Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

I have a kindness website that pops up occasionally sharing random acts of kindness and also planned acts of kindness…this idea, today, falls under the latter. This is a story of an art teacher who came up with a creative way to make every student (she taught in her elementary school -over 700) feel special and unique.

Sharon Moyes started the art project as a kick-off to a new school year by reading all her students the story of a little fish who learned about the importance of individuality.

This elementary school in Indiana combined creativity and literature to create a beautiful piece of art that will encourage students for years to come to be true to themselves.

Students in grades K-5 at  Sharon Elementary School in Newburgh, IN painted rocks inspired by the book Only One You, by Linda Kranz to create a colorful stone lined path outside the school entrance.

Only One You is an inspirational children’s book about Adri, a little fish who is about to go explore the ocean on his own. His mother and father tell him some of the important lessons they’ve learned throughout their lives in hopes that it will help him on his journey. They remind him, “Always be on the lookout for a new friend,” and “Find your own way. You don’t have to follow the crowd.” The book stresses how everyone is unique, and that each of us have something to contribute to the world. “There’s only one you in this great big world. Make it a better place.”

Moyes shared pictures of her students painting the rocks and the final result of the project on the school’s art class Facebook page, where they’ve been shared over 18,000 times and counting. Parents and fellow teachers are amazed with the project, with many saying they want to petition their own local schools to follow Sharon elementary’s lead.

Each student painted their own unique rock inspired by the fish in the book using indoor/outdoor glossy acrylic craft paint. Moyes says she has approximately 740 students, enough to make a gorgeous path of brightly colored rocks outside the school’s main doors.

Kids grow so much in elementary school, not just physically, but in who they are as people. It’s the beginning of meaningful friendships and when kids start to navigate complex social situations on their own. Not only are these stones a colorful addition to a school, they can serve as a daily reminder to students that no matter what, they’re special and that they have the power to change the world. This art project uses simple materials, but its message is a hugely powerful one.

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This project reminded me of a sweet gift Anne passed onto me Wednesday when we had lunch to catch up from her Ireland trip. A friend of ours from church, Teddy Marcot, sent a copy of the book Everybody Needs a Rock to me. It is the story of a little girl, a special lover of rocks,  who creates 10 rules on how to pick the best rock to become one’s best friend. So sweet.  Thank you Teddy so much for the story!

Does anybody remember the rock named Ebenezer in the Bible by Samuel…it’s a good story!

How about “pet rocks”  from a the mid-seventies ..anybody else remember them? Everyone picked the perfect rock for themselves based on size,  smell, shape, color, texture/touch, silence, and place.

Today “faith rocks” with one word on them… like hope, beauty, faith, gratitude, courage, etc. are found at most gift shops. I have received several and put them in my pockets before going to a doctor’s appointment. We all feel more secure when we have our own adult “Linus blanket” (a.k.a. stone) in our pockets.

This is the stone I need to be holding right now. This week has been pretty stressful with my little blog and its complications with Facebook connections and loss of 713 followers associated with Facebook.

Thank goodness, with the help of John, and a wonderful “Happy Engineer” (Jorge Calle) assigned to me to help with my Facebook problem…I got Facebook re-connected but  had lost my Facebook password/username and couldn’t pull up my stats page to try to re-locate the lost followers.

And then this morning, when I turned on the blog…not only had the 700 followers reappeared…but even more  subscribers popped up for a total of 918. I will have to admit I cried…I had just about given up hope that the glitch with Facebook could be restored and then it just happened.

I think I need to get a “Miracle” rock because, out of the blue, it fixed itself. Except only it didn’t…I received a message yesterday afternoon (after finishing the blog) from Jorge that the problem had been a synchronization issue which he fixed. Hurrah Jorge…YOU are my miracle worker!

(However, he did warn me that starting August 1 Facebook is changing policies regarding personal blogs and public domain availability.

(*In addition, it is important for you to know that due to a change that Facebook is introducing to their platform you won’t be able to continue using a Facebook Profile starting August 1, 2018. The best option here will be to migrate to a Facebook Page.)

***So it looks like there are perhaps more hurdles to jump but I am tired right now from the past synchronization issue…I need time to rest and celebrate this small victory before starting to attack more “tech” challenges. I will wait and see how this all shakes out. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Blogs are not about numbers…I know my little blog is pretty minute compared to millions of others out there in cyberspace…but I love and appreciate each new follower who joins our little family. In fact the best part of blogging is meeting new people… like so many of you reading today.

When I thought I had lost 713 of you…it felt like one’s family being torn apart. Today is a day for rejoicing!

So until tomorrow…. Mev, like you said yesterday, together “We Got ‘Dis”...(yours and Jimmy’s call to action over life’s problems.) And you are so right…as long as we have God…we all “got dis.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Thank you Anne for my Irish Linen…the colors are perfect in my kitchen!

