Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

With Christmas still a fairly recent memory…we all know the famous first lines by Luke in the Christmas Story…the birth of Jesus.

…”And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.”

If Luke had taken a writer’s seminar before starting the story…he probably would have been advised not to start the most powerful story on world change…. talking about taxes…it could be a turn-off to most weary tax-paying readers.

Long before old Ben Franklin’s sage advice about taxes and death – “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” Luke is letting us know (setting the stage) that the birth of Jesus would play out due to the overcrowded conditions of people queuing up to pay taxes….thus “no room in the inn.”

Luke does get points for starting the story with a relatable topic everyone can connect to through their daily life…paying taxes. Even though the expression “It came to pass” is not a phrase seen primarily in our readings today….our stories and novels… it is a phrase worth remembering because our perception of the term can still change our lives.

‘And It Came to Pass.‘  It didn’t say ‘And It Came to Stay’.

When dealing with life’s daily problems…we all will have our share of “passings” but this doesn’t mean we are stuck…mired in our troubles so deeply we never can overcome them and enjoy life.

God is making sure that even in the worst of scenarios…the sun will come out again and life will continue…perhaps differently than we anticipated but still the problems we encounter throughout our lives are just passing through…to teach us more about ourselves and our place in this world.

When we are experiencing potentially life-threatening situations…it is easy to get mired down in worry but when we realize “we are all on borrowed time”…that time being life itself…we come to realize that we are not going to live one more minute than God’s life plan for us or one less second.

This was most helpful while I was facing different doctors’ prognoses for me based on their experience with other patients with similar cancers. Their time-lines came and went while life continued…gratefully with me still in it. God is in control of our lives.

Barbara Johnson, author of Daily Splashes of Joy, remembers reading a book on living and dying on a plane ride. Another passenger sitting next to her glanced at her book and made a joke that her reading must be a laugh a minute…a book on dying?

He then grew serious and apologized if he had offended her…and timidly asked…“Do you have a life threatening disease?”

Barbara smiled back and replied “Yes…the same one you do. It’s an incurable disease with a 100% mortality rate…..it’s called LIFE.” She then grinned and whispered….”By the way it is highly contagious.”

Tina Montalto in her article “And It Came to Pass” observes:

Build this attitude of “it came to pass, not to stay” as you face your challenges. We all have challenges because Life is in a continuous progression of growth. Life does not stand still. Challenges make us move forward. We will never be without our challenges, but when we realize that all challenges are just chances to change and grow, we won’t be devastated by them. We won’t be immobilized by them. They came to pass, so let’s help them on their way!

So until tomorrow….

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

As most of you readers are now aware...it is Monday, the first day of February! Time to say “RABBIT  RABBIT” and pray for a wonderful new month! For me…just saying February instead of January is psychologically more optimistic…because by the end of the month…March will arrive…and with it SPRING. We are getting closer! 🙂

***And speaking of closer….Tommy and Kaitlyn are getting closer and closer into moving back in their home/B&B on Shem Creek. You might remember it went up in flames on Friday March 13…just as Covid-19 hit in earnest…and we first heard the words quarantine and social distancing added to our mental “dictionaries”…masks were still a little off in the future.

So after almost a year…of wrangling with insurance companies…they are about to move back. This past weekend was spent moving in the first pieces of furniture.

Oh happy day…and I am sure a happy day for Butch and Susan, Kaitlyn’s parents. (When Tommy and Kaitlyn’s temporary rental ended a few months after the fire… they and their four dogs went to live with with Butch and Susan.)

A huge Thank You Susan and Butch from me….what a ‘beyond generous’ gesture….just pure family love. Wow!

A Shout-Out to one of my favorite people….HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jo Dufford! What a faithful blog reader you have been and continue to be!

You and Colby, your beautiful granddaughter, make up the Dynamic Duo...always giving generously to everyone! Amazing women in your own right. Great genes!

Dear Reader:

If you were a parent in the late eighties or early nineties of middle school or high school-age teenagers, and or/ a teacher like me with children around that age (double whammy)… you might be cringing just hearing the word “WhatEVER!” 

