Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

I now have my clear sugar water in my hummingbird feeder but, sadly to no avail, since I have not had one hummingbird “customer” at the ‘diner.’ I think I am going to have post directions at the end of the driveway showing them how to find it.

One of my sweet neighbors came over to help me secure the shepherd’s hook with the bird feeder. We had a terrific thunderstorm Thursday evening and the winds knocked it completely over. I ended up moving it to a new location. “Big Foot”, as my neighbor humorously calls himself, got the post securely pushed down in the ground with his foot….it is not going anywhere.

I, then,  gave him a tour of the garden and showed him my hummingbird feeder which has yet to be tested by any hummingbird. He said he has had the same problem…he saw a few earlier in the spring but hasn’t seen one since….Mystery…Where are the hummingbirds?

Thank you “Big Foot” and Julie for my new plants…Here I go to your house to ask for “stomping” help and walk away with such a beautiful gift!

I worked hard on  that hummingbird feeder location… fixing it up for the little sparklers. It is such a beautiful little area…I took time to clear back the bushes so the moon flowers can grow up the trellis and my ginger shell can spread her leaves. I have a pretty flower basket the hummingbirds can look at while eating. There is plenty of trees and forest surrounding the clearing but not too close to the feeder. What’s wrong? Please come see me…I miss you!

On a brighter note….Sammy, the cardinal, stops by quite often to see me but thankfully not leaving any calling cards. He is behaving quite friendly towards me though I did get a bad report from Luke whose truck seems to be the target this year.

Sammy has a nest in one of my front bushes near the new bird feeder in the lantana….I wonder if he also sees the “fake” red cardinal in my house plant in front of the window. Whenever I am outside he seems to light on a fence or some other object near me as if to wish me a good day. He particularly likes my rose bush at the end of the driveway.

Lately…I have spotted another beautiful creature hopping by my computer window early each evening….Peter Cottontail (or perhaps Benjamin, or Flopsy or Mopsy) This rabbit is adorable and if I miss seeing him/her hop by I feel a little sad and eagerly await the next sighting the next evening.

As if birds, butterflies, and rabbits aren’t enough…I also love to visit our “birds that don’t fly” Luke and Chelsey’s Barred Plymouth Rock (quite historical) chickens! They are so cute and friendly…everyone comes running when they hear a human voice.

I love that we have a little bit of country going on …at least in our neighborhood…the neighborhood of mutual nature lovers.

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I had to leave midway through the blog to go see some other creatures…my grand’creatures’ because Rutledge is having his fifth birthday. Earlier Saturday he had some little boys (friends) over at the new athletic center near them….the little boys loved it…they got to play every sport all over that large arena and they have a beautiful park out there too. It was the first birthday party held there.

That was Part I of Rutledge’s Birthday Party Day…Walsh and Mollie, then, had the family over around 4:00 yesterday afternoon for barbecue with all the fixings and ice cream. There were water balloon fights and “holey” hose sprinkles….a perfect hot day for outdoor water play!

So until tomorrow…“Loved you yesterday, love you still, always have…always will.” Happy Birthday Rutledge! Love, Boo

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Can you reflect back on your past and remember the benchmarks in your life when you  finally saw yourself for whom you are becoming? A person no longer afraid…a quick glimpse into the new possibilities of your life?

These rare self-acceptance epiphanies usually follow a period of deep vulnerability. Human nature appears to have to reach a very low period in life in order to climb to its highest potential.

For many…becoming the “new you” follows the death of a loved one, a divorce, or a serious health prognosis. Whatever it is…it holds the possibility and potential to be a life-altering moment of decision. A time to make a choice on the new path you want to follow…leaving the old one behind.

When I came across this message the other day…I considered it a God Wink to remember the path I am on, why I am on it, and staying the course!

I am a great “excuser.” To finally get around to making a significant change in my life… I have to have run the gauntlet of lame excuses first. It is when I am at my most vulnerable that I can finally see me clearly as the only deterrent between me and my dreams.

When I saw this saying the other day….I thought to myself…”Yep…that’s me too much of the time.” A mistake repeated more than once is a choice. By continuing a negative pattern we are, unconsciously, making a wrong decision.

Still I will have to repeat that cancer has changed my life in so many positive ways…I like the Becky post-cancer more than the pre-Becky. I take nothing for granted any more…All my senses have been heightened  and everything is brighter because my eyes see life on a higher plateau than it did before.

