Keys photo

via Instagram

Keys photo

via Instagram

Keys photo

via Instagram

Keys photo

via Instagram

Keys photo

via Instagram

Keys photo

via Instagram

Trailing Clouds of Glory

Isaiah has an off button.

Snuggle him close and he turns off, fast asleep.

Laura Swift (her website is here) and I had fun imagining up these photos. 

When I popped up to her house on a March day she just happened to have photos planned that go perfectly with one of my favorite poems;Recollections Of Early Childhood,

I couldn't wait to illustrate these beauties!

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting
 And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy! - William Wordsworth


What do babies dream of?
Jesus said he wanted to be around children because they "were of the kingdom of God" 

Little ones reminded him of heaven.  They haven't fully forgotten thier citizenship.

They help me remember too.

Keys photo

via Instagram

The Worn Spot and Being a Mother

Today I look at the bare ground worn away under the swing in my backyard
And my heart fills.
It might seem like an eyesore, dry ugly dirt, while the rest of the ground,
Brims with soft green grass and spring flowers of every color,
But this bare patch of earth makes my heart overwhelm with Thankfulness,
Because suddenly I remember my own childhood playground,
Where I placed my feet on the worn earth under my favorite swing,
Just before those feet would touch the sky.

Years later I hung this backyard swing from a high maple branch for my children,
So they could launch themselves from ugly bare earth into the blue sky

The ground is worn here because little feet push off into the air so often,
It wears away the grass and leaves hard, bare, packed earth,
So I am thankful for this bare spot on a perfect lawn.
And I think, this is the best part of being a mom;
Giving them a place to launch from earth into sky.

As I walk the path to the swing today I thank God on this blue sky day

And that I thought to make the swing strong enough to hold me too.

Keys photo

via Instagram