Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

In ancient cultures and most other cultures around the world fall meant harvest season. It was a time for gathering all the produce planted and tended to in spring and summer so there would be enough food to survive winter each year.

Thus a good harvest brought many celebrations, feasts, and gatherings to thank God for enough food to make it through the tough times ahead. In Gracelaced...author Ruth Simons describes the metaphor between harvest rituals and spiritual rituals. She writes:

“Leaves turn, and the last of summer’s bounty is gathered. Fall finds us grateful, hopeful, and wonderfully poured out. Just as fields slow down and quiet themselves, so we embrace Fall’s changes, knowing Who supplies all things when the blooming season comes to an end. When one chapter closes and another is still not ours, the beauty we to experience is seeing how the Father provides in the now and not yet.”

The “now and not yet” pretty much sums up where I am right now. Life has slowed down with my “now” consisting of resting my foot and observing life from my chair. I am grateful for the time spent to reflect on things I have never found time to decipher from my past. I do know that I have been provided for bountifully in the “now” and I know God will provide for me, just as plentifully,  in the “not yet.”

Since January of last year I started putting a certain amount of money into a second checking account…kind of like the squirrel collects nuts for the winter. Now I see why God wanted me to take this action and save up for what was to come….medical expenditures and buying  another vehicle (which I never thought I would do.) But God knew and He set me on the path preparing for the challenges awaiting me in the “not yet.”

God allows us the opportunity to help ourselves and then (where the deficit still lies) He moves in. We are a partnership of faith. “Fall Faith”…that special kind of faith that addresses the “not yet” stages of life.

So until tomorrow…Let us recognize that it is God Who holds all things together to help provide for us as we travel our paths through  the four seasons of God’s Creation.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*It was supposed to rain most of the day yesterday…but instead it was a mixture of clouds and sunshine… with little rain. It gave me a chance to look over my garden and see just how God ‘holds all things together.’

Jake and Lachlan’s two Japanese Maples continue to brighten the garden….while the other three maples are dormant for the winter.

The sassafras tree and oak-leaf hydrangea love this time of year.

HOPE lives on the deck with a beautiful indoor plant that has decided it prefers outdoors until it gets too cold. Gorgeous!

I love weeds that produce beautiful blooms…especially in fall and how my little camellia bushes are producing gorgeous blooms too.

This Confederate Rose bloom took my breath away…love these blooms!

While observing my fall garden I noticed that the wind had knocked down the Clemson sign….bad foot or not…I had to hobble-wobble out and get it put back up where it belongs…after all the big game was about to start.

*It was a hard-fought game…what a rivalry football game should be…glad to see my Tigers come out on top!

*Anne’s sister, Kathy Martel, and family (husband Steve, son Andy and his girlfriend Caitlynn) were all down for Thanksgiving…and planned to hit Dukes for supper but they were closed. They went, instead to Five Loaves and then brought me some of their delicious broccoli soup and a chicken salad sandwich. So sweet! A wonderful family! I know their presence made Anne’s Thanksgiving!

And Kathy brought me a taste of New England along with lowcountry orange zinnias….a chocolate moose and a red lobster lollipop….too cute! Thank you….so much fun seeing everyone!

Dear Reader:

(*Thank you Cindy Ashley for the perfect quote/drawing above-It sparked the idea for the blog post today!)

After Ben left early Friday morning to head back to Conway…suddenly the house became very quiet again. All the neighbors, friends, and family were suddenly back in their homes or on a shopping frenzy and everything began slowly returning to “normal.”

The only problem is that “normal” isn’t really “normal” any more. I still don’t have any “wheels” to come and go as I please or even need and I still have to keep my foot elevated continuously which keeps me situated in one spot. Just like my daily chemo medicine regime advertises…I am now living the “new normal.” *And yet it  doesn’t seem quite “normal” enough for me.

Still…it does have its perks. I have read more interesting stories since my “imprisonment” in the recliner…I have taken time to read news stories of daily heroes, amazing feats of kindness and generosity, along with novels of love and adventure. And I do have something to look forward to…on the 27th Anne and I receive our individually pre-ordered novels…the next in the series of the Louise Penny detective stories…it has been a long wait…almost a year.

