Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

A quite surprising start to this New Year began about 7:00 a.m. yesterday morning. I woke up and moved to the sofa lugging my blankets and pillow with me…and snuggled back up…muting the television so I could watch but not hear.

I was still semi-asleep. But a few minutes later I decided to check my bank account on my iPhone to see if any of the monthly bills I had written (checks for earlier) had cleared.

I noticed that a couple of bills had… yet I had more money in my account than the day before. Hum? I shook my head and sat up on the sofa and then recognized and solved the “mystery”….an additional $600 had been deposited in my account overnight.

Still somewhat ‘out of it’ it took me a moment longer to process the fact that it was the ‘Stimulus’ money sitting in my account!

Immediately (as only a southern woman would) I thought….Prosperity has come before I have even consumed my hoppin’ johns today for good luck and prosperity…Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? 🙂

So I have decided that 2021 is already off to a fun and prosperous start! Let’s hope it continues…defining prosperity, of course, as just not monetary gains…but giant strides in healing and health issues, wellness, well-being, security, and happiness.

When I went to the Piggly Wiggly store to pick up my plate of hoppin’ johns ( too much to cook for one person)…I told the clerk I wanted the rice and black-eyed peas…but no collard greens (one of few vegetables I don’t like)…I then added, with a wink, that I  already had my “greens” for the day and mentioned how I was surprised by the stimulus check deposited in  my account.

The clerk immediately put my plate of food down…pulled out his phone…to check… and then let out a scream you could have heard all over the store. It was so funny and everyone was so happy for him…Though I did notice… in the line behind me…suddenly everyone was checking their bank accounts…some grinning and nodding…some shrugging.

I added mac and cheese and my corn bread, of course, sweet tea, to my plate and I was one happy camper yesterday…chowing down!

I also had a lot of happy memories left-over from Eloise’s first family birthday party late Thursday afternoon and evening…her third birthday…with the theme of FROZEN.

A neighbor loaned Walsh an Olga the Snowman (character from the movie) costume to surprise Eloise…and was she ever surprised at this very tall snowman coming in the house!

When she realized it was her daddy…she put a party hat on him and gave him a big smooch….too sweet.

So until tomorrow…Let’s take time to think back on the good memories of 2020 and use them to rebuild our confidence, faith, and trust in the New Year! No matter how tough things get…Hope never deserts us. So here’s a toast to hope and love…Never forget that love always wins in the end.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*** Exciting news! Yesterday afternoon Mandy called me and asked if I could watch the kids while she and John go to Effingham, SC to pick up the family’s new addition….a toy poodle…they have named Winnie!!! Today!!!!!!

Originally it was suppose to go down January 10 …I already had it marked on my calendar…but the call came yesterday and of course the family is beyond excited!

So happy I will be there in the first moments Winnie comes home to witness it all. I met Tigger (before he even got home) after John and Mandy picked him up 12 years ago and they stopped by my house on their way home to show me that little ball of fur. So many nostalgic memories…

Kaitlyn has taken Tommy for his birthday to the Dewberry Hotel in downtown Charleston on Marion Square. It used to be an old federal building commissioned by JFK…now it is a beautiful hotel with a fantastic roof top view. Have fun you two!

Dear Reader:

It has been a long time since so many people around the world have looked so forward to telling a year good-bye and turning towards the next one with such renewed hope and prayers for a better tomorrow.

Upon reflection…2020 is still hard to define or even absorb mentally or emotionally…because it just wasn’t a pandemic or Covid19 virus that threw the world completely off-balance…but a series of political and economical upheavals that pushed our country into some kind of a strange disjointed alien land that was hard to recognize as our own. Disturbing at its very core.

So when I thought about a title picture for the first day of the New Year, 2021, immediately a compass rose popped up. It is a symbol and metaphor for… not just a physical instrument to guide us… but a moral one to lead us.

We all have wise and loving hearts, even if they need some dusting off after this past year’s travels, and our heart is our compass. We need it to determine the latitude and longitude of our wonder and curiosity that keeps the adventure of life in our beings. It makes life worth living to see what is around the next bend in the road.

Blessings are our courage…and we still have so many in spite of everything 2020 did to deceive us into thinking we had none.

We need to pray our journey is a long one this year and savor the stops along the way. Especially the difficult stops…where doubt and faith collide…we must continue to walk taller with God…relying on His faith to guide us…while walking faster than doubt can keep up.