Definitely one of those words…you prayed would get buried in the aftermath of thrown-away slang jargon…when it was no longer “cool” to say it. Alas…it has outlasted several generations.

When young people said it…it was always with an “attitude” plus that most annoying of all gestures…a “rolling of the eyes” which took place simultaneously with the verbal comment…even with a shrug of the shoulders thrown in for good measure!

It was nothing less than a miracle to get through a middle-school day without a confrontation with either a student in your class or a student in the hallway cutting up or perhaps instigating the food fight in the cafeteria. The scenario always played out the same way.

“Bobby was that you throwing meatballs at Johnny?” Bobby, the eighth grade “bad boy” would look at me like...’Are you blind…of course I threw meatballs at Johnny.’

I would stand there feeling my blood pressure escalate to a place worthy of a stroke….count to 10…and then respond calmly…“I want you to pick up those meatballs off the floor and apologize to Johnny.”

Bobby…realizing he had an adoring table of followers and must save face…would remark back that he wouldn’t have to pick them up if Johnny had eaten them like he supposed too…and then, in dripping sarcasm, mumbled…“Jeez…I was just sharing  with him.”

Poor Johnny looked like he wanted to sink through a hole in the floor under his table while everyone laughed and Bobby gulped down another big meatball for visual effect.

I told Bobby to pick up his tray because he was going to share lunch with our principal…(I’ll call him Mr. Smith.) It was then it happened…”W H A T E V E R!“..the rolling eyes…and the innocent shoulder shrug followed.

By now I was in one foul mood…once again…I was losing my precious 20 minutes of “freedom” to eat before all my afternoon classes (I was starving) all because of Mr. Bobby…”Whatever.”

By the time we reached the office…there were already two other misbehaving  students having “lunch” with Mr. Smith…When he saw who I was bringing to him…he immediately choked on his own meatball. Not the notorious “Bad Bobby” of eighth grade legend! Sigh!

I calmly let Mr. Smith know…that Bobby had thrown meatballs at another boy and then was upset because he got in trouble when he was just “sharing” and he shouldn’t have to pick up the meatballs, in question, off the floor because Johnny should have eaten them after they pinged him on the head.”

Bobby, nonchalantly, sat down and high-fived the other two culprits…”Thank you Ms. Dingle...Principal Smith responded as I slowly turned to leave his office. It was then that I heard him hopefully asking… if any of the boys had  an extra cup of ice cream on  them by chance? All three students sullenly stared back at him. “Whatever“ sighed Mr. Smith sadly.

So yesterday when I read a devotional from Daily Splashes of Joy it caught me off-guard when the author was recalling a terrible low point in her life when she seriously considered ending it.

But some Presence stopped her before she did herself any harm…as she called out “Lord take this burden of estrangement I feel (from my son) so deeply… that I can’t fathom taking one more step forward without him in it. But yet I know I must try.”

“I’m tired of this elephant on my back…this rug in my throat…I’m giving him to you Lord. And if I never see him again, whatever Lord, whatever happens…I’ve had it…I’m surrendering him to YOU. God Please show my son my love for him.”

So until tomorrow….

“Whatever, Lord!”  That is the prayer of total relinquishment in faith…trusting those you love the most to the God their Creator Who loves them unconditionally.!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I think summer thunderstorms are my one of favorite things. I have been thinking about the lyrics to Julie Andrews “Favorite Things” from the Sound of Music… she would be hard-pressed to rhyme a thunder storm with anything else but still…they are amazing!

What got me thinking about them was the stormy, windy, rainy weather we had earlier in the week…I remember being surprised one afternoon hearing thunder booming… off in the distance. Really? Thunder in the winter? Pretty rare.

What is it about a storm that brings deafening booms of thunder accompanied by sharp zig-zags of light… that both attract and repel us at the same time? Thunderstorms can be terrifying but also alluring in the sense that we are inside…safe and comfortable…while nature, itself, plays the game “war” with the threatening skies….

