"Hello?" (tap, tap) "Is this thing on?"

I once went on a Silent Retreat in college---a weekend away with girlfriends where everyone is commited to complete silence the entire time. No talking, no music, no noisy movements. Just time away, in silence, to read, pray, journal, and the like. It was so incredibly hard at first. We were all a bunch of gabbers. But what we found so strange is that when we drove back into town and it was all coming to an end, no one wanted to break the silence. It was the realization that suddenly, anything we had to say seemed trivial and not worthy of ending the mental and spiritual journey we'd just been on. Words somehow seemed far more weighty.

I say this to explain why I've avoided blogging for the past six weeks (other than my son's birthday post, which I'd have felt guilty about leaving out). When so much has happened, and none of it has been recorded, I felt some sort of imaginary pressure to break the silence with something worthwhile.

This is not that something.

I'm merely breaking the silence to relieve myself of having to come up with something monumental to blog about. Ahhhh....that's much better already. Now the mental block is dissolved, and I can start posting again!

Let me assure you, you really wouldn't have wanted me to post in August anyway (which I am not-so-affectionately referring to as "Ugh-ust"). We had some major weeds and pests creep into the Greenhouse, figuratively speaking, and anything that would've come from my head during that time period would've been ugly. Very, very ugly.

But the Lord has been gracious to see us through, and we're starting to see some rays of hope piercing through the dark clouds. So I hope you'll still do me the honor of popping in now and then!