Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning, Sunday May 12, Mother’s Day, I awoke to the long-awaited sound and luscious fresh smell of rain! I immediately texted my neighbor Vickie and got an instant reply…“Best gift ever for Mother’s Day…Doesn’t it smell so good?” *It did!

We have needed rain desperately lately…Yet we seem to miss so many potential weather fronts that promise rain but either fizzle out or turn in another direction before dropping some much needed rain on Summerville.

I had all my windows open and the early morning rain storm had me grabbing pinkie, my robe, once again (as a gentle breeze swept into the house) ….wrapped in only what I can call complete satisfaction and happiness!

In between the first and second showers I walked out in the garden and there was my first morning glory of the season, a little droopy from the rain, but still beautiful and so welcomed back for another season.

Late in the afternoon the rains returned….sealing the day with my utmost gratitude.

When I came back in the house… Google popped up with a popular article called “Top Lily Varieties to Grace Your Garden from Tall to Small” (By Jamie Mcintosh)....the lily is the most popular flower gift of all on Mother’s Day…with a description and picture of all the different kinds.

I started scrolling down…and there it was …the answer to the type of lilies growing in my garden. What a wonderful surprise!

(*My lilies were so happy to get rain yesterday…they seemed to be smiling when I took this picture about 7:30 yesterday morning.)

(The Spruce: 14 Stunning Varieties of Lilies)  

“The intensely colored flowers of Asiastic Lily Matrix are mesmerizing. With a high bud count of up to seven flowers per stem, you only need a few bulbs to create a focal point in the early summer landscape. The petite 20-inch stalks of Matrix lilies are just right for any garden…even container gardens.”

*So now every time I look at these lilies I will think of that cute actor Keanu Reeves (who starred in the movie series- The Matrix)…*He was actually on the CBS Sunday Morning Show.

Today I wanted to pause and send a special thank-you to three fantastic mothers of children who grew up to marry my children and bring love into their lives and mine. What great mothers you all were and what a fantastic job you did! I adore my son-in-law John, daughter-in-law Mollie, and daughter-in-law Kaitlyn! Three special gifts that keep on giving and making my life so much brighter.

Susan Swicegood                  Marcia Temple              Joan Turner

Before this wonderful Mother’s Day was over the first hydrangea blooms popped in the garden…flowers emerged in the strangest places…mixed in with the confederate jasmine and/or along a fence…everyone was “putting on the ritz!”

I still have the mystery of a tall grass in the garden that produces this pale yellow bloom with three brown spots on it????? *All my orange flowers keep blooming…making me so happy!

So until tomorrow…Mother Nature decided to make all of us garden mom’s happy yesterday with rain, sun, and surprises! Thank you for the gifts!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Late yesterday afternoon I placed my Garden Butterfly decoration (the Turner family gave me) right in front of Jakie’s Japanese Maple. I love it everyone!

Dear Reader:

While I was at the beach I came across an article by Guide Post…Mysterious Ways that I found fascinating. It is about the miraculous and inexplicable bond between mothers and their children.

Source: The Miraculous Bond Between Mother and Child: Evan Miller

An Army private during World War II, stationed in the South Pacific, hears the voice of his mother thousands of miles away in Baltimore, telling him to duck just seconds before a bullet whizzes over his head. At that precise moment, his mother, at the hospital recovering from brain cancer, sits up and yells, “Duck, James!”

A boy whose mother died when he was a toddler is visited often in his dreams by a woman with curly brown hair and blue eyes. She comforts him. The boy has no memory of his mother and no photos of her. Until, as an adult, he sees a picture. An image identical to the woman in his dreams.

A struggling young woman is visited in the middle of the night by her deceased mother, who tugs at her ankle and warns her to break up with the guy she’s seeing.

My search for answers led me first to David Kessler. He’s a renowned grief expert and the author of Visions, Trips and Crowded Rooms: Who and What You See Before You Die. In his research, Kessler has talked to thousands of people, many of whom have been visited by deceased friends and loved ones. He has noticed a trend throughout his many years of research.

“The person who visits the most is your mother,” he says. It’s not even close. At the time when we most need comfort—whether in grief or near death—it’s mothers who answer the call. Hospice workers concur. According to one nurse quoted in a 2019 Atlantic article, “everyone is calling for ‘Mommy’ or ‘Mama’ with the last breath.” The reason, Kessler says, is simple.

