Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Summerville has turned into a beautiful fairy land of flowers and colors of every kind imaginable. These days when I turn into my neighborhood…heading to 100 Rainbow Road…I give a silent prayer of thanks for being alive and for living in this charming and alluring town in South Carolina. Spring turns Summerville into a flower town of unparalleled beauty.

As I talked to Bernadette, wife of Martin Wright, the Irish sculptor and artist…she described their home town with the same fervor as I feel when describing Summerville. Beauty is always in the eye and heart of the beholder.

I had a few moments before the people began coming in to the art show and sale… to take some pictures of the artists…and talk to Martin about his love of the beauty that surrounds him in Ireland and his love of the bogs. He showed me a poem a famous Irish poet (Seasmus Heaney) wrote about growing up near the bogs and his love for them.

” Butter sunk under, more than a hundred years Was recovered salty and white The ground itself is kind, black butter.

Martin explained to me that every display of peat artistically is like a snowflake…there are no two designs alike. Here is a picture of the one I bought.

He also added an explanation about how the Irish bogs were formed and the connection to peat. (Today the mantra is “Peat for Heat” – Peat is a fuel source for making fires to heat Irish homes and for cooking.)

Peat is a soil that is made up of the partially decomposed remains of dead plants. Over thousands of year, these plants have accumulated on top of each other in waterlogged places. Raised bogs were formed at the end of the last ice age, which is about 10,000 years ago. 

At this time central Ireland was covered by shallow lakes left behind by the melting ice. Over the centuries, poor drainage and the build up of dead plants created layer upon layer of peat. Dead moss is the most important plant in the formation of peat. 

And here are the artists of the hour…(L to R) Susan Baughman, Donna Boerema, Anne Peterson, and Martin De Porres Wright. They laughingly refer to themselves as “Three Beauties and a Bloke.”

Music was provided by Anne and friends…actually a mixture of two different bands Anne plays with…so she said they were all “just friends jammin’ and having fun.

*…And now here comes the conclusion to a mystery painting that has been in the making for awhile…A few weeks back Anne sent me this beginning sketch and asked if I knew who took this picture of me at the beach.

I could hardly even remember this photo…Brooke took it while the Ya’s were at Edisto about a year ago…I thought I had seen a dolphin and went to check…Brooke grabbed my iPhone and took the picture. Anne must have marked it or saved it or found it again on an old blog post…but wow did she turn it into something else so deep and meaningful.

If you look carefully you see the ocean is turbulent closest to me and shore…but the farther out you go the more peaceful and beautifully blue and calm the water is…I am not looking down at the immediate turbulence in my life but instead gazing out to the unknown …the future where peace and calm prevail.

Anne named it “Carolina Girl” and plans to take money from the sale of it and make a donation to the Race for the Cure…she had me in tears. So yesterday I was the mystery “Carolina Girl” showing my best side…my back side! 🙂 *I was joking when Anne took the photo yesterday…asking “Who me?” “You think that is me?”

Life is so wonderful…sometimes I am afraid to blink less it be over that quickly. Thank you Anne from the bottom of my heart.

Anne is dropping the Wrights off tomorrow in Charleston. They are staying at a bed and breakfast downtown Charleston to see the sights before flying back home to Ireland. As much as I know they will enjoy the next couple of days…I, also, know they will be excited to go home again…or like the advertisement on the art show read:

IRELAND AND HOME AGAIN

So until tomorrow…As we all return home…let us remember to always return home to ourselves

TO COME HOME TO YOURSELF –  John O’Donohue

“May all that is unforgiven in you,
Be released.

May your fears yield
Their deepest tranquilities.

May all that is unlived in you,
Blossom into a future,
Graced with love.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

A Visual Ode to Summerville

***I think the old riddle here should be…”How many cousins does it take to blow out one’s birthday candles?”  Lachlan was under the weather last week but made a last minute rally for his friends, cousins, and classmates ….who all came to his “kid-friendly” birthday party. Everyone had a blast.

Dear Reader:

I decided yesterday afternoon to switch some birdhouses around…I felt like the “Little Chapel in the Woods” bird feeder needed to look like it was in the woods. By moving it from the front window to the side bushy area by the “Bottle Tree” the chapel looks like it really is in the deep foliage of  a wooded area. (The same as the real St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope looks)

And now I have a clearer view of the “Yellow” bird feeder out by my den window …it is larger and can hold bigger birds flying by.

The “Little Chapel in the Woods” bird feeder always reminds me of the first time I visited St. Jude’s Chapel in the Woods (just north of Asheville, NC)and how I felt such a presence of peace and calm engulf me.

The only other time I have felt this same feeling is when I return and/or (as Thomas Kemper wrote) read a book.

“Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a book.”

Lately my daily ritual has been to try to finish any errands, appointments, and/or housework by dinner time so I can sit in my recliner and read the evening hours away. It is my happiest time of the day…so restful and peaceful.

I consider reading to be a miracle in itself….when we think back to a time when there were no books I simply can’t begin to imagine a life without them. So when I read this touching, heart-warming excerpt from Jan Karon’s Father Tim series (Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good) I knew I had to share it with you.

