Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Executive Guidepost editor, Rick Hamlin, had a little one-minute video clip on the Guidepost website in which he considered how singing a Christmas carol can be linked to prayer.

We hear Christmas carols everywhere this time of year….in the car, while shopping, at church, at parties and celebrations…we are undulated in beautiful, upbeat Christmas carol music. Yet we still let ourselves fall victim to the inner misperceptions that we aren’t enough,  because we don’t have enough to buy those we love what they might wish for…or what we think they should have.

Yet…if we take a break from all the busyness and craziness of advertising and sales propaganda hitting us  24/7 and instead turn the lamps down low and listen to Christmas carols…the flip-side answers for gratitude for what we do have are all there….food, a roof over our heads, loving family, special friends and a little baby who brought love into the world… They are sung to us in the messages of the Christmas carols. *And you won’t  find one carol proclaiming over-buying, self-induced stress, loud noises, fake smiles and total exhaustion.

Here are just a few lines from some of our favorite Christmas carols…

*“Silent night, Holy night…all is calm…all is bright.” Why not walk outside one night and look up at all the stars… so calm and so bright? It doesn’t cost a dime and yet peace envelopes us if we take the time to admire God’s Firmament- the best show in town… at no cost.

*Joy to the World the Lord has come. Haven’t we all been in a position where we are waiting on one cousin, sibling, uncle, aunt, parent or grandparent to arrive in order for Christmas to begin? We have already prepared Him a room (top bunk bed in Johnny’s room). We can’t imagine the holidays without this person and then suddenly the doorbell rings and there he/she is! The joy of Christmas has arrived. And everyone “repeats the sounding joy.”

*“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear“- Sometimes if I wake up and can’t go back to sleep around midnight or so…I love to walk out on the porch and just listen to the sounds of stillness in the neighborhood. On other nights I can hear music and laughter coming from the club when a party is going on… which is just one street over from me…and the sounds makes me smile. “The world in solemn stillness lay to her the Angels sing.”

So the next time we get caught up negatively with all the fabricated Christmas busyness… let’s use the carols in prayer. We can all sing and make a joyful noise… even if not in tune.

So until tomorrow…Remember the Psalms were all musical originally…I think God loves to hear us sing our prayers to Him and for us it can bring calm and peace back to Christmas.

“Today is my favorite day”…Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday morning I went over to Vickie’s house across the street…she was running something off for me since my copier has stopped copying…and was I in for a treat. Vickie has been a busy elf…everything around and inside her cozy home is beautiful!

Yesterday was actually the warmest day we have had in awhile…so I looked over the garden and to my surprise…the azalea bush was starting to pop out again…even after all these freezing nights we have had lately…and the white camellias are just beautiful!

I used the two white camellia blooms and  two of the azalea blooms to make a small centerpiece for the kitchen table. *And Doodle dropped off some of her mouth-watering lemon squares to share with the medical team at the Wounded Care Center. They will be so happy…delicious!

Doodle said for me to open her gift since it was Christmas items…a theme…Sammy the Cardinal…beautiful redbird place mats, napkins, kitchen towel, angel holding a red bird and a red bird Christmas tree ornament….I love it! Thank you Doodle for this and everything you have done for me these past months….bandaging, feeding, driving and loving…you are the best!

Dear Reader:

Have you ever thought of praying with Christmas carols?

Think about it.  We are surrounded by Christmas carols this time of year and it is a wonderful way to pray. Use the music to help us pray.

Think about the psalms…they were meant to be sung not just recited.

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I read a true short Christmas story from Guidepost (author-Craig Johnson) that took my “I Believe” personal “escalator” to the very top of the faith pole…even setting off a bell at the top!

“The Star that Saved Christmas” 

“I’m a CSI, crime-scene investigator, for Los Angeles County and it’s a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a- year job. Even on Christmas Eve. I went to bed that night hoping to sleep until morning, when my three daughters would rush in giddy and impatient to open their gifts. But at midnight the phone rang. “We need you at a crime scene,” the dispatcher said. 