What I most love about a summer daytime thunderstorm is its aftermath…when it winks, bids us adieu, and disappears as quickly as it came. Suddenly the sun reappears and even on earlier hot, dusty summer mornings..the air temperature magically drops and dust is replaced with sparking droplets of water catching prisms of sunlight producing the ‘beauty of the earth.’

Think about it…rainbows have never been attracted to cloudless days…they only follow storms.

Children, whose sense of fun, mocks us ‘fuddy-duddy’ adults,   happily run to the mud puddles left over from a thunderstorm or rainstorm and jump and splash to their hearts’ content…or until discovered by another horrified ‘fuddy-duddy’ adult! 🙂

Just like the beauty of a metaphorical clean slate following a thunderstorm…we humans can also see farther and clearer down our own paths in life…when cleaned out by Mother Nature’s thunderstorms in all her wisdom…pointing us along our new path…our new way.

So until tomorrow…

If you are one of those people who are terrified of thunderstorms, who hide under the covers or in the closet…next time there is a thunderstorm… try pushing back the blankets, cracking open the door and look instead at the beauty that will follow a thunderstorm…

*I have discovered more ideas for where I want to start a new bed of flowers or plant a bush… from picking up debris following a storm…than at any other time. The empty spaces from the debris removal open my eyes to new possibilities.

Remember that rainbow…you can’t see it if you are hiding from life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Did you know little children would rather draw a rainbow than any other image? Think about how many we see on the televised weatherman’s children’s art pictures…no matter the weather or season. And remember how all the children around the world, (starting with the Italian children)began drawing rainbows for hope soon after the Covid19 pandemic began last March?

Children understand that no matter how many storms we face…there will always be a rainbow…and a mud puddle to splash in…Let’s take time to join them in these memory lane splash-backs! They grow up too soon!!!

Jake…my wish for you is that you will always be the “I” in KIND!

Dear Reader:

We unfortunate “children of the sentence diagram/language requirement decades” still bear scars from the terrifying call to go to the blackboard to diagram a sentence.

I remember my sixth grade teacher would tap her ruler against the black board, loudly, as one poor “victim” classmate shook in terror (eraser in hand) while the teacher yelled at the rest of the class not to verbally give the “victim” any help. We became accomplices to the crime through terrified silent submission.

By sixth grade sometimes the “complex” sentences were so long…it would take a whole sheet of Blue Horse composition paper to “build” all the slanted line attachments to the main sentence.

I remember crying over these homework assignments…even poor mother would groan, loudly, when we got to the unit on sentence diagramming.

These childhood memories have slowly died away… today children are spared this ‘teaching tool’ but I still have to confront the “ghost of  present“… who drives me insane with my typing keyboard on my desktop computer.

I took typing lessons in high school when we had to literally wear blind folds, over our eyes, to take the unit tests so we couldn’t watch where our fingers were going. Another terrifying youth memory! But it did work…I can type anything quickly on a regular keyboard and am pretty proficient at it…if I say so myself…..

*Much better than pecking with random fingers or thumbs- like my kids do on their smart phones or iPads. I still find myself lining my fingers up correctly to type on any form of keyboard…big or little.

*And when did my fingers get so fat? I keep hitting two letters at the same time on those itsy bitsy new “keyboards” the “children” and grandchildren use. *I think this question is one of those cyber space questions that live on forever floating around the universe.

Whoever first placed the “i” before the “o” in this succession on the keyboard should be taken out and shot. If I had a dollar for every time I type “live” instead of “love” I would be a millionaire.

Maybe it is just me…but my brain neurons always want to hit “i” instead of “o” for every single word these two vowels are in. And sometimes this leads to very embarrassing situations.

For instance…yesterday…Honey and I were emailing back and forth…she was letting me know that getting the Covid vaccination was just as hard in NC as SC -she and Mike are having a terrible time trying to get started on their first Covid vaccination. I was telling her about having to get my bone density shot (Prolia) in the same arm I had just gotten my Covid vaccination four days earlier and it was still sore….

