Coffee! I need a pot of good strong black coffee... espresso would be better. I make myself a pot. I go away and come back in a few minutes. It is sputtering all over the stove even on a low fire. Oh drat ... why is it doing that?! It did the same thing yesterday. I fix my cup. It is a big one not a small one. Then I sit down to work on a painting for a bit. (I have started to paint again.) I go back to the kitchen to get a drink of water and wash the espresso pot. I open the pot and there is the problem. Grains of coffee on the rim that I did not brush away before I tightened the pot. Deja Vu! All of that has triggered a memory of when I first began to drink espresso. An electric burner in a small office pulled from a worn cabinet filled with tiny cups, sugar,spoons, napkins...not paper, and lots of coffee. The water was in the corner or under the desk, in a plastic water jug. The process was always the same. The careful filling of the pot with water, the packing of the coffee in the filter, that last brushing away of any stray grounds from the seal and the lip of the pot by a little stiff finger. That one act, that one movement done with so much detail and love has left its mark upon my memory. I learned so much more than just how to drink espresso in that office at the end of a narrow hall. I learned about kindness, manners, patience, love, tolerance, graciousness, and of course the ritual of the coffee. Thank you Bobbie!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Bobbie, Espresso, and Love
Coffee! I need a pot of good strong black coffee... espresso would be better. I make myself a pot. I go away and come back in a few minutes. It is sputtering all over the stove even on a low fire. Oh drat ... why is it doing that?! It did the same thing yesterday. I fix my cup. It is a big one not a small one. Then I sit down to work on a painting for a bit. (I have started to paint again.) I go back to the kitchen to get a drink of water and wash the espresso pot. I open the pot and there is the problem. Grains of coffee on the rim that I did not brush away before I tightened the pot. Deja Vu! All of that has triggered a memory of when I first began to drink espresso. An electric burner in a small office pulled from a worn cabinet filled with tiny cups, sugar,spoons, napkins...not paper, and lots of coffee. The water was in the corner or under the desk, in a plastic water jug. The process was always the same. The careful filling of the pot with water, the packing of the coffee in the filter, that last brushing away of any stray grounds from the seal and the lip of the pot by a little stiff finger. That one act, that one movement done with so much detail and love has left its mark upon my memory. I learned so much more than just how to drink espresso in that office at the end of a narrow hall. I learned about kindness, manners, patience, love, tolerance, graciousness, and of course the ritual of the coffee. Thank you Bobbie!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Oh My This is Too Much News!
Hello to all of you out there in cyberspace. It has been a long time since I have been inspired to write. But the bug or the spirit is moving me so I am cranking up the blog. To retrace the last six months would be a terrible thing to do to myself and to you, so I will start from recent days. I have tried to keep up a bit with Facebook, but some days it is just too much. I cannot believe that we are living where we are, but it is a good place, and we are just a few blocks from Jacob and Amanda. I continue to clean houses and fill in with faux painting when the jobs are available. Billy works at Wal-Mart as a night stocker. This next week Billy and I are catering a dinner for the board of directors of the Childress Regional Medical Center. Gonna throw a little Mexican at them.
Family Reunion
What has inspired me to write again is the recent family reunion that we attended in Conway, Arkansas. Billy's sisters and their kids and our kids and all of the grand kids and cousins came together to renew our relationships. We were 34 in attendance. After that, our bunch went to the Buffalo River National Park for two nights and one complete day at the river.
This family that I married into some 37 years ago is an amazing group of people. This family has experienced hard knocks of all kinds. This family has experienced pain and heartache, death, sickness, personal struggles, addictions, and separations of family due to sin and Satan. This family came together on the 4th of July to renew ties. There are cousins that had not seen one another since Billy 's dad died in 1993. Most of them did not know Noah and were not sure what to expect. Some of them had not seen Billy in a long time. Most of us had not been with Billy's nephew Darren, who is also a recovering addict, in years. This family came together to love on one another with no strings attached. We ate together, swam, played bingo, set off fireworks, played music, and sang. On Sunday we worshipped together, and the Spirit of God was present. We prayed together and prayed over one another, and the power of healing flowed in and out and through each heart. Darren has a gift from God... a voice, and his son Devin has a gift of music to play the guitar. He has taught himself to read music and play. He bonded with Andrew quickly since Andrew plays the mandolin. Darren will only sing songs about Jesus and what he has done for him. He sang and most of us cried especially when he gave his testimony of how God has saved him.