Dear Reader:

When we think about what we can leave behind that might help someone else along their journey long after we are gone…sometimes that “what” can be something as simple as an inscription or quote to let someone else know that others , before them, shared the same feelings and thoughts.

“To June who loved this garden from Joseph who always sat beside her.”

In the 1999 romantic comedy, Notting Hill, (with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant) one memorable scene takes place in a private, beautiful old English garden (which the two character actors climb a fence to sneak into)….and, then, slowly walk towards a bench. In the moonlight Julia reads the words inscribed on it and realizes that love can be real and lasting. As a (fictional) major movie star (in the movie) she has been used and abused for her fame and become cynical of love…only to realize true love does exist.

Garden bench scene – Notting Hill – YouTube (One Minute)

One inscription on a bench in a garden changes one person’s outlook on life and lasting relationships. That’s a pretty big impression to leave behind. Life-altering, in fact.

*Interesting tidbit….The bench today can be found in the Queen’s Gardens in Perth, Australia…How it came to end up there is fascinating (but also a little sad.)

*A little known fact is that the park bench from the 1999 film, Notting Hill, was donated to the City of Perth and is located in the center of the park.The bench is inscribed “To June who loved this garden from Joseph who always sat beside her”. The anonymous donor purchased the bench to propose to his girlfriend. She declined his hand in marriage and he then donated the movie-famous bench to the City of Perth.

How nice of that poor broken-hearted boy to donate the bench to the Queen’s Gardens... on top of having his proposal rejected (while obviously spending a lot of money purchasing the famous bench from the movie.)

I was reading one of Quinn Caldwell’s devotionals yesterday morning and his life  was changed, too, by an inscription on a  bench, on a college campus, where he was having a complete melt-down… ready to quit school and go home. Then he saw the inscription that changed his mind and life direction.

…”I sort of fell apart during my first semester of college. In retrospect, it was normal stuff: small town kid in a big school, first generation to go to college, too many course credits, too little sleep, the grand lie that calculus is understandable. Nevertheless, I was well and truly harrowed. Empty, it felt like, but for a little pile of dust where my sense of self used to be.

Late one night I stumbled out of the library at a million o-clock and burst into tears. I slumped onto a stone bench and sat there wetly coming undone. Never in my life had I felt such despair. Eventually, I noticed an inscription carved into the backrest of the bench:

“To those who shall sit here rejoicing,
“To those who shall sit here mourning,
“Sympathy and greeting;
“So have we done in our time.” (It was signed by the school’s first president and his wife.)

Twenty-whatever years later, I can’t help but roll my eyes at the kid crying tears on a hundred-year-old bench in the middle of a perfectly-kept quad in the middle of a fancy university. And yet I can still literally, physically, feel the relief that washed through me as I read those words that night, a gift from ancestors who thought I was worth leaving a message for.

Who knew that I’d need a little companionship and sympathy in the middle of some future night. Who were willing, with weary and loving patience, to put my problems into a century or so of much-needed perspective. I got up, headed home, and started putting myself back together (after dropping calculus, obviously).

Soon you’ll be an ancestor. What inscription will you raise as gifts to the descendants? God knows that one day, some broke-down kid is going to come wandering this same way; before you go, what lasting true thing will you leave for them to find?”

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So until tomorrow….”Help me Father find the words to instruct the ones who will follow me… with advice to help them through the tough times…strangers and loved ones alike.  Let my grandchildren always remember my “Boo Boo” saying:

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Happy Birthday Ben and Vikki!

Love you both and wish all the best life has to offer!

Dear Reader:

I have been accused by others of being a “Just Fine’er” and they are right. When people ask casually  “How are you?” I figure they really don’t want a verbal dissertation on a decade of continued cancer treatments…and quite frankly I don’t want to give it any more than they want to hear it.

If we truly live in the moment….then in that moment… if I am up and about and talking to people…I am fine…because it means I am alive and out and about on another precious gift of God’s…life within a new day.

I do like the relatively new commercial airing on television now with a patient telling her doctor “She’s fine” while her inner self is reproaching her for not telling the doctor she is not fine and in fact she is in a lot of pain.

At times we are all guilty of this most popular response to others’ polite questioning …but then I read a daily devotion from Quinn Caldwell and he made me pause and re-think just how grateful we should be when we really are fine. Grateful enough to remember to thank God for what we have.

“Lord, listen to me and answer me.  I am poor and helpless….You, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.” – Psalm 86

“Psalm 86 is the kind of prayer usually reserved for when things go really bad.  A prayer for when it has all fallen apart and you’re at the end of your rope.  If that’s where you are today, then pray it, hard.

