7 quick takes friday (vol. 24)

Welcome back to “7 Quick Takes Friday,” an occasional feature that offers a glimpse of where my thoughts have been lately.

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Kid quotes: Recently, our four-year-old was having a conversation with his sister about our cat, Skittles. He was deep in thought about the future when a look of great concern spread across his face, and he asked: “When Skittles grows up to be a tiger, are we gonna hafta give her away?”

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Mesmerizing corn: When we visited a pumpkin patch a couple weekends ago as part of our annual Camp Wilderness excursion, my friend Mary and I stopped in our tracks at a table of autumn corncobs. They were absolutely stunning, but I can’t help but wonder, is this truly nature’s artwork or human intervention? I’d like to think it’s God’s handiwork, but is this possible? I’ve never seen corn quite like this before:

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Pumpkin-patch kids: I did post some photos of that trip this week, but a few pics of the kids at the pumpkin patch didn’t make it in, so thought I’d include them here:

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Fudge, glorious fudge! And a couple more from that outing – this time from the candy shop we visited before heading back to the cabin:

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Forum column surprise: My monthly parenting column was published a week earlier than I’d expected, so I had to sneak it into Tuesday’s posting with only a few hours before Wednesday’s “Spotlight” was to go up. In case you missed the column detailing the above outing, you can find it here.

Disconcerting side note: The night I wrote said column, my daughter had a late basketball practice. While she was learning how not to “travel” and double-dribble, I decided to grab a frosty-mug root beer and work on my column at a nearby A&W. While typing away, I kept noticing the flashing of police car lights reflecting onto the restaurant’s front glass and into the interior of the restaurant. The next day, I was shocked to learn that at approximately the same time I’d arrived at that A&W, area police had pulled in next door near an apartment to search for a missing Fargo man who had failed to pick up his daughter from day care. Tragically, as I was writing that column, that 49-year-old man’s lifeless body was being discovered. He leaves behind a three-year-old daughter, whose mother also died this past spring. Worse yet, it appears her maternal grandfather may have paid a hit man to get rid of the son-in-law because he didn’t like the way he was raising his granddaughter. The string of tragedy is enough to take one’s breath away, it’s so hard to comprehend. I don’t like writing about such sad things, but I have felt a connection to this story because of the above-mentioned scenario, and even though I don’t know the victims, it’s so eerily close to home, and I’m concerned with everyone else about this dear little girl, who is a forever victim in all of this. Please pray for little Kennedy.

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Inspiring quote: I didn’t hear the full name of the Dominican priest who said it but I did catch the words themselves, and they went like this:

“It takes both faith and reason to enter into the depth of all that life has to offer us.”

It’s one of those lines that gave me pause and sent a shiver through my body because it’s so simply said, but so true. And it’s exhilarating when those two things, faith and reason, come together. When it happens, we are offered the deepest kind of life possible. Living the life of faith is not to live a life of shallow understanding, as some erroneously assume. As believers, we are able to plunge even more deeply than others into the mysteries and gifts of life.

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Lisa Moser rocks! If you haven’t checked out the interview I did with children’s author Lisa Moser this week, you’ve got to skip on over here just as soon as you reach the end of this post. Lisa is not only an awesome picture-book author, but a cherished friend. Her latest book, Kisses on the Wind, is one you’ll definitely want to buy your favorite little person for Christmas. It is a beautiful book in every sense of the word.

Fun Question (since candy is on the brain): How many licks does it take you to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

For more “quick takes,” see Conversion Diary.