I can certainly understand this quote from Gilda Radner:

“Cancer changes your life, often for the better. You learn what’s important, you learn to prioritize, and you learn not to waste your time. You tell people you love them. If it wasn’t for the downside, having cancer would be the best thing and everyone would want it. That’s true…if it just wasn’t for the downside.”

Brene Brown’s take on this important milestone of decisive action in our lives is expressed beautifully through these insightful comments. .

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel unsure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

So until tomorrow…Let us not be afraid of being imperfectly, absol-tively vulnerable…thus ready to choose a life of fulfillment for our sake and our loved ones’ sake.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

After being sad at not being able to see and delight in the birds eating from the Bradford Pear…I moved one of the shepherd’s crooks from the garden to a small area in front of my bushes where I can sit on the sofa or lounge chair in my Happy Room and enjoy watching the birds eat.

Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning when I went out into the garden to water everything ‘real good’ (Summerville hasn’t gotten any of the late afternoon thunderstorms the past two days so the high temps and humidity have already started drooping leaves and blooms) the flying insects were lying in wait…anticipating biting my feet and arms with total abandon. I returned to my house around 9:00 a.m. covered in welts and itching all over.

For a long time mosquitoes left me alone….it was if they knew I had cancer and didn’t want any part of me…but last summer and now this summer they are chewing on me the way I attacked those corn cobs Anne served the other evening. Maybe it is a good sign but it sure is painful.

As I sat examining all the welts…I realized that some of them were not mosquito bites but remnants from their smaller cousins…(best known in the south as) ‘no-see’ums but you feel ums.’ 

They have several other names too such as  Biting Gnats, Punkies or Sand Flies. With grayish or yellowish bodies, the adults resemble mosquitoes, although they are smaller than mosquitoes. In fact, they are so small they can get through screens on windows and doors. (I really don’t like that!)

The remedies are pretty much what one uses on all kinds of insect bites-your preference…Hydrocortison 1% or Calamine Lotion, or Aloe Vera or Benadryl. It usually takes about a week to two weeks for excessive bites to heal. Welcome to the great outdoors…right?

Thank goodness mine are minimum and should disappear in a couple of days…but only if I stay out of the garden…which isn’t going to happen and it is so hot to wear long sleeves and fitted shoes or boots to water the garden…Still it might be what it takes for awhile…at least “I reckon so.”

Here are some interesting facts about “No-see-ums.”

Both No-See-Ums and Gull Midges are the only pollinators of the cacao tree, from which we get cocoa beans for our chocolate. (*Next time I scratch I will go get something chocolate to eat in their honor)

In tropical and semi-tropical regions, larvae can even be found in rotting fruit and flowers, like tulips that hold water/moisture.

Scotland is known for its “biting midges,” as these pests are called there.  The most prevalent midge in many parts of Scotland is the Highland midge which prefers to breed in woodland, pastures and areas with particular moor grasses. There is concern that these biters can affect outdoor workers as well as tourists. 

There are screens which are of a much narrower weave that can be used on windows to help prevent no-see-ums from entering a home. Regular size screens have too wide of spacing between the weaving to prevent the entry of these tiny pests.

Midges have been found on Mount Everest!

No-see-ums are known as “knotts” in Norway, “Moose Flies” in Canada and “meanbh-chuileag” (tiny fly) in Gaelic-speaking countries.

It is believed that biting midges are drawn to mammals, including humans by detecting certain odors we emit, particularly the odor of carbon dioxide and the odor of lactic acid. 

Yesterday afternoon Luke stopped by to help put on some address numbers on my front steps…I am tired of chasing the UPS driver down the street.

While he was working on this project (sitting on the front steps of the porch) we hard a loud thump on my glass storm door. It was a baby carolina wren (our real state bird) trying to get inside my house. As we watched…the poor thing flew across the porch and thumped into the other glass storm door.

We both jumped up trying to wave it away. Chelsey drove up just about that time and was able to get it off the porch and flying away to the Bradford Pear. Poor little thing…it was too confused.

*With my blue ceiling to keep the ‘boo-hags’ and other bad spirits  away…it looks like the sky to flying creatures. It prevents wasps from building nests but unfortunately tricks little birds into thinking they are flying under the skies still on the porch. Poor baby…hope it’s okay.

