Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Lately the garden has been calling me back again and again…As much as I have professed disliking raking…for the past several days I have been raking portions of the entire garden. It will take several more days…(I choose five sections to work on  and then stop…until the next day when I do the same ‘to do‘ list…just in a different area) to finish up.  And guess what… I loving it…and can hardly wait to get back out there and do some more!

It is something about using our hands that is very important in our lives…when I work in the garden pulling weeds and dead plants, raking up pine straw and leaves…I feel a sense of accomplishment. Even my brain seems happy that I am doing something with my hands and letting it rest too.

I am not just tapping on my IPhone or inside channel surfing/ staring at the television…but I am doing a small act of kindness for my plants who deserve a nice clean spot in which to grow. (And a great bonus benefit… I sleep better after working outside with my hands.)

Here are some areas I have raked to date…. there is an old oak tree right over the fountain and there must have been 3 to 4 inches of pine straw/leaves/sticks debris from over the winter in it and around it. Because of its location, there will always be a few leaves from the tree but the plants aren’t buried under it any more. (and the fountain isn’t stopped up any more!)

This whole side of the yard now is (almost) pine straw and leaf free…this took quite awhile.

…as well as this area.

Some of the following special “delights”…favorites of mine …I select to start  cleaning out first….Still others are on waiting list for their home improvements but they are are coming…maybe tomorrow?

Doodle…tomorrow’s section to clean out is…the azaleas you originally planted in the garden….Being by the fence on the other side…the pine straw has blown and  piled up there way too long…can hardly wait to see how good they are going to look when they are cleaned out…

I saw something interesting on CBS News about why using our hands make our heads happy…at least the brain inside our heads.

As of 2015, jobs requiring social and analytical skills — desk jobs — had increased 94% from 1980, while jobs requiring physical skills went up a mere 12%.

And that has Kelly Lambert (neuro-scientist) concerned: “We just sit there. And we press buttons. And you start to lose a sense of control over your environment.”

It is true…I can only spend so much time on the computer or IPhone and I suddenly feel tired, exhausted and I haven’t done anything…I have decided if I am going to feel tired…it is going to be because I did something physically not just mentally all day.

 Why do insults once hurled at us stick inside our skull, sometimes for decades? Why do some people have to work extra hard to ward off  depression?

The answer is, for the same reason political smear campaigns outpull positive ones. Nastiness just makes a bigger impact on our brains.

Unfortunately it is the way we were built and it helped out when this mechanism worked for us in ancient primitive times…in kill or be killed situations. So now the new challenge is how to overcome this built-in instinct and counter-balance it with good thoughts in today’s world.

One way (in this article “Our Brain’s Negative Bias” Psychology Today) to do this is through small acts of kindness.

Researchers have come up with a magical formula to over-ride negativity in our thoughts…it is a 5- 1 ratio. We need to do five positive things each day to overcome one really negative experience. And they think five acts of kindness works better than any other process.

…”Other researchers have found the same results in other spheres of our life. It is the frequency of small positive acts that matters most, in a ratio of about five to one.

Occasional big positive experiences—say, a birthday bash—are nice. But they don’t make the necessary impact on our brain to override the tilt to negativity. It takes frequent small positive experiences to tip the scales toward happiness.

I have found the peace, tranquility, and happiness I need in my garden, using my hands to steer me, to overcome negativity in daily life. Every time I get upset over the constant terrible news in every media under the sun …I can go outside, talk with the neighbors about their beautiful yards and plants and then go work in mine…making it my sanctuary to stay positive and overcome the negatives of life. I can ‘let it go’ and ask God to handle these scary situations out of my control while I concentrate on what I can control by making the world a little more beautiful one rake, one plant, one tree at a time.

So until tomorrow…”To make the acquaintance of a tree is to gain the counsel of a wise and compassionate friend.” (And there is always room for more of these kinds of friends)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Aren’t windows happy items by nature? Simply because they let the light in? I read the other day a quote that I liked…(I think it was from a window retail outfit…still the message rang true) that I can only paraphrase but the concept was ….“The bigger the window…the more happiness pours in.”

Since yesterday was cloudy and rainy in intervals…the house seemed extra dark…so I threw open the “shutters and the blinds” and let the natural light come in…my spirits were lifted immediately.

I think John Greenleaf Whittier was right when he said, ” The windows of my soul throw wide open to the sun.” My soul craves the light too.