“Mothers are the strongest and first connection we make in life…it stays with us forever.”

There are millions of documented case after cases of mothers who come to their child’s rescue because of a seemingly inexplicable bond. Take the patient of Dr. Orloff who suddenly experienced intense stomach pains, only to find out later that her son—away at college—had appendicitis.

“Mothers have a sixth sense about their kids because of their strong connection genetically, emotionally and by virtue of carrying the child in their womb for nine months,” Dr. Orloff says. “Adopted mothers can also feel this connection on a soul level, and their intuition can reach out to save their children too.”

Research supports that mothers hold a special place in our consciousness. A 2016 Stanford University School of Medicine study found that children’s brains responded positively to their mothers’ voices in audio clips less than a second long. During MRIs, these recordings lit up parts of the children’s brains related to emotion, reward processing, facial recognition and social functioning.

After reading all of this…I couldn’t help but think about Ben’s story in his book about his experiences in Vietnam. Mother had made Ben’s favorite cake for his birthday….a chocolate cake…she wrapped it tightly and sent it literally through the mail to him in Vietnam.

Ben was just coming back from a patrol in the jungles when an officer told him he had a package. He opened it and there was mother’s chocolate cake…just as fresh as if she had made it that morning on his birthday July 26…because it arrived on his exact birthday. What are the odds?

Kessler concludes the article sharing his own story….his mother died in a New Orleans hospital when he was only 13 years old….he and his father moved away after her death and he didn’t return until decades later when he was giving a talk in New Orleans soon after Hurricane Katrina went through.

In late 2005, Kessler was in New Orleans to give a talk. The city had recently been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He found himself outside the hospital where his mother had died, the building shuttered by the storm’s fury. Kessler hadn’t been inside since he was that 13-year-old.

Now he felt compelled to find closure there. He asked a security guard if he could go inside. The guard escorted him down the darkened hallways, past wires hanging from the ceiling, tiles ripped from the floors by floodwaters, broken glass everywhere. They made it to the ICU and, inside the doorway, Kessler turned, remembering that his mother’s bed had been the second on the left. There in the dark, above where his mother had died, Kessler noticed the call light. It was blinking green.

“Green means the patient is being seen,” Kessler says. “Forty-two years after she died, my mother was there looking after me.”

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So until tomorrow….Happy Mother’s Day to Everyone! When it comes to our mothers…(and others who were also a mother to us)….we never let the green light go out.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

We got a jump on Mother’s Day….John and Mandy invited me for a cook-out last evening. Jakie was dying to show me all he has learned in the pool and Eva Cate wanted to catch me up with all her goings-on…it was a wonderful time. The family gave me a beautiful garden butterfly decoration (See Eva Cate) that is solar, makes the water bubble and the wings flutter. Can hardly wait to put it in the garden!

Chef John outdid himself…my favorite meal!

Thank you Turners for a delightful evening. Monday I am going to Rutledge’s school to tell a story and they are having refreshments in the court yard for mothers and grandmothers. The fun continues.

Tommy sent these pictures of some of their fun adventures and new acquaintances in Dingle.

Dear Reader:

“Over-easy” was definitely the lifestyle and theme for the week…I was starting a new cancer medication while on the retreat, Brooke was preparing psychologically for her upcoming rotator cusp surgery and of course Libby’s neck/back surgery came with pre-surgery restrictions that forced her to make the difficult decision to stay home this time.

But we found ways to work around some of the restrictions we haven’t had in the past…and one way was to come up with a plan how to “take” Libby with us…if not just in spirit…then, at least, in cardboard! 🙂

I decided that if I could take Eva Cate and Rutledge’s “heads” to Ireland I could certainly take Libby with me to Edisto…every where we went we shared the photos of what she had done that day with her by text…starting with riding to the beach with me.

Next came Brooke’s birthday…blowing out candles and getting a “Bless Your Heart” pillow for the trials and tribulations ahead. *And you were right in the midst of it Libby!

Wednesday when Veronica and the grandchildren came (Brooke’s beautiful daughter-in-law and two precious grandchildren)…we knew Libby wouldn’t want to miss it for the world.

But we knew Libby’s favorite place has been and always will be on the porch in “her” rocking chair….You enjoyed it so much Libby!

