Randy got his D.Min!

Many thanks to Rachael, photoshop queen extraordinaire, for the tutorial on how to make a photo collage. You'd have to travel the world over to find someone more cheerful-hearted and generous in sharing her expertise. We had a fun time on Saturday morning with our computers side by side while her daughter, Waverly, wandered by to chat once in awhile and Stella (the cat) and Sarah (the dog) competed for petting and ear scratching.

Randy's graduation ceremony was at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dubuque, Iowa (right across the street from the seminary) at 9:30 a.m. on May 10th. After five years of work, he finally has the diploma in his hands. So now he is the Reverend Doctor McGrady-Beach - quite a mouthful! I am so proud of him! All our children came home for the event, including the newlyweds (Ian and Jess). It was really bad timing for Ian, Jess, and Emily. Emily had to miss the last few classes before finals week to fly to Iowa on Friday and when she returned, she had a 6 page paper due and then finals. Ian and Jessica gave up five days of working at The Onion, including Mother's Day, which is a huge money-making day for waiters. When they returned to Spokane, they only had five days to clear out their apartment, write wedding thank you notes, and pack for their four month adventure in Alaska. It meant a lot to both Randy and me that they all came under those circumstances. It was one last chance for our family to be together here in the house we have called home for 14 years, before Alyssa, Randy and I move to California. Randy's mom and step-dad were here from Bend, Oregon, and his aunt and uncle were here from Ann Arbor, Michigan. We had 9 family members around the dining room table Saturday night for Randy's celebration dinner, which he had to miss due to getting called to the hospital emergency room. It was a sweet time, made more poignant by the fact that it the last time we'll all gather here together.

Spring at Last!

Daffodils along our driveway.

More Wedding Photos

The Newlyweds

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Ian McGrady-Beach.

They were married on Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 4:00 in the afternoon in the chapel at Fort Wright Mukogawa Institute in Spokane, Washington.  It was a picture perfect simple, but elegant, wedding.  Jessica wore the dress both her grandmother and her mother had worn (with the sleeves removed).  Ian could not stop smiling.  My husband performed the ceremony.  Our two daughters read scripture.  Jessica's sister was her maid of honor.  It was a joyous family celebration in a beautiful place surrounded by the love and good wishes of their closest friends and family.  We are thanking God for the joy of welcoming this new daughter to our family.  I will post more pictures once I figure out how to get them sized properly.

Beauteous Spring

"Nothing is as beauteous as spring." (This if found on one of my rubber stamps that is packed away in the storage unit across the highway, so I can't credit the author.)

 

As our plane began its descent into the Des Moines airport on Tuesday evening, Alyssa looked out the window and exclaimed, "It's GREEN!"  In the twelve days we had been on the west coast the Iowa landscape was transformed from winter drabness to spring glory!  Words are inadequate to describe the deep emerald green velvet of the spring grass, broken only by freshly plowed fields.  The daffodils that border our driveway are just exploding into sunny blooms and the lilacs are budding, their promise of sweet fragrance perhaps a week away - just in time for all our family to arrive home for Randy's graduation.  That's one blessing of this year's protracted, intractable, frigid winter - things are blooming later, which turns out to be just in time for our family's final reunion in this home where they grew up.  I feel enveloped by grace.

"Grace and beauty are performed whether or not we sense them.  The least we can do is try to be there."  Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974)

This afternoon I sat in a church pew and was reduced to tears by the beauty of the music that poured out of the gifted finger tips of our sixteen-year-old friend, Katie, as she performed one breathtaking piece after another - Beethoven, Schubert, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff.  The notes rolled in thunderous waves and spritely laughter from the grand piano to shimmer and vibrate in the air around us.  I was smitten.  Her two darling three and five-year-old sisters sat in the pew directly in front of me.  They never even looked at Katie.  They were too busy whispering to their girl friends seated in the pew with them and drawing pictures on the cards left in the pew for that purpose.  It occurred to me that this was "old hat" for them.  They have listened to Katie playing the concert grand in her living room at home for hours and hours every day for as long as they have been alive.  They have become inured to the beauty by too much familiarity. It's part of the background "noise" of their daily lives.  It doesn't dazzle them, as it does me.

I thought about all the "grace and beauty" that are performed around me in this place every day.  As I live out my last spring in this place, at least for awhile, I want to notice all of it. I don't want to take any of it for granted.  

On my way home from church I slowed to car to a crawl to watch three young rabbits playing chase in a yard ahead of me.  They raced full bore in a single file line around the dirt-tickling "skirt" of a cedar tree.  They looped around it again, and once again, before launching themselves off the curb in front of me and streaking across the road and out of sight. 