But it’s also the perfect prayer to pray when things are going just fine, a prayer for those who have enough money, health, and power to get them through the day.  Praying it when you’re feeling broke down and no ‘count is a no-brainer.  Prayed when you’re flush and feeling good, it takes on a different cast.  Then, it becomes something like a call to humility, a reminder that all you have is nothing without God.

Only the dead are invulnerable.  When all is well in your world, Psalm 86 becomes a proclamation of this fact, an acknowledgement that all life is precarious.  It is an affirmation that, ultimately, all your hope lies in God.

So, to you who are in a good place, who are having a pretty good day: praise God and congratulations.  The world could use a few more of those.  Enjoy it.  Enjoy it, and pray this prayer to remind yourself that even if things weren’t going so well, still you would have the only thing that will finally matter: the love of the God who made you.  It’s a belief worth cultivating.”

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So until tomorrow… God, things are going pretty well right now.  Even so, all my hope is in you.  Amen.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

The title photo today is a photo I took of the second bloom on my Mr. Lincoln’s rose bush…it burst open late yesterday afternoon….I think all the rain showers helped it open….and it is more than “just fine”….it is spectacular!

“Slow” (Learner) Blogger Alert:

If you receive my blog on Facebook I accidentally cut all of you off by trying to renew the Facebook connection Monday evening before I set the publishing time… Instead I somehow managed to disconnect my blog from my Facebook readers. (And that is the majority of you) *If you are a subscriber you are fine.

All my attempts to “un-do” the problem have come to a screeching halt. I think that most times I am a “functional” adult until my iPhone corrects it to “fictional” adult….a true Freudian slip…which is actually closer to the truth when it comes to technology.

I am one of these people who can work the computer beautifully when all goes well…one hiccup…and the cookie crumbles. I am sure sooner or later the mistake will be corrected…in the meantime if this blog didn’t pop up on your facebook this morning just google it each day (to pull it up) until there is a “return to normalcy” or you can sign up as daily subscriber…the Chapel of Hope blog stories go on. 🙂 “It is fine.” 

Dear Reader:

Late each afternoon when I walk around the garden to see how the plants are holding up, especially new arrivals, I notice how location is so important in their ability to thrive. Some prefer morning or afternoon light, others want to stay in the shadows for as long as they can…and still others need me to cut back some branches from a nearby towering tree or a larger shrub to allow more slanted light to hit them during the day.

Many times the same thought have crossed my mind …Aren’t we just like the plants…sometimes we just need someone to shine a little light on us? Isn’t nature showing us everything we need to know about God and faith?

Kent Nerburn quotes a learned Jesuit priest and friend, who spent years studying books but turned to gardening in his later life. When asked why he replied…(one of my favorite responses) ” If I can not see the face of God in a flower or a shaft of light, why should I expect to see it in ideas and books?”

The older I get the more I ‘feel’ God around me…I have quit searching because why would someone search for another…when they are right with them day in and day out.

I think about the fact that, like plants and trees, we, too, always lean towards the light. My Bradford Pear leans completely to the right…(oak branches from a neighboring tree blocks the sun from the left.) If this continues long enough I suspect one day it will uproot itself and topple over…yet somehow I suspect that even if the tree realized this it would still continue to lean towards the light until the day it dies. Because like the Jesuit priest observes: “Everything lives, everything dies, everything leans to the light.”

I sing (sing…might be a stretch actually) to Eloise before I put her down…and one of my old reliables is “Rock-a Bye Baby.” Am I the only one or do some of you, too, wonder why a baby falling from a “broken bough” (when the wind stops blowing) is a particularly lulling or comforting last thought before the baby goes to bed?

Kent Nerburn comments: ” A Sioux mother would place her infant beneath the branches of a tree while she worked so the child could have as its constant companion and teacher the whispers of the wind in the branches.”

I have thought (in my imagination) how interesting it would be to spend a whole day in a tree…to feel the breezes at night and the sounds of nocturnal animals, see the first rays of dawn, feel the subtle changes in time from the freshness of the morning to the early afternoon of contemplation and rest throughout the evening.

So until tomorrow….“Our day is but a path we tread, a gentle walk among possibilities.”

*And yesterday was wonderful too….Libby and I had such a great time spending time together Sunday afternoon and evening…joined by the rest of the Ya’s Monday morning. There was no boa to be found but Libby was a sport and tried on a scarf of mine, Race for the Cure beads and a pink hat…it set the tone without a boa.

We loved the movie…a little different than the first but still touching and moving and ending on a high note of happiness and fun.

Just to have such a fabulous excuse for everyone to stop in their busy lives and make this event happen…was the real reward! Movies and Oscars for lunch…memories, a few tears, and lots of laughter…a day doesn’t get much better than that!