And now it is time to reach down…way down…to our individual moral compasses…pull them out…reach back to help another fellow man along their journey with one hand…while reaching forward with the other towards God’s everlasting grasp.

It is only then… when we know… we are never lost in His care…His staff is big enough to bring us all back into His loving embrace.

So until tomorrow…My wish for us all is a fresh new start with a fresh outlook and a love for our fellow man. Let basic decency embrace us filled with compassion, trust, and hope at the helm of this great country. Happy Happy New Year…my blog readers, my friends, my loves!!!

P.S. And don’t forget, of all times, to say “RABBIT RABBIT!” After all this first day of the month also starts the first day of a new year…one we have been praying about for a long time. So say it loud and clear…perhaps several times.

I loved the Christmas stamps this year…my two favorites being Sammy the Red Cardinal and the Winter Rabbit for the first day of January! Here’s a toast for blessings from Heaven for 2021!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

The Dingles “own” December birthdays I think…hardly a day in the month goes by without one…and little Eloise finishes up this busy birthday month all by herself.

So yesterday we had one last December birthday party for our adorable three-year-old Eloise…Happy Birthday my youngest granddaughter! May this be your best year yet! The wonder of the world awaits you!

Big Game tonight…Big Big Game! Go Tigers…stay strong, stay safe, stay true to yourselves and play your hearts out! Love my Tigers!

Dear Reader:

These days…it is getting easier and easier to come across all forms and kinds of ‘blessing boxes.‘ They come in all shapes… pantry boxes, cabinets, large bins, homemade wooden structures, tiny shacks and mobile units with windows.

They all have one thing in common…they are never locked and there is a sign that basically instructs: “Take What You Need and Leave What You Can.”

Most blessing boxes contain canned goods, books, socks, mittens, crackers, toilet paper, bottle water, etc. The basics for physical nourishment and reading interests of every kind.

There is a blessing book box that I see when running errands in Summerville…and it always makes me smile. The idea behind each blessing box should be our global mantra….

Think about it…if everyone on this planet would “just take what we needed and leave what we could“…the world would be a different place, wouldn’t it? No longer the ‘haves’ and “have not’s” but only the ‘giving’ and the ‘leaving.”

As we all grow closer to this new year…2021… we pray fervently that the upcoming year will take us out of the pandemic and restore us physically, economically, emotionally, and spiritually.

We still might have to stand six feet apart to make a global circle…but we know deep inside we are holding invisible hands with our brothers and sisters in humanity.  We stand together to face the rising sun of hope for all of us living everywhere in the world.

Hope still arrives in the birth of a newborn and three years ago today…our family, amid a rare snowstorm, got our little Eloise late New Year’s Eve….just hours before midnight. And what joy she has brought us!

Walsh has always happily proclaimed that all his children were born on a special holiday….Rutledge on Father’s Day, Lachlan on St. Patrick’s Day so little Eloise was not to be out-done…she arrived on New Year’s Eve…just a couple of hours before midnight but she wisely decided to help dad out by being able to count a third deduction. Great present Eloise!

And then to add even a little more excitement…the rare but beautiful snowstorm of 2018 arrived while Eloise and Mollie were recuperating in the hospital. January 3 Walsh packed up the boys to go pick them up and found the roads impassable…they got as far as John and Mandy’s house (where I had already gotten snowed in) and that is where we all ended up camping out inside for the next couple of days.

It makes for a great story…and one that holds some of our most precious memories.

We all survived it quite comfortably…but we were also so relieved when Walsh announced that he had made it to the hospital to pick up Mollie and Eloise and everyone was home safe and sound. We all breathed a big sigh of relief.

All of these ‘going-on’s” meant nothing to Eloise who looked like a little snow angel…innocently just sleeping away.

Walsh and family arrived home safely and the next day so did I…God was good and took care of our entire family…just like we knew He would. Walsh’s house and my Summerville home.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELOISE! You definitely made a grand entrance three years ago today little girl. And you are still making grand entrances galore!!!

***

Thank you for your prayers…once again the power of prayer showed itself quite strongly….Wanda’s breathing is easier…her oxygen levels are much improved and she is getting round the clock care…she is now clear-minded about where she is and what is going on….she’s already thinking towards the future and the necessary changes in her life…always a good sign. Wanda’s family thanks you so much for taking time to include their loved one in your prayers….so do I. Bless you.