Coot Hendrik is a character that we all know and love…there is a “Coot” around everybody…the person that most of us grew up knowing …the most recognizable man in a small town. He may be that person who runs a deli or a gas station…is friendly to a fault, funny without knowing it and would give you the shirt off his back. He is also illiterate.

In the fictional town of Mitford, NC, Coot’s name one day, is mentioned in the local paper as having gotten five votes for being a “town fixture” and a lot of the locals are stopping by and letting him know they saw his name in the paper.

Coot is beyond excited! Nothing like this has ever happened to him before. Even his mama mentioned it to him. He grabs the newspaper and runs to the local book store to ask Father Tim (who is filling in for the owner) to read the article to him again slowly…especially the part with his name in it.

Father Tim does so and Coot finds his name and uses his finger to go over it again and again. Suddenly he asks Father Tim, in a voice filled with wonder, “What is a “town fixture?”

Father Tim takes him over to a big dictionary on a stand and starts looking up the “F’s” until he finds the word  fixture and then he explains to Coot that he is “invariably present in and long associated with this town.” 

Coot grows thoughtful….to think he has discovered two things about himself he didn’t know…and they make him feel like he really belongs. Not only belongs in Mitford but he feels special, singled-out…something  he has never felt before and oh how he basks in its warmth.

Father Tim then tells Coot that his name is also in this big book they are looking at together…this dictionary. Coot can hardly contain his joy.

Father Tim shows Coot his name. Coot gasps…”How’d it git in here?”

“It’s the name of an aquatic, slow-flying , slate-colored bird of the rail family, resembling a duck.”

Coot is so overcome he wants to “borry the book” but Father Tim explains that he can’t let him haul that big dictionary away but that he has a paperback dictionary he will just give him.

This little story ends with Coot going into see his mama, ‘proud as punch’ to show her his name. He can tell she has already dipped a little snuff. He forgets to even take off his jacket in his excitement.

“Looky here, it’s my name in a book.”

His mama looks at him kind of suspicious and wants to know why his name is popping up everywhere all of a sudden.

Coot assures her that the preacher man told him that his name was always in this book and and was “always gon-be in here.”

Coot explains that he is named after a duck…and his mama says she never heard of such…he was named after his gran’daddy …“not no duck.”

But later that night…he admits to himself that he likes being named after a duck, a name in a book that is the same as his…but he won’t ever mention it again…it will always be his secret.

“He took the book and set it on the mantelpiece where he could see it from ‘nearabout’ anywhere in the room. His name was in a book!

This episode leaves off with Father Tim searching the computer for an adult literacy program. I am only about a third of the way through the book but I would ‘bet my bottom dollar’ that somehow, someway Coot is ‘gonna’ learn to read.

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I read this section right before I left for Mt. P yesterday…my Friday jaunt…and I was still in such a wonderful sense of being when I got there. The medicated bandage supposedly over the wound this past week had slipped….apparently the leg hadn’t been wrapped tight enough my nurse commented…but still the wound looked good.

Dr. Stroud said it was 99% there but he wanted 100%. I told him I was a retired school teacher  and I didn’t want to settle for a 99 either with 100 right within reach…it needed to be completely sealed. With that said…my nurse assured me that she was going to be filling out the orange folder this upcoming week… which is the “release and good-bye folder” …ready for me next week  to sign off.

So it is happening…and I find myself now at peace with everything …I wouldn’t be moving around at all without this wonderful, caring staff that has become like a second family. I really wasn’t ready to say good-bye yesterday….next Friday just feels right. March will go out with me marching right out too… with probably tears in my eyes and a thankful heart!

I think Lynn Gamache expressed it best when she wrote me after I expressed disappointment last week over the healing delay…

“Yes, difficult for sure! But as I’ve been told and often shared with others, we must believe that so often in life our disappointments are “His appointments”…and from this comes not only a learning of patience (if we remain teachable) but many other good gifts we cannot see as yet…Blessings!” (Lynn, you were right!)

So until tomorrow…Let’s all take time to encourage reading in an age where so many other technological venues deter children from this miraculous entrance into the new frontiers of knowledge and imagination.

And everyday let’s make it our job to recognize someone we meet in our daily routines with a compliment or a word of encouragement….everyone needs to feel special now and then. As God’s children we are all special all the time!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*God must have known that the laughing hysteria Gin-g and I had Thursday worked so well He chose nurses to help Gin-g through the preliminary tests yesterday with great senses of humor…where she found herself laughing again. She wants to thank everyone for their prayers…they worked…she now has the hard part ahead…waiting to hear back to see what the tests discovered and if the surgery will still be on go. Let’s keep her in our continued prayers.

As soon as I got home yesterday Vickie and I headed to Dukes for some barbecue and then over to Hollow Tree Nursery…Vickie was looking for some more “tractor seat” plants and guess what…When we asked Lisa about the new red tip bush/tree with the clusters of red berries…she said that she just called it the oriental red tip…and sold one to an elated Vickie for five dollars!

We also stopped by a Feed and Seed and got Luke and Chelsey’s chickens some treats…the “girls” were over in Vickie’s back yard when we got home…they love it there too and Vickie loves having them…. they got their treats!

