Dear Reader:

After reading Lisa’s story (which we will complete together today) I realized that one of my favorite quotes – the title quote- “Faith Sees Best in the Dark” has actually been Lisa’s guiding light. She has never let the darkness consume her. Instead she has stretched and reached out for the light that welcomes her in every stage of her wellness path.

I want to point out one important concept that Lisa has come to understand…”One Size Doesn’t Fit All.”  In all our journeys to find better health and wellness, whether it be emotional, mental, or physical… we must never settle for one person’s opinion or direction…instead we need to find as many “sages” as possible to guide us home. They are God’s guardian angels.

Lisa mentions counseling, self-help materials, recognizing “God Winks,” stories, posts, foundations, finding the right church for her and her family, and keeping the faith…no matter how dark the path might grow.

• I have decided to name this fern growing out of a broken pot “Lisa” because it survived and even found a way to keep growing by going underneath the dark soil and popping back up into the light...spreading its beauty.

Lisa’s Story – Part 2- In her own words…………………………………….

...After spending six (6) years working on getting mentally and emotionally “fit”, I still felt off…like I was still missing a piece, my spiritual piece. Becky’s Chapel of Hope stories were filled with spiritual references, which kept growing my mustard seed of faith and made me want to pursue a relationship with God. The stories of “God Winks” opened my mind to the holy spirit and how it works in our daily lives her on Earth. I was also reminded me how important our Faith Life is when we are facing a challenge in life.

I have learned that to stay emotionally, spiritually, physically healthy, and fit— it takes a daily, constant conscious awareness, daily effort of learning new skills and strategies, then applying them in my own life.

To reach others and share emotionally and spiritually helpful ideas, I decided to create a self-help Facebook page of resources for others called “GET CHAPIN STRONG” for mental health/wellness and spiritual tools (strategies/resources).

I started GET CHAPIN STRONG last year in February 2020 after 4 people died by suicide in the Chapin Area…I wanted to help people understand that emotional health/wellness is an individual responsibility and completely in their power— to control, change and get healthy…I use this Facebook page to post resources that I find valuable that I think it can help others.

I also volunteer for the Hayden Hurst Family Foundation … Their mission is to raise awareness of mental health issues in children and adolescents by funding mental health services and programs through donations and fundraising events. I have been a part of helping them implement a pilot program consisting of a SEL (social emotional learning) curriculum in multiple school districts this year.

Through the Foundation, this school year, we are helping over 13,000 students, teachers, and parents get social and emotional (SEL) training 4 days per week/for the entire school year. https://www.haydenhurstfoundation.com/

I believe, people can learn to be aware of their /feelings (their emotional state of mind) and when they recognize something is “off” or “missing” in themselves, they can begin putting effort into becoming healthy or “fit” in that area of life.

Social and emotional learning (learning to be aware of one’s emotional health) is a new concept for most people and will take a conscious daily effort for them to learn new ways to manage their feelings with healthy strategies and then to be able to continue to apply them. I have found in my experience, to be overall healthy, it takes a daily balance in all areas of the body—mind (emotional), body, and spirit.

Remember we are not meant to go through this life alone–we need people; we need support, we need connection--If you want to check out my GET CHAPIN STRONG PAGE….Click link below https://www.facebook.com/Get-Chapin-Strong-103447694553522/

Honey’s mom was right. HEALTH IS WEALTH!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I stopped to pick up lunch today at my treasured tea room and saw my most favorite angel of all there...the reading angel...she has been there since the tea room opened decades ago. She’s aging quite gracefully.

** Today was the 100th day of school, which considering all the barriers this year with the pandemic, is quite a benchmark and success story with Covid.

The kids dressed up to look like 100….I told Rutledge I expected to see an ark and rainbow behind him…he had a little ‘Moses” things going on! 🙂

Dear Reader:

I remember as a child hearing Grandmother Wilson, and/or any of the other pea-shellers sitting under the shade trees, repeat simply this familiar expression….”If you’s got your health…you got everything.” That one comment would bring more nods and “Amen’s” than any other expression…every single time!