So until tomorrow…It is times like these when I must remind myself that in life we must take the bad with the good and to especially remember one of my favorite hymns. “All Things Bright and Beautiful.” 

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

*Story behind the song: The hymn was first published in 1848 in Mrs Cecil Alexander’s Hymns for Little Children. It consists of a series of stanzas that elaborate upon verses of the Apostles Creed.

It may have been inspired by Psalm 104, verses 24 and 25: “Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts”.

The hymn also sought inspiration as well by a verse from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  “He prayeth best, who loveth best; All things great and small; For the dear God who loveth us; He made and loveth all.”

Take a couple of minutes and start your day off beautifully!

All Things Bright and Beautiful, by John Rutter – Mormon … – YouTube

• Murphy’s Law: If you get up early and water your garden while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and ‘no-see-ums’…  it will rain. The dark clouds started rolling in around 2:00 and to date (6PM) it is still raining and completely overcast. So ….guess who doesn’t have to water and get eaten tomorrow….happiness is!

Here’s our latest little “do-see-um” grandchild….Eloise. She is such a happy baby. She starts her mornings chewing on her toes (quite athletic) and is so happy to greet the new day!

Dear Reader:

I came across a little anecdote that made me pause and re-think happiness….with and without things.

The anecdote was titled: Socrates and the Market Place

True philosopher that he was, Socrates believed that the wise person would instinctively lead a frugal life. He himself would not even wear shoes; yet he fell under the spell of the marketplace and would go there often to look at all the wares on display.

When one of his friends asked why, Socrates said: “I love to go there and discover how many things I am perfectly happy without.”

Great thought. How many things am I perfectly happy without? I started to make a list.

1. a new car (I have been fighting ferociously to keep my old Green Vue hobbling along for as long as it can and for as long as I can keep away from monthly payments, higher insurance and taxes.
2. a new house (Slowly but surely I keep putting bandaids on my house periodically to keep it structure safe…because I love my home, neighborhood, friends, and garden….it is the place I have renovated over the years making it reflect who I am…it is the place I call home…my sanctuary, my happy place!)
3. jewelry- (I love meaningful jewelry from friends or jewelry that holds memories…but   “diamonds” are not my best friend.)
4. being rich- (I honestly don’t think I was made to be materially rich…because I would have had to give up too many more gifts more precious than money….creativity, perseverance, and knowing I am loved for who I am…not what I own.)
5. more technology- (I really don’t like keeping up with the latest tech gadgets even if I could afford them…give me my old television with PBS, my old desk computer, my basic iPhone and I am perfectly satisfied.)

On the flip side…what I couldn’t give up….family, friends, and books

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life- to be happy…it’s all that matters.”

“I believe tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.”

Audrey Hepburn

So until tomorrow…Whenever you feel happiness wash over you…stop and reflect on what has caused that feeling…was it a nice comment, an act of appreciation…Whatever it was…there were no dollar signs attached…simply feelings of belonging and acceptance. Financial gifts might make me feel relieved…but never the level of happiness as feeling loved.

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I know just about every time the Ya’s and I get together the subject of money or savings come up. Since all of us retired as state employees….teachers and social workers…we all live on a limited (popular phrase- fixed) budget.

There is not a one of us who lives a frivolous life or throws money away. We all share the same values when it comes to our life’s expenditures.

We know how lucky we are to have a great state health plan (as state retirees) and are truly thankful for it. Whatever “limited” salaries we received as teachers….has certainly been made up by the expenses of paying (in my case) my on-going cancer treatment expenses for ten years. I have no clue what I would have done without these health care benefits I received and continue to receive.  The other Ya’s agree…since they too have faced accidents, surgeries, extensive dental care or like Jackson two knee replacements just recently.

With all this said, however, there is one dilemma that seems to repeatedly happen to each of us. No matter how hard we try to save and put money aside for a “rainy” day…some unexpected cost will pop up that strangely matches the almost exact amount of money we have been earnestly saving for weeks or months or years. It never fails to happen. We see our vision of doing something fun and exciting perhaps or purchasing something for someone we want to give a gift to… dissipate like dreams in the morning.

We find ourselves lamenting over these episodes practically every time we get together. One part of us recognizes the fact that it was nice to have the money for this or that emergency but the other side of us bemoans the fact that we  tried so hard to build up a little nest egg of security for a special purpose…only to see it taken away to pay for something mundane and boring…like household appliances or heating/air conditioning units. Necessary but depressing.

