Ah, summer,

what power you have to make us suffer and like it.

-Russell Baker

   

Happy Memorial Day. And happy summer.

From one suffering, satisfied country girl to another.  -Brin

And The Winner Is...

...Michelle Turner who donated on April 27.

Congratulations, Michelle!

Goodies for Giving!

I can't put words to how touched I am by your generosity. For Leah. Sweet, precious little Leah who's waiting patiently for a healthy heart. Leah's surgery is on the books for July, and I am deeply touched by those who've given and those who've written with words of hope and prayers for a miracle.

I'll admit to a few tears as I read your emails. Especially when I got to a note from a gal who lost her job six months ago. Times are tough and some days I don't see a way through this, she wrote. But God is good and I have so much to be thankful for. Moments later her donation came through: $20. Letting go of money these days is hard, but letting go of $20 when you're unemployed can be heart wrenching. That kind of selfless giving gets me every time.

Thinking of this heart... this little life a world away... and the stories and the lives and the sacrifices that will merge once this child is out of surgery... leaves me in awe.

Okay. All that said, here's the fun news: we're having a goodies giveaway! I'm crossing my fingers and hoping to raise $1,000 by Monday's close, so to that end, here's the thing: everyone who gives - however they are able - to Leah's New Heart - will be entered into a drawing to win:

1. A year's subscription to Ready Made Magazine
2. Days from the Heart of the Home by Susan Branch
3. A dazzling assortment of notebooks, stickies, and doodle pads

If you've already given to help Leah, your name is already in the drawing. Thank you! If you haven't given, click the ChipIn! button below and you'll automatically be entered to win once your donation arrives. Simple!

Winners will be announced on Tuesday, May 25th. Good luck! And thank you so much for helping Leah. I love you more than jelly beans.  -Brin

Monograph on May, Photograph of Millie

Millie Out Walking
by Jim

May has been so full and the week days so brutal. I'm staying in a hotel in a strange place, six days a week, pouring over legal documents, Excel spreadsheets and paperwork. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. I do that until it's time to do reports. Or attend meetings. Why are there so many meetings? Oil and gas brokers love meetings. I yawn and tap my pen on my paperwork and mentally bow out, leaving the suits behind as I dream of knitting and pies and sagging clotheslines and picket fences. I don't enjoy this business but am unspeakably grateful for the job. Means to an end, Brin. It's a means to an end.

But the weekends? Saturdays are every bit as sweet as Mondays are brutal. Saturday I started reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and was too delighted for words.

I picked wild blackberries and searched dusty cookbooks for jam recipes, a blackberry tart in mind.

I lay on my back and stared at stars, outlining their heavenly shapes with my finger.

I followed Millie through wildflowers and clover meadows, walking everywhere and nowhere.

And I slept. I put a lace-trimmed case on my pillow and slept the sleep of a child: dreamless, heavy, and deep.

Here's to a mundane month, missing you, and another weekend coming 'round the bend.  -Brin

Learning to Sail...

We must free ourselves of the hope

that the sea will ever rest.

We must learn to sail in high winds.

-Aristotle Onassis

The winds are... high... right now as I take every opportunity to lift the sails and catch the winds of destiny wherever they drive the boat. (My favorite poem.)

See you in a bit. -Brin

Seeds, Matters of the Heart, and Vegetarianism

I've been dreaming these past few days about my old garden. I miss that glorious patch. To me, gardening loosens the body and weeds out the mind; an hour in the garden chases away stress like the sun chases away shadows. I think, on some level, we were intended to spend time close to nature. You know, to everything there is a season.