As a child I shook my head silently…thinking to myself dreamily…‘If I had money, nice clothes, new shoes, a shiny car…then I would have everything.’

Children rarely consider health a gift …we take it for granted we feel good, in fact great…can run, swing, play games and physically do about anything we want to do.

This assumption only lasts through a small percentage- time-wise- of our lives before we wake up one morning to the fact that we can no longer do certain physical habits we took for granted. The beginning of the reality of life.

We also, as children, rarely consider mental or emotional health as being anything but something boring grown-ups talk about….certainly nothing close to how we children define health… which back then…was only in physical terms.

Now at the age I am…I would be in the “Amen” corner too…nodding and shaking my head in agreement. My physical health has been tested on various occasions and come up short…but mentally and emotionally I have had to step up to the plate. Even today when I am finally called “out!” of the game of life…I want the world to know I went down striking/trying as hard as I good.

Lisa Register, a fellow teacher and long-time friend of mine, recently revealed her personal health struggles… surrounded by loved ones’ health struggles…that culminated into her molding herself into a place of strength and acceptance. Her journey is our journey…we can all relate to the quagmires and spiritual flights we experience on our short visit to Earth.

Lisa came to me to ask for advice on blogging and proof-reading her story…but then another opportunity arose suddenly…one in which she can help others with their health journeys. So she has decided to hold off on her dream of a blog post…until she pursues this wonderful opportunity.

She sent me her story, along with resources to share with my blog readers. I told her I was honored to present excerpts of her story on this post….so today everyone will have an opportunity to hear about Lisa and we will continue her story over the next post. Hopefully her message will resonate with many people and her resource sites will be there for those seeking help. That is our wish.

Part I   “Lisa’s Story”

After going through my own Emotional (Mental) and Spiritual Health/Wellness transformation the last 10 years (stemming from my own childhood losses and traumas) … followed by suffering from PTSD, fears/anxiety and OCD…then overthinking…. that followed a miscarriage (1996)  compounded with the traumatic birth of my first son (1997)… his death 4 years later (2001) due to injuries he sustained at birth…I was depleted of everything needed to live a fulfilled life.

After 24 years and a lot of self-work, I am finally at a place where I feel comfortable in sharing my mental wellness success story with others! My goal is to give everyone HOPE when they feel there is none. I also want to provide people with an assortment of emotional and spiritual health resources for individuals who are looking to improve any of these missing pieces within their overall health goals.

…………………………How My Life Began to Change…………….

My Emotional Wellness Quest began in 2010, when I had a childhood friend (age 40) pass away. After that loss, I knew I needed to make a change in my emotional health… because I was feeling off, not myself—I felt like I was “missing a piece of my overall wellness” …

I had recently moved to a new town and my fears from PTSD were in “overdrive.” I did not reach out to make friends. I was not going to church. I was feeling overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, sad, short tempered, cranky… I did not know how to help myself…. except by getting busy working, being a wife and mom instead of focusing on my own health—I kept focusing on taking care of everyone else. This approach just added to my anxiety!

One day when I was checking Facebook, I came across a friend’s Blog—The Chapel of Hope Stories by Becky Dingle. Her stories began to give me HOPE. She had recently been diagnosed with cancer and begun her blog. Her positive outlook and inspirational stories each day were motivating me and giving me HOPE. After a few weeks of reading her blog daily, I reached out to a counselor’s office and began weekly sessions. (to be continued)

So until tomorrow…

*Tomorrow we will continue Lisa’s journey and all the guardian angels God provided her… throughout her healing process… in her search for that inner peace we all aspire to within the deepest recesses of our heart and soul.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*** Today I am asking, not for a toast, but prayers for Suzy, Gin-g’s sister…she is battling pancreatic cancer and Gin-g heard she was taken in for some emergency procedures….she and Fred are heading down to check on her. Prayers for a safe journey and comfort among sisters.