***Today is the day! Come one, come all…surprises await…you might even recognize people you know or think you do in some paintings…presenting their best side…their back side. No other clues available at this time! Come see for yourself!

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I was having a little bit of a “pouty” party…I have been scared to hardly walk through my garden for the frustration of not being able to work in it like I love…so many pine cones still down and sticks that by now I, normally, would have picked up and wheel barreled out of there in droves. But I can’t risk getting dirt or a stick stuck to my dressing at this late date in the foot recovery.

Yet what I discovered when I did bravely stroll past the fence and began looking beyond the winter storms’ debris… was life returning…beautiful life in the color of green…from underground, from hanging baskets and large planters…all sprouting up and smiling at me as if to say…”It’s okay mom…I’ve got this…I know how to grow all on my own…no need to worry.”  Here are some examples!

“All’s right with the world” without me having to be in charge all the time…the Best Gardener around is taking care of things. So am I growing as well as my garden with the same amount of unconditional faith? …”No” but lessons learned from my garden are helping me get there!

(I did pick out a few petunia beds from tiny planters and a mixed bag of other little flowers to plant.I sat in the warm sun yesterday (what a difference a day makes in March) on my front porch steps and planted the “title” photo flowers, along with some bright red “Pot-unias” (as they are called) in a little wooden basket. It cheered me up immediately. I had enough  flowers left over to plant a hanging basket and for the first time I could place it on Eva Cate’s Japanese Maple…its branches are strong enough now.)

While all this was going on…Cindy sent me a link to blog post from a blogger (Kristin Espinasse) who lives in France with her husband. They are in the wine business and travel to the United States a couple of times a year… so she was staying with her sister in Colorado and while there visiting some beautiful botanical gardens.

Like me she started feeling badly about neglecting her own garden with time consumed both on her blog and the wine business. She took the vacation time to think about ideas to better balance her life. Here are some excerpts from her musings…after three weeks away from home.

Today marks three weeks away from my desk and it is beginning to show me something about the creative process:

Writing is 20 or 30 or 40 percent of the effort…

The other 60 or 70 or 80 percent is the “steam engine” behind the story: it is the words and sentences that file through your brain throughout the day and sometimes at night, no matter where you are–at home or away on vacation.

What was the F. Scott Fitzgerald book in which two characters, a husband and wife, are at a dinner party and the wife looks over at the husband whose lips are moving as he stares at the ceiling?

“Darling! What are you doing?” She says.

I’m working! He snips.

The writing engine never stops completely (oh, the stories I’ve begun in my head since landing in the U.S. None have made it to the physical composition stage, and yet all of them have kept me occupied, or preoccupied).

I am not complaining about any of this, but want to highlight a little pépin, or glitch, about creation: It can slowly wear you down. 

It is so true what Kristin says about the writing process…I have done the majority of the blog post work before I type the first letter….creative writing is continuously going on in one’s mind and imagination long before it hits the paper.

I, also, like Kristin’s thoughts on changing her attitude towards the work needed to restore her garden.

“I had thought my garden had gone to pot, but I now see many of the plants are surviving the neglect. It gives me hope and a goal for when I return to France next week. It is a simple plan, and here it is:

Water. Tend. Visit. 

Water the plants and also the dreams you’ve forgotten. Lovingly tend the garden and the precious hours in your day. Visit the seedlings and other blooming things (new friendships, new interests.)”

Source: “My French Garden and Retirement.” Kristin Espinassee

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So until tomorrow Father…Please help me turn more worries over to You to handle and show me how to live a life of faith like my plants, flowers, and trees do in my garden. They don’t worry…they just bloom under Your guidance.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

While I was working on the blog I heard a familiar voice calling…it was Gin-g bringing a pineapple shaped soft soap canister which smells like pineapple…divine. We always have such a fun visit…and this time was no different except we started laughing hysterically over three “un-funny” pre-tests Gin-i is facing today.

What is it about human nature when we are pushed to the limit? We either break down, melt down, or lose it laughing hysterically. We chose the latter. We laughed until tears came down.

It was just the release Gin-g needed and I apparently needed too. Growing older with medical obstacles lurking around every corner seems to be contagious these days. Gin-g has to face, not one, or two, but three “challenging” pre-tests today to see if she is even eligible for some needed surgery regarding her esophagus…a condition complicated by her asthma.

On a more serious note…prayers would be greatly appreciated today. Gin-g just wants to get through each of the preliminary hurdles without getting sick so she can finally get the relief she needs to resume eating normally again without pain. That is our hope and prayer for you also Gin-g! You got this girl!

*Don’t forget the BIG DAY will  finally be here tomorrow for the Anne’s ART SHOW featuring Susan Baughman, Donna Boerema, and Irish sculptor and painter, Martin De Porres Wright. Please drop by and absorb the beauty of art here, there, and everywhere.

***In my zest to get the word out about the reception, art show and sale tomorrow afternoon/evening at Anne’s house…I forgot Anne had mentioned that Martin was giving our mayor of Summerville a piece of his Irish artwork.

It took place last evening on Short Central in front of the art gallery and from all appearances seemed to be a lot of fun and quite a success!!! Hope some of you happened upon it if you were out on Third Thursday browsing the town shops or simply stopped by to speak to Anne’s wonderful Irish guests.