My problem is going to be reading it too fast…I have got to try to pace myself through it and then re-read the lines I want to remember…because Armand Gamache delivers some of the best thoughts about humanity and life I have ever heard.

Since I now know that rest/sleep do pay off when it comes to healing this foot…I think my days are going to look like… read, nap, read, nap, read, sleep! 🙂 It’s a tough life but someone has to do it!

When I saw the following quote it made me smile…reading is better than sleep but I will have to pace myself on both ends.

I am sure I will look back on these days (one day in the future) and wonder why I didn’t relish in the medical excuse to stay put…just eat, drink, read, and sleep. Since God has His own time-line I have no doubt He knows when the foot is ready to take me back to my path…yet, there can be no doubt, this “detour” was planned for a specific reason too…to make me pause, reflect, and give thanks for all I have.

So until tomorrow…When reality becomes a little too real, travel through life in your imagination…it’s a great place to visit!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Most of the children will be driving or flying back today from the holidays….they want to be back and situated before the big rivalry game between USC and Clemson this evening. I am sure it will be a hard -fought game with lots of emotion. My prayers are always for every player on both side to emerge un-injured from the game.

*(Tommy got to feeling better so they left Thanksgiving Day to go to Chattanooga for Kaitlyn’s birthday weekend and time to spend with mom and dad…glad they got to go…(even though a little later than planned)… so they will probably wait and come home Sunday.)

Today is the one day of the year when the state of South Carolina is divided…but by tomorrow…life resumes as usual…together again!

November 24

November 25

Vickie’s beautiful Japanese Maple turned color just at the right time in her front yard (a bright yellow…while my Bradford Pear is just now beginning to pop out bits of colors here and there on the tree.

In the lowcountry Thanksgiving seems to be the catalyst that finally brings on the fall colors. They are most welcome!

Tommy and Kaitlyn found fall in Chattanooga. They climbed Signal Mountain Friday (a mountain Kaitlyn grew up climbing in her childhood.) Apparently during the Civil War Confederate soldiers sent signals to each other during the skirmishes but it sounds like Union soldiers saw and interpreted these sometimes to the decrement of the southern troops.

 If you look to the far right in the next picture you will see Julia Falls and they ended up at Apple Orchard.…Kaitlyn says it serves the best apple cider ever!

Dear Reader:

In the blink of an eye the pumpkin decorations will soon disappear to be replaced with Christmas attire…another changing of the seasons…so last night Ben built a fire and we reflected on what we had to be thankful for before Christmas pushed itself into our homes and hearts.

Look what our Thanksgiving dinner looked like…Martha Stewart, a.k.a. Vickie, the best neighbor in the world, brought enough food on two plates to feed an army and I did my best to clean the plate. She then returned with three different slices of pie each! Oh my! Out of this world!

We had just finished eating our first round of dinner when Lee, Vikki, Rhodes and Vikki’s family stopped by to visit on the way to Susan’s for their Thanksgiving. What fun!

Rhodes gave me a big smooch before he left and a yellow lantana sprig…will treasure it forever little Rhodes!

As I glanced through my Iphone I noticed an ad from Tuesday Morning and thought to myself…’Now that is an ad worth remembering”- Good job Tuesday Morning!”

Let me tell you ‘If my heart is as full as my plate‘ I can gladly boast that I am ALL heart’ …because nothing else would fit on my plate! 🙂

I like this quote on gratitude and how differently a person’s life is lived when he/she is filled with gratitude  each and every day.

“True gratitude is a recognition of nature’s flow and grace. It is an understanding that everything that I have is a blessing that was given to me – my possessions, my intellect, creativity and skills. I give because I am passing on what I have been given. The universe’s natural flow unlocks when my giving expresses the recognition and deep gratitude of what I have received.” – Preeta

So until tomorrow…A short post this evening…because watching the fire and trying to finish this delicious piece of pumpkin pie has laid me completely immobile (I feel like a beached whale)…and for that I am in debt and gratitude for family company and neighborly feasts…best Thanksgiving ever!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Doodle…I found the perfect planter on the other apartment side for your beautiful plant Wednesday and we added a little light to the other side…one last show stopper for Mr. Pumpkin until next year.