The sun surprised me mid-afternoon by reappearing after we had a rainy, cloudy start to Tuesday…I immediately ran out and sat on my front porch letting the sun shine down on my face…Oh Lordy…did it feel good! If we humans can’t have human touch any more…sunshine on our faces is the next best thing.

I ran to the garden and side yard…cutting off frozen burnt Ginger Shell leaves and salvaging the others…in fact one half-“burnt” Ginger Shell leaf was the most beautiful of all- upclose and personal without the brown tips on the ends visible!

The camellias continue to make me believe in grace and purity…those ivory white blossoms take my breath away.

…and the Encore azaleas just make me smile in happiness.

Dear Reader:

Monday’s StoryWorth question asked about “family secrets”… which I interpreted as asking about “family skeletons in the closet.” 🙂

Immediately I could see Uncle Harlette telling us grand kids about a family ancestor known as “Bloody Bill” Cunningham…the most hated Tory/Loyalist of the American Revolution in Upcountry South Carolina.

Even as a child listening to “Bloody Bill”‘s gruesome (unfortunately true) escapades in the revolution…I remember being a little embarrassed that my family was on the “wrong” side of this war.

I loved hearing stories of the heroic patriots from our state like Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox” or Andrew Pickens or Thomas Sumter, the “Gamecock”….not “Bloody Bill” the Sweeney Todd of the revolution.

But then we also had another good Cunningham “cuz” (Mother’s family- the Wilsons are close cousins to the Cunninghams) who came later in history and brought dignity back to the genealogy…her name was Ann Pamela Cunningham whose home place was known as Rosemont in Laurens, SC….where I went to high school and where all my mother’s family is from.

She was instrumental in saving and preserving George Washington’s home (Mount Vernon) when it was quickly deteriorating during and after the Civil War. *(The last time I visited Mount Vernon I told one of our guides that I was kin to Pamela…and I came away with a lot of extra goodies, to be used in the classroom, from there. (Life really is easier if you know the right people at the right time. 🙂

Spring has its secrets too….with each opening flowering bud that is revealed…what delight they bring!

This beautiful crabapple tree took my breath away as it suddenly appeared out of the corner of my eye on West Carolina Avenue yesterday. I checked my rear view mirror for any cars right behind me and then slammed on brakes to take a quick photo before a car came up beeping… it just made my day….just gorgeous. For the first time the real hope of spring was right in front of me!

I went around cutting the most delicate-looking camellias…they look like fairy camellias they are so light and airy… to put on one end table…I was just floating yesterday with the beauty of early spring’s secrets slowly being revealed.

For the last time I lugged “Big Red” the geranium back out on the porch…my back can’t do it any more…so fingers crossed we don’t get any more extreme low’s…I realized it was actually warmer on the porch than on the other side without the lights on and temp off.

“Big Red” was so happy and before the day was over…a bud appeared on one stem…what a survivor and thriver that geranium is…one of a kind! Give it one pinch of light and water and it’s off to the races once again….to grow, grow, grow. (We should all be like “Big Red.”)

So until tomorrow…

Take time to walk around and look for early spring’s secrets slyly being revealed…for the chosen ones… who stop long enough to see nature’s delights in the making.

“Today is my favorite day.” Winnie the Pooh

The South Carolina State Flower, the Yellow Jessamine, is a very early spring flowering vine… sure enough when I went to check on it…very tiny little specks of yellow buds are forming…it won’t be long now before it is covering everything that gets in its path! 🙂 *And I do mean everything.

Dear Reader:

As I look out my side window the shadows are rapidly lengthening and darkness is slowly painting the lower landscape with unlit colors. It is 5:30 Sunday afternoon.

We had lots of rain, in intervals throughout the night and early this morning…then it ended leaving heavy gray clouds…but now…late on a Sunday afternoon… the sun is popping out (at the last moment) to reassure us that it will be back tomorrow)…the first day of the week will start with sunshine… now that’s one face of hope.