And look what is coming soon….Christopher Robin… (This “Pooh lover” must go see it.)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Ghostly Update:

Remember the ghost stories and legends I wrote about after the Ya’s stayed at Pawleys Beach back in early March? Here is an update on the famous Gray Man ghost who walks the beaches of Pawleys and surrounding inlets warning of severe storms and hurricanes. On a local Myrtle beach station…the news told of a couple, in the last few days, staying at Cherry Grove, who took a picture of ‘something or someone’ walking down the pier adjacent to their hotel.

Obviously the Grand Strand meteorologists are having fun …speculating if the presence of the famous Gray Man Ghost is implying a hurricane is coming. *Thanks Stephanie for sending the picture and article….that was too sweet!

Dear Reader:

Don’t you remember swinging upside down and how cool the world looked head down instead of head up. Even Eloise loves to play “horsie” and wait in anticipation for the horse to fall down so she can lie on my extended knees and look at the world around her upside down. She giggles in glee.

Watching the grandchildren play happily yesterday in the backyard made me smile…children are never content to do the same skill over and over on a swing or slide or whatever…they have got to find a more challenging position to show off for their siblings… how they turn the mundane into something more exciting. Particularly…like Rutledge if you are the big brother.

When do we lose this joy of trying new things…especially when we aren’t sure of the outcome…if we are going to land on our feet or our heads?

I think I understand Grandmother Wilson’s expression more fully now, as an adult, when she said, “When things go wrong, don’t go wrong with them.”  We are all going to face obstacles in our lives…some more challenging than others, and unfortunately, sometimes they will come in bundles, instead of separate units. But they will come, if we are living we are facing problems…one can’t have one without the other.

Or can we? What if we don’t regard the obstacle as a problem…a challenge, certainly, but not a problem. Once we get the negative connotation removed, mentally, we feel less stress and more open to finding solutions instead of just worrying about problem potentials.

These days there is a part of me that is (really kinda) excited about figuring out ways to over come daily problems. It reminds me of the simile of playing in the ocean as a child. Waves, like problems, kept coming and we children had to make quick decisions…like do we try to jump over the wave or dive under and if several waves are hitting us in succession we learned quickly that diving under and staying under was the right strategy until the ‘coast was clear’ again.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yesterday was a fun day…I was getting ready for Libby to come spend the night and the grandchildren wanted to surprise me and take me out to get ice cream….sadly Guerins Pharmacy/drug store is closed on Sundays so we went to Groucho’s and had a great time. The boys are big pickle eaters and it looks like Eloise shares their tastes….”Three pickles in a barrel.” Too fun…there and at Boo Boo’s!

So until tomorrow….

“Tomorrow is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Ya Libby Clarkson, a.k.a. movie star, showed up yesterday afternoon all decked out for the deck…it will be our home for the evening and at intervals throughout tomorrow. The world’s problems are always solved best on the back deck.

*Now where did I place the citronella plant in the garden?

P.S I found it and guess what…neither Libby nor I were the least bit disturbed by even one mosquito….it really works!”

Now where is my boa for Mama Mia?

(Digital Painting by Jeremiah Morelli)

Dear Reader:

Oh how I love this scene...Lanterns and books leading me on my path through life amid shrouded misty mysteries…I can’t imagine anything more perfect-two of my all-time favorite images! This is one of those paintings I just want to climb into and start the journey.

When I finish reading a good book, the kind you don’t want to end, the story stays with me long after the beautiful time I spent with it, and sometimes, just sometimes…we bump into our “old friend” again and are blown away, once more, with a thought, a story that touches our heart and soul.

I don’t find these books by accident… I have come to realize…they find me. Such is the case of Small Graces by Kent Nerburn. When we find an author who looks at life the way we do…don’t we feel such relief and happiness? Someone finally “gets me.”

I keep getting drawn back to this little book and yesterday, when I picked it up and started re-reading it from the very beginning…I didn’t get past the introduction before realizing I had met another ‘soul author’ out in this big world of ours. His words and thoughts have been my words and thoughts…he just is able to explain it to me so simply that I now can understand my own thoughts better. What a gift!

One thought crosses my mind a lot…and it concerns an age-old human question on whether I am “wimping out” by not trying harder to be more than my life to date. I look at famous people, whom I admire, and wonder  what made them who they became? Have I just not been willing enough to try to be something more?

*And then I read this: (excerpts-Small Graces) and a sense of peace enveloped me.

“We look longingly at those who shine a great light into this world-Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King- and our lives and accomplishments seem paltry in comparison.” 

“We dream of the touch on our shoulder that will call us to greatness, to an act that would change the world. But the touches on our shoulder call us only to the small acts of everyday life-changing diapers, changing light bulbs, changing schedules. Far from being exalted beings, we seem to be prisoners of the ordinary, and we are haunted by the insignificance of our days.”

“It is not our task to judge the worthiness of our path; it is our task to walk our path with worthiness. Forget the great light, we must learn to trust the small light we are given, and to value the light that we can shed into the lives of those around us.”