Tuesday morning was the catalyst that changed the rest of the week. The cable man came! Suddenly it looked like we had a movie size screen… so with Jackson’s knowledge of Netflix….we started the movie marathon. By sheer luck…we found the best movies ever….some older, some romance, comedy, and mystery…but all mesmerizing. After each show…we would say that was the best one yet….until the next movie. We laughed and wiped tears together.

Even with our movie marathon, however, it is always the porch that “sirens” to everyone….and conversation….that lost art (that when reprised) is the best part of the retreat. Always…hands-down!

This time Jackson and our birthday girl decided we would continue to chill instead of going out the last night…so we called in burgers and sandwiches and I went to pick them up at the SeaCOW Eatery.

On the way home…I decided to make a stop at the beach and I sat on a bench and took in one of God’s most wondrous marvels of beauty…the ocean.

Tommy and Kaitlyn had sent me gorgeous pictures of Ireland as they drove to Dingle, Ireland Thursday…so I returned the favor… the Edisto photos showing how we are all connected by the same beautiful skies …no matter where we are.

Ireland…

Edisto Beach

So until tomorrow…

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Rutledge’s Japanese Maple can now carry the weight of a solar lantern…and I brought an Edisto turtle decoration to put on the top of a hanging basket in the garden…bringing a memory of Edisto back home.

Dear Reader:

I am coming home today from Edisto Beach….the bittersweet day we knew was coming all week, yet we are never quite prepared when it arrives. Everyone is conflicted with mixed emotions…ready to get home to check on things and people but hesitant to leave the fellowship of old friendships behind.

An idea came to me recently… that we ought to make a Ya Time-line dating back to Erskine College- a line that (after plugging in all the benchmarks of our lives) would be a  visual map of the major events that have transpired among the four of us… criss-crossing over and under and all around bringing us back together again and again. It would probably cover several walls…we might need a castle to hang it in. What a marvel of the wonder of relationships it would show.

I have been in several church classroom discussions about the different ideas of heaven or another world…what it would look like, feel like, touch us like, with beautiful sounds and scents so exquisite yet simple that we can practically float among them.

The other day, however, I left the senses of the next world behind and thought about what we wouldn’t take with us to it….the burdens that would be released before we entered heaven.

Don’t we all second-guess ourselves periodically and during long sleep-less nights get caught up in the “What If’s?” We re-live conversations that went badly and re-analyze our thoughts and answers to questions or perhaps we spend time figuring out how we could have handled a situation better?  Truly re-living old grievances and mistakes while stirring the  ‘pot of the past’ is a definite waste of our precious time on earth. (Yet it appears that we just can’t help ourselves repeat mute practices again and again.)

In our new world we would never have to “manage expectations” for fear of being disappointed…but could wish and dream up anything until it became “reality.”  And think about all our fears that have kept us from being happy…who we were meant to be…they would all dissipate… leaving nothing but joy behind.

I picture that we will be surrounded in a cocoon of love so intense there is no room for anything else. We will live completely in a world of unconditional love….loved for whom we are, nothing less and nothing more…just the purest love of all.

Love is so elusive and conditional on earth…but one day…that will all change. All we ever needed was love…and now we will have it…forever.

So until tomorrow…I do look forward to sharing the fun, laughter, and special moments with you readers from the Ya Edisto Retreat- 2019! Hope everyone had a terrific week!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Can hardly wait to see more surprises in the garden…the pintas are all returning and the little garden rose bush was just starting to pop out when I left.

Brooke is returning with her birthday flower basket…who needs colorful bows and ribbons when nature give us Gerber Daisies!

Dear Reader:

I think it was Mark Twain who once said, “I don’t know if history repeats itself, but it sure rhymes a lot.”  First there was Sammy, initially the stalking cardinal who about demolished both car mirrors on the old green “Vue”….may the “Vue” rest in peace.

Given a second chance, however, Sammy redeemed himself in my opinion when he started feeding his wife by throwing food down to her from the suet cage because she had hurt one foot and couldn’t hold on. (I know the feeling Mrs. Sammy!) And since then Sammy comes and visits if I am typing while he is at the feeder….even flying over to the ledge outside my window for a quick wink.

But now here we go again with another determined stalker…Skippy. I have never had as many problems with squirrels tearing up my garden and knocking down bird feeders (trying to eat the food) as I have this spring.

I have tried everything imaginable as a deterrent with no success. To date the only thing that works is using Hot Pepper Delight in the suet cages…the squirrels won’t touch it and I get to watch all the beautiful variety of birds come eat by my side “office” window.