It is frustrating, sometimes, because we have to start over building our nest egg …only to experience the same thing repeatedly. (I often wonder if I didn’t continuously rebuild my “nest egg” would the car start behaving better or the appliances continue to run ceaselessly?)

So when I came across this little spiritual anecdote…suddenly an idea turned on that perhaps explains this continuing saga.

“A Check on Life”

A business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

Suddenly an old man appeared before him. “I can see that something is troubling you”, he said.

After listening to the executive’s woes, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.”

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.

Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come. The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000. It was signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

I can erase my money worries in an instant! he realized.

But instead, the executive decided to put the un-cashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought. With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the un-cashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man. “I’m so glad I caught him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn’t been bothering you. He’s always escaping from the rest home and telling people he’s John D. Rockefeller.”  She then led the old man away by the arm.

The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he’d been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him. Suddenly, he realized that it wasn’t the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his new found self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he ever imagined.

(Source: Spiritual Short Stories....Cade)

It dawned on me after reading this anecdote that we are supposed to live on faith… not nest eggs. Gilda Radner, the talented actress and comedienne, who died of cancer far too young, said it best in her farewell book : It’s Always Something.

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.”

So until tomorrow… “There is no real security except for whatever you build inside yourself.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday was a perfectly wonderful weather day for rain lilies and me….I had the windows open and as I sat working on my blog the coolest breezes blew in…it was overcast and mid-70’s…a wonderful hiatus from the hot sticky humidity we have endured so far this summer.

I went to Anne’s to return some Tupperware and food she sent me home with last evening…(minus the food of course.) She showed me her rain lilies and they are exquisite and petite. 

…And look at this beautiful day lily in Anne’s front yard…the lightest shade of pink with yellow designs throughout. Gorgeous!

Dear Reader:

Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself and others around you when it comes to dialect…especially in the south. How we speak and how we spell are closely tied together. I remember helping my Uncle Herschel with a birthday card he was giving his wife, my aunt, Mary Ellen to surprise her. Since I was at their house that summer he had asked me to add a special note inside his card. (I was probably around 8 or 9)

He was just about to close the envelope when he glanced one last time at the card. He suddenly stopped and said in bewilderment….”Who is Aunt Marah Ellen?” Becky!” I blushed and stuttered…”You know…Aunt MARAH Ellen?”

It took a full 30 seconds of complete bewilderment on Uncle Herschel’s face to turn into laughter…knee-slapping laughter. He turned to me, wiping tears from his eyes, and grinned. “Is that what you think I call her?”

“Yes sir….MARAH Ellen!” Uncle Herschel rolled off the sofa still laughing. He finally patted me on the back and said that we were definitely leaving the card just the way it was…because it had the best story of all in it.” “Come to think of it…I reckon it does sound like “MARAH Ellen doesn’t it?”

Since my love of storytelling came from my grandparents and uncles…I think that story became a classic in the family and was re-told on Aunt Mary Ellen’s birthday from then on.

As a teacher in the classroom teaching state history…I prepared myself (each year) for a “southern” mistake that was going to pop up a lot during our study of the Civil War. No matter how many times we studied Fort Sumter and the bombardment of it…the famous event that started the Civil War…and no matter how many times we saw pictures of the fort while many school children  even visited it for their end-of-the-school-year field trips…I was prepared for what was to come.

“What fort located in Charleston Harbor became famous for the site where the Civil War started?” ______________

At least 80% of the answers came back…_Fort Sumpter!

When I gave the test papers back….I told the class that I gave them credit for the right answer the first time… but if any of them misspelled the name of the fort a second time incorrectly…the answer would be wrong.

I wrote the word SUMTER on the board and then told the students to write this little Dingle Jingle down, in their notebooks,  as a way to remember to leave out the ‘P.’

Fort Sumter is right

Add a “P” and its wrong

No extra letter is needed

To keep this fort strong.

I will have to admit, like Uncle Herschel, that when one listens to most Southerners talk about Fort Sum(p)ter… one definitely does hear an “umph” sound in the middle. Again…it is just southern dialect run amuck.

A new word that has become increasingly popular is the new synoymn for “well.” It is “welp.” Supposedly it came from the dialect/script from the 1994 movie Dumb and Dumber.