John and Mandy took advantage of some good weather in Huntsville Tuesday and took the kids to a nearby state park for some rock climbing. They will be flying back in later today. Safe travels everyone!

Dear Reader:

Ever since Ginger Wilder sent me a birthday greeting wishing me a happy ‘trip around the sun’…I have fallen in love with that expression and idea. It is also the perfect greeting for a new year…in a sense…symbolically representing everyone’s new birthday orbit living on earth…starting January 1.

If we go into this new year of 2021 with a sense of new adventure and possibilities, rather than dread or fear of prolonged crises from 2020 following us, we stand a much better chance of overcoming our self-induced trepidations.

Certainly, we have all learned new terms we wish we had never heard ..like the 2020 Word of the Year…Pandemic. We have met challenges like no other we have had to confront in our lifetimes and witnessed the term “normalcy” transform into two words …the “new normalcy.”

Still…like every other unexpected crisis that has befallen us in our personal, as well as, public lives…on the whole mankind has adjusted its daily life to protect those around us… those we love… and strangers we respect… as fellow human beings living at the same time as ourselves on this blue planet.

Most of us buckled up a little tighter for the bumpy ride ahead and worked consciously to mentor little eyes watching us to see how adults handle tough times. The most important lessons learned this year encompass the ancient values of old…courage, faith, humor, trust, belief, and love…while helping each other along life’s journey. 

This concept never stops until we do.

We have had so many reporters and researchers trying to compare and distinguish 2020’s pandemic from the 1918 Spanish flu that killed so many. The sad part about the 1918  Spanish flu was that it arrived the same year WWI ended.

So along with the joy of the troops returning came this terrible flu that wiped out thousands, millions around the world too. For many families their sons, fathers, uncles, etc. returned home weakened from the war only to succumb to the flu.

So as bad as it had been for us…especially our country…at least we didn’t have a World War ending at the same time. Every tragedy that confronts our blue planet, home to all of us, is tragic in of itself…not to be compared to other tragedies.

We have some things to be thankful for like modern medicines that others before didn’t…and an economy that wasn’t war-torn before like 1918. We each have to deal with the hand we are given…in our personal lives and man’s time-line lives in history.

But we can rest assured that we are not alone…no matter when tragedy hits.

As we all start our new journey into the unknown 2021…we must remind ourselves that all we have… is all we need. We should remember we are never alone…Divine Love is at the helm and will never desert us.

And yes we are allowed to ask for help and guidance, for our personal switch to be turned on in order to soar. We can ask for rest during difficult times but we also must remember to surrender our personal expectations sometimes and simply ask to be surprised by joy!

Are you ready? Buckle up, and yes please keep on your masks…the pandemic isn’t over until we do. Love our home planet enough to banish the “enemy” virus from our daily lives by doing what it takes to destroy it  as one powerful team of humans binding together. We can do this! It will be our greatest victory for the generations to come…our legacy to those who are yet to arrive.

So until tomorrow…

If we are successful in this new 2021 journey…something very important will have changed. We will no longer see things as they are…we will see things as we are. Powerful explorers of the Divine Spirit.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* A request for prayers please….Susan’s sister, Wanda, was exposed and came down with Covid  a couple of weeks ago…at first not too badly…but unfortunately as time has progressed her COVID symptoms have too.

Wanda  lost her husband recently and lives alone….her son and daughter-in-law, along with lots of friends, are dropping off food and so on but her medical status has slowly deteriorated. Monday night, after a 10 hour wait in the ER, she was finally admitted with pneumonia.

She is confused now and we can all imagine how terrifying this experience is. Susan and family…plus all the rest of us would truly appreciate prayers for Wanda as she valiantly fights this challenging virus. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

The weather is back in the sixties with plenty of sun. It is one of those day we feel lucky to be alive. I notice walking around that the Christmas decorations aren’t coming down as fast as they have in the past…it seems like more people want to extend the joy of Christmas and what it means…just a little longer.

I hate to brag but Summerville is as about as beautiful as it gets…especially now that our town center park, Hutchinson Square. is open for daily Christmas entertainment amid the lights of the holidays.

And…pranksters even provided a snowy holiday scene for Summervillians too…putting some kind of detergent or soap in the town park fountain….the kids and even adults alike loved it. Tis the season to be “merry.”