There had been a home burglary in a poor area of the city. “It can’t wait until the morning,” the deputy at the scene told me when I called for details. “You’ll understand when you get here.”

I drove to the location. The deputy met me at the door. “Try and be quiet, their kids are sleeping,” he said, leading me inside. 

A man and woman were holding each other in the dimly lit hallway, their eyes red from crying. I walked into the living room. Now I understood. Lying on its side was a skinny Christmas tree, nothing but carpet where Christmas presents should have been. “We saved all year for those gifts,” the man said to me. “If there’s anything you can do”…and his trembling lips and glazed expression turned away.

Determined, I dusted everything in the house for fingerprints. There was no chance of solving the case without them. By tomorrow the stolen goods would be history. But the thief had been thorough; everything had been wiped. “I’m sorry,” I said to the couple, utterly dismayed. But what could I do?  I slowly headed for the door.

Suddenly a golden glint shone right into my eyes, too bright to ignore. What’s that? I wondered.

I swung the front door out of the way and looked behind it. On the floor was a gold star tree topper. But it wouldn’t have just rolled out of sight? Maybe the burglar had touched it.

I dusted it and developed the most complete, full fingerprint I’d ever seen. At the station, I ran it against our records. The identified suspect lived around the corner from the victims. I called the deputy with the information, then drove back over to the family’s home.

I pulled up at the same time the deputy did. The suspect was cuffed in the back of the police car. The deputy grinned and popped the trunk, full of the stolen gifts. “We got our man,” he said.

Yes, we did. But not without a little help from a star- a Christmas star – behind a door, in the dim light -that shone just for me.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

I have often wondered if I had been alive at the time and sighting of the Christmas star…would I have reacted to it, would I have believed it “shone just for me” or simply ignored it as just an unusually big beautiful star? What did the wise men see that night that others didn’t…something that made them change their plans and destination completely for a long sojourn elsewhere ….perhaps leading everywhere or nowhere?

So until tomorrow…Does God give us the gift of an extra special insight if we are open to His miracles with our outer sight? If our eyes are open to His possibilities?

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Our Lowcountry “Snow” – Yesterday we woke up to the most beautiful frost-covered scene…it looked like a sheet of ice with snow had covered the whole street. Even the frozen rose bush was exquisite with the white frost as its backdrop.

Carol Seavy, a wonderful friend from the church, stopped by yesterday with the most delicious soup…a perfect day for the perfect soup and chocolate chip cookies to boot! Yahoo! Thank you Carol and I so enjoyed our visit!

Dear Reader:

There are so many memories involved with preparing for Christmas that it is hard not to grow sentimental over the holidays…some happy memories and others perhaps sad. Still collectively they touch our hearts with laughter or a tear.

Brooke sent me some sentimental  anecdotes that someone had passed on to her…most of them I had heard at least once before (though they still tugged at my heart) but a couple of them I had not and then one reminded me of a recent incident in my family that still has me laughing to myself in the middle of the day.

Here are the two anecdotes:

A four-year old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, and who had recently lost his wife was sitting on his porch swing.

Upon seeing the man cry the little boy went in the old gentleman’s yard, climbed up on his lap in the swing, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy replied: ” Nothing, I just helped him cry.”

What a wise child! Don’t we, as adults, always want to fix everything…whether it is a problem with one of our children or another adult friend’s dilemma? When really…all a person in the midst of a problem wants is someone to listen to him or her? My on-going Word of the Year… LISTEN…I realize its growing power… year after year after year.

Second anecdote:

Whenever I’m disappointed with my spot  in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scot.

Jamie was trying out for a part in the school play. His mother told me that he’d set his heart on being in it, though she feared he would not be chosen.

On the day the parts were awarded, I went with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement. 

“Guess what, Mom” he shouted. “I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer.” (I have never forgotten those words that will remain a lesson to me for the rest of my life.)