Thank goodness Lena, nurse, was able to put it in the back of my arm instead of the front. (Can’t switch arms because of the cancer causing lymphedema condition in my left arm.)

Anyway….I finished the email response and sent it to Honey…later in the day I re-read it and broke out laughing…once again…the “i”-“o” problem had popped up as I told her I was able to get my “sh_t” (hit that “i” again) at the doctor’s office. 🙂

Even when I sent Ambika a message last week….instead of talking about her three adorable little boys…I typed ‘adorable little “bits” instead of boys.

But on the bright side…maybe it is a Freudian slip and not just a brain “dis-connect”….that if we are “living” life right it should be filled with “loving”….so from now on…if you catch an “i” over “o” problem on the post…just nod and say “Becky did it again…but she is still “living loving” every day!

And she is! 🙂

So until tomorrow…

“I ‘live” all my readers and with what brain cells I have still “git”…thank you for “pitting” up with me on this crazy “afterniin!”

“Tiday is my favirite day”  Winnie the Piip

…And Remember to “LIve MIre” or

This week is Kindness Week at James B. Edwards Elementary School…each day there is a different theme about kindness that allows the children to express themselves through artwork and dress-ups. Jake and Eva Cate have had so much fun participating…yesterday’s theme was “Kindness Rocks Day” and a “Tie-dyed to Kindness Day!

I do have such respect and admiration for their teachers on the front line every day and still managing to keep creative endeavors included in the curriculum… attributes we want all our children to emulate. Kindness is one of the most important characteristics of all.

Quick reminder: We parents and grandparents need to be role modelsof kindness if we want the next generation to emulate and imitate this characteristic.

America… we are better than the way we are acting…come on…we need to put some kindness in our hearts towards our fellow man  and be the best role model for the little eyes that are quietly watching us. They aren’t going to care what we say about kindness if we don’t act on it. Hypocrisy and greed are the worst enemies of kindness.

Dear Reader:

A couple of weeks ago Honey sent me a 2021 New Year’s Calendar…as a donation and tribute to a local artist she knows. I was so appreciative of this gift… since my goal this year is to get everyone’s (immediate and extended family) birthday written down…I, admittedly, can no longer rely on my memory …or lack of…:)

As I browsed through all the different holidays and commemorative events printed on each month’s pages along with the artists’s beautiful works…I realized that something David Nurse had written in a recent newsletter (that pops up on my email) was true.

The one “elusive” missing day on each month… of every page… of a twelve-month calendar (that will never be found) is SOMEDAY.

Shh! It’s a secret but if you want to find SOMEDAY… you need to start TODAY!

The reason we keep putting off starting the climb to our own Mt. Everest mountain of a personal goal is that we fear we don’t have what it takes to complete the journey to the summit and finally achieve a life dream. We don’t want to face the possibility of a life dream shattered by one wrong move or footstep.

Over time this dream turns into a nightmare that ends in failure repeatedly…the mountain grows taller while we grow smaller.

What Nurse points out is that human nature is more comfortable with mundane “do-able” tasks in life. We fear climbing outside our comfort zones so much we convince ourselves to settle for a mediocrity of happiness over an abundance of joy forever.

It all has to do with our limited perception….we don’t realize that our personal “Mt. Everest” of a problem pales in comparison to larger goals and tasks facing others. It makes our own dream feel more minute and do-able with this knowledge.

Take for example- the peak of Mt. Everest (the Holy Grail of mountains) is 29,029 feet. The most massive mountain on earth…but if you lived on Mars and compared Mt. Everest to Olympus Mons…a mountainous volcano that is the perimeter of the state of Arizona and three time taller than Mt. Everest…(69,841 feet…known as the largest mountain in the solar system) your perspective would quickly change.

Mt. Everest doesn’t seem as daunting now in comparison…and that is the way it is in life…a problem in your life might seem improbably mammoth….but to another…they would gladly take our problem and trade “in a skinny minute.”

