by Sheila Graham Smith | Jan 15, 2019 | Meditation
A show I enjoy watching features two men crisscrossing the country picking through people’s barns, attics, and storage units searching for treasures. I was gobsmacked, shocked during one episode of barn exploration when a massive pulley system revealed an equally massive yoke hanging from the rafters of a dilapidated barn. My mind went immediately to a picture of the poor farm animals standing obediently under this pulley system, waiting docilely and habitually for this yoke to be lowered onto their necks and backs.
by Sheila Graham Smith | Jan 8, 2019 | Meditation
This morning, I needed to feel smarter than myself, so I tuned into “Ted Talks” on my morning walk. It thumped through my earbuds with each step, step, step around my neighborhood. The featured scientist was explaining “what makes us. . . us?” He predictably started with the acronym DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Boom! I had a flashback to Mrs. Rigby’s 9th-grade biology class at ACS (American Community School) in Beirut, Lebanon.
by Sheila Graham Smith | Jan 1, 2019 | Meditation
I am unabashedly and unashamedly a scrapbooker. I chronicle our family’s ups and downs and turnarounds with pictures, mementos, and journaling. Why do I do this? Primarily I scrapbook because of the pure fun of losing track of time in a creative process and for the joy of looking back in retrospection.
by Sheila Graham Smith | Dec 25, 2018 | Meditation
Mary held her baby Jesus close to her heart on his birthday. She knew without a doubt how special he was, for hadn’t the angel told her so? I’ve given birth three times: twice to healthy boys, and once to a baby girl who didn’t make it to full term and never got the chance to breathe on her own. However, the baby who best taught me the awe-inspiring lesson about the nature of God’s love was a two and a half pound premature meth addicted newborn abandoned at the emergency room of the hospital where I had been volunteering in the NICU.
by Sheila Graham Smith | Dec 18, 2018 | Meditation
Christmas Advent is a time of waiting. I volunteer in our church infant nursery during Sunday School. There’s nothing like nestling with a newborn, their soft fuzzy heads laying just so on your chest, their padded bottoms cupped in your hand, feeling their butterfly breaths tickle your chin. I’ve been privileged to experience with our young families the mixed fearful anticipation and exhilarating excitement waiting together for their Advent newborns.
by Sheila Graham Smith | Dec 14, 2018 | Meditation
I’ve collected nativity scenes since I was a teenager. I especially like the folksy artsy ones. That is how I “deck the halls” for Christmas. I clear all tables and cabinet surfaces, store away items in bins for the season, and start resurfacing with nativities from all over the world. Each set emotes treasured vignettes of specific times and places. My mind tumbles down memory lanes paying attention to noteworthy stop signs along the way!