When I dropped by Anne’s to drop off a book earlier in the day she told me she had something for me that I might remember but not necessarily recognize. It was my old H O P E cloth letters from Samantha Moore’s shop that had faded from the sun and rain…to a stage of utter in-distinction…back years ago.

I don’t remember Anne taking them…but apparently she recently found them again and repainted the letters…once more HOPE was bright. How very kind...especially since the letters on the deck fence, at the present, look like a tattered and torn flag after a battle.

*See Anne’s ‘do-over’ of each individual cloth letter on the post title photo. 🙂 I hung them on the mantle to enjoy last night and will put them out on a bright sunny Monday…today!

Madeleine L’Engle spent years writing about hope in many different forms and fashions….hope for her has never been something one just dreamed about and/or crossed their fingers for…it was and is a much more demanding gift of the spirit.

She recalls having “terrible teachers” as a young child, who assumed that her physical disability — a faulty knee that rendered her clumsy at any athletic activity — also meant that she “wasn’t very bright.” And yet the disheartening experience was essential to L’Engle’s creative development.

Shunned by peers and teachers, Madeleine spent much of her childhood reading and thinking alone. Now she feels that she couldn’t have written her books if she had been happy and successful with her peers. Like most creative individuals she showed her creativity first of all by being able to turn a disadvantage into an advantage.

Madeleine’s  guiding light directed her to the realm of associating hope with mercy. She believed the two “companions” walk hand in hand guiding us along our own individual paths. Mercy is a forgiving kindness coupled with hope…an embedded form of trust so powerful that you follow your inner spirit wherever it takes you…helping and then bringing others along their sacred path.

Madeleine’s greatest gift she left  us…was a reminder note….to reassure us that strength — creative strength, moral strength — is gained not despite the presence of adversity but because of it. It is only then that hope appears.

So until tomorrow….HOPE…TRUST…KINDNESS

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

There is something so adorable about Linus and his security blue blanket that touches everyone… in their own insecure spots.

He first appeared on television in 1952 carrying his blue blanket but never spoke until 1954. He is, of course, Linus Van Pelt, Lucy’s younger brother. About this character…Charles Schulz explained:

The character’s creator, Charles Schulz, said:  “Linus, my serious side, is the house intellectual, bright, well-informed which, I suppose may contribute to his feelings of insecurity.”

Lee Mendelson, producer of the majority of the Peanuts television specials, has said that Linus is his favorite character: “He made sucking your thumb and holding a security blanket OK. I think he’s one of the most original fictional characters of all time—blending childish behavior with great wisdom.”

I was also drawn to Linus too, growing up, since I was a fellow blue blanket thumb sucker…my blue blanket was a blue satin pillow case that I took off each morning and dragged around with me all day…  then promptly put it back on my pillow at night. (*Mother finally bought a second blue satin pillow case that was not allowed to be removed… so there was at least a hint of  some clean hygiene while sleeping.)

As a grandmother today…I also have a ‘Linus Van Pelt’ a.k.a. Jakie. Bless his heart…he really tries to give up his blue ‘blankie’ called “night night.” He proudly told me… on our shared birthday last year… he was going to…but the pressures of kindergarten must have stunted his efforts…he is still desperately hanging on to the shredded rags of “night night” …Mandy expects it to have dissolved into nothingness every time she removes it from the washing machine. Still…it lives!

What has made my mind turn back to Linus, lately, is my favorite electric lap blue blanket… that has proven to be my saving grace this cold, wet winter so far.

When I got my electric bill last month…I shuddered…mainly because I had it set on 72 degrees (still felt cool in the house) and the bill was the highest yet…ever! I gulped and decided to try the 68 degrees… as suggested by the electric company.

(*Don’t you wonder if the top executives …who write these “suggestions”… for their electric utility companies… keep their own houses down that low on the thermostat? I ponder this in my mind…)

It’s probably because I have an old drafty house but still at 68 degrees I have to wear thick socks and “Yes your grandmother does wear combat boots” around the house… for my toes are frozen. I have to keep sitting on my hands to warm my fingers and stay buried in “Pinkie the robe” over whatever other layers of clothes I have on.

