Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I heard from another blog writer named…Desi Videsh Me under the title of Indians Abroad. Presently she is either touring or living in Leuven, Belgium. I looked it up and it is quite beautiful…with one of the most famous, recognizable churches across from town hall… St. Peters.

Desi had pulled and read a Chapel of Hope blog posted about this same time last year titled…Permanence Lives in the Unseen. I had gotten the thought for the day’s message from Archibald Rutledge’s little book “Life’s Extras.”

Rutledge’s central idea was that everything we can physically visually see will die…at some point in life…animals and plants…even rocks. (I had taken picture of flowers blooming earlier in the spring in my garden for last year’s blog post…and then updated photos of brown remnants of what was left by the end of July…they had dried up and died in spite of all my watering.)

I had then added the once popular icon for movie theatre endings or novels…with the 5-letter Latin word…

FINIS: Finished or Ending

It was the picture, however, that drew me to this drawing…the idea of a hand pulling back a curtain to see what type of weather the day holds…bright and sunny or cloudy and rainy.

I added my own personal thoughts to this drawing…

Haven’t we all imagined that the “finis” of our own lives will result in the opportunity to pull back the “veil” between this world and the next to see what really lies behind the portal of the new life to come?

Nature, in the form of my garden, has taught me more about life and death than anything else to date. I believe God gave nature to us as one of His most valuable “extra” gifts….a teaching gift that keeps on giving throughout our lives…a gift that demonstrates the fragile “curtain” between our life here on earth and the next world.

Archibald Rutledge had experienced an epiphany one day about life and death while grieving for a dearly departed friend…and looked for the meaning in both.

God seemed very near to me in that wood; the beauty of it all trembled with His grace; the music of the birds and trees held His voice. I saw there both life and death- in the green leaves and the brown, in the standing trees and the fallen. If one is honest with himself when he asks the question, What is it that perishes? he will be obliged to answer, Everything that the eye sees. 

In the forest, amid those things that God has provided, I came to understand that if we are to hold anything-and in times of sorrow we must have something to which we can cling-it must be to the unseen.

 For strength that is permanent, we have to lean on visions; for immortal hope, we have to trust and have faith, not from the things we perceive but those invisible things that our spirits affirm.”

Have you noticed how with almost every blog post…we go round and round until we get back to the basic crux of life and death on earth…It is the invisible things …Love, trust and faith in God that sustain us at the end.

It was our beloved Mama Mia (Jackson’s mother and the rest of the Ya’s… second mother) who perhaps best explained  how to stay focused on the sunny side of the street with the invisible hand pulling back the curtain or opening up the blinds.

She said that before she would open the blinds  to see what the day physically looked like…sunshine or clouds or rain…Miriam made up her mind that, no matter the reality of the day’s weather, she was going to have a beautiful day…sight unseen.

So until tomorrow…

I have had Ambika and the drought areas of India in my prayers for days and weeks now…please continue to do so too…to pray for help and rain so desperately needed.

Sis Kinney sent an update…things are doing well but she had one set back…the surgeon found some cancer cells outside the margins…he thought he had gotten it all…so he will have to go back in and clean it out again. Prayers for Sis…that he gets everything this second go around and then with a little radiation this scary ordeal will be over for her…that is certainly my prayer.

Now..on a lighter note…Betsy…Libby’s daughter and her husband, Collin, are in Costa Maya on vacation. Betsy found this sign for a beach located there and just had to send it to us Ya’s. Brooke said, at the rate things are going with 70…she would take this “look” and proudly go with it! 🙂

Dear Reader:

Seeing things the way they really are and coming to terms with our day-to-day reality can only transpire when we embrace acceptance.

Yesterday morning when I walked into my Happy Room...the sunlight was shining in the window…lighting up the cross and then I noticed that “Little Rabbit” had been in the flower arrangement; apparently falling out at some point (perhaps when I was watering and not paying attention.)

There he was…half hiding behind a long green stem … my reality shifted…from a lost rabbit figurine to the reality of the visibility of a beloved object ..an object that had (in reality) never been lost in the first place.

The reality of “reality” is that it is subject to illusions of reality. Acceptance is the answer to most of life’s problems…but acceptance must accompany trust…the hard part of the formula for most people.

Most of you are already aware of my ‘dolphin story’ from the fall of 2008. I had been recently diagnosed with a treatable but incurable breast cancer and had started chemo infusions that summer. By early fall I was worn down and tired…I also couldn’t sleep.