I decided this spring season to add another bird feeder….but I finally had to take it down from the garden….even using Wagner’s Hot Pepper Wild Bird Seed (specifically made just for birds and not squirrels) did nothing to deter the squirrels…they loved the hot bird feed and knocked over the feeder so many time the wire broke.

So I saved my pennies and went back to ACE Hardware and bought a non-accessible squirrel bird feeder (which one of the clerks explained in detail to me how it worked.) It has three different compartments…two smaller ones on top and larger one on the bottom. If a squirrel climbs on any perch, its weight automatically closes the door to the feed opening.

I was so excited….I filled up the compartments and placed the feeder right in front of my den window so I could watch all the birds from my happy room/recliner. I moved the hummingbird feeder to the next window…to watch them too…which by the way Skippy loved also…he must be a sugar addict…he guzzled all the water out in three days on the hummingbird feeder. (Give me patience, Lord!)

After Luke got the new (no squirrel) bird feeder up I was as impatient as a child waiting on Christmas. And then it happened.

Skippy. Skippy looks like a young “teenager” squirrel….kind of small and sleek and unfortunately a gymnast to boot. I watched in glee as he first tried to get his footing on the perches but the doors all slammed closed immediately. Happiness is….but not for long.

*I will have to give it to him…he was persistent…he tried all three perches with no luck and then he climbed on the hook, wrapped his tail around it and pulled open the door upside down. My glee suddenly turned to dismay as I watched him munch his treasure and stare back at me triumphanty through the window.

This was two weeks ago. Every day Skippy arrives and is king of the bird feeder…dominating more time at the feeder than any other poor bird…they can barely get in between Skippy’s voracious appetite.

I figured he would have a hay day while I am gone and not yelling and running out there to shoo him away… like when I am at home. But a miracle happened. Look carefully back up at the bird feeder again. Don’t you notice that the right chamber is completely empty with food remaining in the left upper chamber and the larger bottom chamber?

Why? Skippy is right-tailed…it is the only side that he can maneuver without falling…I watched him try to do his acrobatics on the left chamber and he fell each time…and he can’t reach the bottom chamber. So perhaps….Skippy will have to move on now and find somebody else’s bird feeder to monopolize. Only time will tell.

And who knows….with a little maturity and distance  perhaps we, too, will become friends. Stranger things have happened.

So until tomorrow…. “The early bird may get the worm…but it is the second mouse that gets the cheese.”    🙂

Telling my latest “pretties” good-bye Sunday afternoon.

Dear Reader:

As school winds down for another year…Teacher Appreciation Week is here! As a retired teacher and a big proponent of  a teacher’s right to fight for better teaching conditions… I was with the South Carolina teachers in spirit last Wednesday as they descended on the State House to ask for fair wages and better working conditions. ***Because of this protest I think this week is even more special!

Teachers simply don’t get enough “thank you’s” to lift them up into those big puffy euphoric clouds we talked about earlier in the week. Most teachers feel like they drag themselves out of the trenches at the end of each day…a “no man’s land” where only the bravest, most generous, selfless “philanthropists” go to live. (And believe me a teacher does “live” there…many days I felt like I spent more time there than at home with my own children.)

A couple of years ago I found a funny metaphor on teaching and put it in the blog. Last week I noticed the original post was getting a lot of “hits” so I decided to re-enter it in today’s blog post….hope you enjoy it…for the first time …or second. 🙂

 THE LESSON (Jesus and His “Daunting Dozen”)

Then Jesus took his disciples up to the mountain and gathering them around him, he taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are they that thirst for justice. Blessed are you when persecuted. Blessed are you when you suffer. Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven.”

Then Simon Peter said: “Do we have to write this down?”

And Andrew said: “Are we supposed to know this?”

And James said: “Will we have a test on this?”

And Phillip said: “I don’t have any paper!”

And Bartholomew said: “Do we have to turn this in?”

And John said: “The other disciples didn’t have to learn this!”

And Matthew said: “Can I go to the boys’ room?”

And Judas said: “What does this have to do with real life?”

Then one of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus’ lesson plan and inquired of Jesus: “Where are your anticipatory set and objectives in the cognitive domain?”

And Jesus wept.

