Still Waters

A wonderful rainy, thundery day here with tons of rain.  Wow, how we need it and how good of God to lavish this gift on us.  Second storm in 24 hours so surely our trees and growing things will explode with happy growth this week.  Good to have a legitimate excuse to nap, read, sip hot tea and soak in the refreshing, inside and out.
It's been a whirlwind few weeks here finishing up the end-of-year activities...a very fun Field Day with our support group, a mini-writer's conference for SweetPea and a couple of her friends, piano recital and Piano Guild for her, a few days' at-home vacation time with Hubby, and all the daily stuff.  Yet to come in the next couple of weeks are the push to finish Sonlight Core 6, SweetPea's biennial testing, switching out winter for summer clothes (you should see my mountain of ironing!), a wedding, and the fun prospect of a visit from a folks for a couple of weeks.  And of course, the yard work looms; I've hardly begun raking, much les…

I've been basking in the incredible joys of spring these past few days.  It's finally been both warm and sunny so we've been able to really enjoy our back yard.  And as with every year, I forget how astonishingly colorful the whole scene is, like Dorothy stepping out of the house that just landed in OZ.
The blessings of the week...
- lilacs bursting into bloom, dispensing their heady fragrance
- roly-polys, spiders, and flies doing their bug thing
- the sound of lawn mowers buzzing around the neighborhood
- smells of flowers, warm soil, fresh-cut grass
- gaudy splashes of pure flower color everywhere
- dirt under your fingernails you can't get clean
- a puppy crazy with spring excitement
- flip-flops and bare feet (too sensitive from a winter entombed)
- first sunburns
- first BBQ's, picnic lunches
- dinner on the patio to soak it all in
- green, green, green, green
- happy, happy, happy birds
- the end of school and schedule pressure, the prospect of lazy, free days stretching …

There are a lot of reasons, of course--nostalgia for a simpler, more virtuous time, quality stories, moral uprightness, wonderful actors.
But watching the original "Father of the Bride" with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor last night for Friday Night Family Night, I was struck again with one of the very significant changes that has taken place in children and their relationship to their parents in our culture.
Throughout the movie, "Kay" was respectful and loving to her parents, trying to submit to their wisdom and keep the peace, quick to forgive and not hold a grudge, very connected relationally to them, especially her father.  No sassy talk or backtalk, no rebellious overtones in everything, no implications that her parents were the get-a-life dummies to be tolerated.  Even the young fiance showed the same basic respect and honor for his elders.
I've seen this in so many other old movies.  Two wonderful kid movies that come to mind are "Flicka" wit…