…“We need to find ways to lift the moments of our daily lives-to celebrate and consecrate the ordinary, to allow the light of spiritual awareness to illuminate our days. For though we may not live a holy life, we live in a world alive with holy moments. We need only take the time to bring these moments into the light.”

So until tomorrow…

When Kent Nerburn dedicated his book it was to “Those who search for the quiet God, who seek the  spirit in the small moments of our everyday life. These are the people who offer a smile or a hand to someone in need. They bow their heads at a moment of beauty that passes through their lives, and say a simple prayer of gratitude to the spirit that has created us all.

This book is a celebration of the ordinary, a reminder than when all else is stripped away, a life lived with love is enough.“

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Forget the great light, we must learn to trust the small light we are given, and to value the light that we can shed into the lives of those around us.”

*Beth…When I re-read this line by Nerburn I couldn’t help but think of Frank Cuthbert…everyone’s beloved uncle (whether genetically kin or not) and how you told me that some of his final thoughts centered on having you help him put flowers in the windows one last time… so those of us who lived each day to see these beautiful creations could enjoy them right up to the end. What an amazing gesture of generosity and love of fellow man!

As the sun set, my magic hour outside with my garden, I took a picture of the back of the garden path and then climbed up my new stairs above the garage and took some aerial views…so pretty at sunset.

Dear Reader:

How I longed for years, when the children were growing up, to never again hear the same repeated daily question, “What’s for dinner?”

If only (I would daydream) we could eliminate meals (prepared by me) from the daily routine of life…how much easier life would be!

By the time I would pick the kids up from school, sports practices or dance lessons…everyone would be starving…”What’s for dinner?” was the greeting I got as I spent my afternoons (after teaching a full day) dropping off and picking up the children from various activities.

I remember thinking to myself…“You guess is as good as mine…I haven’t even gotten home yet and it’s five o’clock!”

So I admit it…we picked up food…a lot… It was a time when life was at its most hectic and the idea of all of us sitting together at the table was pretty non-existent. However, when mother (“Me-Mommy” to her grandchildren) came to live with us (on the other side) at least twice a week we were all seated at her table to a wonderful, home-cooked meal… and, admittedly, those days were our favorites!

There is something important about sitting together, “breaking bread,” that brings a closeness not obtained when everyone is going in all directions all the time. We could actually talk to each other, get updates on each others’ lives, encourage members of the family having a tough time, and/or laugh together at the funny episodes shared among the siblings’ stories.

Kent Nerburn (Small Graces) sums this ordinary part of our day up and its importance to bonding/connections in his usual simplistic and beautiful way. He describes his wife’s dedication to this “ceremony of the ordinary.” It was she who understood the elemental importance of this daily routine.

“We say no prayer, though perhaps we should. But in a quiet way, the table itself is prayer enough. It draws us into a circle, the most mythic and powerful of all human shapes. We pass the food from hand to hand, the most sacramental of all common human acts. Though it remains unspoken, even unrealized, our shared meal creates a bond among us, and, for a moment, makes us one.

“There is no mystery in why Jesus chose a meal to reveal his death to those he loved, why he chose a meal to commemorate his truth. This is the moment when we are most human, when we acknowledge the fallibility of our nature…we must take from others to sustain ourselves. Yet it is the time of celebration when the taking of nourishment fills us with simple joy.”

“We have wandered too far from this sense of the meal as holy. Our food comes too easily. We care less about sustenance, more about choice. We judge the meal, we do not honor it. Only the one, who lifts the hand in preparation, senses even dimly the sacred significance residing in the act.”

Once upon a time the Dakota Sioux, aware of the ‘hallowed’ nature of meal time, would often take the choicest piece of meat and cast it into the fire before beginning to eat. The Tibetans would place the first food of the meal outside the door as an offering to the hungry spirits.

This Monday the Ya’s (my college buddies) will be together again, to go see the movie “Mama Mia- Here We Go Again”…so we can laugh and dance together. Libby is coming Sunday evening and it makes me so happy to have an excuse to set the table with two plates on it. Together we will share a meal …and that is always special…a”ceremony of the ordinary.”

So until tomorrow…

Grace Before Meals

“As we begin this meal with grace,
Let us become aware of the memory
Carried inside the food before us:
The quiver of the seed
Awakening in the earth,
Unfolding in a trust of roots
And slender stems of growth,
On its voyage toward harvest,
The kiss of rain and surge of sun;
The innocence of animal soul
That never spoke a word,
Nourished by the earth
To become today our food;
The work of all the strangers
Whose hands prepared it,
The privilege of wealth and health
That enables us to feast and celebrate.”