Dear Reader:

As most of you who “tuned” in yesterday realized…I am having computer problems. I have an old computer with new problems especially dealing with  anti-virus programs… that are no long compatible with this old Windows version on my computer.

I feel a new computer is just around the corner…. I do dread it…this old computer feels like an appendage to me physically and emotionally…it also means security…I know one way to pull all my programs and that is the only way I know…one way in and one way out. 🙂

After braving a few new anti-virus programs on my own yesterday out of desperation…most of which don’t work on my older version of Windows…I must have ‘hit’ something right! 🙂

…When I tried to get back in to my WordPress blog account…it finally went from slow backwards gray movements to rapid green movements…and bingo I was back. A true Christmas Miracle! (for now) 🙂

So, be forewarned… if for any reason, the blog doesn’t appear…it is not me who has come down with a virus… but some old computer ‘virus’ causing the problems. Just know I will do whatever it takes to get back as quickly as possible to write my daily blogs…if this happens again. Thank you for your patience ahead of time.

But right now…today…we are back on!

My last StoryWorth question asked about a childhood Christmas memory that stood out for me. It took awhile…but then I remembered it…the Christmas of the Ice Storm.

I was probably around nine or ten years old. Mother had packed all our presents and “Santa” surprises along with our suitcases…no small task… to go to Laurens to Grandmother Wilson’s farm house for Christmas.

Grandmother didn’t have central heat and a massive cold front came in, along with us, that Christmas Eve. It was bitter…inside and out. We all wore blankets and quilts…  for the first time ever…we set up a table in the living room closest to the fire that evening instead of eating in the kitchen…for warmth. Even our Christmas stockings were cold to the touch.

Mother and I had so many blankets and quilts on our bed that we could hardly breathe…but it was still cold. During the night I could hear the winds howling and wondering how Santa was going to get his sleigh around on this blustery night?

But all of that was forgotten that early Christmas morning…when I woke up to my first “White” Christmas!

*As a child I didn’t know the difference between an ice storm and a snow storm…at least until I later tried to build a snowman…all I knew was that it was beautiful. Even old cotton balls, still on the vines, had frozen.

We children were beside ourselves, screaming in glee and happiness. However the adults were looking at each other wondering how they were going to pull this Christmas off…because the ice had pulled down the electric lines during the storm and we had no electricity.

Uncle Herschel came to the rescue with his two mules and a large wagon-sleigh. It was filled to the brim with stacks of wood, more blankets, quilts, and pots of food. He also brought iron metal sticks to make a tri-pod in the fireplace to cook on and set up several tri-pods in the back yard.

I remember I had just finished reading a children’s civil war book and had seen pictures of the soldiers’ camp fires with those similar tri-pods cooking their dinner. I felt like a Civil War soldier…it made me so happy.

One childhood memory from that day stands out and that was watching Grandmother Wilson stir grits in a big pot hanging down from the tri-pod in the living room fireplace. Best grits I ever ate! *(Until Brookie’s….Brooke makes some “mean” grits…I’m here to tell yah!)

While the whole community of male farmers were trying to help the electric company out with restoring wires…the women were combining food together among the different families…cooking all of them on… in and outdoor tri-pods….best meal I ever had!

There was much laughter and fellowship…the meaning of Christmas was very much alive and bubbling… like the stews in the iron-cast pots over fires.

Once we children realized that we couldn’t make a snowman out of ice we discovered we could go sledding instead. Grandmother gave us old huge cookie sheets and we found old wooden sleds in the barn.

We spent that whole afternoon going up and down the little country road that connected Grandmother’s farm house to Uncle Herschel’s country store. What amazing memories.

And that night we all ate left-overs…played with some new toys we had gotten for Christmas by candlelight and sang Christmas hymns together. Best Christmas ever!

So until tomorrow…

It was this frosty Christmas scene (outside my yard) Christmas morning that took me back to the title picture memory of another fence with ice instead of frost…and then that brought back the famous long- ago ice storm that produced the most memorable Christmas ever!

That is why making memories is so important ….so one day my grandchildren will remember the Christmases, for better or worse, that stand out as the most memorable…not just the same old cookie cutter Christmas. The best ones are usually the ones where everything goes wrong.…to make the  “right” remembrances.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Happy Happy Birthday to Tommy today….the 29th of December! I returned home with Walsh on Christmas Day and Tommy on New Year’s Eve….we like “living” Christmas presents around here…including kick-off “gifts” to a new Year. 🙂

I love you Tommy…and hope you have a wonderful birthday today! See you soon! Love, Mom

Dear Reader:

Woke up yesterday morning… and I was running fever! Mandy had planned to bring EC and Jake! Vickie ran to the store to get Tylenol and drinks and crackers!