Noah! Noah is God's child who teaches us all that God loves children and uses them to soften even the hardest heart. Everyone who held Noah talked about being about to feel the presence of Jesus. Noah for us is the most precious sweet child full of love and life and joy, even when he is teething and not feeling well. Noah makes people smile. This family prayed over Jacob, Amanda, Adah and Noah. Darren didn't know about Noah and his sickness. It broke his heart, but at the same time strengthened his faith to pray more earnestly for God's will to be done.
One member of our family was not able to be with us, Ben Earle. He Is serving in the Marines in Afghanistan. Also neither Doreen's nor Shelly's husbands were able to be with us.
The Buffalo River
One of the right things we did as our kids were growing up was to take them camping. We went for many years to float and camp on the Buffalo River. If you have never gone there you should put it on your bucket list. ( I know what that is now!)
It has been a dream of Amanda and Andrew to take their families to this sacred place and relive a small part of their childhood. Adah says it is the best place she has ever been. She was a bit disappointed that there are no buffalo. Needless to say it was complicated to go there after the Family Reunion, but is turned out to be a wonderful thing for all of our families.
Family Reunion
What has inspired me to write again is the recent family reunion that we attended in Conway, Arkansas. Billy's sisters and their kids and our kids and all of the grand kids and cousins came together to renew our relationships. We were 34 in attendance. After that, our bunch went to the Buffalo River National Park for two nights and one complete day at the river.
This family that I married into some 37 years ago is an amazing group of people. This family has experienced hard knocks of all kinds. This family has experienced pain and heartache, death, sickness, personal struggles, addictions, and separations of family due to sin and Satan. This family came together on the 4th of July to renew ties. There are cousins that had not seen one another since Billy 's dad died in 1993. Most of them did not know Noah and were not sure what to expect. Some of them had not seen Billy in a long time. Most of us had not been with Billy's nephew Darren, who is also a recovering addict, in years. This family came together to love on one another with no strings attached. We ate together, swam, played bingo, set off fireworks, played music, and sang. On Sunday we worshipped together, and the Spirit of God was present. We prayed together and prayed over one another, and the power of healing flowed in and out and through each heart. Darren has a gift from God... a voice, and his son Devin has a gift of music to play the guitar. He has taught himself to read music and play. He bonded with Andrew quickly since Andrew plays the mandolin. Darren will only sing songs about Jesus and what he has done for him. He sang and most of us cried especially when he gave his testimony of how God has saved him.
Noah! Noah is God's child who teaches us all that God loves children and uses them to soften even the hardest heart. Everyone who held Noah talked about being about to feel the presence of Jesus. Noah for us is the most precious sweet child full of love and life and joy, even when he is teething and not feeling well. Noah makes people smile. This family prayed over Jacob, Amanda, Adah and Noah. Darren didn't know about Noah and his sickness. It broke his heart, but at the same time strengthened his faith to pray more earnestly for God's will to be done.
One member of our family was not able to be with us, Ben Earle. He Is serving in the Marines in Afghanistan. Also neither Doreen's nor Shelly's husbands were able to be with us.
The Buffalo River
One of the right things we did as our kids were growing up was to take them camping. We went for many years to float and camp on the Buffalo River. If you have never gone there you should put it on your bucket list. ( I know what that is now!)
It has been a dream of Amanda and Andrew to take their families to this sacred place and relive a small part of their childhood. Adah says it is the best place she has ever been. She was a bit disappointed that there are no buffalo. Needless to say it was complicated to go there after the Family Reunion, but is turned out to be a wonderful thing for all of our families.
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