Thanksgiving is over…but thankfulness and gratitude are a 365-day attitude adjustment!

Dear Reader:

Yesterday afternoon I fell asleep in my recliner and woke up around 3:30 wondering how long I had slept. I felt so rested and as I was returning to to the den from the bedroom I heard a knock. It was my wonderful “Gobble Gobble Turkey” nieces (Carrie/ Catherine) and mom, Doodle, coming in the door.

What a wonderful sight! I had the girls’s birthday cards since they are both Thanksgiving “babies” and then Doodle and I ended up exchanging plants…we both had the same idea…love mine Doodle!

While we were all deep in conversation…my brother Ben arrived and it was great having time to just sit and catch up on our lives. After they left…I heated up some spaghetti for an early supper and just relaxed and talked…especially about the blessings in our lives.

After supper one of the fuses blew…on the side of the den where the television is located…so that brought the evening to a quick ending. Ben said he had a good book to read anyway and I still had the blog to do…so the night was an early one.

My mind wandered back to (last Tuesday) the  discovery that my last stretch of layered skin had reached the level of the top of the “crater.” I was as surprised as the rest of the medical staff. How did that happen so fast?

I remember Lin asked me what I had done to help the progress in my foot for the past five days and I answered honestly, “Absolutely nothing.”  Lin’s response was : “Well that is exactly what we wanted you to do… nothing…but stay off the foot and keep it elevated.” 

We all laughed at the moment but it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized that one special (very important) ingredient had been added to the “mix” (the daily ritual)…With the foggy, gloomy weather I slept …a lot. I remembered that I could hardly keep my eyes open and continuously fell asleep in the recliner at least once each day…sometimes twice. That was the secret….rest…sleep.

Sometime during the beginning of the wound treatments…at a time when all the instructions and directions were coming at me so fast I couldn’t absorb the information…I vaguely remember one staff member saying…“Rest and sleep as much as you can…the best healing comes when the brain isn’t having to do so much at the same time to so many parts of the body… and can fully concentrate on putting its energy into the injured area of the body.”  

It was the sleep that was working little miracles on my wound…so these days I feel no guilt when I doze off in the middle of the day…I can honestly convince myself I am helping nature heal my foot.

Psalm: 62:5 says it best “My soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him.”

Ruth Chou Simons (Gracelaced) describes rest perfectly…

“Take a deep breath and allow yourself to rest. There is no significance, hope, or value  you can strive for and gain for yourself that hasn’t already been made fully available to those who rest in Him.”

So until tomorrow….Happy Thanksgiving! And even on this, sometimes, crazy day…take time to rest and send God your love for His bounty.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Heard from Mandy who texted me that she, John, and the kids all arrived safely in Huntsville, Alabama where they will spend Thanksgiving with John’s parents. She did mention it was really cold there…apparently the frigid air mass coming in has already hit Huntsville.

Then I heard from Mollie that she, Walsh, Poogie (the dog) and the children all arrived safely at Fripp Island. Mollie took some pictures of Walsh and Eloise looking out over the balcony. Still nice fall (relatively warm) weather there.

*Tommy is slowly regaining his strength and as of this writing Kaitlyn is still free from the flu so hoping the worst is over for them.

*To all my family…Happy Thanksgiving! I love you!

*I have decided to include two names from now on for my favorite red geranium….“Little Big Red!” He will always be both Father and Son. And he was showing off his “stuff” yesterday on the sunny porch…with more buds ready to pop!

Dear Reader:

Late Monday evening…I had settled in with WV (Wound Vac machine) ….plugged in on one side with another cord running from the opposite side across my body ( counting the electrical cord to recharge WV during the night.) A sleeping situation I still hadn’t adjusted to…since WV “snores” loudly during the night.