I told Mandy to stay home and not bring the children! So disappointed but also didn’t want the kids getting the flu. Vickie dropped off different medications!

Thank goodness the tree stayed on and beautiful!

Happiness spread throughout the room and I slept like the sugar plums!

So until tomorrow… everytime I woke up Sugar plums danced! fell in love with Santa found more sugar and smiled!

Today is my favorite day.. Civil War rag doll for Robert E Lee!

Dear Reader:

T’was the day after Christmas and apparently from this poem Santa doesn’t rest…Oh no!….He picks up after himself and all his reindeer….even cleaning out the sleigh before finally stopping to rest with milk and cookies…what a role model for us all!

John and Mandy are just like Santa…up and at’ em….taking down the tree since this year it actually went up before Thanksgiving. By the end of the day everything is up and all the toys have been re-arranged and put back neatly in the children’s rooms. Amazing.

Eva Cate took after her mother…her room is unbelievable…told her when they get back from Huntsville she needs to come help Boo Boo get all her stuff put back up.

And this year…they even stopped and came to Summerville yesterday morning so John could set up my new NETFLIX Christmas present on my old television…he even did that in record time. These folks are amazingly organized….sadly Mandy did not get that talent  from her mother. 🙂

***My life will never be the same….I will be the movie queen!

Thank you Turners so much! John and Mandy & kids are leaving for Huntsville Monday to finally get to see John’s parents…since Tigger’s unexpected passing ended up cancelling the Thanksgiving trip. Have fun Turners!

After hooking me all up with Netflix…the family posed for a picture…Jake, all I can say…is that with those two front teeth missing…like your canine cousins…your tongue must keep falling out! 🙂

I believe in enjoying the ‘fruits of my labor’….my tree didn’t go up until almost the second week in December and then I kept decorating until Christmas came because I love it. 🙂

This week ( The time between Christmas and New Year’s) is my favorite time! Roaring fire, popcorn, now more movies and just enjoying my twinkling Christmas tree lights… Santa’s Workshop den… for a little bit longer.

I did get all the gifts opened from friends and neighbors…and family…like this adorable Snowman Bird feeder Mollie and Walsh gave me…I took some pictures today before he gets unrecognizable by the birds feeding.

Figured Frosty the Snowman  and Sammy the Cardinal can ‘hang together’ …at least for awhile. 🙂 Sammy will definitely survive better.

Today marks my Grandmother Wilson’s birthday whose wisdom, devotion, and love sustained me during those tough early years following my daddy’s death and mother’s hand amputation-bone cancer. I love you Grandmother Wilson for stepping in and up…you left me with priceless memories!

You truly were pioneer stock, grandmother, and passed it down to your daughter, my mother. Great genes… I can be most proud of…..

L-R (Aunt Eva, Grandmother, and mother)

I hope there are some more of you like me out there…. who simply took the day after Christmas to sleep in, slowly pick up, take an afternoon nap and open the last of the packages hiding behind the tree…(much to my delight.)

Isn’t it so nice to rest after all the anticipation and excitement of Christmas…to reflect and ponder the joy of it all…and hope for an amazing new Year.

So until tomorrow….Start working on the third phase of Christmas now for next year….There’s Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and The Day after Christmas…a day to remember, smile, sigh, take an overdue nap…and pull all the goodies from the “bulging fridg”– your equivalent of Santa’s “milk and cookies! Then eat, drink, and be merry!  🙂 WHEW!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

One of Mollie’s decorations….a beautiful, creative, low country oyster wreath!

Dear Reader:

Blustery winds and frigid temperatures have descended on the Low Country. “Big Red” the giant geranium, has been taken  on the B&B side to wait out this unusual cold snap.

The weather dropped from a high of 70 degrees Christmas Eve to  30 degrees overnight with high winds and torrential rainfall…. the temps were still struggling to get into the forties Christmas Day…and this pattern continues for a few more days.

It was “Big Blue Coat” weather…without a doubt. Christmas morning I started layering with jeans, turtlenecks, scarves and the crowning glory…”Big Blue”….the Ya’s blue coat that we bought each other for our birthdays in 2018. We must have known a special time would come…and that time was yesterday to wear it… Christmas morning…2020!