It is the second anecdote that reminded me of a story Mandy told me about…concerning Jake’s Christmas Performance Sunday night. The memory has me laughing out loud every time I think about it.

During one segment of the Christmas program each child was to recite a couple of lines from the Christmas Story. Unfortunately the majority of the children froze or were ‘star-struck’ or something and couldn’t manage to eek out but a couple of words.

So their teacher, poor Miss Angel, (perfect name for a pre-school teacher, right?) was running behind each child whispering the words in his/her ear.

Like the other students Jake started out strong…”Peace on Earth” and then pulled a blank. The audience saw Miss Angel scurrying over to Jake and whispering something in his ear. Since he had the ‘mike’ right in front of him everyone could hear Miss Angel’s whispering sounds beaming through.

Jake started again…“Peace on Earth… … … “Psst! Psst! Psst!” (mimicking Miss Angel’s whisperings.) The audience was wiping their eyes…with tears, mirth, and joy! Joy for four-year-olds at Christmas!

Yesterday was another cold day but at least the sun came out! Welcome back…we have missed you! Sometime during the middle of the afternoon I fell fast asleep after wrapping Christmas presents. I woke startled… wondering what time it was. I could see the sun was starting to dip and the clock said 4:30.

Suddenly a beam of sunlight shone through the glass storm door and turned the hearth a golden orange…right where one of the Santa Claus’s sat. As I stared at it…something new appeared…the shadow of an angel. I turned and looked back at the storm door and realized that my birthstone angel Marcia gave me several years ago had caught the sun’s rays and was basking in the glow. Mystery solved…but a beautiful one on a late cold wintry day.

So until tomorrow…We never know when God will wink and share a laugh with us from a four-year-old or provide a little mystery among His angels! The magic of Christmas!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Going back in time…even to the early 2oth century when Archibald Rutledge still brought his family home for Christmases…expectations were kept pretty simple except for food and that special once a year gift. Decorations were made from natural materials indigenous to the area…pine trees became Christmas trees and swags of pine decorated the front verandas and tables. The smell of Christmas in the South is definitely a pine smell.

I can tell from the photo above that the title picture had to be taken after Archibald Rutledge (SC ‘s First Poet Laureate) death. The house has been restored and painted. Even though Rutledge spent the last years of his life trying to keep the old plantation from caving in…painting and other luxuries just weren’t in the budget as seen by this earlier Christmas picture after he returned home.

Rutledge took time to remember the Christmases at Hampton while he lived there in his adolescence and later his retiring years by writing the book Carolina Christmas. His descriptions of a typical Christmas in the early 1900’s is fascinating to me today…a different world but a beautiful one.

The Post and Courier ran an excerpt from his Christmas memories a few years ago and I will share some of these with you today.

…” To see how a typical plantation Christmas in the South is observed you must go with me far through the pine-woods that fringe the South Carolina coast, to one of those old plantations that lie along the Santee River delta. As we drive along the level road, the great forest will withdraw from us on all sides, disclosing magic vistas and mysterious swamp views, or perhaps a still stretch of water retired mistily among the pines.

In every water-course there will be elm and gum-trees, burdened with great bunches of mistletoe; while beside the road, beautiful in their symmetry, their foliage, and their berries lovely holly-trees will invite our fascinated eyes. And probably in the hollies or in the black-gums or tupelos of the swamp, but surely darting swiftly among the tall pines, the light of the sinking sun striking vividly on their scarlet breasts, we shall see a hundred, possibly a thousand, robins, joyous among the delights afforded by the Southern winter.

While we sit in the balmy air on the broad white veranda, listening to the singing as it floats softly through the night, the spirit of Christmas comes very near to us. There among the ancient oaks the wind through the swaying mosses breathes olden runes, while the Christmas stars above the solemn woods hold the promise of eternal light.

“After the children have gone to bed in the great rambling plantation house, we begin arranging the Christmas presents; and these include not only the number for the family, but those for the servants, and the servants’ families, friends, and visitors, and the friends’ and visitors’ friends, and so on. Many will come, and every one will get a present. Then we sit around the fireplace and talk about Christmases past.

