• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • The words
  • The writer
  • The work

Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Archives for September 29, 2012

Saturday smiles: words are not enough edition

September 29, 2012

When someone shows up at your front door with armloads of groceries, pumpkins for the kids to decorate, toys and an offer to use their home exercise equipment anytime: words are not enough.

When you invite friends over for dinner and they bring with them more groceries than the meal you’ve prepared: words are not enough.

When friends who are, themselves, struggling to make ends meet load a box with food from their pantry and deliver it to your house: words are not enough.

When you’re offered canned goods from a family’s personal store: words are not enough.

When your family doesn’t hesitate to send you hundreds of dollars, more than once, so you can pay rent, afford car repairs and pay bills: words are not enough.

When the UPS man drops two boxes full of food and an envelope with cash on your doorstep: words are not enough.

When you can laugh and smile even when you’re not sure what tomorrow holds: words are not enough.

When you look around and see a roof over your head, two smiling and healthy kids, a man whose love for you runs deep laboring side by side with you, and countless blessings that make you feel rich in all the right things: words are not enough.

When words written centuries ago burn in your soul as you read them today and you know–really know–you aren’t alone in this world: words are not enough.

When it rains one day and the sun reappears the next day: words are not enough.

Words are not enough to tell you what I’ve felt, seen and heard this week. For a writer, that’s frustrating. But also humbling. Because for some things in life, there are no words. At least not the spoken kind. For some things, your soul speaks in a language all its own and though you can’t translate the message into your native tongue, you know what’s being said. And you agree. It makes you want to shout and sing and write poetry and paint and tell people what you’ve experienced. And when you try to put it into words, you just don’t get it quite right.

Today, words are not enough.

And I’m okay with that.

Filed Under: faith & spirituality, Saturday smiles Tagged With: blessing, charity, grace, receiving, soul language, words are not enough

Primary Sidebar

Photo by Rachel Lynn Photography

Welcome

Hi. I’m Lisa, and I’m glad you’re here. If we were meeting in real life, I’d offer you something to eat or drink while we sat on the porch letting the conversation wander as it does. That’s a little bit what this space is like. We talk about books and family and travel and food and running, whatever I might encounter in world. I’m looking for the beauty in the midst of it all, even the tough stuff. (You’ll find a lot of that here, too.) Thanks for stopping by. Stay as long as you like.

When I wrote something

September 2012
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
« Aug   Oct »

Recent posts

  • Still Life
  • A final round-up for 2022: What our December was like
  • Endings and beginnings … plus soup: A November wrap-up
  • A magical month of ordinary days: October round-up
  • Stuck in a shallow creek
  • Short and sweet September: a monthly round-up
  • Wrapping the end of summer: Our monthly round-up

Join the conversation

  • A magical month of ordinary days: October round-up on Stuck in a shallow creek
  • Stuck in a shallow creek on This is 40
  • July was all about vacation (and getting back to ordinary days after)–a monthly roundup on One very long week

Footer

What I write about

Looking for something?

Disclosure

Lisa Bartelt is a participant in the Bluehost Affiliate Program.

Occasionally, I review books in exchange for a free copy. Opinions are my own and are not guaranteed positive simply due to the receipt of a free copy.

Copyright © 2025 · Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in