The best way to get a handle on daily problems or even life goals is to communicate with others about their problems and goals…I guarantee you the open channel of communication will leave you grateful for the problems you have.

I always felt this way and then witnessed it up close and personal (on many different occasions) when I went in for a chemo session. I would watch a young mother come in bringing her two-year-old toddler (because she couldn’t afford a babysitter) to play at her feet or color while chemo was being filtered into her. She would apologize to the room saying her husband had to take on an extra job to try to keep afloat of the medical bills.

(*I am happy to say we all felt so badly for this young mother…we immediately went rummaging through our pocketbooks for pieces of candy or a pad of paper to draw on….play a game with pennies…anything to help the mother out.)

…Or a teacher running in on her lunch break for her chemo session while another teacher watched an afternoon class for her so she wouldn’t lose her job along with her medical benefits.

So until tomorrow…

If you want to find that elusive SOMEDAY on the calendar…write the word “Someday” on everyday of the year…and then work towards your lifetime goal every single day.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

And speaking of Winnie….Mandy says “Winnie is a mess, always into something and very hard to find because of her minute size…BUT her one saving grace is that she is just so darn cute!!! 🙂

Libby shared with me some wonderful words of wisdom after she started losing her parents, suddenly her husband, and other extended family members…aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

I love her thought process.

“My personal mantra when I started losing those I loved was …I had a choice….

1. Make  their death a “Monument to Misery” or
2. Make their lives a “Legacy of Love.”

I chose the Legacy. It isn’t an instant shift to Legacy of Love, due to grief, but a goal to work toward….”

***A Fun Surprise….Anne came over with the frame she just finished making for her “Big Red” (geranium) painting  that she completed (for me) before Christmas!

I, also, added Beverly Parkinson’s talented original 3-D note cards she made me of “Big Red” on two separate birthdays…so now the whole shelf is a tribute in itself ….my Happy Room just got permanently happier! 🙂

Dear Reader:

Before we talk about one fascinating origin behind a daily response (that we take for granted) in today’s post..first let me thank you for your unforgettable responses to yesterday’s blog post. The idea of taking time out daily to talk to God hit home for many people.

Some of you said you can’t get through a day any more without your ‘personal time’  or ‘alone time’, ‘quiet time’ or ‘God and me’ time… private ‘time-outs’ seem to be needed even more these days than in the past.

Everyone could relate to mother’s plight… trying desperately to find time to reconnect with herself, her difficult tasks she faced each day, and her dependence on God to see her through it. Her faith at times might have wavered but God’s faith in mother never did…and it made her stronger, over time, in her personal relationship with her Creator.

Anne told me about a daily devotional she is now using for the new year (her neighbor Shirley told her about) and sent a couple of devotions for me to read.

Like Anne…the second one left me awe-struck at the simplicity yet complexity behind a response we use daily.. a mind-blowing concept that will stick with me from this time on…in fact every time I say it.

How many times a day do we respond to one particular question…in person, on the phone, text or email that asks how we are doing or how we are feeling? Right out of the box…we immediately say something along the line of “I’m (I am) feeling pretty good today, or feeling happy or ‘I am’ reading a great book, etc. We respond with “I am”…yet I have never made a connection to God while talking about me…until now.

First let me share an excerpt from this devotional to give you some background on these two words and how they connect us to something or Someone for a specific reason.

This excerpt reminded me of customs from several Native-American tribes who taught their young if a stranger asked their name they must not respond with their existing name at the time because it was sacred and never to be shared with a stranger…instead they were to give this generic yet personal response….translated: “I am the story of myself.” 

I always thought that custom was so full of wisdom…now… even more wisdom than I first glimpsed…our names are sacred because we speak God’s name first before we speak ours. We tell God’s story first because it came first!

So until tomorrow….

Thank you for reminding us Father that Your Name be praised foremost in our spiritual connection with you ….now and forever.

