I have spent a week trying to wax poetic, to compose passionate words compelling you to purchase Sally Clarkson's newest book, The LifeGiving Home, a book I believe in with all of my heart. Poetic verse has yet to occur but memories have flooded my mind in some strongly emotional ways as I have pondered what a LifeGiving home is and how I have experienced one. Sally's children share wonderful memories of Sunday afternoon Tea Time. As I heard these stories at MomHeart conferences then read them in this book visions of Downton Abby flooded my mind. It all seemed so perfect, so beautiful ~ fancy china and petite fours. On rare occasions I have experienced an event such as this but it certainly has not been a regular occurrence in my life.
TEA TIME in my life looked a bit different but left an indelible mark of love on my heart.
I grew up in northern Maine, about a mile from the Canadian border. This resulted in a strong English influence on my life. My Grandmother, a hard-working, faithful, gentle potato farmer's wife, interrupted the labors of each afternoon with a pot of brewed tea and a sweet treat. My brother and I share a common bond of drinking strong tea diluted with canned evaporated milk just the way Grammie used to make it for us. We are both serious sugar addicts as well since each Tea Time included some form of home-baked goodie, brownies, cookies, date squares or the ever present donuts, freshly made donuts, often still warm from the fryer. Uncle and Grampie would come in from the fields, cracking a joke (or muttering a curse, depending on the cooperation of the farm machinery) knowing there would be delicious treats to energize them for the remaining day's labors.
In The LifeGiving Home, Sarah Clarkson answers the question of what her parents did to make her believe in God,
" 'I think it was French toast on Saturday mornings and coffee and Celtic music and discussions and candlelight in the evenings...' Because in those moments I tasted and saw the goodness of God in a way I couldn't ignore."
I, too, saw God's goodness in a way I couldn't ignore when I drank tea and ate yummy donuts with my Grammie, when she donned her white sun hat while we picked berries for delicious pies, or when I observed her reading her Bible and finishing her Sunday School lesson on Saturday night for our time together in church on Sunday morning. God's love shone through her love and it was GOOD!
Each time I brew a pot of tea this memory wraps around me like a child's tattered, cherished blanket warming me with the assurance that I was and am loved. Though Grammie is gone, her love remains true in the memories. As a child I had no idea of the sacrifice required for her to fry donuts every week, to furnish a well-stocked pantry of brownies and cookies, or to cook each meal from scratch, often after working all day in the potato house or standing for hours in the cold, fall air on a potato harvester. All I knew was that the goodness of the food I tasted echoed the goodness of my grandmother's love.
The feasts I created for my children were a bit different. Warm chocolate chip cookies on a snowy day, "McMom's" ~ chicken nuggets and french fries served in a recycled McDonald's Happy Meal box, and birthday dinners of made from scratch chicken pot pie all conveyed the same message, You Are Loved.
In The LifeGiving Home Sally and Sarah Clarkson share a Mother-Daughter perspective on the safety and refuge of HOME, the place to belong and to become all that God created you to become. Home will look different for each one of us, whether it be a tiny house or a grand mansion, but the practical ideas of building faith, family and friendship cross all boundaries.
I believe so heartily in the truth of The LifeGiving Home I will be giving away one book set, The LifeGiving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming with The LifeGiving Home Experience: a 12-month Guided Journey. I will also be giving away a CD of Joel Clarkson's original compositions, Music for the LifeGiving Home.
Simply share a comment, a memory of home or a family story below to be entered in this drawing. Winners will be chosen Wednesday, February 10.
