take off your shoes

Earth’s crammed with heaven; and every common bush afire with God; only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

– Elizabeth Barrett Browning

love, allison

blurry offspring

Happy belated Thanksgiving from the blurry Barbour offspring.

We love you and are grateful for most of you.
Ok, all of you.
Even if we don’t know who you are.
Although we’re pretty sure Mom’s the sole reader of this seldom updated blog.

Our Thanksgiving hearts and bellies are still full. Gym memberships are in our future.

Yours, too?
Shocking.

love, allison

we plan the possible

Read any Tozer lately?

You should.

He’s definitely a guy you want hanging around on your bookcase.

This quote of his has been swimming around in my brain lately:

God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity when we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.       –A.W. Tozer

So convicting.

love, allison

Scarlett

With Thanksgiving just around the corner  (eleven days, peeps!), I was trying to think of my best Thanksgiving memory… which led me to my funniest Thanksgiving memory… which, of course, is the one I’m choosing to share with you.

Why?

Because it’s just too weird to keep as a family secret.

Not that it’s really a secret.

No scandal. Just bizarre.

Sorry, in advance to the relatives I’m poking fun at.

They’ll still love me, right?

A certain aunt and uncle on a certain side of my family have a menagerie of animals. Literally. At one point I think the count was two dogs, three cats, and eleven birds. Now I’m pretty sure the accurate count is zero dogs, one old cat named Hannah, and fourteen birds, one of which is the size of a small dog. Impressive, huh? And yes, the birds have their own aviary room in the grand house where they can fly and perch and peck and honk all day long. It’s quite the life.

I digress.

Several years ago, we all agreed to meet up with this certain aunt and uncle at my grandma’s house for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. When we arrived, a certain aunt hugged and greeted us, then introduced her to our dinner’s guest of honor, Scarlett, who was sitting near the end of the table in the kitchen. Scarlet was incredibly pretty, seemed nice, and was quite a conversationalist.

She also happened to be a African Gray Parrot perched on the top of her cage. Okay, it’s probably a little strange that she brought one of her birds to Thanksgiving, but we quickly warmed up to the idea and gave Scarlett plenty of attention before our meal.

Here’s where it takes a turn for the stranger: then Scarlett ate Thanksgiving with us.

We blessed the food, filled our plates, and she was talked to and fed from the table by a certain aunt. She responded the entire meal by turning her head to look at whoever was carrying the conversation as if she understood people-speak. Every once in a while, someone’s story would get a whistle and a squeal from Scarlett that was loud enough to jiggle the cranberry sauce. I suppose you know you’ve hit the social jackpot when an African Gray applauds. I’m almost certain she also chowed down on some scraps of turkey, which in my mind is a twisted type of cannibalism.

Alas, we continued on with our meal as if this whole exchange wasn’t really happening, but there was more than one occasion when my brother kicked me under the table if something especially weird was happening, like a certain aunt asking Scarlett what she wanted for dessert. Um, does she even know what banana pudding is?

As I’m typing this, I’m realizing that there’s a good chance this story isn’t from Thanksgiving, but instead from Christmas Eve, when we almost always have dinner at my grandma’s. Regardless, the principle is the same. Everyone has crazy family stories. And nothing brings out the crazy like holidays spent together.

So c’mon. Share your weirdest moment.

And then I might tell you about another Thanksgiving with a different aunt where the blessing was played by an anonymous flautist in the kitchen of different aunt’s house.

love, allison

the view from here

A few times a week I take a little walk or jog through this tucked-away neighborhood, with beautiful trees and old houses and the kind of friendly neighbors that wave at you when they drive by.

The leaves are now more orange than green, and I like it even more.

What’s one of your everyday views?

There’s beauty in the ordinary.

love, allison

indian summer

Indian Summer

An Indian summer is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs in autumn, in the Northern Hemisphere. It is characterized by a period of sunny, warm weather, after the leaves have turned following an onset of frost, but before the first snowfall.

 

My little Indian Summer has given me warm days and glowing sunsets like this one.

 

No complaints.

I’ve worn flip flops more times than I’d like to admit this week.

It’s like college, all over again.

Thank you, Indian Summer!

love, allison