~John O’ Donohue

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“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

In between rain showers yesterday (suffering from a mild case of cabin fever) I ventured outside to take out the trash and look over the yard. Michael Salvo managed to get the grass cut between showers Thursday…a determined, wonderful guy who kept returning when the sun peeked out! I am so lucky to have him!

As I walked around the benches with the potted flowers on them I noticed something was missing. The original wooden round table I got to start the garden had collapsed. I suspect too much rain…the wood just rotted away and there was the pot of creeping jenny lying down on the ground buried in planks.

I rescued it…found  a wired “pedestal” for it to sit on and placed it on the other side of the yellow bench…so pretty to look at on both sides now…the new planter on one side…the creeping jenny on the other.

Nature gave me a gift as the sun was setting last evening…I looked out my side window (while putting the blog to bed) and the pinkish sky was peeking through the growing shadows in the trees…for just a moment I had my enchanted secret garden I have so dreamed about…

Dear Reader:

Isn’t the greatest thing about life…happy surprises? Honey called me last week and said, “Guess what? Kewin and Rikke Larsen are coming to the mountains to stay with Mike and me a few days and then heading to Charleston for a tour with their two beautiful daughters, Frida and Karla. I know they would love to see you again and the B&B side of the apartment where they stayed while teaching in the Summerville schools…almost twenty years ago!”

All I could think of was…”Surely it hasn’t been 17 years…no way!” Oh but it has…Kewin and Rikki were just young educators when they came to stay with me and teach at Summerville Elementary. I remember Gene Sires calling and asking if they could stay on the other side. I told him “Fine” but there was no one living there at the time and no furniture…we had already completed mother’s estate sale.

“No problem” said Gene…”I can load up all our extra furniture and bring it over for them.” And he did.

The Larsens arrived about 12:30 yesterday…amid lots of rain…but it didn’t dampened our spirits…we had the best time reminiscing…especially about the Christmas they were here. They went to church with the family, heard my Christmas Eve story…and then we returned for food and festivities. We remember Santa Claus, a.k.a.  Gene Sires bursting in with presents to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas. It was a Christmas for the memories.

In fact…I had just looked up one of the decorations (Danish braided Christmas hearts) they made me for the Christmas tree that year and showed it to them as they pulled up in the driveway.

I still decorate the tree with all of the hearts and remember the wonderful young couple from Denmark who gave them to me and the story behind it.

The history is  interesting. The exact age and origin of the tradition of making paper hearts is unknown, but the oldest known pleated Christmas hearts were made by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in 1860. By 1871 there was a guide/directions sold to show people how to make them. However, it is believed that kindergarten students started spreading them as gifts for their parents, made at school, to enhance their creative and fine motor skills.

I keep my two snow globes (title photo) from Denmark right by my computer ( one from the Viking Museum and the other from my visit to the Little Mermaid)… so I can always remember my time there and the poster the Danish children (in “my” class) made me as a welcome sign.

So yesterday my favorite handsome Viking, Kewin, and his three beautiful mermaids (Rikke, Frida and Karla) sailed into Summerville to visit me,  Summerville Elementary, and other sights…finishing up at Oscars for lunch. They were thrilled it was still open and running…their favorite restaurant! (mine too)

In between raindrops we toured the garden and I showed Kewin and Rikke the new, improved B&B side with permanent furniture in it.

Tak fordi I kom i dag.  (Thank you for coming today!)

*I told them not to wait so long to return again…I might not be around! 🙂

So until tomorrow…May you arise each day with a voice of blessing whispering in your heart that something good is going to happen to you. May you find a harmony between your soul and your life. (John O’Donohue)

Something good did happen to me yesterday…the world grows smaller when friends stay friends, cultures apart, but hearts together. Safe travels Larsens! Please come back!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh
GREAT NEWS! Mike’s surgery was successful and if all continues to go well he will come home Sunday. Your prayers are powerful… blog readers: Thank you!

Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning I was so filled with anticipation that I could hardly stand myself! Beth Brewer emailed me Tuesday evening to ask if I would be interested in a manettia vine, originally from her Uncle Frank’s yard. Uncle Frank! Frank Cuthbert from Marion Avenue!!!! A native Summervillian and renown avid gardener…that Frank Cuthbert? Double Wow!

I immediately emailed her back YES!!! She said she would bring it over Wednesday around mid-morning. I couldn’t even sleep…I was up bright and early…it felt like Christmas morning to a child!

The second thing I did after emailing back an overwhelmingly positive response…was look it up. What kind of vine was it exactly? (Actually I could have cared less if it was a twig…it would have been an historical twig from early Summerville history and that is what made me so happy!)

 When Beth arrived lugging the plant and wired tomato stake…I couldn’t believe my eyes. It is beautiful! There is a wide variety of manettia vines with funny nicknames like Cigar Flower, Firecracker vine or Candy Corn vine. *Mine right now looks more like it fits the firecracker vine category…but time will tell.