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So until tomorrow…Thank a teacher once and then turn around and thank him/her again with a big hug….because we teachers could always use an extra hug!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

***The big day has arrived for Tommy and Kaitlyn! They are off to Dingle, Ireland today and their second wedding anniversary! My wish for y’all is that this trip will be the best one ever! *Don’t forget to let me know when you get there safe and sound…I will be waiting!!! (It’s a “Mom” thing you know! 🙂

Dear Reader:

At one pivotal moment (the Mitford Series) in Father Tim’s life he must choose whether he is willing to make blood transfusions to someone he just discovered is a half-brother….through his father’s infidelity and a housekeeper who he loved, devotedly, as a second mother…while a little boy. Father Tim is torn…angry and confused… but after much prayer and meditation…he does what he knows is right.

He goes down memory lane and remembers that at sixty (he is now turning 70) he was still a bachelor and had no clue what the future held…a beautiful wife, an adopted son, a dog who adopted him and more family, than he ever could have imagined, to fill the voids in his life. Now his half-brother Henry is turning sixty and will, most likely, die of leukemia… if he, as a compatible donor, doesn’t help.

Father Tim wants to give Henry the same chance at a whole new life that he got at the same age…sure enough a couple of years later he receives an invitation to his half-brother’s wedding. Through letters they grow close and  accept the situation for what it was…and now for what it has brought ..a brother for each of them to grow old with…

While this retreat at the beach has two of our Ya’s waiting for surgeries to restore daily, ordinary habits that each once took for granted…it gives us all an opportunity to ‘look to the horizon’ for the hope needed to calm anxieties and fears… replacing them with joy and euphoria…the ‘best is yet to be as we help each other grow better and stronger in so many different ways.‘

Won’t we all reflect, one day, back on different periods in our lives when we thought that  all the “good things” in life had come and gone…only to discover that the very best things were still waiting for us? It just took us deciding to take the leap of faith to find all  our future joy patiently biding its time…if we had the courage to fight for it.

So until tomorrow….

“Come grow old with me. The best is yet to be”   William Wordsworth

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Last Sunday I was getting the garden ready for my departure and went in the potting shed/garage to get some cutters when something flew right past me. It was our state bird…the little Carolina wren. It didn’t take but a second to decipher it must have built a nest inside the garage. It had…and in the funniest place.

Some of you might remember my cute little leprechaun fence decor. It was so cute and the grandchildren loved him. But one day some wind dropped a heavy branch from one of my neighbor’s tall pines and it knocked him off the fence literally “breaking his neck”….he was beyond repair.

I couldn’t bring myself to throw him away….after all he brings good luck so I just stuck him on a shelf in the potting shed. And it was here that little Carolina Wren decided to make her nest…a wise decision since now she should have the ‘luck of the Irish.’

At first she kept flying in and out when she saw me….but I stood perfectly still with my iPhone ready to snap a picture and I got her moving closer and closer to the nest…unfortunately the photo showing her flying in the nest was a blur…but all the others are cute. (Since she liked landing on the fairy land wheel barrow I assume she likes both…leprechauns and fairies…surely she is an Irish Carolina Wren!  🙂 *I think I will call her Colleen – the Carolina Wren!

Dear Reader:

Two hours after I took this photo last Saturday the dark clouds moved in, the thunder boomed, and the lightning started flashing…I was not only “walking on clouds” in my euphoria over finally getting some desperately needed rain for the yards and garden… but I was actually on a specific cloud...”Cloud Nine!” 🙂

*Mandy…I started thinking about this “idiom” and since Eva Cate just turned nine…that would have been a fun “idiom” too… with lots of colorful number nine’s all over her t-shirt and cotton puffs intertwined. 🙂

Even though science wasn’t my favorite subject I do remember, as a child, loving our unit of study on clouds…the different kinds. I remember we even got to each tell the class about an animal we saw in our imagination and what clouds made up the parts….a lot of students saw giraffes with a lot of stratus clouds in the long legs and necks. Pigs had more round,puffy cumulus clouds and so on…but that lesson has stayed with me.

I read some research article on why man could never “walk on a cloud” but it was way too technical to be any fun….let’s just say that overall realistically walking on a cloud would be a damp, perhaps dark, windy, or even icy experience. Yet, we can always bounce and walk on clouds in our imagination…or even  start “walking on sunshine.” 

In literature, especially poetry, many of the major players/poets all loved clouds too…in different ways…

Shelly told us in “The Cloud” that clouds “bring fresh showers for thirsty flowers” …(now that’s what I’m talking about Shelly!)