I was at Edisto Beach with Brooke and woke up early as usual back then…I put on my sneakers and headed to the beach. There was no beautiful sunrise to comfort me…only a thick deep veil of fog…still I needed to walk to try to clear my head of the fog inside…from the scary feelings of “What now lies ahead?”  

There was just one other couple barely visible in the murky mist.  I was already tired by the time I had walked to the second set of jetties. The tide was coming in…so only the last large flat rock was still visible above the waves crashing in.

As I wearily sat down…I was only aware of the cries of sea gulls and the far off laughter of the young couple down the beach. Then suddenly I felt something before I saw it…a huge presence loomed in front of me…spiraling upward seemingly forever…while staring down at me with the most gentle accepting smile. It was a dolphin fishing among the jetties.

In that fraction of a second as the dolphin and I locked stares…I knew immediately what the message he carried within him was...”All is right with the world…everything is just the way it should be…all is right with you.”

The sense of peace that enveloped me in that moment has never left me…I knew then that I still didn’t know what the future held…but whatever it was…it was just the way my life was supposed to unfold.

This fall it will be 11 years since this amazing sighting…11 years…the dolphin was right...”My life is just the way it should be.” We must trust in Something or Someone bigger than ourselves to keep the flow of life alive within us.

I love the passage from “The Tao of Pooh” by Benjamin Hoff.

“Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least they do when you let them, when you work with circumstances instead of saying, “This isn’t supposed to be happening this way,” and trying hard to make it happen some other way.

If you’re in tune with The Way Things Work, then they work the way they need to, no matter what you may think about it at the time. Later on, you can look back and say, “Oh, now I understand. That had to happen so that those could happen, and those had to happen in order for this to happen. . . .”

Then you realize that even if you’d tried to make it all turn out perfectly, you couldn’t have done better, and if you’d really tried, you would have made a mess of the whole thing.”

So until tomorrow…

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I went over to check on Fuzz first thing yesterday morning and was glad I did…old possum had eaten the food out of her bowl and knocked another empty bowl into the water bowl…so poor Fuzz had neither food nor water.

After straightening everything out…I sat in a chair and prayed for a beautiful day of unexpected opportunities  in Vickie’s lovely garden…Fuzz came and jumped up in my lap and  we stared ahead at our own reality…together.

When I came across this unique “fog bow” I just had to stop and admire it…the photo was taken on Isle of Palms, SC.

Dear Reader:

If I were to go in search for the meaning of life…I think I would start it in my neighbor Vickie’s back yard garden…it is a tropical paradise and even in this heat (hot) wave it stays refreshingly cool…a great place to meditate on the fullness of life.  (Vickie flew out yesterday to visit a friend for a week and I am taking care of Fuzz, the cat, until Christie, her granddaughter, gets in Sunday evening.)

Fuzz is an outdoor cat basically and quite independent…I just have to keep food and water out for her and she does the rest. So I will enjoy checking on the garden and just sitting in it in the cool of the evening to make sure Fuzz is fine.

When it comes to searching for the meaning of life…haven’t we all heard many varieties of the same theme through parables, allegories, moral stories,  fables and legends about a pilgrim of faith searching for the wise man, or shaman, or mystical monk in the Himalayas, the greatest sage in the world…to reveal the secret of the meaning of life to us?

I don’t know when it happens…though we have to have lived long enough to have experienced pretty much everything  life can throw at us…but it does happen. The epiphany hits us right between the eyes, crystal clear… there is no one ‘meaning of life’ … there is no ‘one size fits all’ answer.

The meaning of life is a life with meaning.

Since we are all created completely unique from any other individual..our meaning of life can be completely different, also, from any other. It starts when we take the focus off ourselves and designate it to others… the people we meet in our daily lives.

Before falling asleep…when we take a few moments to reflect on the day we just lived…don’t we soon realize that the days that seem more fulfilling for us are the days when we were able to stop the runaway grocery cart and retrieve it for someone, or bumping into an old friend who just needed a smile and a sympathetic hug. The amount of fulfillment we feel is in direct correlation to the more spontaneous opportunities we take advantage of when assisting someone have a better day.

It helps sometimes to look at life upside down…and realize just how dependent we are on God…It is the same feeling the astronauts experienced upon seeing (for the first time) the fragility of home earth in space.

Job: 26:7   “God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.”

C. K. Chesterton realized the same thing (when he wrote in his biography of  St. Francis of Assisi) …that St. Francis understood the importance of experiencing the world upside down.

“Seeing the world upside down means seeing its utter dependence on God, and with that sense of dependence comes a greater love for this world because of the adventure of its own existence.”

