10 Cuttin Sage

In many ways it made perfect sense for me to lie flat-out on the grass in the middle of the garden and look up at a sapphire-blue sky and finally understand where all the color came from. Every childhood question like “Why is the sky blue?” “Why is the grass green?” ”Why do children color every sun yellow?” was finally answered in that moment of clarity.  Ezekiel saw it… when the heavens were opened (just for him!) and he saw visions of God and high above the expanse of his vision was a throne made of…… .......Sapphire...... Why can’t the Son-light reflect off God’s throne and grace us with blue sky?   Why can’t this glorious golden-yellow light blend with sapphire-throne blue and grace us with green-grass regeneration and rebirth? Children play with school paint and crayons and learn how color mixes with color and forms dramatically different colors in a miraculous sort of way.   Why can’t God use the color of nature to show us…...  .......Who He Is?.....

First day of 2016 and I’m sitting in my new Golden Retriever face t-shirt and sock monkey socks watching the Rose Parade. My t-shirt and socks were a gift from the Hospitality Manager.  The floats in the Rose Parade are still wondrous to me since childhood when I first began watching:  gigantic flower sculptures on wheels with special people riding on them!!! The balloon parade on Thanksgiving is lots of fun, but these floats are truly magical.  I guess this parade is a true joy for anyone who loves gardening and beekeeping (and fairy tales and fantasy lands). Anticipation of the new year brings eagerness, excitement, just a little trepidation, and wonder at the gifts of God’s grace. It’s going to be a bit busy this year, what with The Office reno, first time beekeeping, and a WEDDING!  I wanted to get into raising chickens, but my (egg) basket is a little full I think.  Maybe next year. I have 3 weeks booked for us at 10 Cuttin Sage; March, June and Se...

Speaking of Eternity in the last post, I wrote this in February, 2001, long before the song “I Can Only Imagine” came out (just sayin’)... I can’t imagine what Heaven must be like; Though I catch a glimpse from time to time; A glimpse into a realm I cannot fathom; Yet someday soon this realm will be mine. I think of Heaven in many ways And at oddly different times; In the midst of a simple, beautiful moment, Heaven often come to my mind. Such as a back rub from my husband- The feel of his hands against  my skin; The melting, relaxing, warm caress That loosens tension from within. Can’t imagine what Heaven must be like! How about an evening of fellowship With close-knit Christian friends? Warmth, hilarity, songs and laughter; No pretense, no put-ons, sincerity transcends.     Can’t imagine.... Or standing knee-deep in a Caribbean blue sea, The water calm, the brilliant sun shines clear, Flowers in every color a...

This is Part 2 of the previous post.  Last month, during that rainy September week that ended up causing unprecedented flooding up and down the east coast, we were at 10 Cuttin Sage tolerating the soaking rain and wind because we were anticipating and celebrating the gift of the engagement of our youngest daughter, The Hospitality Manager, to her fiancé, the Engineer.   6 weeks prior, in August, my hubby and I were privy to his secret plan of whisking her down to Ocracoke Island (her favorite place in the world), proposing under the Ocracoke Lighthouse, bringing her home to our cottage, and giving her a surprise party with all of her closest friends and family.  What a guy he is and how proud we are to be his future in-laws!  The Doer and I waited patiently all week from Saturday, Sept. 19th to Friday, Sept. 25th for the Big Event.  Our other daughter, The Teacher, took a day off school that Friday to drive down to 10 Cuttin Sage and the other...

It’s mid-September and I am here at last with my hubby enjoying 10 whole days of vacay time here at 10 Cuttin Sage. I have been planning and longing for this trip for most of the year.  Of course, when you plan and long for something for such a long period of time, you tend to build it up to impossible heights of the imagination, heights unreachable by human effort and maintained by human ability.  So, as I imagined lazy afternoons on the beach, drinking wine and eating shrimp salad and grapes by sunset, kayaking into Autumn-touched marshland laden with herons and egrets who take off in a whoosh as we meander by, getting up at sunrise to run 3 miles every day as I train for the Thanksgiving Drumstick Dash to raise money for our local homeless shelter, and reading spiritually uplifting books on the sunny dock each morning as I drink my coffee (after my run, of course), here’s the reality: The weather is crap. Day 6 of 10 days and we have still not been to the beach. Th...

Another summer has flown by like a swarm of honeybees searching out a new place to hang their honeycomb shingles. Sorry for the corniness.  I’m using bee similes a lot these days because I’m taking up a new hobby this fall.  I’ve also actually seen bees swarm and it’s quite a sight to behold. If you’ve never seen a swarm in real life, you’re missing a miracle. It’s a Winnie the Pooh experience.  I’ve decided to become a beekeeper (an apiarist if you want to get technical). This hobby is growing in popularity as the population of honeybees has slowly declined over the years due to fewer small farmers who keep hives, the commercialization of farming, and mass use of pesticides. We have a tiny brick building on our homestead that is about 70 years old and suffering about 60 years of neglect. It was originally built as the business office of the builder and first owner of our home before my grandparents bought the place.  We have always called it ...

Last weekend, our youngest daughter, The Future Hospitality Manager, graduated from college.  She is now A Current Hospitality Manager and started working at a new and trendy boutique hotel about 2 hours from home.  She has worked a grand total of 4 days so far, and loves it!  She will be moving soon into her new apartment with a new roommie and a new grown-up life and every possibility ahead of her.   The other daughter, The Teacher, is well-settled into grown up life and is also loving it and is also about 2 hours away from home; thankfully both are in the same town. As I write this, I’m a little teary-eyed because my day-to-day job as a mom has officially....ended.  Now, I know that a mother’s job is never really done; I know that grown children do have a way of coming back home and I know that a daughter always needs her mother whether she’s one day old or 56 years old (me) but that day-to-day carpooling, soccer-momming, lunch-making, ...