Wordsworth, however, “Wandered lonely as a cloud.” (Come on William …put a smile on your face!)

The Greek playwright Aristophanes called the celestial clouds “patron goddesses that bring us intelligence, dialect, and reason.” (A good reason, it appears to me, to pay attention to clouds.)

One of the nicest ways to feel like we are ‘floating in the clouds’ is to receive a thank you or a note of gratitude for something one did consciously or not….just being reminded that all kind deeds do not go unnoticed.

Kim Ode, in an article titled “Giving Thanks” uses the metaphor of walking on clouds with gratitude.

” Being on the receiving end of someone’s thanks has us walking on those particularly puffy clouds that fill bright spring days.

The crazy thing about being thankful is that it’s the shortest distance between feeling okay and feeling great. The sensation doesn’t light up the sky, but is more one of quiet satisfaction. We actually feel a little lighter for having breathed deep and clambered high towards the clouds when we remember to send someone else a note of thanks, an email, text, or call…it doesn’t even matter what we say, but what prompts us. It’s not the feat, but the humility.

So until tomorrow...“Dear Father….Thank you for the rain today (Saturday) that made the birds sing while they bathed in puddles, the flowers turn their faces upward towards You in gratitude and me, a ‘wanna be’ gardener … happy… to see her plants watered and their thirst quenched. ”

(“Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.” Gertrude Stein)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

My dwarf morning glories “Blue My Mind” love the hot weather and the patio…while my grass has another bloom…it is actually a pale yellow and beautiful.

Dear Reader:

After decades of teaching in a classroom I would be the first to admit that if we could offer the perfect education to every person on earth it would be the opportunity to travel the world. There is a pattern among world travelers that remains the same….the more different a culture initially seems from our perspectives the closer it becomes when we begin to meet and understand the customs through the eyes of the people who live there.

In every case we discover that as human beings, no matter where our home or culture, we are always more alike than different with our needs and wants.

One of the first children stories we always were read usually dealt with fish…particularly schools of fish. What some of us might never have advanced to…(in our fish reading) is that there are two “schools” of fish or simply ideas on how best to get through life. Biology 101 teaches us that there “schools” of fish and “shoals” of fish. The difference?

A shoal of fish swims together, but they are not swimming in unison or in any coordinated formation. In addition, any fish in the group may stop or break off at any time. If, when swimming with the group, one fish decides to turn in the opposite direction to chat with one of its fishy friends, it’s still shoaling. If it looks down, up, left, right, or at the beautiful coral behind it, it’s still shoaling. 

A school of fish swims together as one fluid formation, with the movements of each fish an essential part of the whole. Fish that school have a team mentality. There’s no “I” in team, and there’s no independent behavior in a school of fish. 

Schooling fish go with the crowd. Uniformity of movement and position is essential. Shoaling fish sometimes go with the crowd, and sometimes do their own thing while hanging out in close proximity.

Schooling fish evade their predators by creating the formation and behavior of a larger creature. A shoal is a similar group of fish, but there’s less strategy in play. It’s working with safety in numbers but without the intricate, synchronized dance.

We humans, use both strategies within our lives. On the whole all humans want the same thing in life regardless of religion, culture, customs or geography…we share one “school” of thought – We all want to live our lives in peace without fear of harm, we want to be able to raise our families in harmony and see them grow and be successful in their lives so family legacies can continue to exist and connections strengthen.

But there is also the important “shoaling” ingredient in our human lives too…we want to be part of the group but still maintain our own individual characteristics, talents, and gifts that can only strengthen the school of people around us if individuality is recognized and accepted. In other words if we recognize diversity as one key ingredient within the “schools” of societal norms. It is okay to turn around and go another direction.

Our Founding Fathers recognized and endorsed this idea while looking at the 13 colonies (following the revolution) as individual colonies but “one” in the sense of our new unity as one country.

E pluribus unum. A motto of the United States; Latin for “Out of many, one.” It refers to the Union formed by the separate states. E pluribus unum was adopted as a national motto in 1776 and is now found on the Great Seal of the United States and on United States currency.

I have always and will always continue to be proud of our country for all the contributions made by the diversity of peoples (facing adversity of all kinds)  to make this place their home.  As more and more of us become interested in our ancestry, where we are from originally, and the stories of courage and sacrifice made by that first generation of Americans in each of our family trees…we, sooner than later, feel such pride in their determination to sacrifice for the ones who would come after them. It is what makes our country great.

