Skip to main content

Beneath



 I love this time of year when little things start poking out of the ground - things that were invisible before, things I had forgotten about since last spring. Ironically, the kale in the garden is growing again despite no care or effort on my part. The little purple crocuses came out of the ground last week, but I think they shied away again when the cold spell hit this weekend. I'm so wonder-filled to see these things that were hidden. It reminds me of two things. One is a song called The Summons. One line is "will you love the "you" you hide, if I but call your name." I think that means we need to learn to love ourselves before anything else can happen, even the parts of us that we think we need to hide, out of shame, out of fear, out of mistaken despair, out of depression, or depravity. 

And the other thing this season reminds me of is this beautiful little book that I came across last weekend in the most adorable little book shoppe in Boston, Beacon Hill Books & Cafe. The picture book is called Beneath, by Cori Doerrfeld. In it, the character and his grandfather take a walk and wonder about all the things beneath, and they learn about themselves in the process. 

I hope you have a day of uncovering all the beauty around you, but also within you, that you may just keep hidden beneath. 


Beacon Hill Books, Boston, MA

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bundling

 My husband accuses me of bundling. Like everything. I won't go down the basement until I have collected a pile of everything that could possibly need to go down. So I'll bring the laundry down to the kitchen and then I'll start bundling. The old front door wreath goes on top of the laundry, The drill I used in the garden yesterday - on top. The Fourth of July banner on top of that. I can amass quite a pile. The same goes when I'm out doing errands. I have a doctor's appointment in Mt. Laurel? Hmm. I can stop at the Home Sense store, the big Dollar Tree, the Produce Junction, the Michaels, and the Container Store. All on my way home! I like bundling. Not just because it saves trips, which equates to gas, but it also saves my energy. If I separated those trips it would be hours or even days of travel. I don't have time for that. When I can I want to tie everything together and wrap it up. With a pretty bow.  Bundling was an act of desperation back when the kids w...

What Is Grief?

 What is grief? It is standing in the shower and  you are suddenly crying and then you are sobbing. And you barely thought about it in the two days since you heard  your Uncle Rich passed. You thought about your dad and your cousins and your aunt and how sad they must be and you checked in on your dad. "I'm so so sorry." And you went to work and you did what you had to do. And now you are ready for another day and you are thinking of all the things and then you are crying and you are little again and vulnerable  and your heart hurts. And you remember everyone. Medford Lakes and a swimming pool and laughing so hard  and dancing around a Christmas tree and fireworks by the lake at night. And you can see his face and all their faces smiling Aunts and uncles and cousins and brothers who aren't here. And you remember his voice, deep and laughing, and you remember his kindness and his advice. "Are you taking vitamin C, Joannie?" You see all their faces and you mis...

Changing Seasons

Today is the first day back to school after break.   We are breaking into my mother’s house to steal an Ugly Sweater at 5 in the morning because it is Ugly Sweater Day and we have driven home from a gathering through the night up and down hilly, unlit, back roads where we saw a family of deer who spoke to us to tell us we were on the wrong road and they directed us back to a traffic-filled highway and on the roof we have tied some old evergreen branches that we will try to form into a tree because we forgot to get a Christmas tree when we had to take my son to the emergency room because he was spouting blood from his finger and while we were there my other son had a bloody nose and they were going to take him into surgery… But then I woke up.   The first day of school is not until tomorrow.   Today is January 4.   It is the Changing of Seasons around here.    Changing from the season of sleeping in and wearing pajamas, drinking 5 cups of coffee, some w...