Dear Reader:

I had to go get “Pinkie” (my faithful old pink robe) from off the back of my bedroom door to write the blog yesterday…it is the first day of spring and downright cold for us low country residents.

The temperatures barely made it out of the forties into the low fifties for a high…Plus the day was heavily overcast with a sky filled with deep gray clouds….chilly-willy!

So for the first time in as long as I can remember…I made a fire for the first evening of the first day of spring!

However the damp cold didn’t stop the flowers from blooming. When I looked out my window by the computer and saw where a branch from an azalea bush had grown into the magnolia tree…it reminded me that no matter the weather…spring really has arrived and it is beautiful! *As you can see we still have pollen around (on the magnolia leaves) but it is getting better every day!!

Thursday, today, we should have warmer temperatures…into the upper sixties, with a few more peeks of sun, and by tomorrow Friday…the sun will be shining brightly and we will be close to seventy…as the Irish would say…Friday should be “A grand soft day”

Here are some spring quotations I like:

Spring quotes

It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want — oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
— Mark Twain

Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.
— Carl Friedrich Gauss

Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!
— Sitting Bull

O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?
— Percy Bysshe Shelley

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
— Margaret Atwood

Spring is God’s way of saying, ‘One more time!’
— Robert Orben

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I like the last quote because these days I so appreciate the changing of the seasons and I, literally, pinch myself that I am still here to see another new season arrive…what a lucky gal I am! Happiness is!

Here is a true, short spring story…God works in mysterious ways. (Reader’s Digest)

Kagan McLeod for Reader’s Digest

A Soldier’s Surprise

by Gail Litrenti-Benedetto, Park Ridge, Illinois

It is spring of 1943 during World War II. Standing among hundreds of new soldiers at Camp Grant, in Illinois, my father, Sam, just 18 years old, waits as a truck slowly drives by. A full field pack is randomly tossed to each soldier.

“How strange,” my father thinks, as he sees his last name, Litrenti, marked on each item in his pack. “How did they know it was me when they tossed the pack?” He was impressed! Beating all odds, my father was tossed a field pack from World War I—his own father’s.

So until tomorrow…Thank you Father for the promise of spring and life renewed…with God Winks accompanying each day…if we open our eyes to Your Presence.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Sammy’s cousin Butch and his wife are hanging out this spring in Kelly’s  (Jo Dufford’s daughter) yard. It is nice to know the family stays close… living in the same town. Hope Butch gets over for a visit soon.

Spring time brings the fishermen out and I saw two fun things about this popular past time that made me smile…one was crossing sign for old fishermen that Brooke and I found at Pawley’s Island when we were driving around and second was a little anecdote in a recent story I read.

Every year one small town’s pastors of every denomination would get together for a three day fishing trip…they always left a note on their office doors letting their congregations know what they were doing and bragged that this ritual always brought more people into the church.

Gone Fishing…We Catch’em…God cleans’em!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DARLING TWO-DIGIT GREAT(EST) NIECE …ADY GRACE! (With two digits in your age now Ady…I might have to join the crew and call you Adelyn…but maybe not… for just a little while longer! 🙂

Spring brought us Ady ten years ago today…and what a gift she has been! This adorable picture is a promo from her up-coming leading role as Jo Jo in the Dr. Seuss children’s musical… Her older cousins are definitely coming to see “Jo Jo” perform in April!

***It’s Getting Closer….Mark Your Calendar…This Saturday from 4-8…and you can actually be late or early or somewhere in-between…Just drop in for fun, fellowship, and beauty…there will be plenty of it to take home.

Dear Reader:

I was just thinking the other day that when we all face different adversities along our path through life we are also given the opportunity to dig a little deeper inside ourselves to find the healing grace we so seek to persevere. This has certainly been my experience with my foot wound to date.

…And it doesn’t stop there. It also gives us a chance to be an advocate for others approaching the same obstacle as our own…while fighting medical bureaucracy to even get treated depending on one’s ability to have the right insurance. Doesn’t it make many of us feel guilty that we can have a medical procedure approved when others can not? We have so far to still go with leveling the medical, educational, and job opportunity fields in America.

Personally for me….this blog post was created from the uncertainty of a breast cancer diagnosis (with time restrictions) and the desire to reach out to others during this isolated period in my life while simultaneously keeping a family time-line during my continued fight and treatments. It also brought about “Legally Pink” our family/friend team for the annual Race for the Cure advocacy walk.

And here I am..a little over a decade later…still writing and doing what makes me happy. So I can certainly understand the title of this article (below) quite well.

This excerpt from “When You Combine Your Trials with Your Talents” – Sheridan Voysey

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. — Ephesians 4:7

“I made a number of discoveries while writing The Making of Us — one of them being that the trials of life can actually release our greatest gifts into the world.

You think of some of the great artists:

Think about the painter Degas, for example. He suffered from retina disease for the last fifty years of his life. He had to switch from using paint to pastel because the chalk lines were easier for him to see.

What about Renoir? He had to have brushes placed between his fingers when arthritis made them clench like claws.