Have you ever wondered why little children love being held upside down while laughing at the world seen so differently….and how one of the first things they learn to do is to bend over and finally complete a somersault. Children love the sensation of living in a world turned upside down.

Since Eloise is the baby with two big brothers…she gets to see the world turned upside down a lot…with much trust in her two big bro’s.

*Eloise actually completed her first somersault last Wednesday but it surprised all of us so much we didn’t get a shot of it….but just her practicing for the big moment was cute enough.

So until tomorrow…Take time to try new perspectives on old situations and see the difference in daily outcomes and new meanings on life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Another of Vickie’s beautiful plants….

*I know two people who know the meaning of life-doing for others…Luke and Chelsey stopped by last evening…and brought me a homemade chicken salad sandwich with all the trimmings….It was absolutely delicious and enough for another sandwich today.

How I do adore that special young couple…a God Wink, for sure, when we connected!

Dear Reader:

I was never happier while teaching than when I was participating in an end-of the year school skit or acting out a story in the classroom…(since I rarely read a story…I told it.) The classroom was my stage and I had a “captive audience.” 🙂

Whether I was a nun, hillbilly, or football player…I loved acting. Educator and famous motivational author, Gail Godwin, must have had teachers like me in mind when she wrote her famous quote….“Good teaching is one-fourth preparation, and three-fourths pure theatre.”

I had lamps throughout my classroom and would put on the historically appropriate music on an old record player or tape player as the background theme…dim all the lamps…and tell the day’s story covering a specific historical event. Many times it was the introduction to the lesson.

I would go into my private zone…and forget there was even a class full of kids in the audience…and the shocker…they listened. Rudyard Kipling was right…“If history were taught in the form of stories…it would never be forgotten.”

And what was so surprising…on the final assessment for whatever historical period we were studying…students might miss some multiple choice, True/False, or fill-in-the blank questions…but given a choice of two out of four stories to summarize of the event…even the  struggling students would write full paragraphs on a story told.. that caught their imagination.

In teaching I knew my role in life… but outside the classroom it got hazier. Later when I worked at the district office in more of an administrative curriculum role with few guidelines…I sometimes felt like I was a ‘fake’ just winging it. I remember my joy when I got up the courage to admit it…during a district leadership workshop lead by some educational motivator.

He had asked for someone to volunteer to share their feelings on the evolving role of leadership in education. I stood up and said I sure didn’t feel like a leader…just one of the many educators trying to provide as much help as possible to as many first-year teachers or new teachers to education as possible.

I then told the work group I felt just like FDR when he told Orson Welles (while fishing at Warms Springs, Georgia in a row boat) “Orson…you and I are the two best actors in America.” I felt like I had been playing a role and that sooner or later people would see me as I really was…a fake.

Thank goodness…my open confession broke the ice…laughter erupted from principals, superintendents, academic coaches, curriculum specialists and teachers alike. I learned that day that I was not alone with these feelings of inadequacy. Cards poured in the following week…all admitting to the same fears.

I will have to say that while getting older certainly has its challenges…particularly physical…it also breaks down life-long, self-imposed barriers of inadequacy or pretense. The person the world sees on a daily basis starts merging with the inner person we know as our true selves.

What a gift God gives us…when we are able to live long enough to recognize, not only who we are, but who God meant us to be.

So until tomorrow…I now see the wisdom behind the cliche…“Fake it ’till you make it”…which suggests that by imitating confidence, competence, and an optimistic mindset, a person can realize those qualities in their real life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I decided a couple of weeks ago (the history grandmother) that I should get a photo prop in the form of a play astronaut helmet and take a picture of all the children holding the 50th anniversary Oreo moon cookies package to remind them in future years their age at the time of the 50th anniversary of the first walk on the moon…summer July of 2019.

*I plan to collect the grandchildren’s separate poses (the roles of astronauts) and make a collage from it with their ages beside their photos…from oldest to youngest.

You can see a difference in Eloise’s photo…she got the Oreo package and stuffed the moon Oreo cookie in her mouth…a hands-on-learner!

Chelsey, Mollie’s sister brought her two beautiful daughters to visit and they joined in the fun…bring on those girl astronauts….Madeleine and Margo.

I had dinner with Mollie, Chelsey and the children…Taco Night…a fierce thunderstorm hit while I was there…the children decided to dance in the rain and eat popsicles for dessert…a typical summer late afternoon ritual….

* Harriett…thank you for seeing and reprinting the fifth anniversary of Chapel of Hope Stories on Facebook yesterday….the one I wrote August 7, 2015. (The original date for the start was August 7, 2010…four months after Eva Cate’s arrival.)