But still…I have remained cold. However…while rummaging through the hall closet recently…there it was…the answer to my freezing house…my sorta new blue lap electric blanket. I had already been using a heating pad in my recliner to help ward off the cold in the evenings but now I also plugged in the lap top blanket.

That first evening… I was getting skewered on the bottom and top simultaneously…and loving it! I do think I heard the “Hallelujah Chorus” singing….

It was the closest thing to a spiritual glimpse of heaven as I think I will ever get on earth.  It was really more of a spiritual feeling!*( It was definitely a different glimpse than John had in Revelations.:)

If that first moment…when I pass on to Glory…(fingers crossed) feels anything half as good as the combo heating pad and electric lap blanket…then all I’ve got to say is “Take me home Jesus!” 🙂

So until tomorrow…

Wishing everyone a warm-loving winter day!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

My “Rock of Ages” Happy Recliner for Cold Nights

Dear Reader:

I remember hearing today’s title post phrase at a teacher conference long ago…I must have been pretty young because I was still taking notes then. 🙂

And I remember thinking… even while writing the phrase in my notebook..’Shouldn’t it read… There is nothing more beautiful than a mind changing?‘…since it was applied within the context of turning students on to learning.

Seeing this phrase again…I now know how little I still didn’t know back then…it’s not the mind that must be won over in life to see a difference in someone else’s life…but the heart.

The old adage…“Students don’t care how much you know… until they  know how much you care” is the cornerstone to learning.

When I think back on the students who did get turned on to learning, especially history in my class…it all came about because of the relationship between me and that class of students… teaching each of them how to reach each other…accepting each others’ weaknesses and strengths.

When teachers remember fondly that moment when the light bulb came on for a student…it is as if he/she landed on the summit of Mt. Everest…the moment is filled with emotions overflowing from one’s heart.

We never forget that student’s name or that expression of delight in learning a new concept.

Please forgive me for having a retired history teacher’s moment of reflection…but when I witness, like all of you, the chaos and finger-pointing going on in our country sadly today…it is obvious that one contributing cause comes from lack of basic understanding of the constitution and how our government should work.

I can’t help but think that the lack of time given for social studies in the public school curriculum has had negative long-term effects on our students, now adults, with little “civics” or “government” background.

Over my three decades plus of teaching…I saw required history/government/economic courses in social studies dwindle and middle school “civics” disappear. When “accountability” came into the picture… social studies fell to the bottom of the curriculum hierarchy and each year time was taken from it to give to another more “important’ subject.

It becomes even more evident when you hear voters voting straight tickets…because it’s easier or they haven’t done their homework learning what each candidate stands for…many voters don’t even recognize the names of the people they voted for…until they get in trouble and appear in the media. Pretty sad state of affairs.

We, the people are the government...we must never forget that…and if we want change then we better change…for the better. If we see a lack of values or integrity on Capitol Hill…then it is up to us choose people who best represent our core values too.

This old retired teacher is begging you to go back and do your homework…learn what a democracy should be and how important it is to put candidates in office who want to help all people who make up our country …the candidates who put country before self, greed, and power.

My hope for our country is…the same thing I wanted for my classes…for the students to learn to work together…accept each other’s strength and weaknesses…united in their desire to learn.

Then one day…we can all look back to that turning point in our history when we united together to make our country more beautiful…and it happened because it was our hearts that changed.

So until tomorrow….

President Jimmy Carter once prophesied about an “invisible threat“—“A state where national unity is less valued than identity politics, greed, and selfishness—that threatens to topple our dearest values.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I wonder if we can build  heart-stretching machines and have one in the House and one located in the Senate.. every representative must go through the machine before entering…maybe that would work? 🙂

On these chilly, rainy evenings there is nothing like a roaring fire…to me it is right up there with watching the ocean or looking out over the mountains…you just feel the warmth and spirit of love and gratitude for our Creator.