What about Matisse? When cancer surgery left him immobile, he turned to collage, getting assistants to attach colored pieces of paper to a larger sheet fixed on the wall.

Now here’s the thing: the result for each of them was a new creative breakthrough.

Degas’ Blue Dancers, Renoir’s Girls at the Piano, Matisse’s The Sorrows of the King, and other masterpieces came about from these change of practices for each one of these artists. The melding of their trial with their talent brought something new into existence.

There are other examples:

Think of Maya Angelou. She found her writer’s voice by combing her experiences of poverty and racism with her poetic gifts.

What about Joni Eareckson-Tada? She combined the horrific experience of quadriplegia with a gift of encouragement to start Joni and Friends, an organisation that’s helped countless people with disabilities all across the world.

What about Chuck Colson? After being incarcerated from his part in the Watergate scandal, he used that humbling experience (and it should have been humbling) combined with his leadership abilities to start an amazing organisation called Prison Fellowship, which has changed the lives of inmates and their families everywhere.”

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It isn’t just the bumps in the road in life that give us opportunities to advocate for something we believe in….equal medical treatment for all humans, fund-raisers for cures of all cancers, including breast cancer, or whatever other cause you endorse. When we see random acts of kindness we also have an opportunity to respond…to let the givers know how much their kindness and stories have touched others’ lives.

Monday Susan Cadwell, my sister-in-law, felt so moved by the actions of Luke and Chelsey to wash and clean my car Sunday afternoon…that she emailed me to ask what restaurants they liked or perhaps did they frequent the movies?…She wanted to give them a ‘pat on the back’ for all they do for this neighborhood and many others. She loves to hear and read about young people doing such caring deeds.

Yesterday Susan dropped some movie passes off with me to give them… with no note, anonymously (I put the passes in a bag and left them on their front door) but I knew Luke and Chelsey would want to know…so I cut and pasted Susan’s email and sent it to Luke. God Wink…Susan just moved to Summerville from Conway back in the fall…and Luke was in Conway yesterday doing some work there. A double wink….Luke typed:

“OH MY GOSH! That is so nice!!! I’m actually in Conway today and tomorrow working around the Wild Wing Golf Course! I will tell Chelsey about it. So very nice!

And the beat goes on…. the circle of giving continues. Beautiful life.

I had a ‘pause’ moment yesterday when my friend Patty Knight, from Simpsonville, sent me a picture of a book and asked if I had ever read it…It is the story of a teacher with a big red geranium in the window. I mean…REALLY? Deja vu again! 🙂 *I had not read it.

It was published in 1971…the same year I graduated college and began my first year teaching at Alston Middle School where I would spend the next three decades. Another God Wink.

The title is quite intriguing…obviously this teacher didn’t have a “Chelsey” to grab the geranium and produce a clone like I did! 🙂

So until tomorrow…When the next scary wave hits…think how lovely it is going to be on the other side of it…floating happily again through life while that particular wave crashes and disappears from sight.

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

On a personal note I would like to send a shout out for prayers for my nephew Lee who is on a jazz tour and will be gone from home about a month. That is tough when you are married and have a little one at home…tough for both spouses. It is the longest time he has had to be away.

On the flip side…I know this is something a jazz musician must dream about…and I am happy for Lee that he is getting this well-deserved experience in his musical career.

Please keep Lee in your thoughts and prayers, as well as, his sweet little family who all miss him. May God keep everyone safe in the Palm of His Hand.

*** Thanks Michele for finding the name of the bush/tree that I found astoundingly beautiful on the Summerville tour the other day…It is called Red Tip Photinia.…used a lot as a hedge…this one was allowed to grow upward apparently….It is beautiful but apparently Michele’s friends also noted that it can have an unpleasant smell…during parts of the growing season….though I didn’t pick up on any of that while taking the picture Monday.

Dear Reader:

When I read the title quote for today’s blog (Rumi) I knew this is what I wanted to address today… because every day when I wake up I have the opportunity to discover something new and exciting. For me beauty is life…and I realize that it is the continuous search for beauty that makes my life so fulfilling.

It is what motivates me to write a blog post every day. I simply want to share the beauty of the world with the rest of the world. It appears in so many diverse forms…but if we look hard enough and long enough…we can find beauty in most situations we encounter in life…sometimes it takes awhile to reflect back on a challenging situation and see it differently with the passage of time… as being synonymous with beauty…but beauty is so in twined with life… it is impossible to separate the two.

There is the beauty of new relationships, the beauty of old relationships, and the beauty of the security of on-going relationships. There is beauty in words, phrases, and sentences…in comments, compliments, and conversation. There is beauty in the eyes of loving, giving individuals, beauty in laughter and even sometimes tears, beauty in birth and death.

We rise each morning to the beauty of glowing dawns and bid farewell to the day with the beauty of the myriad of colored sunsets. When we think about it….God created our home here on earth filled with beauty before He created us. He wanted everything to be just perfect before we entered the scene. And what a magnificent job He did.

*(I won’t spoil the beauty of this post today with how man has taken this mind-boggling gift  and continues to destroy it with some of the worst choices ever…most involving greed…but we all know this anyway!)