I can always remember the age of the blog by the age of my granddaughter. Next year is the BIG ONE! The 10th anniversary of the Chapel of Hope Stories blog post…we must throw a big shingdig!!!!

Dear Reader:

Late yesterday afternoon I walked beside my garden to get to my garbage can in order to wheel it out on the street…today is pick-up day. As I strolled through… I glanced at the Confederate Rose and the two tall thin-stemmed sunflower plants.

It was then that I noticed something on one of the poles I have added in the middle of each sunflower plant… a support pole to tie the stems up when they get too tall to stand by themselves. Already one plant had a large stem lying down on the grass… after the heavy rain from the night before.

After dropping off the garbage can…I noticed something again on the tip top of the pole… now fully visible without the sunflower stem in front…some kind of flying insect…suddenly I realized it was a dragonfly….not the beautiful iridescent kind but just a simple grayish one with see-through wings.

I walked back to the deck to get my Iphone thinking it was silly…of course a dragonfly would be gone before I could get back…except it wasn’t. The sun was beating down to the point that I couldn’t even see it any more I just aimed the camera at the top of the pole and clicked. When I looked at the result…a chill went down me. It looked like a “spirit” dragonfly…especially when I enlarged it.

The dragonfly is iridescent both on its wings and body. Iridescence shows itself in different colors depending on the angle and how the light falls on it. 

Native-American legends say they are spiritual creatures, considered messengers from beyond… connected to light and change. When we see one…it is to remind ourselves to take a moment and be grateful for the lightness and joy in our lives.

“They can travel upwards of 45 miles per hour, fly backwards, hover like a helicopter, and change direction with seemingly impossible speed. They do all this by flapping their wings only 30 times per minute.  To give you some perspective, a mosquito flaps its wings 600 times per minute.

Because of this, dragonflies take on the role of spiritual guides for us.  They are powerful yet graceful – even in high wind. They show us how to navigate life’s storms with confidence and ease.  They motivate us to let go of whatever holds us down or holds us back.”

Perhaps the most important lesson of the dragonfly lies in its short life span.  They live a complete life in only seven months. Let the dragonfly be a reminder to you to live life fully present.  Let it teach you to look out for the gifts and beauty that you encounter each day.” (Resource: Dragonfly Meanings)

I  found myself staring at my photo on and off all yesterday afternoon…it was just something about that white spirit-looking dragonfly that mystified and pulled me back to the photo again and again.

Earlier in the day I had already had another strange experience. I had gone to Belk to pick up the Clique gift bag...always give Mandy one for her upcoming birthday. There was a long line waiting to get their bags and order items to qualify…so while they went to find my order…I wandered over to the bench inside Belk that looks out on the parking lot.

I had lucked up with someone pulling out just as I came into the parking lot so my car was close to the building. Now, as I glanced out…I was caught off guard for a second. There, right beside Surcie, was The Green Vue…these days there are very few left since that color was only used on the 2007 models and never repeated.

I had the strangest feeling that the “Vue” had returned to say hello and check out my new car…I felt a wave of nostalgia sweep over me…and I blew kisses to both cars…to one who served me well for over a decade and for Surcie who provides me with peace of mind.

So until tomorrow…

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

The Confederate Rose bush is the largest it has ever been…it should start forming buds around now and bloom in late summer and fall..I went up under the huge bush/tree and found the buds starting to develop…so cool!

Football season is getting closer and closer…time to start decorating the garden…and I do think the pine tree should be our state tree with the crescent moon…so pretty last night.

When it comes to keeping the granddaughters….Libby is definitely back in the driver’s seat again….long story…let’s just say camp this year involved an extra Kum Bah Yah. But look at those faces…you gotta do it.

We want to hear that bell ring one more time for Ann Graves…today is her surgery and then she waits to hear from her oncologist about any future treatments needed to “seal the deal” with this breast cancer …so far so EXCELLENT! Please keep Ann in your prayers today.

Dear Reader:

Mr. Lincoln, my favorite rose bush, did it again….It sneaked in another perfectly beautiful bloom and I never even saw the bud. (Lincoln always was a man of surprises.)

I decided to cut the bloom immediately and put it in a small clear glass water bottle because the hot summer humidity was already starting to wilt the leaves.  It smells so extraordinarily amazing that I can’t even begin to define or describe the scent…it is out of this world! If anybody ever comes up with a “Mr. Lincoln” perfume…this old history teacher will be the first one in line!

Whoa! I can’t believe it…a seller on Etsy created a perfume from her Mr. Lincoln leaves because she, too, thought it was the best scent she had ever smelled. I decided to order one small bottle and test it out…will let you know what I think when it arrives.