Dear Reader:

I remember one particular visit to St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope in Trust, NC…soon after discovering the beautiful little chapel in the woods…Honey and I walked around to the back of the chapel where this merry little stream was flowing happily over rocks and around bends…babbling as loudly as it could in seeming delight.

There had apparently been a storm earlier before we arrived because several branches from overhanging trees were lying on the banks. I remember picking one up…and cautiously stepping onto one visible rock near the bank while thrusting the long stick/branch into the swirling waters.

I felt like a child again….the power of the water and gravity pulling the springs felt absolutely delightful in my hands…holding tightly to the stick so it wouldn’t get pulled from my grasp.

For those few precious minutes I was completely in a different zone…it was as if I truly understood the meaning behind this little stream and the powerful spirit within it…living and loving life as it pounded the rocks and occasionally splashed over the embankments.

It was a living sacred force…just like me…just like everything in life…with meaning inside it. That memory, that “ah-ha” moment, has stuck with me for many years now.

So when I found this short anecdote in Mark Nepo’s book- The One Life We’re Given...the memory of my earlier experience came rushing back.

The force and meaning of life are everywhere around us… if we just stop long enough to discover it.

TOUCHING THE WATER

A troubled widower made his way to ask a wise old woman about his troubles.  The old woman received him and they walked along a stream.  She could see the pain in his face.  He began to tremble as he asked, “What’s the point? Is there any meaning to life?”

She invited him to sit on a large stone near the stream.  She took a long branch and swirled it in the water, then replied, “It all depends on what it means to you to be alive.” In his sorrow, the man dropped his shoulders and the old woman gave him the branch.  “Go on,” she said, “touch the branch to the water.”

As he poked the branch in the running stream, there was something comforting about feeling the water in his hand through the branch.  She touched his hand and said, “You see, that you can feel the water without putting your hand in the water, this is what meaning feels like.”

The troubled man seemed puzzled.  She said, “Close your eyes and feel your wife now gone.  That you can feel her in your heart without being able to touch her, this is how meaning saves us.”

The widower began to cry.  The old woman put her arm around him, “No one knows how to live or how to die.  We only know how to love and how to lose, and how to pick up branches of meaning along the way.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

So until tomorrow….

“We are just not to stay alive…but to stay in our aliveness.” (Nepo)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Eloise is already learning the tricks of the trade when it comes to motherhood…push your baby in the swing with one hand while talking on your toy phone with the other…multi-tasking…wondered where she learned that? 🙂

 🙂

Dear Reader:

When I think back to my frightening diagnosis of an invasive, aggressive ductal form of breast cancer in 2008 I remember thinking “So if this it?”

I was in my late fifties and suddenly it felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. John and Mandy had just gotten married, Walsh was out of school and working…Tommy was in college…it just didn’t feel right that the ending to my story would come about with so many loose ends still dangling in the air.

By the time the kids threw a big 60th birthday for me…a year and a half later… I had just gotten the amazing news that I was going to become a grandmother. So I wasn’t planning on going anywhere!  (Believe me…God would have had to drag me out kicking and screaming…that child’s birth was  a rebirth for me.)

I kept a diary of the time I spent waiting for her to arrive-  a diary about all my dreams for her-…which I later gave Mandy and told her to keep and give  Eva Cate on her 18th birthday or graduation night. And now look…Eva Cate is ten years old and ole’ Boo is still around.

Little did I know that her birthday would be a domino effect that would bring me in contact with St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope in Trust, NC followed by the beginning of the blog…Chapelofhopestories.com on August 7, 2010.

It all began with a huge leap of faith coupled by lots of family help and friends’ encouragement…From day to day I was clueless about what to write the following day…but God was holding my hand and let me know He would give me ideas if I would just start typing…and for over a decade now that is what happens every single day.

The first day’s post (2010)…my explanation of the God Wink that lead to this amazing adventure that has proven to be my life-line in my passion and love of writing.