Yesterday I walked around my garden and smiled at all the green stems slowly pushing up through the ground to reveal themselves and since I still can’t remember where everything is planted…I search in happy anticipation each morning to see what beauty will unveil and reveal itself to me.

It was just so drop-dead gorgeous yesterday I got in my clean “Surcie” and drove around the back roads and older sections of Summerville… stopping occasionally to pull over and just take in the sheer moments of beauty.

Pine Forest Inn Summerville, SC

One of the most historic sights in Summerville is the old “carriage” entrance to the famous Pine Forest Inn where once Presidents and celebrities roomed.

The preserved entrance (the inn is long gone) is beautiful in every season as you can see. The title picture I took yesterday and the rare, memorable winter entrance scene (2018 Summerville snow and ice storm) I saved as a favorite.

As I continued along this historical neighborhood I had to stop and pull over again…look at this gorgeous (bush/tree…it has grown so tall)…At first I thought it was a red tip blooming but look at the clusters of red berries…it took my breath away. Any idea what it is… anyone?

*I was under this tree shooting the picture upward….where I could see the azure blue of the sky through small patches of branch openings…It is the closest I have ever felt to being transformed to a magical land…For a moment I thought I was in a technicolor movie.

In the beauty battle between the camellias and azaleas this season the camellias have definitely won…they came early, bloomed and continue to do so even as the first round of azaleas are already wilting and drying up…gone for another year. Still the azaleas are fabulous as well as the pretty petite purples that pop up unexpectedly in old hanging baskets…proudly announcing their survival of the winter season.

So until tomorrow…”May the beauty of what you love be what you do.” Go find the beauty that defines you.

“Today is my favorite thing.” Winnie the Pooh

Let me introduce you visually to Martin De Porres Wright and his lovely wife Bernadette from Ireland. Please stop by the Drop-in, Reception, Show and Sale this Saturday from 4-8 at Anne Peterson’s home…131 Scalybark Road (Walnut Farms) and meet the Wrights. You can’t go wrong!

*If you are like me…just listening to the Wrights talk makes me happy. 🙂

*Anne took this photo of the Wrights getting ready for the show…the all important hanging of the paintings….they make a great team because they have this part of the process down (excuse the pun) to a “fine art!”

Dear Reader:

With so much personal family going-on’s around St. Patrick’s Day I didn’t really have time to talk much about St. Patrick himself this year. Yesterday my pastor, Jeff Kackley, decided to do some research himself on the life of St. Patrick. He discovered, like I did as a teacher, that children’s books are the best source to use for basic facts coupled with interesting side stories.

What he discovered is that there isn’t a lot of information about St. Patrick’s personal life and that most of what we know has come down from his own journal style writing… (Of course first-hand accounts are always the best.) Pastor Kackley was most surprised at the fact that there were Christians already living in Ireland before St. Patrick arrived so he didn’t exactly bring Christianity to Ireland but he certainly did spread the good news and built a lot of churches along the way.

Devotionals Daily had some interesting tidbits on St. Patrick from their editors.

Editor’s Note:

“Happy St. Patrick’s Day from all of us at Devotionals Daily! Patrick spread the Word of God across Ireland after he was kidnapped by pirates at age fourteen and sold as a slave to be a shepherd. He later escaped back to his homeland of England where a few years later he was given a vision from God to study for the priesthood, be ordained, and then return to Ireland.

Through all his sufferings his faith in the Lord was tested again and again but the obstacles never deterred him. Patrick went on to preach the Gospel all across Ireland (famously using the shamrock as an analogy for the Trinity) and built churches there to the glory of God. *The quote in this devotional (post title) is from his poem of trust in God called “The Breastplate.”

Many of you have seen the latest Colgate toothpaste commercial called the “Close Talker.” We watch as a businessman talks to his peers around him standing practically nose to nose to them…all the while proclaiming he has confidence in his breath due to Colgate. (I think they took this idea from  the Jerry Seinfeld series when one of Elaine’s new creepy boyfriends was a “close talker”…  driving everyone backwards trying to put some distance between him and them.)

In kindergarten didn’t we all learn to respect each other’s personal space? (As it was called back then)  I remember my first grade teacher taking us out on the sidewalk in front of the school and letting us draw a circle around ourselves with chalk. We were to always stay that far away from another when speaking so as not to make the other child uncomfortable.

Yet St. Patrick is telling us that Christ can be beside, before, behind, beneath, above, and within each of us. God is definitely not just up in heaven somewhere…He is down here as close to us as our heart and soul is. I find this quite comforting when I feel His presence around me when I am reading or watching television or whatever…He is always welcome company.

From Encouragement Today….Samantha Evilsizer

“You Are Never Alone”

“Miss Emma’s wrinkled hands cupped my chin, her palm a reservoir for my tears. I walked down the hallways saying tearless good-byes to 119 other nursing home residents, and yet my farewell to her released a levee of pent-up emotions. I couldn’t abandon her. It felt utterly wrong to leave her alone, forsaken in this dark place.

My first “real” job at this institution — which my coworkers and I referred to as “The Brick” — would have been bleak if not for Miss Emma and a few others. Over the one year I worked there, I didn’t allow many details of this place to get beyond the surface of my heart. Yet one name, one person, was chiseled there deeply: Miss Emma.