A huge fire is lit the next morning… kept going all day by live oak. The first meal of the day is a small breakfast followed by the big Christmas meal which consists of a huge brunch for all.

“A Christmas breakfast on a Southern plantation is one of those leisurely and delightful events that have no definite beginning or ending, but which are aglow throughout with the light and warmth of mirth, fellowship and affection. Perhaps a cup of tea and a roll and marmalade, with a bunch of fresh violets or a rose from the garden on the tray, will be served first, as we gather on the piazza.

Later in the late morning/early afternoon hours there will be an elaborate breakfast in the quaint old dining room, where, by red firelight, and watched intensely by the frieze of deer’s antlers festooned with holly and smilax, we shall pass two happy hours. Among the truly Southern dishes most enjoyed are the roasted rice-fed mallards, the venison sausages, and the crisp, brown corn-breads.

The deer hunt is the climax of Christmas Day for the hunters…but the joke is that hardly anyone ever actually takes down a deer on the Christmas Day Hunt. Still the bragging rights stories begin… about how close they came to getting a deer continues and this charade ends the day with drink, lights foods, and much merriment.

Source: “Plantation Christmas Remembers Another Era” (December 19, 2012 –  Edward M. Gilbreth)

So until tomorrow….Let us all take time from our Christmas busyness to stop and remember Christmases past…they all contributed to our feelings about Christmases present and what we might do to simplify them in order to spend more time with stories than food.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Jake had his Christmas program at his pre-school Sunday evening and they sure knew who to put right in front of the microphone…Jake was ‘getting down” to “We Three Kings of Orient Are”…even added a little extra clap down session. Wish I knew how to tranfer videos onto blog posts…but it is beyond my technological skills.

I received this creative Christmas card from Kaitlyn and Tommy…it took me a minute to realize this was a photo taken in Dingle, Ireland months ago…  while Kaitlyn added magically a little mistletoe! Perfect!

Holiday Kisses   With love, the Dingles

Since the other Dingle family’s (Walsh and Mollie) flight got cancelled to return back home Sunday due to inclement weather (hopefully they got in last night) it looks like the cousins had more time to play together. And Eloise (left) got to love on her uncle and spend time with her new cousin!

Vickie took me to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store yesterday afternoon to get paper products…lots of them…suddenly I was out of everything and they had the most beautiful hybrid poinsettias…mixed colors within one plant…just lovely.

The snow continued yesterday on Pinnacle Mountain…the waterfalls Mike built for Honey are now completely frozen over…20 + inches continuing as of yesterday morning. Wow!

Dear Reader:

Today’s blog post definitely started with a God Wink sense of humor. I subscribe to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary ‘Word of the Day’ website because I love learning new words…it is a hobby of mine… of sorts.

Today when I looked at the word that popped up…it took me a few seconds to realize what the word was…it had been a long time since I had heard “galumph” used in any situation…yet when I read the definition I immediately, not only recognized it, but completely absorbed its meaning on a quite personal level.

Bump, thump, thud. There’s no doubt about it—when someone or something galumphs onto the scene, ears take notice. Galumph first lumbered onto the English scene in 1872 when Lewis Carroll used the word to describe the actions of the vanquisher of the Jabberwock in Through the Looking Glass: “He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back.”

Etymologists suspect Carroll created galumph by altering the word gallop while throwing in a pinch of triumphant for good measure. In other words…a person who was galumphing along conveyed a feeling of triumph or victory…in the sense of “exultant bounding.”

So it appears to me then that Santa must galumph around the Christmas Tree as he leaves presents for all the good boys and girls…bringing them  victory of unbridled triumph in toyland fantasies.

Personally I started out just ‘hop lumbering’ along following the initial surgery on my foot (Mohs surgery) because the pressure and amount of pain in my left foot gave me no other alternative. But since the vac wound machine has been removed (with all its octopus tentacle tubes running up my leg) and new alternative procedures have slowly filled in the wound ..I can honestly say I am galumphing around more and more…feeling closer to the final triumph and victory over this medical “adventure” than ever before.