Grandmother Wilson would approve of this woman’s tenacity and “get-go”…instead of just dreaming about such a product (like me)…she did something about it…she made herself ‘useful’ to others through her pertinacious nature.

I remember as a child that I learned very young…while visiting grandmother during the summer… to never (and I mean never) say the two words that would set her off on a terrible tangent….”madder than a wet hen.” And those two words…”I’m bored!” 

Poor grandmother…a farmer’s wife during the Depression…had precious little time to herself…one radio show (that I forget the name of that came on each afternoon for half an hour) and (after black and white televisions came on the market in the fifties)…the weekly Lawrence Welk Show. Those were the two times…we knew, by experience, not to bother grandmother…but make yourself scarce…or as grandmother reminded us constantly ” Make yourself useful.”

The only time I ever remember getting called in the living room during the Lawrence Welk Show…was to stand by the TV set and hold the rabbit ears at a certain angle until the show was over so grandmother could get some reception. Otherwise…I learned to stay outside as far away as possible… so I wouldn’t get caught holding the rabbit ears.

Grandmother never had the luxury of understanding the meaning of the word “bored” and was incensed by anyone who thought they were. She immediately would put us to work…running errands, cleaning out the chicken coop, shelling peas….you get the picture. To this day I never use that word either.

I came across a wonderful little blog post…a couple of days ago…where the author (Tobias van Schneider) said, in retrospect, the best and most simple advice he ever received in life was to “Be useful.” 

“Be Useful”

Being useful is the ultimate solution. It’s the simplest and best advice I’ve ever gotten that ALWAYS changes every situation into something positive. It serves almost as some sort of mission or vision to guide me through the day.Every time I feel  lost or don’t remember what I wanted to do, I go back to the basics. I just try to be useful.

He goes on the share his personal top three ways to actually accomplish this…How to ‘be useful.’

* You can share knowledge and the things you know with people who might know less. That’s why I always say that you are never too young to teach. There is always someone who might appreciate your tips & tricks on whatever topic it may be.

On top of it, sharing knowledge is rewarding. You’re not only helping others but also yourself. Sharing knowledge helps you to reflect, form and communicate your own thoughts more clearly.

*You can help people by solving a problem someone else is having. It doesn’t have to be a massive problem, it can be something small.

Sometimes when I work with other people I try to figure out what small problems they might have. And if I spot one where I feel like my expertise can help solve it within less than 15–30 min of my time, I will try to solve it, for free of course, and without asking for anything in return.

*It’s not your job…do it anyway. We all have certain aptitudes that allow us to help someone with something relatively simple for us but extremely difficult for them. Share your time and expertise.

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So until tomorrow…

*Useful people add value where there was no value before.

*Useful people really want to be useful…and delight in helping others.

*Useful people don’t require specific skills…they just might bring  donuts and coffee…but useful people make the world a better place than they found it.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Mandy chaperoned Jakie’s pre-school class to the SC Aquarium (Eva Cate got to go of course) so they had a fun day all around. A tiny little class so it was easy and relaxing.

The last days at the Citadel Square four-year old pre-school class has just about come to an end…Jakie will be attending Eva Cate’s neighborhood school this new school year…a new world is opening up for him.

We had a thunder storm and a half last evening….so thankful for the rain but the lightning and thunder were so sharp and loud…I heard myself screaming a couple of times and jumping…thinking the house had been hit…the vibrations from the thunder shook the house in its intensity.

Anne, Sophie, and Nala all curled up on the sofa together she said during the thunderstorm…the friends would stick together .

Dear Reader:

As I was finishing up the fourth book in The Tour (Connor O’Shea) Irish series…one of the tourists read a famous Irish fable to one of the little girls on the tour bus…much to her delight. I experienced an “Aha”  memory moment from my own childhood… because my siblings and I used to go around pulling on each other’s ear lobes and yelling “Donkey Ears…Donkey Ears.” “Hee-Haw…Hee-Haw!”

I loved doing it but not getting it unexpectedly done to me….and as a little girl I would fuss and puts my hands over my ears to protect them before chasing after my brothers or the neighborhood children playing “Donkey Ears.” (It was a form of the game “Tag” and being “It.”)

I had no way of knowing that the story behind “Donkey Ears” derived from old Irish folklore… passed down from generation to generation with a life lesson found within its pages. Since Irish blood runs through the blood lines on both my mother and father’s side…there is no doubt we had heard the story as children and it captured our imagination….enough to invent the “Donkey Ears” game!