I perched on the edge of her bed, the edge of our good-bye, unable to leave her. Who’ll sit in the sunshine with you? Who’ll listen? Who’ll sing hymns with you?

Visions of Miss Emma alone left me aching for her. But she was bright with hope. Her beautiful brown eyes brimmed with confidence.

“I’ll be fine, sugar,” she said. “I’m never alone. Don’t you realize the One who created the sun sits with me? He listens always, hearing my prayers and needs. His presence is in the very words we sing to Him. Child, we’re never alone.”

Tucked away from the world, Miss Emma changed mine. She lived securely rooted to the Vine. She read the words of Scripture and tethered herself to Jesus’ love through worship and prayer. Miss Emma lived in the truth of St. Patrick’s prayer:

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me. ~ St. Patrick

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

So until tomorrow… Let’s all remember that we are never alone…even when we fall into our own personal wilderness of sadness or depression God can find us. He sees, He cares, He pursues, and He is always with us. Invite Him in.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

What’s New in the Garden?

Two more days until spring…Hallelujah! Welcome Spring…We Love You!

*More exciting news! Anne’s Irish friends have arrived and Martin De Porres Wright will be doing a presentation on Bogs and “The Twelve Bens” demonstrating his unique use of peat dust in painting and sculpture. Please mark this on your calendar, March 23 from 4-8 at Anne’s home. See the invitation below for more details.

*( I got to meet Martin and his wife at church today and they are so nice…they will be staying with Anne for a little over a week taking time to see the Lowcountry and taste the cuisine. )

*Chelsey came over this afternoon and asked if she could borrow my car keys…she and Luke were washing their cars…and wanted to wash mine also while they were at it. *Not only did Surcie get a bath  but the car also got a “detailed” cleaning inside also

*All I could think of was the song “Something Good” from the Sound of Music when Julie Andrews sings that somewhere in her youth or childhood she must have done something good to deserve this love she had found. I feel the same way…I must have done something good (somewhere in my past) to deserve neighbors like Luke and Chelsey!  Surcie is going to go prancing down the streets today!

Dear Reader:

One of my favorite things is mailboxes covered with flowering vines or small shrubs…. my most favorite is our own state flower on top of mailboxes…the yellow jessamine vine. It is very popular this time of the year and it makes plain mailboxes pop!

Since lantana grows easily here in the lowcountry…(like Mandy’s purple lantana around her mailbox)…it is another obvious choice for mailbox decorators.

Another of my favorite things are gates silhouetted by mother nature at her best. (John and Mandy’s gate leading out to the water)

You already know nooks and crannies lure me like the sirens of old…but also a lone little (very little) daffodil did the same thing. *(Doodle just texted me saying my photo I sent her (below) was probably a jonquil if it was small… and it is really tiny) It struggled to open against all the odds…what a persevering little champion for life.

Anne and I planted dozens and dozens of daffodil bulbs about three years ago…the first year they bloomed beautifully, the next year…not so much so, pretty straggly…and this year they didn’t flower at all. Except for this late, very late little bloom starting to open yesterday. What a trooper!

I looked up the various reasons why daffodils don’t flower and they ranged from lack of sun to too much fertilizer/nitrates or planting too late or too early…too hot or too cold at the wrong time…”sometimes dirt and mulch build up and they’re so deep they won’t bloom” – in other words…if your daffodils are blooming just be thankful and don’t analyze the situation.

*However I am growing rather fond of my patches of daffodil stems too…as long as they are standing…there is always hope something still might happen…miracle believer.

I can relate to my little jonquil…it is definitely blooming late after all the other daffodils have come and gone…but don’t we all have the opportunity to bloom at any time in our lives…we just don’t have to do everything at the same time as everyone else. Late bloomers are the most appreciative of their accomplishment; more so, I believe, than the earlier bloomers who just took their success for granted.

And speaking of blooming…my grandchildren are growing way too quickly…my youngest grandson, Lachlan, turns four today. (Our St. Patrick Day’s baby) There was a family party for him given late Friday afternoon by mom and dad and I was so happy to be surrounded by all my children and their children (dog children included.) It had been awhile since we have all been together…Walsh and I have decided we need to work on gathering (at least) once  a month…especially in those months where we don’t have a family celebration on the calendar.

Lachlan’s party….It involved construction of a four-layered garage for Hot Wheel cars (Thanks John for putting that thing together), a dinosaur board game and all kinds of sports cards to get Lachlan his equipment to play soccer this spring. The best part was lots of hugs!

Load’em up…the St. Patty’s Day neighborhood romp was about to start…but they did have to end it a little early because of the “no see’ums!” Ouch!

While the older children went for a ride with Uncle Woo and Aunt Mandy…Eloise decided she had had enough partying…she took off on her own for a little peace and quiet.

The week actually flew by….Wednesday we took the children to Vickery’s on Shem Creek and then let them walk the long pier out to the end…beautiful views. And lots of giant “crabs” along the way!

