Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

putting on the new

What a wonderful, terrible, holy world

“Daddy, some of these are terrifying. The colors are so beautiful.”

My friend’s daughter lay nearby on a blanket as fireworks flash-banged in the sky above us.

She was right. So many colors filled the sky, and it was breathtaking. I found myself whispering “wow” more times than I could count. I’m not always the most patriotic American, but I will never not love fireworks.

As I lay there in awe, I thought about our proximity to the fireworks. How for safety reasons we can’t be really close and how they are entrusted to trained professionals (most of the time).

Photo by Shireah Ragnar on Unsplash

Beautiful as they are, fireworks are also dangerous. It wouldn’t take much for a celebration to become a tragedy. Fireworks are fun, but they are explosives to be handled with care.

Beautiful. And dangerous.

Some of the best things are.

Read the rest at Putting on the New, where I post on the 12th of each month.

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We don’t know what we don’t know

A month or so ago, my husband and I decided it was time to start the home buying process. We connected with a realtor who came highly recommended by a friend. She pointed us to a lender so we could get the paperwork started and get an idea of how much house we could afford.

And it all started to overwhelm me.

Last week, I started taking a class for first-time homebuyers. It’s a series of three classes spread out over a week and I’ve left the first two in tears. I had no idea home buying was so difficult. Maybe it isn’t for everyone, but the whole process sounds more terrifying than fun.

Until we started researching and asking questions and taking steps, we didn’t know all the things we didn’t know about buying a house. And we still don’t know even a quarter of it, I’m sure.

For a couple of smart people, this seems to be a theme lately.

You can read the rest of this post at Putting on the New. I blog there on the 12th of each month.