Beth told me her sister Caroline had gotten several cuttings of this vine from her uncle’s yard and re-potted them to keep some…and give others away. *Beth remembered that she and her siblings loved to pop the red buds when they were little and would go visit Uncle Frank. It was a favorite family plant vine!

Even though I didn’t know Frank Cuthbert personally…I always felt like I did. When we first moved to Miler Country Club neighborhood (while pregnant with Tommy)…the easiest way to get to my school, Alston Middle School, was to take a cut-through road by the name of Marion Avenue.

It didn’t take me long to notice this fairy tale cottage on that road. The windows were always wide open and beautiful flowers spilled out over the ledge. And the scent…oh my goodness…it was a mixture of tea olive and ginger. Exquisite!

I would start rolling down all my windows right before I got to the fairy tale house (my name for it) and begin slowing down. *I always knew it was going to be a good teaching day if there was not a car behind me…so I could pull over and take in the scenery and sweet scents for just a few precious seconds.

Beth knew she was making a retired history teacher’s day, yesterday, because she brought some old newspaper articles and pictures to share with me.

One clipping came from an aged Summerville-Journal Scene article by Julie Smith. (Always loved her stories)

It began ” If you’ve driven down quiet, tree-shaded Marion Avenue, chances are you’ve marveled at one particular house.

It’s the one with the flowers.

Cheerful blossoms spill from windows lining the enclosed porch. Bright blossoms edge the veranda, and flowering pots and baskets decorate the front steps in gay profusion. 

Creamy camellias mix informally with verbena, impatiens, roses, and achimenes in delightful groupings of pastels and pinks, reds, and yellows, greens and purples.

It’s all the work of Frank Cuthbert, avid gardener and lifelong Summerville resident.

“I’ve enjoyed gardening as long as I can remember,” Cuthbert said. “It’s a challenge to keep flowers year round-but it’s a challenge I enjoy.”

“I started the window boxes almost by accident, he explained. People would stop and tell me how how much they enjoyed the flowers, and take pictures. Now I keep doing it so I don’t disappoint them.”

I told Beth that he certainly didn’t disappoint me…until the day I rode by and the flowers were gone. I had not heard about his illness (stomach cancer) but I knew in my heart something was very wrong. This time when I pulled over…I rested my head against the steering wheel and just sobbed. (* Do you know, until this day, I get emotional every time I hear Peter, Paul, and Mary sing…”Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” I know it was anti-war (Vietnam) song but to me it was the day Frank Cuthbert’s flowers were no longer in the windows and on the porch.)

That fairy tale cottage had been my anchor and light during my teaching days and “valley days”…Though still pretty today…Frank’s spirit is what we saw in those gorgeous flowers in his windows, porches, yards, trellises…he had his own Garden of Eden while here on earth and shared it, unselfishly, with the rest of us.

Beth remembers one of the last times she was with him…she was helping him take pansies and transplanted plants to the town parks as a gift to Summerville. He was very sick (only lived 3 months after the diagnosis) but he was determined to give away his flowers to his beloved hometown. Today many of the pansies visitors enjoy while strolling through  Azalea Park originally belonged to him. A marker has been placed in the wild flower section of the park in his honor.

Isn’t it amazing how one email can be the catalyst… for remembering the joy and appreciation for an outstanding resident of Summerville who came before and during our lives…quietly, with no fanfare, brightening our days and putting a smile on our faces. This is what Frank Cuthbert did and continues to do through his living gift of flowers to the town. Through them…Frank Cuthbert lives on.

*Beth…this is the spot I found for the manettia vine in the garden…just at the bend that turns towards the bench and fountain…I think Mr. Cuthbert would like it there in the sun- dappled (late afternoon) shady place of rest.

So until tomorrow…”The true joy of life is not in the grand gesture but in the consecration of the moment.” (Thank you Beth for sharing your family’s story, your uncle’s story, a special little fairy tale house’s story and a manettia vine to house this memory of the time spent with you and a quiet, unassuming man, who brought so much happiness to so many citizens of his home town.)

*Before ending today I wanted to share a beautiful remembrance that Beth wrote one day in October of 2010…a tribute to a special uncle, who made the world more beautiful for being in it.

It was titled: The October Visitor and sent to  family members.(Thank you Beth for giving me permission to share this heart-felt tribute.)

It happens every year about this time. The first cooler day, sun drenched, deep blue fall sky brings him like clockwork. I usually first spot him when I’m in the backyard and I catch that first scent. I close my eyes and I can feel him near when the tea olive opens up. As I dig in the soil, he’s right there guiding me and giving me helpful tips. The weight of the air has his wisdom riding on it and the breeze wraps that wisdom around everything I’m working on in the garden.