So until tomorrow….Let us remember as our country grows older along with us…that we can, like Picasso observed…also grow “riper.” To grow ripe can mean three different things….with fruit…to be tender, with cheese to be matured, and with wine to be rich and intense with diverse flavors.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Tomorrow the Ya’s will be leaving for our five-day retreat at Edisto…but sad because Libby will not be able to come. She is facing surgery on her upper spinal column/neck in a few weeks and she has to be very careful not to injure or do anything that might prevent this necessary procedure from taking place. We will miss you sorely my friend.

*But Libby I came up with an idea how to take you along too…at least in spirit…stay tuned.

Since Brooke too is facing surgery on her rotator cusp soon after the retreat …there is absolutely nothing to do but laugh at ourselves and the predicaments we now find ourselves in as we all grow older…I think this sums it up.

The birds or fairies have been busy….another lily…another place where I did not plant it.

Susan Swicegood sent me this cartoon yesterday and I had to laugh…Jackson and I had just been talking about this optical deception that takes place as we grow older…we don’t see our loved ones, family and friends growing older as strangers do…and/or see ourselves.  It made this cartoon even funnier.

Dear Reader:

The garden is just going crazy with new life, new buds, and new growth. As I walked by Eva Cate’s green Japanese Maple (the other day) a bright spot of red caught my eye….new growth… and goodness gracious  it was  letting me know it was there…so bright against the green.

Next my attention was caught when I realized that Rutledge’s dark red Japanese Maple had even brighter red growth sprouting around the older leaves.

Even the sassafras bush has new growth on it too!

Nature never disappoints…the best teacher in the world. Just when you think you know something about something…you learn something new….there are a lot of “somethings” out there in this world of ours.

However, mother nature dictates when growth takes place…in this case for the Japanese Maples…both in the spring and fall with the most growth taking place now in May (this month is quickly starting to feel like summer!)

We humans, however, have been given ‘free will’ to grow inwardly and outwardly whenever we want to do so…we don’t have to wait on a particular season to expand our own horizons and perceptions. Yet don’t too many of us keep putting off that new growth because it is easier to just stick to what we know and how we have always been and done things?

‘Free Will” is a slippery slope isn’t it? While we were children we all wanted to be free of school, rules and regulations, but once out realized (most of us) that we actually sort of missed the routine…it provided a stability in our lives… we had someone else to make decisions for us. Once out…we knew, for better or worse, our choices would dictate the quality of life we would live…financially, socially, and most importantly spiritually.

A surprising percentage of inmates end up right back in prison… incarcerated within five years. There are several different reasons for this sad statistic but the saddest revolves around the ones who purposefully do something to get themselves back inside the system…so they can get three square meals, be told what to do  and when to do it…in other words…they have someone to make all the decisions for them.

Freedom is something we all yearn for, fight and even die for…but it is also one of the hardest entities to completely manage. What we do learn, however, through life experiences, is that new growth in humans, that leap of faith  to be the best we can be, is well worth the leap. We know it, we feel it…we have let God into our lives…not to make choices for us but to guide us in making the best choices for us…to give us direction.

So until tomorrow….

Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” —John C. Maxwell

Isn’t this lily gorgeous? I think I got it as a gift last year…if somebody recognizes it…please let me know because it is breathtakingly beautiful…there are seven more buds about to bloom…(thinking it might be an Asiatic lily)…but not sure…any ideas?

* After a short shower (unfortunately too short) I went out to the fountain to clean out leaves and caught up in the bamboo shoots coming through the fence I saw two flowers blooming out of nowhere. I ran to go look (certainly had not planted anything over there) …the flowers looked just like the title picture lily….now the new thought is tiger lilies… (moved along by birds in their new location)

I was as so happy to find these plants hidden behind the garden…as blissful as Bliss the statue with her day lilies blooming around her.

Eva Cate looks pretty blissful herself…yesterday was “Idiom” Day at school and the students had to dress up to reflect an idiom (well-known expression)…What a fun, creative idea!….Any body got any guesses on Eva Cate?

Did  Eva Cate have “butterflies in her tummy”?

*This is too funny….Anne told me that when she and Nala go to bed now…Nala wants to brush her teeth too….even floss…so it has gotten to be their nightly ritual…I had to laugh. Nala definitely thinks she is just one of the girls.