Maybe, just maybe, I will galumph or “exaltedly bound” out of the Comprehensive Wound Center just in time for Christmas?

The best thing to come from this extended “self-contained environment” I have found myself in, is a new awareness of all the beauty bestowed around me that I never noticed.

Take yesterday for example. It was cold and rainy…a day when my pink robe remained on throughout the day as my closest friend. But then, right in the middle of the afternoon the sun popped out while it was still pouring down.

My golden Bradford Pear’s leaves had started falling due to the rain and windy conditions over the weekend…making the whole ground around the tree looked like it was covered in golden treasures. Absolutely beautiful! What is that line of prose…”Leaves of gold.”

Two of the leaves from the pear tree had blown up on the porch and onto another plant arrangement…adding more color to it.

And what would we do without those beautiful winter Sasanqua Camellias in all their Christmas beauty…they take my breath away.

So until tomorrow…as we grow older we do come to realize that Christmas can be found on any given day throughout the year…we just have to stop, pause, and observe God’s world around us.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*If anybody wants snow…try Mike and Honey’s mountain home on Pinnacle Mountain…when I called Honey last evening…they were measuring 18 inches….the most they have had in quite awhile!

Mandy told me Santa conveniently and unexpectedly showed up at Publix last Saturday in all the rain….which the kids loved of course! *(After studying the picture I think he came in for a coke! I hear he likes them! 🙂 Too cute Jakie and Eva Cate!

Dear Reader:

(*If you are counting and wondering where is Eloise’s First Christmas baby pillow photo…I ran into 2 problems…this year is Eloise’s official first Christmas since she was born last year on New Year’s Eve and there hasn’t been time to take a Christmas photo yet with the wedding and so many other family gatherings… secondly her little pillow was supposed to arrive yesterday but sadly it didn’t….but she is in the picture in spirit and soon Boo Boo will have the fifth pillow on the chair!)

Yesterday as I read several emails, texts, and iPhone stories… I found myself drawn several different directions..all wonderful choices. So when it came time to write today’s blog I just couldn’t choose which way to go with an idea for the blog…it was like my mind was a really big  smorgasboard filled with warm, nostalgic feelings and memories. It was just too hard to settle on one delicious thought…so today I am going to share different “desserts” of Christmas wonders with you.

The first wonder of God’s love came in the form of photos of rare white reindeer. Yes, you heard me…white reindeer. And from what  scientists have discovered, it is not albino traits but another rare condition…one that doesn’t affect the eyes negatively.

All I know is that they are beautiful , lovable and filled with personality! The vast majority of these remarkable reindeer (from the article) have been discovered in Finland, though some photos were taken in Sweden and some even in Mongolia. These reindeer filled me with delights of wonder!

Anne, you will appreciate this next photo…remind you of anyone?

* Driving on an Irish country road that was quickly taken over by Henrettia, the ‘leader of the pack’ Holstein with an attitude?

Okay let’s look at another item on the ‘wonder’ smorgasboard! When it comes to Swedish candies I have discovered the gold-wrapped foil chocolates are always the yummiest. And it was this thought that lead me back to one of my favorite Christmas short stories…(I posted it last year in December remembering my brother and mother’s birthdays along with all the new generation of family birthdays…a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas)

Adaptation of the short story: “The Gold Wrapping Paper”

There once was a man who worked very hard just to keep food on the table for his family. One particular year, a few days before Christmas, he punished his little five-year-old daughter after learning that she had used up the family’s only roll of nice-looking gold wrapping paper.

What angered him even more was that she had wasted all the wrapping paper on one simple little shoe box covering it several times with the paper. He also was upset trying to figure out what she bought to put in it and where she had gotten any money.

On Christmas morning the father was  taken back somewhat when his little girl picked up the heavily wrapped shoe box and gave it to him. “Merry Christmas daddy…this present is for you.”