By now we should have all figured out that if anything was coming in with weird weather it would be the Christmas of 2020…why break a crazy pattern this late in the year?

Since the family gathering was much smaller this year Christmas Eve and Christmas morning…it gave me more reflective time to observe ..and I loved what I saw….fun and fellowship.

Thank you Mollie and Walsh for having the family Christmas Eve gathering…everything was so beautifully decorated inside and out…loved those lights…and the children’s cookie decorating contest was such a fun addition to the festivities.

The girls were all decked out this year…a slight “heel” for Eva Cate with a touch of a wobble…but she was so happy it didn’t matter.)

Uncle Ben discovered that children putting “rabbit ears” on ‘great-uncles’ is the only way to go to be part of the “team.”

On the way to the annual Christmas breakfast brunch at John and Mandy’s yesterday…I wasn’t dreaming of sugar plums…but breakfast casseroles, sweet rolls, and luscious fruit…along with Mimosa! 🙂

The “cousins” were all wearing their Christmas look-alike …pj’s…Now some families might be able to get a clear picture of everyone posing sweetly….apparently that trait skipped this whole family generation…gotta love’em still.

The nicest thing about being an observer this time around was that after everyone got through squealing over their presents…they started helping another learn how to put their new toy together ….uncles with nephews, cousins with cousins, aunts with nephews and nieces…everyone had a buddy partner.

Lachlan and Jake now look like twins from the back….too cute.

Six months apart….

When I sent a family Christmas photo to Bill Dingle…he responded with a “Postcard Christmas Day picture.” He took this photo walking from the barn  after milking the cow….serene winter day. Mountain living with all its benefits!  Breath-taking scenery!

Bill also showed his children how to “make a gingerbread house.” (Enlarge for full effect!) 🙂

The doorbell rang around 4:30 and it was one of my all-time favorite elves….Stephanie…we only had a few minutes to chat…but we made the most of it…I adore Stephanie and always have since she was brave enough to babysit…the little Dingles! 🙂

Look what she brought me….too funny! A “Who-ville Tree“….actually lemon tree for planting later and some rosemary. Smells so good in the house!

So until tomorrow….Found on  the back of Lee, Vikki, and Rhodes cute Christmas card…I love this quote Vikki added… along with her personal comment…

Mother Teresa said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” Vikki continues….”Let us all begin this new year remembering that we are all humans, living on our one and only planet Earth, and that we belong to each other.”

Amen.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Tommy and Kaitlyn gave me a “Dingle Candle” named Christmas Night…so last night was the right time…the smell was remarkable…a blend of myrrh, frankincence, and citrus.

I hope one and all were able to stay warm…not just by “big blue coats” but by friendship and fellowship…being part of something bigger than yourselves…humanity. Merry Christmas!

Dear Reader:

When Jeff, my pastor, and I met (several weeks ago) to plan for the annual Christmas Eve Story at the 5:00 Service…we both knew the service would have to be quite different… this year my story would be taped and ready to be heard by a “gift envelope” -computer link to the story.

At the initial meeting I shared with Jeff how the storytelling idea got started exactly 30 years ago this year. When I had finished the true story of the strange situation that created the storytelling part of the service…Jeff said, “Becky…I think the story you shared with me should be the story told on this special anniversary…because the story encompasses the true meaning of Christmas.”

So on December 10 at 10 a.m. I met Jeff and his laptop computer in the sanctuary and after a few creative re-adjustments…we got the “tape” recording while I was telling… how this thirty year tradition of storytelling began.

We have to travel back actually 31 years to get to the catalyst that started it all…it was a storm unlike any other storm to hit our state…in fact it was a hurricane…Hurricane Hugo that inadvertently created a new Christmas Eve tradition in my life.

It was a terrifying experience for everyone living in the low country but luckily when all the howling winds and fallen pines ceased…I still had a house. There were lots of repairs needed… including a new roof…but by Christmas of 1989…three months later…my three children and I were slowly returning to “normalcy” again.

And for our family…that meant trimming the tree. I remember we were on a roll….the tree fit in the holder, all the light bulbs came on the first time…all we had to do was put on the ornaments.

Walsh and Mandy took a flashlight out to the garage that was still in some disrepair to look for the ornament bag. It was gone…probably thrown out by accident with a lot of  other debris lying around during several massive clean-ups.