At one point, Jim Carrey’s charcter- Lloyd walks out of a 7-Eleven and notices two men drinking Big Gulps, and says, “Hey guys! Oh, Big Gulps, huh? All righty then.” When the men respond with blank stares, Lloyd rebounds with,  “Welp, see you later.”

Saying “welp” instead of “well” is similar to saying “Yep or Nope” instead of “Yes” or “No.”

Remembering back to my childhood…there really is a difference in the two responses. “Welp” does introduce a remark expressing resignation or disappointment.

Sometime we cousins would be packed in the back of the car with Uncle Herschel driving and start begging him to stop somewhere in the summer for ice cream. He might start out saying “No” which meant we still had some hope…but when he switched to “Nope” it was all over. There is something about adding that “P” sound that does bring closure to begging.

That is the perfect moment when we could have looked at each other in resignation or disappointment and said “Welp…we tried!”

So until tomorrow…Remember when in doubt…the next time you refer to Fort Sum…ter...pause between the two syllables and remember not to add the “P” sound… “P” just sneaks out when we are rushed in our conversation. (And this is true in other areas of our lives too! 🙂

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

• A strange God Wink. Patty emailed to let me know that her father was stationed at Chosin’s Reservoir in Korea during the Korean War…and by a  ” God Wink” she gave out tootsie roll pops to her Sunday School class last Sunday.

A shout-out to Anne and that delicious dinner we had left over from her band playing at church yesterday and having them for Sunday lunch. She called and said she had lots of left-overs so come on over for Monday supper. OMG! Delicious homemade meal with silver queen corn…it was too good just to have one cob. It was dessert!

Dear Reader:

Jakie’s favorite lollipop is a tootsie roll pop. When he gets on the phone with me…it is the first thing he asks if he knows I am coming over soon…”Are you bringing me a tootsie roll pop Boo Boo?” That child is the fastest “licker” in the world …he works furiously to get to the chocolate tootsie roll inside.

A fun little story that goes along with Tootsie Roll Pops…created in 1931… is the story behind a small percentage of the wrappers depicting an Indian shooting an arrow on the wrapping paper. For sixty years rumors have circulated that if you get that particular picture you can trade it in for free tootsie roll pops.

Unfortunately the rumor was false but starting in 1982…the company decided to trade children a copy of the story behind it for the pop wrapper and some individual stores still give children a free pop if they bring in their wrapper.

*Guess what? I had one tootsie roll left over in the bag I keep at the house for the grandchildren and on a whim decided to look for the Indian Chief. Yeah! I am going to try taking it to a store that sells individual lollipops and see if I get a free one…this is kind of exciting!

The other question about the Tootsie Roll Pop (named for the candy creator’s daughter Clare…nicknamed Tootsie) is how many licks does it take to get to the center of the lollipop. Good question. So soon the company made a short commercial on this very question.

Classic Tootsie Roll Commercial – “How Many Licks” – YouTube

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On a more serious note…it was boxes and boxes of tootsie rolls that saved some American Marines during the Korean War. It is an amazing story.

BATTLE OF THE CHOSIN RESERVOIR

The reservoir temperatures ranged from minus five degrees in the day to minus 25 at night. The coldest temperatures ever recorded. Everything froze. Food rations were difficult to impossible to warm up, and the artillery shells weren’t going off with any regularity.

The 15,000 American troops were facing off against a division of 120,000 men. Strongly outnumbered, outgunned, and under supplied, the troops weren’t sure what to do next.

One thing was clear—if they didn’t get a supply drop, they were goners. Nearly out of mortar shells, the troops called for an airdrop of military supplies using the code name they’d established for artillery: Tootsie Rolls.

To their surprise, when the airdrop arrived, it was filled not with ammunition, but with actual Tootsie Rolls!

THE TOOTSIE ROLL MIX UP

The sugar boost turned out to be just the jolt the troops needed. Realizing that when the candy was warmed up, it became a kind of putty, the troops were hit with a brilliant idea. The chewed-up Tootsie Rolls would become pliable when warm, but they would quickly freeze again when exposed to the freezing wind.The chocolate flavored candies froze in the inhuman temperatures, but the great thing about Tootsie Rolls is that they’re edible even when they’re frozen.

The soldiers started using the putty-like-substance to patch bullet holes in vehicles, hoses, and other equipment. 