As the father started to open it he was somewhat humbled by his over-reaction to the wrapping paper incident days earlier as he  now smiled down at his little daughter.

But then when he opened it…his anger got the best of him again. It was empty. What a waste of wrapping paper for NOTHING! He shook his head in disgust and asked where the present was and why it was empty.

The little girl looked up at him with sad tears rolling from her eyes and whispered: “Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses in it until it was all full.”

It took a second for the father to understand and then when he did he too, began to cry with joy for his little girl who understood the real meaning of Christmas… much better than he ever had.

“And wonders of His love…and wonders of His love.”

It is told that the father kept this little gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems, he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and remember the love of this beautiful child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us has been given an invisible golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold. (Short Christmas Stories)

So until tomorrow…one last ‘wonder of love’…a scar… or as Ann Graves emailed me yesterday (commenting on a blog post quote from last fall a year ago –  10-18-17)…”A Scar is Born”

“There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, beautiful life has continued .” Harry Crews

Here’s wishing you a beautiful scar for Christmas!

• Thank you Ann…I will happily wear my scar with honor and be so thankful to be able to get out of this medical situation with just a scar to show for all the love and friendship bestowed on me by so many….the best kind of scar…“Scar of Wonder”! 

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Birthdays! December 7 was Vickie’s birthday (she tried to keep it a secret) and little Ryker’s (Luke’s and Chelsey’s little nephew) birthday was yesterday….Enjoy the wonder of the moment!

The wedding is over….the youngest of the Temple sisters is married and Whitney was just stunning….as well as the Dingle clan. I know you all had fun….travel safely home with all the weather issues. Boo Boo will be waiting. *Marcia and Bruce…Congratulations on your last wedding….I know you are filled with happiness mixed with relief…you did it! Merry Christmas! Now go home and sleep for a few days! An early Christmas present for both of you!

Dear Reader:

Yesterday was another learning day for me…the best kind of day.

Anne took me to my regularly (now weekly) scheduled appointment in Mt. Pleasant but sadly she was feeling badly! She had called me Thursday to warn me that she was getting the sniffles…she could still drive but just wanted to give me a heads-up in case I would rather not risk getting a “bug” from her.

I reassured her that Mandy and Eva Cate had the sniffles while decorating the tree and I could hear people coughing in the theater Thursday night and blowing their noses…we have to make choices…especially this time of year….risk being around people and catching a cold or staying quarantined and lonely…I choose the risk of a cold. I am a people -person and sad when I am isolated too long alone from friends and family.

Anne surprised me with two Christmas presents… books she thought I would enjoy reading…one of which was 52 Little Lessons from a Christmas Carol (Bob Welch) So all the way to Mt. Pleasant I read the title of the 52 little lessons on life metaphorically taken from Dickens ‘Christmas Carol.’ (*We had a great discussion just from reading the titles.)

The twelfth lesson (obviously) hit home for me…“To Heal You Must Feel.” How true this statement is…from my own perspective.

For the first time since I initially entered the Comprehensive Wound Center...the outside office door was open yesterday. (Which, in itself, was fortuditious since it is the heaviest door I have ever had to push open.) Inside was a white Christmas tree..filled with all kinds of pink flamingos…open to view for anyone just walking past.

It didn’t stop there either….there was a pink flamingo decoration beside it and all the way to my treatment room Christmas flamingos filled the walls and lined tables or desks…the Christmas Culprit…the funny and wonderful Bobbie…my nurse. She loves flamingos. It just didn’t make me smile…but it made me laugh out loud.

Before I was called back for my foot procedure… I accidentally wandered into a dark room (off the bathroom) and was curious at what I saw. There were these two long (body length) white tubes for patients to lie in.

When Jim (my male nurse) was finishing up putting on “my boot”( as the procedure is called) I asked him what those two “capsules” were….he said they were used in hyperbaric oxygen therapy. (*We have all heard about divers getting the “bends” and the machines they use on them…it is a similar device…just different construction in some cases.)