As I tried to lay perfectly still so I wouldn’t accidentally unplug any cord my mind was wandering (which it has a tendency to do the night before a “wound” doctor visit.) It is a time when all the “What if’s, “Suppose this“, “Maybe that” thoughts rush to the front of my mind.

It should just be a regular check, un-swaddle, change bandages and re-swaddle procedure. Then hopefully if the wound had filled in and leveled off by the following Tuesday after Thanksgiving…it could possibly be time to add the “lattice’ bridge to cover the wound and send WV machine back to Atlanta.

Instead I was surprised with the news that the skin had filled in a lot in the five days since my last visit and the wound vac would be temporarily removed to see if the wound will start building skin over the “invisible” (to the naked eye) lattice-looking material this upcoming week. If things don’t go well…I am back on WV…if things look good…it gets shipped back.

I was in shock…trying to mentally take in this sudden change in procedure in stride…I, obviously, was elated about the departure of WV for however long…but didn’t realize that the process of preparing to stuff the lattice in the wound after being scraped out  again…was going to be painful. It wasn’t as bad as the first time by any means…but enough that both the nurse held my hand and Walsh came running to rub my back and help me through it.

Later my nurse, Lin, asked what happy place I mentally took myself to while the painful procedure was underway and I laughingly told her I was trying to get to the Chapel of Hope in Trust, NC but I kept hitting a detour through dark, fearful woods filled with pain. Everyone laughed…it was only as I reflected later that I remembered my last thought was sitting on one pew in the little chapel at peace again.

God Wink. Faith over fear….faith over fear. I had just seen Kelly Rae Roberts’ angel painting of this concept on her website Monday evening when I couldn’t sleep and I loved her explanation of the painting she wrote beside it.

FAITH OVER FEAR

Faith Over Fear is a meditation on choosing faith, on what happens when we gently, firmly say to fear, “I see you, I acknowledge you, thank you for your service. I am now letting you go.” To be in faith is to know that we are held, and choosing faith over fear is a practice that calls us to lean into the wisdom of our highest selves.

I have gotten so close to this medical team at the Comprehensive Wound Center that they feel more like family now than simply medical specialists. I had been given my Thanksgiving early…free to sleep without cords in my bed without my snoring companion…WV.

On the flip side…I must keep my foot elevated more than ever and off of it as much as humanly possible in order for the skin to do “its thing” this week and not get infected ….which would send me back on to WV. So this is going to be a “be good to foot” week. I want to see only continuing progress again next Tuesday and no more WV!.

So until tomorrow…

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Walsh and Mollie had a busy day yesterday…Mollie had Eloise trying to make two Thanksgiving dinners….at Lachlan’s preschool and Rutledge’s kindergarten class while Walsh took me to my appointment. After my procedure..we stopped by the house to pick up the boys so they could ride to Summerville and play at Boo Boo’s for awhile to give Mollie time to hit the grocery store and get food supplies for their Thanksgiving weekend (while Walsh ran errands with the boys) at Fripp with her uncle and aunt. Here are some pictures from the busy day!

I love little boys  like Jake who love dressing up in big sister’s clothes… John attended Eva Cate class’s Thanksgiving performance. A busy day for all!

From my wonderfully crazy family to yours….Happy Thanksgiving!

*

Well Kaitlyn…I got it half right…got your gift to you two days ahead of time and then forgot to put Happy Birthday in the blog yesterday. Kaitlyn’s birthday was Tuesday, November 20! And what a special day it was for our family…when her birth, her existence connected us when she married Tommy.

*Unfortunately Tommy came down with the flu at work Monday so a lot of their Thanksgiving and birthday plans are currently on hold… so please remember Kaitlyn’s birthday! So far she is well and we are all praying this will continue…that in itself would be a great birthday present! We love you Kaitlyn!

Dear Reader:

I had a God Wink yesterday while reading another devotion from (Faith/Gateway) and it dealt with  Psalm 18. It is known as the “Grateful Retrospect.” As Paul Harvey discovered a long time ago…it is always the story behind the story that grabs our hearts and doesn’t let go.