Brooke found this adorable Winnie the Pooh “update” …don’t you love it? What a great day for friends sharing anecdotes, stories, devotionals and Winnie-the Pooh tidbits of truth…I AM so happy!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

***I went over to Susan’s yesterday and her granddaughter, Ady, was there with her….along with…Ady’s new dog…an adorable Australian Shepherd puppy! Ady has named her Millie. She is the sweetest puppy…content to just sit under the kitchen table while Ady was working on school assignments.

Dear Reader:

This Monday’s StoryWorth’s question asked me what I learned from my parents. My immediate response was…the question should read “What Didn’t I Learn from my Parents?” 

Even though my father died when I was just five…I understood from his family members and mother’s side…pretty early on…that I had inherited his out-going friendly personality. He always wore a smile on his face.

Mother also confessed to me one night while she lived on the other B&B side in her last years…that she realizes now daddy was on his own time-table with God…and he sensed it early on.

He never stopped moving except to fall asleep at night completely exhausted because he had spent every waking moment in movement. He was on the fast track both personally and professionally to having the ‘good life’ and it was as if he knew deep down he had to get a lot done in a small amount of time.

He did just that…when he died at Duke Hospital from kidney failure he was only 31…but he had three children- ages 2-7- and an amazingly happy marriage to mom…he was about to go into business with mother’s uncle as a partner in a very successful lumber company. He did all he could do…to get as far down the path of life before his time was up.

So I know from him I inherited…not only his personality but also his determination…in fact I got a double-dose of that from him and later mother…as she made the decision to raise three small children alone with one hand.

What got her through it? In a nutshell…FAITH!

Even though mother, like all humans, went to God with many unanswered questions on the “Why’s” in her life…she never let them slow her down…re-learning to type with one hand to hold down a job.

When I asked her once how she thought she could do it…she said she had three reasons…Ben, Becky, and David…if not for us…she might have given up.

Perseverance, courage, and faith…we got the best mother had to offer…nothing monetary…but everything we needed to be successful in life. What a woman!!!!!

I do remember twice a week at night and Sunday afternoons were mother’s quiet time. She would lock up the house early on Tuesdays and Thursdays …nights a favorite show of us kids came on at 8…and we knew to be in bed by 9 when she checked. Sundays we knew to play outside in the afternoon after church and a big dinner for lunch until she called us around 5 for a light supper.

I was the curious child and now and then would sneak in to see what Mom did with her “quiet time”…sometimes she rested…which she desperately needed but most times she was reading and/or softly talking to God…not praying…just conversing.

I understand this “God & Me” time now…each day I need a little alone time…just to sort my thoughts and check in with God to see if there is anything coming up I should plan for…or just trust in Him to see me through… whatever it is.

So until tomorrow…

One question I always ask is…“Do my dreams in life coincide with the path I am on God”…if not will you show me the way?”

So far I haven’t gotten lost yet (at least not for long…just a few detours along the way)….thank you God.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

The camellias are just spectacular this year!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Reader:

Wouldn’t it have been nice when we were taking that one required economics high school course (for graduation) if our teacher had written the most important “economic” principle on the board…the one essential fact we should never forget.

“IT IS BY SPENDING ONESELF THAT WE BECOME RICH.”

Something along this line of thinking ran through my mind yesterday while watching Wanda’s memorial service on-line.  Such a beautiful service…

The one “essential” theme that ran through Wanda’s service… from every speaker who took the podium… was Wanda’s lifelong acts of giving and generosity that far exceeded an average life.

First she joined her husband in all his selfless commitments to community and the needy…before continuing in his tracks after his sudden departure…as she picked up the torch and carried it through… to her end.

Wanda Stout left this world far richer than she entered it in more ways than any form of currency. She spent her unique talents…giving… to others on a continuous basis. When she saw a problem…she simply “fixed” it…for example like providing benches for neighborhood children to use while waiting on school buses in all seasons…or fixing breakfast for children who hadn’t eaten before running to the bus stop.

There are the ‘Wanda Stouts’ of the world who jump straight in… to right a wrong…and then there are so many of us…well-intentioned but slow to react to life happening in front of our very eyes. We use the excuse we need to wait until things calm down before reacting to problems…to getting our acts together.

