I am standing at the stove eating blueberries from a bowl as I sauté onion and orange pepper for lentil soup because the big blueberry muffin Todd and I are sharing seems to be lacking. Blueberries. Everything else about it is great: a big crunchy cap with peel off edges and a melt in your mouth dense decadence inside. But it needed more blueberries. That’s the healthy part.

I add some chicken andouille to the onions and pepper, a few garlic cloves, one limp looking carrot that looks much better once skinned and chopped, Herbs de Province just because I like thinking about France, a cup or two of lentils, a lot of cups of broth, salt and pepper and two Bay leaves then let it simmer.

It seems everything I do these days is about being healthy and whole. I have fewer interruptions, we walk by the stream in the ravines each day, I read from God’s Love Letter where the Living Streams flow in each day, we eat healthy. I get a lot of help from the people I’ve allowed into my life, like you. I get help from a lot of love and prayers and the proper dosage of this and that–eleven more months and I hope to be done with these low dose chemo injections.

But my greatest discipline these days is what thoughts I allow in. I only wonder why it took me so long to be so selective. Because then, Peace like a River flows through me. God in us. Christmas now past but Christ in us, the Hope of Glory. The Miracle of Christmas. The Mystery of Life.

“Let’s go see the stream!” I say as Todd, Fannie and I romp across the field through eight inches of snow. I feel the need to check out the stream after our first snowfall. It seems like I’ve been waiting forever for snow. I love snow.

“You can’t see the stream now,” Todd says.

“That’s what I want to go see,” I say. I want to see how it will reveal itself once iced over and hidden. Because I know it will. Even if I have to look harder. Faith is like this.

It took Fannie a long time to trust the water but now she loves it. She drinks water from the stream regularly and puts up with frozen paws to play in the water at the Lake. Faith is like this too…“There is a River whose streams make glad the city of God, the Holy place where the most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day…Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46: 4, 5, 10) I’m glad I have this scripture memorized because I love it. We are God’s dwelling place.

We return home. I walk through the door and am overwhelmed by the warmth and aroma. The lentil soup is coming along. I add a cup of red wine and a couple cans of diced tomatoes, a little more salt. Then I empty the can of Hungarian Paprika which is a couple of tablespoons, for warmth and richness. That does it. Delicious. Healthy and wholesome. Todd heats up a Baguette with butter and we eat big bowlfuls and watch two episodes of “The Durrells in Corfu”.

Now may 2021 be a big blessing of health and wholeness for you and your family! …And if we all remain as persistent as my cat is to sit in my lap it will be achievable. From the inside out!

Happy New Year with love from the Farrises!