I was prepared to work today on a topic long simmering but from my eldest came this photo along with others of beloved family that swerved me to play.  Which means I go to the sewing machine to finish several things patiently waiting.

I am not going to sit and view happenings on the national scene requiring a nitroglycerine tablet to ease heartache.  Coping with a heart that pleads to stop whatever I am doing should not require a 2×4 between the eyes.  All it takes is a photo to remind me that new life such as Nora Claire and Emma E. are reason enough to keep breathing as long as I dare.

It was a surprise to see this photo this morning and brought a matching grin to my face.  Such beauty in a face beckons  a smile as wide as hers.  I have to think that where she is in this moment taken for posterity has to be one of great love and joy.  This smile is as real as real gets in any dimension.  One cannot pretend the joy visible in this.

It is reason enough, isn’t it, to care for and consider as sacred, life when visible and noted with a name.  But what of life invisible?  What of life that we don’t see and yet understand may be different in scope from what we know.

Different does not have to be frightening.  Different should be respected and given time for understanding.  Different may require study so that we become familiar with it being other than us.

It is time to become kinder in our attitudes toward what we don’t see. And can encourage invisible life hidden at the foot of forests by not stripping them and life beyond the horizons only invisible to our eyes. 

And even hear what are not melodies in the sounds of our ears.  The Nazarene said that hearing you will not hear and seeing you will not see.  We are told that we are watched by other lifeforms that gauge what in their futures they can expect. 

I will carry what moth and rust do not destroy with me to my next address.  Those have my name attached.  I take my loves and I hope what has attached to me will carry a grin as wide as Nora Claire’s. 

It is something to think about today.  That our lives are the prayer we have lived all the days of our lives.  When we are called to present ourselves, we are what moth and rust do not destroy. 

They will speak our justification.  It is all the obituary we need.

Photo by parents of Nora Claire