The psalm was written by David and throughout the psalm he is retrospecting about the difficult past he has just endured and upon further reflection…how, with God’s help throughout, he has become a better person for the hardships he has been forced to endure.

The backdrop for this Psalm:

David’s lengthy dark period of being chased, frightened, and anxious had finally ended. It has been twenty years of hiding in caves from his enemies and King Saul. He has missed his family and their support, along with  the comforts of home. Now the king is dead and David will soon be king…it is during this short interval in his life that David stops to write a love letter of thankfulness to God with the first line reading:

18 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.

David’s heart overflowed with gratefulness for God’s protection, provision, strength, and deliverance. Psalm 18 is an incredibly descriptive song written by David on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hands of Saul and other enemies.

During the darkness, David wholeheartedly sought God as his secret hiding place. As a result, he knew specific attributes of God intimately. Psalm 18 contains his overflowing praise sung directly to God from a heart that privately knew God.

Too many times…isn’t it so easy for us to forget to stop and thank God for the trials and tribulations we have just endured…we have a tendency to want to just push it behind us and move on. However David wrote one of his longest psalms (over 50 verses) in the form of a love letter to God. He knew he was a stronger, better man for the difficulties he had endured and that God was the force behind him… preparing him for the future.

So until tomorrow…On Thanksgiving let us all pause and send God a personal declaration of love. I am particularly fond of the verse in Psalm 18 that talks about God’s continuous support of us:

*Your right hand has held me up.” (Has it ever…even helping me limp along these past few weeks)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Today we associate beautiful words and terms from America’s first Thanksgiving- words like blessings, bountiful, thanks, feast, and gratitude. There are also some fun expressions that we say or recognize that grew out of this special holiday… some where along the way. *(And even a more serious term few probably have heard about…) Here are some expressions I thought you might enjoy. See how many you have used yourself or heard.

*”To gobble up” – an idiomatic expression that means to eat something completely and rapidly

*cornucopia- A goat’s horn overflowing with fruit, flowers, and grain, signifying prosperity. Also known as a “horn of plenty.” It can be used to mean abundance.

*food coma- A colloquial term for postprandial somnolence which is a state of drowsiness after a meal has been consumed. (The popular turkey myth that it is the amino acid tryptophan in turkey that makes one sleepy after the Thanksgiving meal is just that….a myth. Most likely it is a combination of alcohol and all the carbohydrates (like the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac/cheese and of course dressing who are the real culprits.)

*cold turkey-  an idiomatic expression meaning immediately; without tapering off or cutting down gradually

*turkey trot-A fun run or footrace, usually of the long-distance variety, that is held on or around Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

corny: Originated from the corn crop grown at the first Thanksgiving…the adjective “corny” has a shorter history. It’s been a term of derision only since the 1930s, when something that was “corny” or “cornfed” or “on the cob” was rustic, countrified, old-fashioned, or behind the times – and hence trite or hackneyed. 

*Black Friday: The day or two after Thanksgiving gives people a good opportunity to do some Christmas shopping, since Christmas is generally about a month after Thanksgiving.

However, since so many people had the same idea,  the day after Thanksgiving began to be called Black Friday because it was usually a chaotic, “dark” time to go shopping with so many stores completely full of people.

 *There is a darker side to this expression, however…

It has to do with the slave trade and another type of financial “discount” –

Etymology, the study of the origin of words and expressions becomes a story in itself… sometimes the term refers to finding the truth hidden under a lighter disguise…case in point: “Black Friday.”

I can only imagine the expressions on the original pilgrim/settlers’ faces that first Thanksgiving if they could have seen into the future…they were simply thankful for life that year…representing only a few who survived that first year of settlement…with the help of  Native-Americans.

Yesterday we had sort of a feast right here at the house…all my children and grandchildren and grand-dogs will be gone this Thanksgiving….but Mandy, Kaitlyn, Eva Cate, Jake and the dogs…Pip and Atticus… arrived bearing a feast of “pink moose’ and “white moose” (ham and turkey) sandwiches from Groucho’s. 

And believed me…we gobbled it all up. My greatest joy was seeing everyone, especially the grandchildren, before they left for the holidays. Safe travels and I love you.