Jim went on to tell me that some patients must come in every day…it is a serious two-hour life and death procedure for them…some come twice a week and they come from other towns and cities throughout the lowcountry and midlands. Oxygen pours into their skin pores which is needed to keep some of them alive.

Suddenly my foot wound, wound vac and now my new tech procedure paled in comparison…my heart went out to these special patients who need the machines to continue life…not just as a short-time therapeutic means to an end.

In A Christmas Carol…the first time we see and hear emotion from Scrooge is when the Ghost of Christmas Past brings Scrooge back to the boarding school where he lived as a boy…the experience touches him deeply.

“The Spirit’s gentle touch appeared still present to the old man’s sense of feeling. He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long, long forgotten. “

Scrooge remembers the lonely little boy still inside him left at a boarding school where he was ridiculed… “and he sobbed.” 

Over the years Scrooge had dealt with this painful “wound” by doing nothing. He had buried it and stowed it away in his life’s attic to forget. His therapy for dealing with it was to make money, lots and lots of money.

The Spirit of Christmas past says to Scrooge:

“You can’t move on, you can’t get better, and you can’t overcome the past until you deal with this stuff.” (This is the beginning of Scrooge’s metamorphosis into a new man.)

Aren’t there many kinds of wounds…the physical kinds and the more deeply embedded emotional kinds…the ones that are the hardest to heal?

So until tomorrow…“When we feel we get real with ourselves. When we get real, we humble ourselves. When we humble ourselves, we’re open to being helped – by God – and by those around us. But we can’t be helped unless we welcome that help, which usually means acting on a feeling.” 

To heal…we must feel.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Anne…I hope you are feeling better…thank you again for everything yesterday…next Friday we will have that Christmas luncheon we had hoped to do yesterday. Get well soon!

My newest “Anne”  Christmas artwork for the tree…a beautiful snowflake!

Walsh, Mollie and the children all flew out to Phoenix, Arizona this past Wednesday to be in Mollie’s youngest sister Whitney’s wedding. Today is the BIG DAY! I know there is a lot of excitement in the air…and the children are having fun too. As seen below!

Madeleine, Rutledge, and Lachlan….cousins and brothers!

Dear Reader:

For whatever reason I don’t think we really appreciate what a treasure our friends are in our lives until we get older. We just take for granted that our friends will always be there and life continues as normal…until one day when it doesn’t.

What a lesson I have learned the past two months since being placed in a position of dependence…not one I ever imagined being in and not want I strive to repeat. Still…what lessons I have learned from this lengthy experience.

I ask myself several times a day…what in the world would I do without this friend or that friend helping me with this problem or that problem…I would not have had the luxury of staying home and keeping life as normal as possible.

At a certain point we come to  realize that family and friends are synonymous. We consider them all one and the same. As a mother of adult children now…the shift from a mother-child relationship has transferred over to friendship…on an adult level.

I do believe the measure of a good relationship between parent and child is if (as adults) the child and parent become close friends. It means that somehow (through all those crazy hectic years of raising children)…something stuck. Something good. The “children” got enough sunshine and droplets of love to go from seed to bloom.

I know many of you have probably seen some of our ex-President George Herbert Bush’s funeral. One of the main speakers, throughout several events, has been Bush’s closest friend and ally…James Baker. Through thick and thin, for over sixty years, these two men were inseparable in their friendship both personally and professionally.

Yesterday, at one memorial service, Baker quoted a line from the great poet- William Butler Yeats…

“Think where man’s glory must begin and end, and say my glory was I had such friends.”

At Christmas time, especially, friendship becomes a most important treasure that is God-given.

2 Corinthians 8:9

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you, through His poverty, might become rich. 

Hasn’t God “gifted’ us with life…beautiful life and opened up His own never-ending friendship and love throughout it all? He gave us family and friends to surround and support us through our own individual paths.

So until tomorrow…Isn’t friendship the most beautiful Christmas gift of all?

