Daily Grace

When You Wish You Could Be More Like a Squirrel

May 10, 2020

Can you tell that the squirrel has managed to open the top of the feeder and somehow get his entire body in there? So clever!

(Here’s a little poem I wrote on a Saturday afternoon. So why not share? How are you, my friends? I hope everyone is well.)

 

I wish I was a little more like the squirrel that keeps eating my birdseed.

He goes to great lengths to get what he wants.

Stretching and stretching.

Hanging by his toes.

Reaching.

Always reaching.

Sometimes he loses his balance, almost falls.

But he comes back. Again and again.

He tries, and he tries, and he tries.

Until he reaches the sweet.

It never gets easier.

Always a risk.

A chance he might fall.

Then there’s me.

There are things I want

Things I am longing for.

So much sweetness.

Just out of reach.

But I am afraid.

I am afraid I will stretch out my hands

And only grab air.

I watch the squirrel from my kitchen window.

Empty inside my house.

Daily Grace, Daily Humiliation

When Wearing a Mask Somehow Makes You More Comfortable

May 2, 2020

Smiling? Frowning? Who can tell?

I noticed last night for the first time at the grocery store that my protective face mask wasn’t bothering me. Up until then, I’d felt self-conscious and uncomfortable. Yesterday, though, it seemed like it took some pressure off me. Usually when I’m at the store, I feel compelled to acknowledge my fellow shoppers, to give a little nod or smile to anyone coming down the aisle in my direction. I don’t think about this consciously, but it’s something I always do, almost like breathing. I want to be a kind person, to be pleasant.  Maybe part of me hopes that it’s a small way to be like Jesus. I picture Jesus wheeling his cart down the aisle of Safeway or Grocery Outlet Continue Reading…