So until tomorrow…the best kind of feast is “feasting my eyes” on my family and being with them whenever possible.

Another “feast for the eyes” was my miniature camellia’s first bloom…I was so excited to see it.

Little Pip was excited to come see his Boo Boo too!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Readers:

I  just had a thought yesterday after all the Ya’s  left and I was back sitting in the recliner reflecting on all the fun and “scrumptious” lunch we had at Oscars Restaurant…our ‘go to’ place for special celebrations and benchmarks….yesterday was Jackson’s birthday celebration. The thought was about special “thank you” moments.

(Oscars were decorated so beautifully for Thanksgiving!)

I had looked forward to it all week…I kept telling myself that if I get through this medical appointment then there is only one left before the Ya’s come Saturday…and then Saturday arrived and it did not disappoint. It was the perfect fall day and everyone was in high spirits.

Libby was leaving Oscars to head to Pawleys Island to spend Thanksgiving with family, Brooke is heading later to Edisto Beach to do the same, Jackson to Hampton and my brother Ben and I are having Thanksgiving with my neighbor Vickie and her granddaughter. For this day, however, we were just all so thankful to be together and celebrate another year of life for a friend we have known throughout life..

If any one of us is going through a health slump or medical crisis it is like the rest of us just need to “lay our eyes on them” to make sure whoever it is…is going to be okay. I passed the “Ya” test with flying colors…healthy appetite and looking forward to Christmas with no tubes or machines attached to me.

I had just settled down for a little nap when the phone rang…it was Libby on her way to Pawleys Island…just reiterating how fun Jackson’s birthday had been and how important it was for us to be altogether again…she was so thankful it worked out calendar-wise for this to happen….then Jackson texted me thanking everyone for her birthday and how much it meant to her to be together on this special day. Brooke and I had a chance to talk about the importance of “thank you’s” and special events in our lives these days before she left. It truly was a memorable day!

Recently I have had a lot of special “thank you’s” particularly coming from my adult children to me and vice-versa…having time to spend together to and from medical procedures, visits to the house…they all have been very special and I realize now how God must feel when we, as His children, remember to stop and thank Him as our Father.

( FaithGateway- “Giving Thanks for Answered Prayers and Blessings”- Story Devotional)

I think as we get older we no longer take “thank you” moments for granted as we did perhaps when we were younger and thought time would always be on our side. These days…each “thank you” means more and more with every passing day…because for all of us…at some point in our journey…there will come a last “thank you” and  a last “I love you“…These phrases will have to last a lifetime for the loved ones left behind.

So until tomorrow… this Thanksgiving let’s take a minute to picture all our loved ones …family and friends…knowing each day is more precious than the one before. Let us be thankful for each day and let us fall in love with each new day…never taking one for granted.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Saturday morning there was frost on the roof…our first substantial frost so it is time to bring out the coats and jackets. Eloise is all excited about experiencing her first winter jacket…she loves it.

The first half of the game against Duke last evening…I was trying to stay calm and was wondering when we were going to start “Tiggering On”   but thank goodness it all came together when it needed to….was so sad to see the seniors who will be leaving and praying hard that Hunter Renfrow is okay…hate to see any player potentially seriously injured…what magnificent leadership skills these seniors have mentored and demonstrated to the team.

Happy Birthday to Betsy Crick, Libby beautiful daughter…she is our official Junior Ya  whom we adore!

Dear Reader:

Fantastic news from my nurse Bobbie…she told me if I can put up with WV (Wound “Vac” machine) through the Thanksgiving holidays…then it appears  like my “divorce” from him will be declared “final” and I can ship him back from where he came… (“Hot Atlanta” I believe.) Then I will be a free woman…not bonded to a machine wherever I go.

Oh wow…will I ever have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving…an extra taste at the table…the taste of freedom!

