank the Lord, for giving me such a creative heritage. . . I am excited to see the other places He will bring us in the life Haven and I have together. . .

To all the dearly loved friends and family in CA - I love you all and wish that we could be closer. . . but until then, thank the Lord for Southwest airlines! ;)

Central Park

California, calling me

The sand beneath my toes, the shriek of seagulls, salty misty air, seaweed stalks littering the beach, bonfire smoke, eucalyptus trees, the chilly pacific ocean.

Sigh - you can take a girl out of California, but you can't take California out of a girl . . .