Yet another year of grace

The knitting of the sixty stars for the Sixty Star Project has gone quicker than the giving of the stars. I have my master list of people who have influenced my life in profound and essential ways, with some empty spaces yet to fill as I continue to ponder and honor those folks who have helped me become me. The giving of the stars has taken time because I want to give my loved one his or her star at a moment is which we have an opportunity to savor the gift of our relationship.

Most of the stars have been given in person, but the very first star was sent by mail to a person who has certainly had the most impact on my life, my mother. My mother continues to live on land that has been in our family for over one hundred years. She and I have not always gotten along as well as we’d wish, so the greatest gift of this time in our lives is how much we truly love being together. I try (not always successfully) to drive the nearly three hundred miles to visit each month because I know it is precious time together.

Mother is never happier than when she is working in the yard; at Christmas we had green beans and Swiss chard grown from her garden. She also made my very personal favorite, chocolate pie (so good that it was featured in my daughter’s cookbook, The Home Sick Texan Cookbook). Mother is generous and graciously opens her home and heart to all sorts and conditions of others. She has taught me much about the wisdom that comes with a life well-lived.

One of her gifts to me this Christmas was a passage of Scripture. As I begin another year of blogging, I thought that sharing this verse with you was a way for us to begin another year of grace together.

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. 2 Corinthians 8. 12