With their equipment fixed, the men collected their injured and frostbitten comrades, punched a hole through the enemy lines, and retreated to safety. The men who survived the battle started calling themselves the “Chosin Few” in commemoration of this once in a lifetime experience.

How Tootsie Rolls Saved the Troops – YouTube

So until tomorrow…When Veterans Day rolls around again this fall…I plan to give out tootsie rolls to veterans… along with a rolled up copy of this story. I can’t think of a better way to thank a Veteran.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

More “Pretties” from the Garden

Dear Reader:

We have talked many times about simplifying our lives through downsizing the space in it….rooms, houses, yards and, then, mainly the “stuff” that resides within it all.

There is, however, another type of downsizing and that is simplifying our blessings. Just like we don’t need so much “stuff” (in the sense of material things in our lives) we also don’t need to ask for more blessings than the basic ones we need to envelope and feel God’s presence and love.

I was thinking the other day that I ought to have a large, plain wooden plank with painted or carved words Simple Blessings on it. Then underneath these two simple words…I would list all my family and friends’s names. Quite simply it is the beloved people in my life that make my life. Everything else could disappear and I would be saddened at the loss…but as long as I continued to have the support and love of those around me, those most precious to me…life would continue to be beautiful and fulfilling. I could be happy with all the other imperfections in life.

Brooke forwarded this email message she got from one of her daily devotionals and it echoes the conversation today.

A social studies teacher asked her students, one day, to list what they thought the present-day Seven Wonders of the World were. As she collected the sheets from the students the teacher started counting the votes for the different selections. It was then she noticed that one young girl was still holding her selections while staring down at her desk.

The teacher called on the girl to share her selections aloud for the final tally. Instead of hearing the usual choices…different thoughts emerged leaving the class silent and thoughtful.

 …”While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one quiet
student hadn’t turned in her paper yet, so she asked the girl if
she was having trouble with her list.

    The girl replied, “Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my
mind because there were so many.” The teacher said, “Well,
tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.”

    The girl hesitated, then read, “I think the Seven Wonders
of the World are:

1. to See

2. to Taste

3. to Touch

4. to Hear

She hesitated a little, and then added,

5. to Feel

6. to Laugh

7. and to Love

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I remember one of my college professors in an educational/teaching course I took at Erskine College gave us a piece of advice that has stuck with me ever since:

“The teacher that teaches best…teaches least.”

When teachers let students figure out answers on their own…the students end up teaching the teacher. True learning takes place for everyone. (In fact those were my favorite learning days at school!)

So until tomorrow…Those things we overlook as simple and “ordinary” are truly wondrous. This is a gentle reminder that the most precious things in life cannot be built or bought. God gave them to us.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

The basket “chair” flowers and the barrel flowers are loving the return of the rain showers on and off again…a pattern that looks like it will be sticking around awhile. For these flowers the rain is definitely a simple blessing.

Eva Cate and Jakie’s lemonade (with many diverse other items) stand was successful but short-lived…not for lack of business but heat and rain. Still it kept them busy setting up and that was what John and Mandy needed while trying to unpack and wash clothes. Paradise gone…reality here! *Love your t-shirt Eva Cate!

Dear Reader:

Thursday night I was surfing channels to no avail. I had about given up hope of finding anything worth watching…when I flipped on PBS and the English version of the movie Pollyanna was just about to start on Masterpiece Theatre.

I have always loved the Disney version of Pollyanna with Hailey Mills but I must confess the British knocked the socks off all other prior productions. It was mesmerizing with absolutely no commercials from beginning to end.

Instead of being set in Vermont… as the book originally was written…the setting for this Pollyanna was in the English countryside in a small town called Beldingsville.

What was so outstanding about this performance was that it centered on the evolving relationship between Pollyanna and Aunt Polly. (Letting the relationship slowly develop took center stage.) It made all the difference in the world.

Every character in the town, influenced by Pollyanna’s “Glad Game,” had important acting roles too…instead of just Pollyanna.

It is in one of the first scenes of the movie when Aunt Polly is dictating the stern, rigid daily schedule she has planned for her niece that poor Pollyanna gasps for air and says dramatically “Oh, but Aunt Polly,  you haven’t left me any time at all just to live… Just breathing isn’t living!” 

I quickly grabbed my pen and notebook and wrote the quote down. How appropriate it is for life and how many times have we gotten ourselves in a rut where we are doing just that…going through the motions of breathing without living a life of joy and happiness?