There are many different versions of the story I discovered while doing Irish folklore research….contrasting Irish versions with different kings and settings…from the king with the “donkey ears” to the king with “horse ears”…even all the way back to Greek mythology…it appears that many distinct cultures at one time were familiar with the main theme of the story and passed it along using their cultural backgrounds as the setting for the tale.

I am “mix-meshing” a couple of the Irish versions without changing the theme…since the lesson is an important one to carry through life.

Loch Íne  is a popular spot a few miles outside Skibbereen, Ireland… (Cork County) that’s very pleasant for swimming, walking and picnics. Despite its popularity, most people who visit this tranquil area are completely unfamiliar with its connection to one of Ireland’s most famous legends – the King with the Donkey Ears!

Out in the center of the lake is an island called Castle Island with the ruins of the O’Driscoll stronghold (Cloghan Castle now completely overgrown – see red circle), from which the island derives its English name. According to local folklore, this is the area where the events of the ‘King with Donkey Ears’ took place.

In the local version of the story, an O’Driscoll king was said to have been born with donkey’s ears. Because a blemish such as this would traditionally have meant the king was unfit to rule, he kept this secret by growing his hair long and having it cut once a year and then putting the barber to death so his secret would never leak out.

At the Loch Íne site, the barber was supposedly drowned and a bed of reeds was later seen to spring up out of the water at that spot.

Some time later, the king’s piper, seeing the reeds in the lake used them to make a new musical pipe to entertain the king. At a feast thrown in the hall by the O’Driscoll King, (as the piper began to play)…the pipes took on a life of their own and started singing/chanting musically:

“The King has Donkey Ears!” “The King has Donkey Ears!”

At first the king’s face turned red with fury…”Bring me that piper!” The piper was dragged to him crying “I didn’t know…I swear.”

The king slowly look around the stunned, frightened crowd and realized he had become a monster in order to cover up something that really didn’t matter. He told the guards to release the terrified musician and sincerely apologized to him.

He, took off his crown and pulled out his gray donkey ears. He then did something even more astonishing…he started laughing at himself in the mirror… and told the children to come touch and pull his funny “donkey ears”….now the little princes and princesses were laughing and soon the whole banquet room was howling with laughter.

The king realized that by pointing out his problem first…and laughing about it…nobody was making fun of him….only laughing with him. He was free at last to be who he had been all along…a kind, generous leader.

By the time he died…the beloved king was mourned and missed by all…the town people made donkey ears to wear to his funeral and held hands laughing and hee-hawing while tears of sadness ran down their faces in honor of their “Beloved King Donkey Ears!”

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The last four days in a row when I have turned on my radio station 102.5…a mixture of today’s hits and the 80’s…Rod Stewart has been  singing “Forever Young.”

It has always been one of my favorite songs and makes me feel happy just to hear it…because regardless of what is going on age-wise with me…I still do feel young at heart and just as excited about each brand new day as I was years ago.

I will have to admit, however, it is true what they say about certain facial “appendages” growing larger as we get older…our noses and our ears…if my ears grow much more…I think I might be a candidate to play the role of “King Donkey Ears.” 🙂 *My earrings keep getting bigger and bigger to cover them! Thank goodness for being a girl!)

So until tomorrow…”Smile and the world smiles with you…”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Anne and I traded books yesterday…she is keeping  little Sophie…a friend’s dog for a few days and Nala didn’t like that she was having to share me with her friend…when I came in each dog wanted their time jumping on my lap and knocking the other off….it is nice to be fought over!

Dear Reader:

Kate-Wolfe-Jensen shared in her latest newsletter the story behind the metaphor of ‘spoonin’ for energy. People like Kate who live with MS, or other autoimmune diseases,,,including lupus, forms of arthritis, parathyroid dysfunctions, underactive thyroid diseases like hypothyroidism, or Hashimoto’s disease (where one’s immune system attacks the thyroid gland) live daily with the challenge of conserving and prioritizing the amount of energy they can expend on any given task or even social interaction.

The idea originated with Christine Miserandino and a social experiment she conducted with a friend.

“In a blog titled “The Spoon Theory,” Christine Miserandino describes how she showed her friend what it’s like to have lupus. (The autoimmune disease often causes fatigue, fever, and joint pain, among other symptoms.) While sitting at a diner, Miserandino handed her friend 12 spoons. These represented units of energy. She then asked her friend to describe the typical activities of a day.”

Miserandino took away a spoon for every single task: showering, brushing one’s teeth, getting dressed with painful joints, standing on a train. Skipping lunch would cost a spoon. When the spoons were gone, it meant there was barely energy to do anything else.

This idea of quantifying energy as spoons, and the idea that people with chronic disease only get a handful of spoons each day, hit home with readers far and wide. “Spoon theory” is now part of the lingo of autoimmune disease.

Legions of people call themselves “spoonies,” connect on social media as #spoonies, use spoon theory to explain their chronic disease limitations, and plan their days around the number of spoons they have when they wake up.”

It is the side effects from the drug I take for my type of breast cancer that are causing me daily fatigue these days from my on-going low-white blood cell count. When I wake up in the morning I feel so energized mentally and ready to take on the day…but by the time I have gotten up, eaten breakfast, and dressed…many days I feel like crawling back in bed. My energy level is definitely taking a hit from the side effects of my cancer drug.

So when I read the article on the “Spoon Theory” I could certainly empathize with the dilemmas facing others with diseases or side effects that compromise one’s immune system. I, daily, trudge forward, in spite of the “low points” throughout the day but more and more I find myself reserving time for energy naps and reading times.

I was especially happy to see, in the article, that certain activities (that might initially use up some spoons) can also bring one such joy and feelings of love that you can earn some back.

This is true of baby sitting and family gatherings…initially they use up a few spoons of energy but once I am there…the physical contacts, the form of hugs, squeezes, kisses and the feelings of love more than make up for the energy dispensed in preparation.

Dr. Seuss was right, “Life is a balancing act” and the better we get at balancing it…the more fulfilled our lives become.

Let’s not forget that in our connection to the rest of Creation we can dispense energy and light to others who need it and, also, receive it from others who have it. How many times have I watched my grandchildren playing, with their seemingly ceaseless energy, and wished for a siphon to withdraw just a little of their amazing amounts of vitality into me?

So until tomorrow…Thank you Father for others who, unknowingly, rekindle our spark when our “batteries get low, our bungee has lost its bounce and our spark needs a light and a lift.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I can now admit to being a “thriver” and a “spoonie”! 🙂

Lisa Register sent me the sweetest “visual moment” yesterday…she has started writing a blog post…and she is amazing. Thank you Lisa! Our thoughts were intertwined yesterday it appears…each grateful for the people who bring “light” and sunshine in our lives.

Walsh and Lachlan…Boys on Deck ….ummm…or Dock? 🙂

Dear Reader:

After Anne had problems flying into Philadelphia again this summer on her way to “Fiddle Camp” in Maine…she told me that she had learned her lesson…no flying anywhere  (but especially to Philadelphia) in the summer months on an afternoon or early evening flight. Thunderstorms must make their niche in Philly every afternoon/evening during the summer….because the “Cancelled…Due to severe thunderstorms” light flickers every time one tries to fly there to catch another flight.

The same thing happened when the both of us went to Ireland five years ago…we were supposed to fly to Philly from Charleston and then catch the night flight out of Philly to Ireland that evening….instead we ended up in a roach motel in Charlotte and lost our low rental car prices at the Shannon airport car rental company in Ireland because we had to wait an entire day to try to fly out the second night. It was the worse case ‘domino effect’ scenario possible.

The only thing that made this frustrating experience tolerable was having a friend. Isn’t it funny how ‘challenging delays’ seem so much worse when we are traveling alone? But all I remember is giggling hysterically at the ridiculous situation we were in…while Anne tried to kill cockroaches in the motel bathroom in Charlotte before I saw them.

Anne’s beautiful niece, Karen, was in college (Drexel University) in Philadelphia (at the time) so we made the most of the unexpected delay and ended up having a ball with her as she accompanied us on a double-decker tour bus escapade that made a history teacher’s day….The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed)…even the front steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, immortalized by Sylvester Stallone’s triumphant run in the film ‘Rocky.”

…A one-day delay that showed me historical sights I never would have seen …except for those thunderstorms over Philadelphia. (I could even find history wandering around the Philly airport if I tried (and I did) with Eva Cate and Rutledge cut-outs!)

In Ireland we, also, had our share of misadventures…getting lost along the way…but again, when someone else is with us…it is not scary but a fun adventure for the scrapbooks and re-telling. I remember suggesting to Anne that we need to find a bumper sticker to put on the back of our rental car that  read:

I can’t believe this is the 5th anniversary of the Ireland trip…it seems like yesterday and the beauty of this country still lingers in my memories and heart. We could have let the disappointing start to our trip affect our attitudes but thank goodness neither of us gave in to the disappointment; instead we found humor and beauty in the experience of it all.

So until tomorrow:

Yesterday was a ‘wild and crazy’ day! Eva Cate was adorable in her skit and duet as Simba….and later Carrie supervised the children into making their own colored Rice Krispy treats in different cookie cutter shapes. One of the last “free” summer days of fun before school starts again soon…too soon.

Jake thought he had died and gone to heaven when he got to eat his hand-made green star rice krispy treat….so good!

Anne…I think you need a “Fiddle-Fig Leaf Tree” like this one Vickie has…don’t you? …it will capture lots of memories for you.

***Yesterday was Atticus’ adoption birthday….Happy Birthday Atticus!

On the radio station I listen to in the mornings…they announced that Dingle the Dolphin (Fungie) had just turned 40! Happy Birthday Fungie! You and Atticus share the same birthday!

Kaitlyn brought me back this memento of Dingle the Dolphin when she and Tommy returned this year from Dingle, Ireland.

Gingi stopped by last evening… we had such fun catching up…she came up with a creative way to use your miniature  flower vases Honey…fill them with miniature tootsie roll pops!

In response to yesterday’s “weinermobile” story….several of you wrote remembering seeing one and how excited you were….There was a story, on-line, where  a family ordered this “fun” reserve parking sign and then contacted the company to say they were saving a parking space in their neighborhood for the weinermobile…One of the Oscar Meyer vehicles  happened to be in the same region of the country as the fan writer…. so the “hotdoggers” surprised the family and pulled into their neighborhood reserved parking space…giving free rides to the children there. *I enjoyed reading people’s memories of their weinermobile experiences over the years.

Dear Reader:

Tommy told me that he and Kaitlyn saw an Oscar Meyer Weinermobile on the interstate coming home from work yesterday afternoon. It is supposed to bring good luck if you spot one since the odds aren’t in your favor that this will happen. Oscar Meyer only selects 12 drivers -“hotdoggers”- (two in each vehicle to swap driving when one gets tired.) *So there are only six Oscar Meyer weinermobiles on the road at any given time in the United States..

Thousands apply and only 35 make it to the try-outs before it is narrowed again down to one dozen drivers. These drivers have one year to drive around the entire country before the job ends. *It helps if they know the Oscar Meyer hot dog song! 🙂

Only students who just graduated from college can apply…the job is only for one year…It is just supposed to be a fun experience before the real world of jobs and marriages and families begin in earnest. A year for the memories….as told to spouses, children, and perhaps even grandchildren later in life.

As I read Tommy’s text he said…”Having a blessed day. That’s the “wienermobile.”

As I looked for pictures and a little history…some fun facts came out…

*Stuffed replicas, anniversary toy reproductions and whistles are some of the memorabilia created over the years

Red and yellow decor and rugs that look like splashes of ketchup  and mustard cover the floor.

While one “hot dogger” drives the weinermobile,  the other driver (riding “shotgun”) waves to the drivers passing by …sometimes if they stop at a fair or carnival…one lucky participant get a ride in the weinermobile!

As much as Jakie loves Hot Wheels…this tiny weinermobile “hot wheeler” memorabilia (at the cost of $19.00) will not be ordered! I will just remember the picture fondly!

I jokingly texted Tommy back and said all this talk about hot dogs was making my mouth water…I haven’t had a hot dog in quite awhile. Then my own personal memories flooded back.

When mother and Mandy were living on the other side…mother always left money on the counter on Fridays so no one would have to cook…I was in charge of going to Tastee-Freeze late Friday afternoons and picking up the whole family hot dogs. Mother loved them…in fact we all did…and it being Friday with no school the next day made them even taste better.

So, on a whim, I grabbed my car keys and drove to Tastee Freeze. I ordered one regular hot dog all the way….onions, chili, relish, and lots of mustard. The high school student working at the window smiled when I asked if I could take his picture and then he wanted to reciprocate and take mine when I told him how this used to be my family’s ‘tradition’ on Friday afternoons and how now I would have some pictures to remember this long overdue reunion. A hot dog for “Me-Mommy”!

Band Camp had started right across the street at Summerville High School. The sound of the band playing reminded me that summer would soon be over…especially for state students who start back to school before the end of August.

So until tomorrow…In spite of the typical summer heat…I felt a shiver run down my back listening to the band practice for the upcoming football games…that old familiar feeling…a mixture of dread and anticipation for another school year came over me…The start of a new school year always had mixed emotions for students and teachers alike.

Now I don’t have to ever prepare for a new school year….a little nostalgia still exists… but mainly all I could think of was how I love retirement and hot dogs! A very blessed day!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*There is something about a simple floral arrangement that I find most beautiful of all…