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Sammy, the cardinal, has been returning right outside my window…and even once flew over to my window ledge while I was still typing. Our friendship has certainly ‘run the gamut’  …starting with animosity for him pecking and destroying my side mirror…to watching him help his crippled “wife” get food by shaking the bird feeder so she could eat on the ground since she was unable to hold onto the bird feeder cage. My heart softened and now we are big buddies.

I took this picture yesterday…from my window. Sammy looks like he is posing for me.

And Sammy is remembered inside too with special “ornaments” on the Christmas tree.

When Mandy started putting the greenery on the mantle…a ‘fake’ redbird was caught up in the artificial greenery from last year so she left it…a little red “pop” color to add to the mantle.My brother Ben came to see his granddaughter, Ady, perform in a children’s Little Theater performance last night. We are meeting my niece, Bekah, to grab some supper and then hurrying over to the theater to watch our little actress do her thing! Can hardly wait! ( And I was a good girl and kept my foot up all afternoon preparing for my “foot” performance) * Actually the first row was not occupied so I was able to keek my foot propped  throughout the performance…a God Wink!

Dear Reader:

When I think back on the “special” days that have remained in my memory…(which houses decades of time now)…I have come to realize that few of the permanent memories took place on a holiday, or graduation, or a birthday…or any pre-planned event that was anticipated about over a  long period of time preceding it.

No…the most memorable events in my life took place on ordinary days that suddenly turned extraordinary. One good example would be the birth of my three children…even though later it would mean a birthday date for them …at the time… each day of the birth of the three children started out as just another ordinary day…that brought about a miracle by its ending…an extraordinary miracle.

And isn’t that what happened to Mary too? You have to wonder why she made that long trip with Joseph to pay taxes…he couldn’t go and pay them himself…or she didn’t want to be alone with the due date so close and him so far away? I don’t know what the customs were for payment back then (as it would turn out…also…for the day Jesus was born)…I am sure it started out as just another ordinary day.

Every time we read about a miracle or a non-explainable event that occurs in scripture… don’t they just pop up on  what starts ouy as a “same old, same old” quite normal kind of day?

Max Lucado makes a good argument for this repeated phenomenon throughout the Bible. The Christmas Story unveiled itself in the most non-descript simple manner possible…no fireworks, media build-up, or avalanches of “groupies” following behind. Just Joseph, Mary, the baby Jesus…and some startled shepherds formed the now famous nativity scenes.

There was no interruption to the regularly schedule programs to talk about the new king that had been born or cameras flashing around the manger scaring the animals and waking the baby…no the greatest story ever told took place in a humble manger with a frightened young husband and exhausted young mother…just an ordinary, turned personally extraordinary day.

Here is an excerpt from Max Lucado’s book God is With You Everyday in an article titled:” Today could be your Christmas Story.”

Since Jesus didn’t make a grand entrance into this old world but entered it as ordinarily as any other child we can now pause and think. “My, might Jesus be born in my world? My everyday world?”

“...My everyday same routine world? Not a holiday world. Or a red-letter-day world. No, we live an everyday life. We have bills to pay, beds to make, and grass to cut. Our face won’t grace any magazine covers, and we aren’t expecting a call from the White House. But then…neither did Jesus.

Congratulations. I reckon we qualify for a modern-day Christmas story. God enters the world through folks like us and comes on days like today.

So be alert… today just might be your Christmas story…my Christmas story.”

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So until tomorrow…We must remember God’s Story IS our story…Christmas story and all.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Jo Dufford came and picked me up yesterday and told me to think of her as my UBER driver…wherever I needed to go …that is where we would go…so we went to “Belk Land and then traveled (internationally) over to the World Market.”

I have finished my shopping…what a great Christmas gift! Thank you Jo for taking an ordinary day and turning it into an extraordinary day. (And yes, Jo, I “Pinkie Promise” I kept my foot up the whole rest of the afternoon!) *Our cute waiter, Mitch, the best of the best!