The week after Thanksgiving I get my “cover” for the wound…a synthetic type of “bridge” that will support my real skin growing to form a natural cover through it; the collagen will just become part of the real skin. Happiness is…

Tommy got the garden blower (when we got home yesterday from my appointment) and blew off all the leaves that have accumulated on the deck over the past several weeks so the Ya’s will have their “hang-out” place today to catch up on. Thanks Tommy for the ride, company, and help around the house.

*And I discovered a wonderful surprise...none other than Lassie and Doodle had put an umbrella and extra pillows on the lounge chairs. Apparently one day after they took me back home after an appointment (in the early weeks of treatments) they set up everything.

I never made it out to the deck…just stayed in my recliner with my foot up since the weather stayed gloomy and rainy….but thank you girls…I know the Ya’s will love the umbrella cover…especially with the forecast for sunny weather! What a lovely gesture…you two are something else!

While on the back deck I was almost afraid to look at the garden (since it has been weeks since I ventured out)…but there it was ….flowers still blooming, three of the grandchildren’s Japanese maples turning beautiful colors, and even my morning glories still blooming in (close to ) freezing temperatures at night.

For some reason both of my granddaughters, Eva Cate and Eloise’s Japanese Maples dropped their leaves early this year before turning color. The three grandsons, Rutledge, Jake, and Lachlan’s trees did turn color. I don’t know the rhyme or reason behind why some did and some didn’t hold onto their leaves…but it did teach me a lesson I needed to hear about letting go

“I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go.”
― Jeffrey McDaniel

All five Japanese Maples know intuitively when to let go and when to hold onto their leaves and for how long. But we humans fight change so much we make ourselves miserable over this same indecision throughout our lives. Here I thought my garden must be in complete disarray from my seeming “abandonment”….when to my surprise they have  done remarkably well without me. It was my time to let go to tend to my own needs and let my plants tend to theirs…

Rutledge’s leaves are almost done but because this is the only pure scarlet maple…the red leaves are still making a statement on their way out of letting go.

Jake and Lachlan’s Japanese Maples are the only two left who are fully “clothed’ with their ever-changing attire ..perhaps it is location, location, location?

So until tomorrow…It has taken me a life time to understand the concept of change…because perhaps there is a reason for the word “good” in ‘good-bye’…I pride myself on being a good ‘hanger-on’er’ and I still believe in perseverance…only now I understand that there is a thin thread between perseverance and the opposite which we too often mistake as a weakness.

The only thing ‘weak’ about letting go of a link of chain is not turning around and starting a new link with it…a new path through life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

• Yesterday when I was talking about taking small steps I meant to add this precious, short little video Dee Lesko, a loyal blog reader, sent me because it is all about taking “baby steps” to get through each adult day. You might have seen it on Facebook by now but it is certainly worth the laugh to see it again or enjoy it for the first time. Adorable!

Dear Reader:

When I received this note card from Gin-g the other day….I thought to myself…’How true.’ If there is one thing I have learned from this latest medical experience, it is that healing takes time.

Even now, while still in the midst of the bi-weekly procedures I can see a little difference each time in the wound….but it still is just a ‘little.’ What I have to keep reassuring myself is that a bunch of “little” improvements equate eventually to a total recovery.

The best thing is that I am not doing it alone. Friends and family are transporting me back and forth each week while other neighbors, friends, and family are dropping off food supplies on a continuous basis. The inside message of Gin-g’s card sums it up perfectly…

Recovery takes time.

Just know you’re not

on the journey alone.

Take care.

This experience is definitely a metaphor for life. It doesn’t matter if we take large, giant steps as we follow our journey or small, baby ones…we are all going to get to our individual destinations exactly where and when we are supposed to…

In the article, 7 Powerful Ways to Change Your Life, (Elyse Santilli) cites this powerful sixth step… based on the importance of taking small steps.

Today is (Linda) Jackson’s Birthday. She was rather hesitant about turning this number since the rest of the three of us have all had some unforeseen medical problems crop up….but we are going to keep the bad mojo away from our Jackson…with two knee replacement surgeries behind her…she’s had enough. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON…THE BEST IS YET TO BE!

The Ya’s are coming tomorrow to my house so we can all celebrate Jackson’s birthday here together. Can hardly wait!