“appreciation swells to astonishment”

i remember to water the celery shoots.

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“the threshold is always near”

today sister magnolia wore a dress of blooms so pink and glowing the
sight pricked me to tears.

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“Lord God … my need is great”

isaiah delivers the message of the Lord:
“I AM the first and the last. there is no God
but Me.” and it is just like israel to forget. just like me …

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“i know a lot of fancy words”

after a morning’s absent-minded scramble through the bookshelves I finally found Billy Collins at the bottom of a basket of sweaters.

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February flowers

The day before Valentine’s Day I went to the grocery before dinner, realizing I had forgotten to buy gifts to go with the cards I’d purchased at the other store a mile up the road. As I headed toward the entrance, a steady stream of men came through the sliding glass doors, each bearing the kind of cellophane-wrapped bundle that every woman loves to see.

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leaning toward the light

I picked the shortest-stalked paperwhite I could find, hoping to prolong bloom time deeper into advent, but since Saturday the slender stems have shot up, leaning toward the light; now the first tender bud is swelling, waiting for the sun’s return to burst forth in defiance of the cold. is this an echo of the…

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the land (and you)

i know this land. how many times have I wended my way among the juniper scrubs and waded through knee-high prairie grass to reach the old osage orange at the top of the field, then stared out over the expanse of the next ten acres, wondering what the farmer was fixing to plant next? I…

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missing

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