Earlier elation and excitement dropped like a “hot potato” as the realization that all the ornaments that had been passed down from generation to generation, all the home-made ornaments the children made at school and Sunday school…special recognition ornaments…gone…all gone.

It had been a tough year financially…so replacing ornaments would be difficult…and of course the most meaningful ones could never be replaced or the memories of the person who gave it.

The next morning at school a fellow colleague, who taught across the hall from me, stuck her head in my classroom to ask how my weekend was…I hesitated and then sadly told her the story of what had happened the previous evening. She gave me a hug and left and soon the episode was forgotten in the busyness of teaching.

As we ate supper that Monday evening…we quietly stared at the tree lit up with no decorations. Then the doorbell rang…it was my teaching colleague friend with four ornaments-one for each of us…and she told a story behind each ornament she gave us. The children were in smiles…and the four ornaments raised our spirits to the roof…our new roof.

Before she left she smiled and winked…warning me that I might want to have supper at 6 the rest of the week because the evenings might be “taken” by some elves.

That was just the beginning ….every night for almost two weeks the doorbell would ring around 7 and one or more teachers from Alston Middle School would be standing there…with an ornament but more importantly a story behind it.

The children soon realized that they liked the stories more than the ornaments as we laughed together at the anecdotes. Walsh, who was a student at Alston at the time…got to see his teachers in a completely different light.

It was the most beautiful gesture of friendship and kindness my family had ever experienced…waiting in anticipation for the doorbell to ring and another story shared….the true meaning of Christmas.

When I told my pastor at the time, Richard Cushman, about the story he had my family act it out at an Advent program and then asked if I would share it, orally, at the first service that year. Even though I agreed…it never came to be because Mother Nature gave us a rare White Christmas …as if apologizing for “Hugo”….and it all started on Walsh’s birthday. The snow cancelled the Christmas Eve service that year of 1989.

The next year…1990…Richard asked me again and this time I told the story and have never stopped since…thirty years.

Jeff picked up on the strange connection ….how the tradition of storytelling indirectly stemmed out of Hurricane Hugo…and now thirty years later it is a world-wide pandemic with a COVID virus that is altering this year’s service…having us find new ways to “gather” and be together in spirit and distance…if not in body.

I remember with the old 17 mm films….the students would beg me to let them re-watch some historical film backwards…in fast succession. If we had time I would do this and we would all howl together.

Yesterday my mind was racing backwards too…I thought back on some of the stories told over 30 years…they involved all kinds of Christmas Tree stories (from why Christmas Trees Shouldn’t be Perfect to the Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree) …Animal stories…from elephants, mules, donkeys to Hosmakaka, the curmudgeonly old camel, who complained about his sciatica and gout while on “route” to the manger. There were Christmas trains that gave away silver packages, rag dolls, rag coats, and legends of every Christmas tradition and name…from the poinsettia to the candy cane.

But no matter the story…the central theme stayed the same as each story would unfold…Christmas is LOVE…big and BOLD. (And remember children …your Christmas memories should always be TOLD.)

It started with a hurricane that could really blow and a Christmas gift of pure white snow...Now this year we had a pandemic that reached so so far...but we also got a rare viewing of the brightest Christmas Star.

***History does repeat itself…we just have to have patience and faith…that it will also “right” itself…with God’s help it can and will! 

Merry Christmas to Everyone and “God Bless Us One and All.”

“Today REALLY is my FAVORITE DAY!”

Dear Reader:

This past Monday morning I had my regularly scheduled oncology visit…all went well…I have a Christmas reprieve from more tests or procedures until February when I have my CT Scan…so I left  feeling like I really am on a holiday break! A Christmas present from my oncologist! 🙂

I had set my alarm on my iPhone Sunday night since I had an early morning appointment…but like most nights before my visits I kept waking up staring at the clock until I finally just got up…it was the same Monday morning.

I thought I turned the alarm off and thought no more about it until later that morning while waiting on lab work it went off…to my embarrassment while I hurriedly found it and turned it off again…apologizing to the other patients in the waiting room.

It happened two more times that day while running errands…bizarre…I let it run down until it needed re-charging again and for some reason that seemed to set the timer right so, at least, it was no longer going off at its own will and crazy times…I think my old iPhone is starting to have its moments of dementia. 🙂

So when I saw this story from Guidepost about a Christmas clock, a memory, and a fresh start in life…I wanted to read it. In a nutshell the story starts with a clock that fails to keep time.

