We do not have to have health restored in order to have hope. We do not have to cling desperately to life in this world when we see life in relationship to the world to come. This life is not all that there is. More awaits us, and prayer makes it possible for us to catch a glimpse of eternal life. Prayer becomes a means of grace that enables us to loosen our hold on time so we can put our hands on eternity. 
(~Steve Harper, Talking in the Dark)

"Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.”

(~Leo Tolstoy)

“He was tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong, able swiftly to draw a great war-bow and shoot down a Nazgûl, endowed with the tremendous vitality of Elvish bodies, so hard and resistant to hurt that he went only in light shoes over rock or through snow, the most tireless of all the Fellowship.” 

(~J.R.R. Tolkien)

Ash-Man's favorite!

"The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ . . . the more homesick you get for heaven . . . the more you want "all the fullness of God" . . . the more you want to be done with sin . . . the more you want the Bridegroom to come again . . . the more you want the Church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus . . . the more you want a great awakening to God's reality in the cities . . . the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed . . . the more you long for every wrong to be made right and the justice and grace of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea." 

(~John Piper)

Yes. Oh, yes.

“There is a sacredness in tears. 

They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. 

They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. 

They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, 

     of deep contrition 

     and of unspeakable love.”

(~Washington Irving)

The sacred ground of tears leaves no room for words today.

"Don't be ashamed to weep; 'tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. But there must be sunlight also. A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does, the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort us.” 

(~ Brian Jacques, Taggerung)

Kimberly Alden Smith. August 30, 1973 - November 8, 2012

"White is the color of angels and brides, moonlight and lily of the valley. It is capable of endless subtleties; fragile or strong, it can be transparent as ice, opaque as marble, in love with light as a diamond." 

(~Jeanine Larmoth)

"Come, darling, I want you to see how many children we have...if we count all their feet it makes fourteen."

"And if we count all their hands, too, it will make twenty-eight."

"And how about their fingers and toes?"

Even Papa was laughing now with Mama, "Oh, Pontus," she cried, "I think we are just the luckiest Papa and Mama on the whole of God's earth!"

(~Thyra Ferre Bjorn, Papa's Wife)

Yes and yes and yes! I am so very thankful for the dear little ones God has entrusted to our home, our care, our love. 

"I was sitting there the other day," she says, gesturing toward the balcony, "watching the sun set. And I was thinking, I am so happy now. I love being alive. I just want to be here. I want to stay." 

(~Elizabeth Berg, Talk Before Sleep)

That's how it feels. Just this deep longing to not just be here, to not just stay, but to BE. 

"And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." (~C.S. Lewis. The Last Battle)

I love those two words, "at last". It makes me think of Ephesians and "but God". Two words carry so much weight. All their living and waiting and working and striving and adventuring... all of it had come to fruition. 

But God. 

At last. 

They are home. 

It's a beautiful thought.

Why "The Only True Magic"?

"Books may well be the only true magic" 
(~Alice Hoffman)

This is my space for words. And most of them will be the words of others that I have collected over the years. It is a respite for me to come here and write them and re-read them and find the magic of the ages.

So that is what this will be, a place where I will share quotes and books and the magic of words. I'd love you to float along in my magical realm with me, and hopefully the words that speak to me will speak to you, too.