Yesterday morning I stood at the window to our sun room for a long time and watched our geriatric, black dog and our adolescent, ginger and white tabby cat take a stroll around our yard together.  They are different species, different sizes, different ages, and different genders, but they are "best buds."  Annie,who is almost totally blind and deaf, stops for long sniffs.  Rusty rubs against her legs and twines himself in and out under her belly.  She moves on and he prances after her.  In fits and starts they survey their kingdom, never more than six inches apart.

In the evening the three of us, my ancient dog, my goofy cat and I, took a stroll first around our yard and then down the road behind our house.  The air, crisp with the scent of burning leaves, felt like more like autumn than almost-summer.  We walked through the dark under a canopy of sky dancing with stars.  We had the night all to ourselves while our neighbors were tucked away indoors.  A blast of rock music leaked through a door, open and then shut again.  The laughter of many voices emanated from a house where a party was in progress, as evidenced by the array of vehicles crowding their driveway.  Lights glowed through closed curtains.  We walked along the dark corridor, feeling just as solitary as if we were walking in the woods by our mountain cabin in the "off season."  Companionable, unhurried, content.  Beauty and grace abounded.  I was glad we had shown up to witness the performance.

"Feet up! Feet up! Feet up!"

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Deuteronomy 33:27

Be still and know that I am God.  Psalm 46:10

Sometimes life gets complicated and seems to be moving too fast.  In those time, my sister-in-law reminded me in a phone conversation the other day, the thing to remember is:  "Feet up!  Feet up!  Feet up!"  This is the advice given to white water rafters in the event of falling out of the raft.  "Keep your feet up and pointed downstream!  Then let the river carry you."  When we are thrown suddenly into life's turbulent waters and the cold water snatches out breath away, we need to "keep our feet up" and lean back into Jesus, letting him carry us.  He is the Lord of the rapids who knows where the dangerous whirlpools, hidden boulders and safe channels lie, and "underneath are the everlasting arms."

This week I am taking care of a beautiful calico cat named Sadie.  When Sadie and I first met, I was on my hands and knees peeking under the bed where she was hiding.  She was backed as far away from me as she could get, safely out of reach, where she stared at me with feigned disinterest.  In fact, she was scared to death of this new stranger in her domain.  She is the quintessential shy kitty, who jumps and runs at any sudden sound or movement.  Over the years she has lost her fear of me.  Now, when I arrive to feed her, she is right there on the dining room carpet rolling on her back and begging me to pet her.  If someone else comes in with me, however, she immediately runs for cover.  She LOVES to be brushed, and has relaxed enough in my presence that she purrs and rubs against me.  However, if I make a move to pick her up, she thunders up the stairs and dives under the bed.  She knows me.  I think she likes me; but she doesn't fully trust me, even after several years of "wooing" her.

My cat Rusty is another story.  When he is fully rested, he is an irrepressible scallywag, wound for sound, and looking for trouble.  Fortunately (for him), his rapscallion ways amuse me, so he continues to roister through life with a wild abandon that delights me.  When his energy has been sufficiently run off, however, he stretches his paws as far up my leg as he can reach and leans on me, asking to be picked up.  If I don't respond immediately, he gently extends his claws.  If that fails, he begins to climb my leg like a tree, a truly annoying habit of which we are trying to break him.  Once hoisted into my arms his whole body vibrates with his inaudible purr and he begins to go limp.  Settling in deeper, he emits a heavy shuddering sigh and drifts off to sleep.  He trusts me completely.  I carry him with me as I go about my business and he sleeps on.  He is not afraid that I might drop him or get a sudden urge to push him away.  He expects me to carry him, while he is still.  If I attempt to put him down, he half opens his eyes to give me a reproachful look and tried to hang on.

This is the feline demonstration of the rafter's advice, "Feet up!  Feet up! Feet up!"  In life's turbulent waters, all we have to do is position ourselves in God's arms, letting him carry us through to safety.  Do we trust him to carry us?  Are we willing to do whatever it takes to lean back in his arms?  When we are thrown into the river, we need to focus on two things - getting our feet in the right place, and leaning back in the water rather than flailing around in desperation or fighting against it.  Perhaps this is what God meant when he said, "BE STILL and know that I am God."  It means blocking out other unnecessary distractions, keeping our priorities in order and trusting in the sovereignty of God, his love for us, and his power to save us.  Then, perhaps, we can relax enough to enjoy the ride, even though it wasn't the one we had planned on (safe and dry in the raft). 

Here is a sample of the place cards I am making for the head table at Ian and Jessica's wedding.  The flowers are made using "Bloomer" stamps from Coronado Island Designs.  I used Stardreams text weight paper to create the flowers.  The names will be written in italic using sepia gouache.  I have to make 108 flowers.  It took me two hours to complete the first 50, so I have more work ahead of me!