The Chronicles of Janie

Four children on a rumbling cart,  A woman trudging beside that load, A lank man leaving the horse to guide A wet road: a dry road: A gravelly road that a woman shall walk And a lank man leave the horse to guide;  The tinker's children take their chance, and bide. A lane leads on to one more lane,  An uphill to one more hill: A potato patch to thin on the way, a hen to kill, And hunger again: and sleep again: And a moonlight flit while the salmon leaps From a smouldering spot by the riverside; The tinker's children take their chance, and bide. When Wicklow woods first seemed to wait, As still they wait tonight; I heard that creaking, rumbling cart, And stars the same were out.  When you gave  pennies to the younger child, A silent child: a tawny child: The tinker's children meekly are, and mild. And still I hear strange woods among Whenever a creaking cart goes down; The singsong twang of the bawneen man: "Thank you my lady, thank you my lady," As when you gave t…

I am happy when I take pictures.

I am happy when I write poetry.

I am happiest when I do both.

When I take a picture, I am looking at something as it is. I see the surface truth of things. When I write poetry, I explore what a thing may be - the possibilities and perceptions. Together with the truth of God's Word, poetry and photography present an excellent lens through which to explore the world.

I like the person I become when I write and shoot photos. I become a person who notices things - simple, tiny, everyday things - in a new way. I stop. I take time to observe, to listen, to learn and think.

It's really rather like a treasure hunt. I never know what I'll find once I start looking.

The difficulty is that it's far too easy to abandon the hunt, to stop looking, to rush through life with my eyes closed. Then I become a person who is dissatisfied, ungrateful, and utterly unobservant. I do not like that person at all.

When I enter a room without noticing how the sun…

SNOW!!!
Coffee
Tea
Photography
Frozen fingers
Tea








Home alone all afternoon (oh, the thinks you can think when you're all by yourself)!
Laundry
Photography
Baking
Poetry
Photography
Tea
Cleaning
Tea






Get Smart with the brother
Fantastic music




And here, at the end of it all, a feeling of vast contentment.

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Was your day as splendid as mine?

Some of you, my unfortunate readers, who also happen to be friends with me on Facebook, may have noticed the lengthy status I posted back in January about this thing called a *Passion conference. You may also remember how I promised to write a blog post on the subject of what God taught me while I was there. I hope you haven't been holding your breath in expectation for this post...'cause you've probably passed out by now if you have. In other words, I'm sorry for taking so long.

To be honest, I've been incredibly conflicted about the best way to write this. As God teaches me more and more, I've come to realize how everything in my life is connected to everything else. Trying to isolate and write about one single incident of my life is like pulling a single thread out of one small figure in an enormous tapestry, and, by showing it to you, expect you to get an accurate idea of the of the completed work. That (I think you'd agree) would be very unfair to you…