By now…we should have all learned a very important lesson…life never calms down. Life is constant movement, always changing…with unforeseen circumstances waiting for us around the unknown bend in the path.

So instead of acting…we get caught in the “Waiting Room”….as Dr. Seuss described….

“Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite. Or waiting around for Friday night or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil or a better break or a string of pearls or a pair of pants or a wig with curls or another chance. Everyone is just waiting.”

Waiting, as we know, is a waste of time…a loss of life. We must live life right now…good, bad, or ugly. We only have a short visit on earth so we don’t have an abundance of time to wait and see. But we do have an abundance of time to become richer in spirit…through spending our allotted time helping others.

So until tomorrow….

To beget something means to cause it to happen or be created…don’t we all wish to be remembered, like Wanda, as a person who acted and reacted in life…instead of waiting for the “right” or convenient time to come along to do good deeds.

Let’s take time to raise our awareness of everyday opportunities to “beget” blessings for others…so one day, they in turn, can pay their fortuitous circumstance forward to still another. Such is the true meaning of life….“by spending oneself we grow spiritually prosperous.”  

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I am becoming more and more conscious of the fact that it is simply past time for us to lay our differences aside and instead concentrate on what we need to do, collectively, to bring hope to so many who have lost sight of it…

We need to resurrect hope by resuscitating long-lost dreams and aspirations. We should all be “equalizers”…working towards an united goal…that includes everyone of us living in this great country…taking time to help others have the same chance to pursue their own individualized form of the American Dream.

In other words…we need to be “Wanda’s”… thinking of different ways to help others throughout each day of our lives.

Dear Reader:

Remember me telling y’all the night before last…about how “comfy” I was in my recliner in the evenings… watching movies, fun television shows, or simply reading….it was the special gift of time I give myself… to completely relax after the sun has set?

Well Saturday morning…I went to fling back my shutters and noticed how the sun’s rays had lit my bottle tree up…making it appear to be  in flames…just beautiful! And then as I glanced back after opening both shutters the slanted morning sun’s rays  hit a plant on the side table in my Happy Room and it too was basking in the morning light. What a great start to a beautiful day…inside and out!

Lynn Gamache, one of our long-time post readers… and also a fluent writer, hailing from Canada… sent me this January devotional message from My Streams in the Desert publication. I loved this metaphor on life… written by John Ruskin.

“There is no music during a musical rest, but the rest is part of the making of the music.  In the melody of our life, the music is separated here and there by rests.  During those rests, we foolishly believe we have come to the end of the song.  God sends us times of forced leisure by allowing sickness, disappointed plans and frustrated efforts. 

He brings a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives, and we lament that our voices must be silent.  We grieve that our part is missing in the music that continually rises to the ear of our Creator.  

So how does a musician read the rest?  He counts the break with unwavering precision and plays his next note with confidence, as if no pause were ever there.

God does not write the music of our lives without a plan.  Our part is to learn the tune and not be discouraged during the rests.  They are not to be slurred over or omitted, nor used to destroy the melody or to change the key.  If we will only look up, God Himself will count the time for us.  With our eyes on Him our next notes will be full and clear. 

If we sorrowfully say to ourselves, “There is no music in a rest,” let us not forget that the rest is part of the making of the music.  The process is often slow and painful in this life, yet how patiently God works to teach us!  And how long He waits for us to learn the lesson!”  by John Ruskin

………………………………………………………………………………..

So until tomorrow….

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

*Yesterday was so pretty I couldn’t stay inside…I even started picking up fallen limbs and branches from all the recent storms we have had (I seriously detest that job)…but this time I just wanted an excuse to continue enjoying this sunny warm day in the sixties.

It was while I was out ‘picking up sticks’ that I noticed that the most color in the backyard, garden, and wooded area behind my lot came from normally ‘dull’ shrubs that suddenly had burst into beautiful primary colors. In the garden the encore azaleas were abundantly forming buds… the sturdy asparagus fern had bragging rights and regardless of the weather…the azaleas will soon be blooming.