In Kelly Rae Roberts’ latest paintings she shared this one on her website. I read the writing running across her shoulders and smiled at the end.

“Discover the stars, the twinkle, the sunbeams of your infinitely precious soul.”

(On one halo triangle..is the word journey.)

I realized that Kelly Rae Robers, through her art, was telling the same story as Pollyanna with her “Glad Game.”

In the book/movie several townspeople of Beldingsville have lost hope that life is anything more than waking up and trying to get through another day. They are just “breathing” but certainly not “living.” Somewhere in their past they have felt betrayed by human love, or given in to a medical obstacle… using self-pity as an excuse to remain in bed, or let a moment of anger ruin an important chance at a lasting relationship. Worse of all pride restrains the characters from trying to find happiness and joy again.

Don’t we see these ghosts of the past walking by us daily… physically alive but emotionally and spiritually deceased? It is easy to spot them by their countenance, demeanor, and speech…or lack of.

One part of the movie I had forgotten about struck a chord with me. When I was thinking one day, a few years back after a health setback following another surgery, what scripture I would like read at my own funeral I knew it had to be lines talking about joy and rejoicing. What a wonderful, joyful life I have experienced and that is how I would like to be remembered …a joyful person…who loved playing “The Glad Game.”

*Pollyanna tells her Aunt Polly about a discovery her father, a pastor, made one day when he was feeling sad over her mother’s death…about the discovery of the number of scriptural lines in the Bible that talk about joy and rejoicing.

“Oh, yes,” nodded Pollyanna, emphatically. He [her father] said he felt better right away, that first day he thought to count ’em. He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times [in the Bible] to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it – SOME.”

So until tomorrow…By simply smiling at people whose hope has diminished as evidenced by the loss of light in their eyes…sometimes our light can help re-light the eyes of another.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

So many of you yesterday chimed in on the fun with the word “very’ while making Facebook and WordPress comments… a hoot to read.

*If any of you didn’t see this comment by Mary Fennemore, co-owner of Fifer Orchards in Wyoming, Delaware,  concerning the word “very”  read it now…Mary found another good line of scripture.

Hey Becky – I’m with you on VERY!! I even use Very, Very….!!! And if anyone needs further justification for using very, here’s another Scripture….Psalm 46:1 -God is our Refuge and Strength, a VERY present and well-proved help in trouble. AMEN.

PS ~ Thanks again for your wonderful writings! I enjoy them very, very much every morning!
With my love and prayers, Mary

Dear Reader:

Why do so many people want to pick on one of my all-time favorite words….very? I remember my senior high school English teacher handing me back the first draft of my first attempt at a term paper….with lines drawn through every “very” on the page. How “very” rude!

I am sorry but I simply can’t help myself. I am a “very” expressive person when I use “very” to describe my adventures through life…both very happy and/or very sad. Life seems kinda blah to me without a “very” in it.

Apparently Mark Twain (supposedly) once said:

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time (sic) you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
— John Willard, English Usage, 2017

Come on now Mark…what’s the problem with a good dessert with a “very” on top?

Apparently language critics gave poor President Woodrow Wilson a hard time for using “very” too many times in his speeches. One critic said that the over-use of “very” is a feminine trait and alluded to the fact that Woodrow Wilson had been around his wife and three daughters too long and that “very” side of him was rubbing off  by his association from living in a”fortress of femininity.”  (How very insensitive!)

I think Wilson should have replied to his distracters with this bit of scripture.

John 14:12-14

12:  “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth in me, the works that I do, shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my father.”

Jesus  made another adverb out of an adverb…with very and verily. How very cool is that?

I couldn’t help but laugh at the humorous tongue-in-cheek summary of the article by Merriam-Webster (“The Problems with Very” or “Other People’s Problems with Very“)

“...So let’s have a quick recap on the matter of very. You may use very before a past participle, unless it sounds bad, in which case you should not use it. You may use very as an intensifier before adjectives such as angry, unless you use it too much, in which case you should use it less. And in the matter of rhetorical proclivities you should use very whenever you feel like it.”

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So until tomorrow “Oh…how I love having fun with words. Can you imagine living in a world without them…it would be a pretty lonely world…in fact a VERY lonely world.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Honey forwarded this insightful message she received from an email from a friend…I wanted to share it with all of you.

Six Little Stories

1. One day, all the villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella.