The climate's delicate, the air most sweet,
Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing
The common praise it bears.

-winter's tale, shakespeare

Lend me your hope

Lend me your hope for awhile, i seem to have mislaid mine.
Lost and hopeless feelings accompany me daily, pain and confusion are my companions.
i know not where to turn;
looking ahead to future times does not bring forth images of renewed hope.
i see troubled times, pain-filled days, and more tragedy.

Lend me your hope for awhile, i seem to have mislaid mine.
Hold my hand and hug me; listen to all my ramblings, recovery seems so far distant.
The road to healing seems like a long and lonely one.

Lend me your hope for awhile, i seem to have mislaid mine.
Stand by me, offer me your presence, your heart and your love.
Acknowledge my pain, it is so real and ever present.
i am overwhelmed with sad and conflicting thoughts.

Lend me your hope for awhile; a time will come when i will heal,
and i will share my renewal, hope, and love with others.

-author unknown

we all need someone or something to lift us up now and then.
the above poem was from this morning's reading.
i am no way near where the author was when he/she penned down the poem;
but all of us need hope to face tomorrow.
that's why a Child was born 2000 years ago -
for me,
and for you.

Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

what a day!

i had a restless night -
in between the tossing and turning was my confession
and acknowledgment of God's grace and his goodness.
What's the worst thing that can happened?
Even then God is still good and He is faithful.
There is absolutely nothing i can do to make things better -
and only then you realized
that the only thing you can do is to stand back
and see what amazing thing God can do,
and will do for you.

my first winter

I spent one whole year in different parts of Europe.
It was Christmas when I arrived in Germany.
It was not a white Christmas but it snowed a few days later.
That was my first winter.
I was out on the roadwhen it began to snow.
It was fascinatingto watch the snowflakes drifting down from the sky.
I was mesmerized.
I remembered standing there looking up with my arms outstretched;
it was magical.
I must have stood there for a long time because I was sick in bed for days after that.

van gogh's quotation

"If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite,
something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it.
I think that I see something deeper, more infinite,
more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby
when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle."

thread of love

I don’t know why I bother to mend my boys tattered jeans.
I could just walk into Goodwill or Rugged Warehouse
and pay five to ten bucks for a decent pair.
The problem is the boys like their old jeans,
“It’s comfy”
“I like the color”
“This design fits me’
“It’s my favorite jeans”
Now these are no-name, non-designer jeans, and mostly from the clearance racks.
I never wanted my boys to appear like tatterdemalions,
but here I am dutifully mending their torn wears albeit the old fashion way .
The picture of Mom mending our clothes while I was young came to mind
and subconsciously in this somewhat mundane activity
I felt connected to Mom even though she is ten thousands miles away.
Most of my sisters are good seamstresses
and now still sew in their spare time for extra cash.
Being the youngest daughter,
I was never good at needlework but every pair of jeans I mend with love, sometime a drop of blood too.
I think this is the way God mends our broken hearts
and relationships in our lives.
The difference is that the thread of love He uses interweaves with his grace
and goodness that will never come apart again.