I see him everywhere…in the golden rod, the ageratum, the mist in the fields of the early morning. He only visits for a day or two but this year I was very fortunate- he stayed an entire week. I spent as much time as I could outside last week not wanting to miss a minute of what he brings! He’ll be back when the weather turns again- to colder, crisper days. Christmas will come and I’ll see him in the heartbeat of nature. I miss him beyond words and know that y’all do too. My October visitor’s name is Frank.

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“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

These Gerber daisies were just itching to jump into the three water bottles so I let them at it…the arrangement makes me smile in my happy place.

*** One of our loyal and very funny blog readers, Dee Lesko, is going through a hard time right now… culminating this morning. Almost a week ago her adorable husband, Mike, woke up with a terrible headache…she immediately took him in for a medical exam and it was discovered that he was suffering from a brain bleed. This morning he is going into surgery to figure out what is causing this situation and hopefully getting him all patched up. The doctors had to wait until some of his medications were out of his system for best results.

It is a scary time for Dee and Mike now…and our wonderfully funny family reader, Dee, could use our prayers this morning… I would appreciate it so much for both of them…they are my neighboring pew buddies at church and one of the nicest couples I know. Thank you! Never underestimate the power of prayer!

Dear Reader:

I have done several blogs on nooks and crannies…I have been drawn to the corners of life since I was a little girl. Nooks and crannies were my favorite places to hide out and live in throughout my childhood… there existed my imaginary world.

The meaning of “nooks and crannies” is a place that is remote…isolated from the whole. I will never be a Sir Edmund Hillary but I am an adventurer, in my own right, when it comes to finding nooks and crannies in homes and gardens.

 They are the first places I feel compelled to decorate in a house or garden…making each corner tell its own story…because that is where the secrets of a house or garden are found.

As I get older my world grows smaller around me. I love my home and garden and spend carefree days on different little projects that just make me happy. I still love traveling but it has gotten to be such a headache to fly and with an older car I worry that something could go wrong at any time-I am just more comfortable driving around areas where I know I can get help if necessary…I feel like my lowcountry world consists of Summerville and Mt. Pleasant on a daily and weekly basis.

“Small and Little” are words that mean “bigger and more for less” to me these days. I don’t need more of anything but love…we can never get enough love. The more we get…the more we want…one day we will be filled to the brim, overflowing with God’s unconditional love. We will know and finally accept it without self-imposed restrictions.

I love these two excerpts from Kent Nerburn’s book Small Graces.

” In the book of Micah, the prophet says, “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

We must learn to value the small as well as the great…
Confucius told his followers, ‘Bring peace to the old, have trust in your friends, and cherish the young.’

“Do we really need much more than this? To honor the dawn. To visit a garden. To talk to a friend. To contemplate a cloud. To cherish a meal. To bow our heads before the mystery of the day. Are these not enough?

The world we shape is the world we touch — with our words, our actions, our dreams.

If we should be so lucky as to touch the lives of many, so be it. But if our lot is no more than the setting of a table, or the tending of a garden, or showing  a child a path in a wood, our lives are no less worthy.

…Sometimes, it seems, we ask too much. Sometimes we forget that the small graces are enough.”

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So until tomorrow….We must always remember that “our home is the caretaker of our memories. From our windows, our imaginations take wing.” (From every “nook and “cranny.”)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Another wonderful surprise, the doorbell rang and a pretty woman holding a basket full of peaches was standing on the porch. Before she even introduced herself…I was thinking she reminded me of someone….Luke! It was Luke’s mom…Barbara.

She  brought me and Vickie peaches from the upstate while here visiting Luke and Chelsey. She also brought me two white or Chinese peaches. I confess I have never had one. She assured me that once I ate it…it would be harder to return to the yellow ones.

She was right…absolutely delicious...the best thing I have tasted this summer…it almost had a floral tasting…definitely a softer one. Delicious! Thank you Barbara for the gift and most importantly for your son, Luke, who has become a ‘white knight in shining armor’ for me…so helpful and kind, along with Chelsey and her healthy greens and floral knowledge! It was a good day when Luke and Chelsey moved into our neighborhood. The light shines brighter here now.

*Never say never…after finishing the blog about my contentment at being more of homebody these days…I received an amazing package in the mail. I was admiring Anne’s (shutterfly) picture album from our trip to Ireland in 2014…(a few days before she left to return again.) And today…she had Shutterfly make another copy which she had saved from the first album for me. Unbelievable!

So I spent the second half of the afternoon going down memory lane. Suddenly the old urge to go and experience new sights and sounds came creeping back. John O’Donohue’s words are right -printed on the first page of the picture album:

“When you travel,

A new silence

Goes with you,

And if you listen

you will hear

What your heart would

love to say.”

When the time is right…I will travel again…and I will know when it is the right time. Thank you Anne for memories!