The Chapel of Hope Connection

Dear Reader:

Sometimes the seemingly simplistic things in life are the most elusive. Discovering who we really are under the skin is one of these…our likes, dislikes, interests, passions….all the things that make us unique…make us who we really are…yet these truths don’t come easy.

In fact it takes a life-time of self-discovery to really know our actual selves doesn’t it? None of us are born with a script to learn and follow…instead we have to learn through trial and error. Such is life.

Alice Koeller once wrote: “Perhaps loving something is the only starting place there is for making your life your own.” (I think she nailed it.)

How many of us have allowed ourselves to be influenced by well-intentioned family members, friends, co-horts…even strangers like sales clerks. I can open my closet right now and out of my entire wardrobe tell you what clothes I have worn once and never again.

Then there are other clothes that I have worn thin…wearing over and over…because I keep looking in the closet, shaking my head trying to remember why I thought something would look good on me that I don’t even like…these items just hang there until I finally admit defeat… bag them up and take them to a charity. (This makes me feel a little better for my poor choices or ‘lack of backbone’… succumbing to a sales clerk or even friend who thought some blouse or jacket was “just me.” It wasn’t “just me.”  (It was probably “just them.“)

Take colors for example…by now most of you have picked up from pictures of different rooms in my house that I love bright primary colors…deep down inside they are me…especially yellow’s and orange’s. I find myself drawn to these same colors every time I go shopping…whether it is for clothes, accessories, wall paints, furniture, etc.

Simply put…they just make me happy. But I also know that when it comes time to concentrate and create…I need pastels or cool colors…thus the title picture I took of my “blog”  room where I create the posts each day.

I need “cool” colors that remind me of the seas and skies… vast open areas of creativity that never stop moving in and out… like clouds and waves… each day… a new creation in formation.

Don’t we also learn about relationships and the types of people we want to be surrounded with as we “grow up”….people who love people.

These days I an drawn to others who still let us see a peek into the child they once were….funny, uninhibited by protocol and ready to take on the next adventure.

At this stage in life…I find myself asking….“What do I truly love?“…“What would make me really happy and then what is the best way to share it with others?”  For me right now…that is fulfillment.

So until tomorrow….(Art by Phyllis Harris)

“Today is my favorite day”   Winnie the Pooh

If you have ever wondered where “Spiderman” lives…it is with Walsh and Mollie, Rutledge and Eloise. Lachlan is quite the little gymnast at five years of age…very strong for his age…he climbed this 30 foot rope three times during his gym class session.

He’s the little boy at the very tip-top with the black pants and white shirt! So proud of you, Lachlan, but I probably would have had a heart attack watching you do it “live.“:)

*Speaking of “elusive” I added a Happy Birthday to Gin-g….when I got in last night from Mt. Pleasant…and just realized this morning it wasn’t added to today’s post. Something weird is going on….you just never know when those computer gremlins gobble up things…since it had a picture of a birthday cake…maybe that did it. 🙂

But a big shout-out to Gin-g on her birthday!!! Fred outdid himself taking Gin-g to the historic Poinsett Hotel in downtown Greenville…we had several social studies conferences there and I loved it.

Jo Dufford and Gin-g’s birthdays are maybe a day apart…I mentioned to her that God must have put all the most generous kind-hearted people in one area of the monthly calendar…because both of them are like two peas in a pod when it comes to giving.

Dear Reader:

I just named our low country alligator  “Alvin” for fun…but low country naturalists, actually, do use alligators to predict when spring will arrive in the low country of South Carolina.

Obviously we don’t have many groundhogs, but we do have a lot of water, which is where we look to for our own sign that Winter is coming to a close.

According to an article written by Walt Rhodes for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the Low country has it’s own “Ambassador of Spring.”

“The American Alligator is a cold-blooded animal and it’s body reflects the temperature of the environment around it.

During the cold months, alligators are forced into a ‘lethargic mode’, but after the days start to grow longer it is more common to see them basking in the sun along the water edge for short periods of time.