So until tomorrow…Make memories today…tomorrow might be too late.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone….and officially your birthday now my four-year-old grandson Lachlan! Happy Birthday! Love, Boo

St Patricks greeting card with three cute cartoon leprechauns

Dear Reader:

I am back home safe and sound…getting in a little after nine last night. I got to Lincolnville before the rains hit and believe me they hit. Crossing the bridges, however, was spectacular because the lightning  literally lit up the skies with the most peculiar shades of pink in the last vestiges of light.

As I stared up at the awe-inspiring skies…I smiled at the eternal question man asks, “The question isn’t whether God is up there…but whether He’s down here.” (Now that one I do know…God is everywhere and I do mean everywhere!)

One of Grandmother Wilson’s favorite responses she gave when asked if she was tired at the end of a day….was “No rest for the wicked, and the righteous don’t need none.”  (To this day that expression still puzzles me…because I try to be as righteous as possible most days and hold off the “wicked” part of life best I know how…but darn if I’m not tired…a happy tired…but tired.

So I will wait until I rise this morning refreshed and ready to take on the world before sharing some stories, thoughts, and photos from the past few days with you on tomorrow’s blog post.

Update: I still have my bandages on my foot up to my knee. Even though I was disappointed yesterday that March 15 didn’t mark the end of the weekly five months worth of visits as hopefully deemed possible… I couldn’t be upset with the doctors or nurses because I could tell the medical team was just as disappointed as me for me… and like Doodle reminded me…the wound will completely heal in God’s time…and it will.

*Besides I should have known the Ides of March might upset the apple cart. It is historically known as the day Caesar was assassinated by acquaintances, his closest friend being Brutus… Caesar’s dying words were uttered at the sadness of his friend’s betrayal...Et Tu Brute?  (And for me…Et tu oh five month foot wound?)

I had written farewell/appreciation cards to the team as a whole and a couple of special “Friday friends” who I bonded with (one was leaving and facing surgery next week.) I had also stopped by the bundt cake company (about a mile from the treatment center) and picked up 12 small individual cakes.

*I kiddingly told the team I wasn’t taking the box of mini-cakes back home with me (since it turned out not to be the last appointment)…but they had better enjoy them ‘in the moment’ because they just got their finale treats early. 🙂

So until tomorrow….”I need to stop looking for what I want to hear from God and instead listen to what He is trying to tell me”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Thanks Gin-g for the special little bouquet of mixed flowers…it brought me the smile (as I made a run for it to the porch from the car last night) I could really use after the medical disappointment.

Perfect timing!

Dear Reader:

This true story of a ‘random act of kindness’ re-enforces my belief that every thing in life does happen for a reason…and that reason connects us to others and the universe simultaneously.

Resource: Circles of Kindness from Around the World: (“A Circle of Kindness Started by a 10 year-Old Girl- onelucky lady…posted July 22, 2010)

“I was shopping at my local supermarket, as I normally have for years.  On this particular day, I had done about 2 weeks worth of shopping and was headed toward the register to pay for my groceries.  After the cashier had scanned my items and I had bagged them up, she stated that the total was $150.  

I reached in my back right pocket to grab the money to pay and realized there was no money in it.  I started to get nervous.  I knew my pocket book was in the car and I was sure I had put the money in my back right pocket.

I look at cashier with wet eyes and a confused look not knowing what to do.  There were people behind me in line. She told me to speak with the courtesy counter.  I laughed and said, “Really? It’s cash, no one would hand that in!”  

I said I would be right back and ran to my truck to get out more money to pay my bill, money that was to be used to pay another bill.  I ran back inside and handed money to the cashier.  She again prompted me to ask the courtesy desk, “You never know…” she said.  I shook my head in despair but said “okay”.  

I decided that there was no harm in checking so I walked up to a woman behind the courtesy counter and said “I have to ask, did anyone turn in cash by any chance?”

She asked “How much?”.  My face then lit up.  “$200 in the form of one hundred dollar bills.” I replied.  She said, “Actually, yes, someone did!” I was so surprised! “Who? I want to thank them.”  She pointed to a young girl about 10 years old and said, “She did.”

I walked over to the mom and hugged her.  The mother replied , “It wasn’t me, it was my daughter.”  

I said “I know, I wanted to thank you both, although she found it … it’s because of you that I got this back.”  (I was so happy, I was almost in tears.) 

The next day at work, a person in another department offered me tickets to the circus.  He handed me 5 tickets. Almost instantly that young girl’s face popped into my head.  After work I went back to the supermarket and stopped at the courtesy counter and asked if she had any idea who that woman and little girl were? 

She smiled and said, “Yes, actually I do.  She is a friend of mine and a regular customer.”  Oh good, I was so happy.   I asked her to do me a favor and pass along the 5 tickets to her and say thank you from me.

She told me that the family of the little girl who found my money didn’t have very much so they would really appreciate this generous gesture.  She also said that they have 3 children, so five was the prefect number of tickets! 

As I later walked off…I looked up, smiled at God and thought “Of course five was the perfect number!”

So until tomorrow…The circle of giving and receiving is a continuous one in life…but in order to be a part of the circle…we must first give.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Tomorrow I will be home…with lots of new stories and pictures of an early St. Patrick’s Day birthday party for Lachlan…our cutest little leprechaun around!