The name of this true story is “The Perfectly Timed Christmas Clock.”  (The author is Maella Blalock) The question surrounding her dilemma one Christmas was….

***How a Christmas Clock Taught This Retiree to Move Forward…This former lieutenant colonel felt lost after retirement. Could she learn to accept her new life?

It was December 2012, a week before Christmas. I was sitting alone at my kitchen table in Missouri, watching the hands of my Christmas clock tick toward the hour. I was waiting to hear it play “Silent Night,” which it did every night at 11 o’clock. The tune always lifted my spirits.

But the second hand passed the hour mark without a peep. My heart sank. The music mechanism must have broken. You couldn’t have picked a better metaphor for my life—I kept on ticking, but the joy was missing.

The past few years had been difficult. I’d served in the Army for 26 years, including as a military foreign area officer in Western Europe. I’d lived there with my husband and our daughters. My husband was enlisted but had retired from the military after we got married.

Now I was retired too. And divorced. My three girls were grown and living on their own. My life felt small compared to the adventure it had once been. What remained in life for me now….I felt as broken as my Christmas clock.

Maella remembered all the good years when she and her military husband traveled the world, had three beautiful daughters, and life was good. First her husband retired and moved them to Michigan…the girls were now adults and leading their own lives…which left only Maella feeling like a fish out of water…unable to easily readjust to civilian life with its clubs, meetings, and community gatherings.

Then things went from bad to worse…her mother, with whom she was very close, started showing signs of dementia. She moved her to Michigan to an assisted living home to be close to her… but her mother’s needs grew more demanding by the day.

Finally a ray of hope…she was offered a Junior ROTC program to run back in Missouri where her mother was from…she would have more help there with family and feel part of a military community again.

Her husband, however, was not enthused and insisted he was staying in Michigan…the marriage was steadily falling apart and her mother died a week after their divorce… now it was Christmas and even her clock had let her down.

…“Now I sat alone with my silent Christmas clock. Though my daughters were spending Christmas with their father, I’d still tried to be festive. I’d decorated the house and brought out all of the European keepsakes we’d collected overseas. But I missed being a family, and I missed my mom.

I heard the clock’s minute hand shift, and something shifted within me too. I gave in. Instead of trying to strong-arm my way through the pain, I let the sadness wash over me. I felt relief as I exhaled.Things are hard right now, I admitted to myself. But in time and with faith, I’ll get through even this.

Once I stopped trying to deny my grief over the loss of my old life, it opened me up to new possibilities. I started to rebuild my life. I began teaching piano, volunteered with the food pantry at church and worked with a single moms’ group. I took up yoga and country dance, where I met a great group of friends. I traveled, crossing destinations off my bucket list. Slowly but surely, joy found its way back into my life.

One summer day, I was sitting in the living room when I heard a familiar sound, very quiet at first. Was I hearing things? I walked into the kitchen, and the music grew louder, until I was standing in front of the Christmas clock. I’d gotten so busy, I’d almost forgotten it was still there. Until now. Silent Night was playing.

Amazed, I realized that even when it was silent, the clock had held a tune all along. It was just waiting until I was ready to sing.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

A good way to start over I have realized is with new Christmas traditions. I love this definition of traditions but I think it needs expanding. (“Traditions” are the stories that families write together.) 

That is true…but just not families…each Christmas I keep adding on certain objects or ceremonies I have learned from others and friends’ gifts….For example this year…I will always remember Mike and Honey’s departure from Summerville as their permanent home…leaving behind, not just memories but a chair and planter from the historic Pine Forest Inn…that I will cherish forever.

Sammy the Cardinal will now light up my Christmas, annually, in the form of a Christmas bubble light and a new orange star with verse from “What Child is This?” will become an integral part of the annual trimming of the tree. So many wonderful memories…to keep adding on…if we are open to new possibilities.

So on this Christmas Eve…I want to leave you with this card from me to you….my loyal and most appreciated readers!

Love, Becky and Merry Christmas! 

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Look at the magnificent Christmas bunting cake Libby sent by Ben yesterday…I have never seen anything so beautiful…I halved it to send with Ben over to see Bekah and Ady ….Thank you Libby ….what a delicious delightful surprise.

The gift that will keep on giving…but quickly before it is all gobbled up! 🙂