It “hit” me…like the message said…“the rest is part of making the music” … so even sleeping winter foliage can surprise us with life deep down inside giving us a preview of color…after the “rest.”

*I know Susan and her family would appreciate prayers today as they say good-bye to a sister, aunt, and special family member…Wanda. Susan and Wanda had plans to have adventures and take trips together…since Wanda had, tragically, recently lost her husband to cancer.

When a loved ones passes…it is not just themselves that we miss…but the dreams that must change too… with the loved one’s departure.

Safe travels and may all of you, Susan, find comfort among family and dear friends today. God-speed.

Dear Reader:

How many of you remember the old comedy sitcom Carter Country?

If so…you might, also, recall it was supposedly set near Jimmy Carter’s home site…(since he was President during the two-year-run of this comedy) in fictional “Carter Country.”

It included a really outstanding acting cast that kept this sitcom going… I remember laughing so hard sometimes I literally fell off the sofa.

The one character who rose above all the others…ended up being “The Mayor” (Mayor Teddy Burnside) who always introduced himself to members of the public as “Teddy Burnside… your mayor by a landslide.” 

The most laughs came from the mayor to everyone working in law enforcement to “Handle it, Handle it!”

“The character of Mayor Burnside coined a minor catchphrase with his manic “Handle it, Roy, handle it!”… used when delegating various details to Chief Mobey… such as fixing a parking ticket for a prominent citizen.

If Mobey protested or asked any further questions, Burnside would stifle further discussion with a dismissive hand gesture and a further “Handle it, handle it, handle it!”

I have noticed, recently, in most medical waiting rooms that all the magazines and newspapers have disappeared. In trying to keep chairs and tables clean from Covid…I am sure they were a deterrent/nuisance to maintaining sanitized side tables by chairs and sofas in waiting rooms.

But one time… (Pre-Covid)…while waiting to be called back…(at the Oncology Center) I was looking for a magazine to read to “kill time“- any fashion or local magazine depicting pictures of homes, interior decorating ideas, clothing fashions and/or landscapes of the lowcountry would have sufficed .

But they had all been taken…the only magazines left were the cancer magazines…Believe me…if you have cancer… the last thing you want to read is an article on cancer.

But this time, in desperation, I grabbed a cancer magazine… and discovered (to my delight) that it was different. It had articles on faith and hope…besides just new studies and clinical trials on treating different cancers.

And then I read a quote I loved so much…I felt like it was a God Wink for me…so I wrote it down and used it in a blog post several years back….it said.

“God will, very likely, give you more than you can handle. He will not, however, give you more than He can handle.”

Even after all these years I still get nervous before an appointment when the “monster” what if’s enter my mind and hold it hostage.

“What if they find another tumor or one has increased in size or my hemoglobin or kidney numbers are off…and so on and so on and so on.”

It is then I say my silent prayer...”God I know this situation is out of my control…but not Yours…please be with me and see me through these medical reports…I put my healing in Your Hands and oh…please God… just Handle it, Handle it, Handle it.” 🙂

So until tomorrow…

I think we should all make ourselves some homemade cardboard cut-out “passes” that we can pull any day we need them…which gives us permission to pass our troubles onto God to solve  our problems.

I have a funny feeling that if we give these “God Wink” passes on to friends…they will be used regularly. A ‘spirit-lifting surcie’!) 🙂

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I remember hearing on some commercial, in the past few weeks, that one of the new health issues plaguing Americans today is not smoking…but sitting too much for prolonged periods …it, too, can cause long-term health issues. (*I wish I had never heard that line…because every time I sit down now I feel guilty.)

Because by evening…I am ready to plop and I so love my time sitting in my recliner reading a good book or watching an entertaining show on television…I treat this time as my reward for checking off that day’s to do list… or most of it.

These days, with the shutters tightly closed at night…I feel safe and secure…and happy snuggled up in my own little world.