Today I am finishing with the last excerpt from Small Graces by Kent Nerburn (that I will share with you) so any of you potential buyers will still have lots of vignettes of faith and hope left to read and enjoy. This excerpt touched my heart profoundly…but then all  twenty vignettes did the same thing.

In this vignette Nerburn talks about his love of windows and how he always finds just the right home with the right window for him when traveling and moving from place to place. At his current home he says “From my window the day arrives like the distant chanting of a prayer.”

One day during this sacred time watching the sun rise from his window he remembers Alice. He was doing research on nursing homes and had become so upset and disillusioned by so many of them and the shells of people left living…but no longer in the shell. They had escaped mentally to another place to wait for the end.

He was supposed to interview one resident named “Alice.” As he approached her she smiled and nodded her consent again to talk to him about her life in this nursing home. She seemed distracted, however, and her eyes kept staring out the window.

Nerburn decided not to disturb her until she was ready to talk so for awhile silence fell between them. And then finally she spoke:

“Look, she said pointing out the window….far in the distance was the cupola of a cathedral. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she said. “I come here every day to watch the sun rise. “I’ve been all over Europe. I’ve seen Notre Dame and St. Peter’s and the Duomo in Florence. But none was more beautiful than this, and I can see it every day.”

Then she reached over and grabbed my hand…”Isn’t this a gift?” she said.

Nerburn confesses that he didn’t know what to say. He had expected to look sadly on the “shrinking horizons of her life, to weep for her lost dreams, and the tiny window that framed the boundaries of her day. But those were my tears, not hers. Her tears were for the beauty. From her window she received, too, the spirit of the dawn.”

As he left…he realized suddenly that “Alice was an artist of the ordinary which is the highest extraordinary…she painted with the colors of her heart… I thought I would see her prison, her depressing restrictions from her former life…but where I wanted to see limitations…she had wanted to show me possibility. She had shared a small communion of their spirits that day.”

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The luck of the Irish….yesterday started out sunny, then cloudy, then rainy, and then sunny again in time for Lachlan’s birthday party. If Lachlan looks a little green in the first picture…it is because dad put on all the Irish fixings/decorations and green lights on his new birthday present (meaning Walsh’s new mode of transportation present) and took the kids around the neighborhood for their own St. Patrick’s Day Parade! Only issue…biting gnats…descended out of nowhere…so there was a lot of scratching going on.

Tommy and Kaitlyn’s little dogs were in demand to be held and why

not? They are so so cute….go Pip Super Dog Hero!

Jakie might be the smallest grandchild (with the exception of Eloise) but he has a mighty appetite and is always first in line for cake.

Of course everyone took turns holding Eloise…she is such a good baby…just went to friends and relatives without a blink…including Eva Cate and Aunt Mandy!

Everyone had to “pull” together to “pull” this birthday off…but it was great fun…they even “hired” the cutest waiters!

Many of you saw Kaitlyn’s article in the Charleston Weddings (Spring 2018) magazine edition on Facebook Friday…but for those of you who didn’t see the article it is called “Lovely for Less” or “How to have a wonderful wedding for $7K. So proud of you Kaitlyn!

At the party she had a copy of the magazine and gave it to me but I told her she must sign it first!

Dear Reader:

The nicest thing about God Winks is when they come from another source I probably never would have connected with…(unless I had decided to write a daily blog one day way back in 2010.) Yesterday I received the sweetest email from Kim Gaskins, a Pawleys Island resident, expressing her hopes and dreams for the future… from the Pawleys Island seashell she just found.

Kim started her email by admitting that she has lived on Pawleys Island for two decades, yet only heard of the lucky Pawleys Island seashell two days ago while strolling with a new walking partner, Kelly, and her “precious pooch” Sophie on the South Causeway island.

(Kim admitted that her one year-old silver lab is quite smitten with Sophie but it is not reciprocated…Sophie doesn’t tolerate bad behavior in young dogs.)

On the walk Kelly mentioned that she felt like she was going to have a very blessed year because she had just found a Pawleys Island sea shell on the beach earlier that morning. Kim was intrigued about this lucky shell that she had never known about and she wanted to know more. When she looked it up my blog post popped up.

Then yesterday Kim miraculously came upon one herself. She felt so blessed to have found this good luck shell so quickly. She then told me why the appearance of this discovery couldn’t have come at a better time.

Kim’s daughter  just recently was accepted into the honors school at USC when she found the shell. She said she believed that this sign was letting her know that her daughter would be successful in the honors program and achieve “everything she is aiming for in her new endeavors.”

As with most families…the expense of paying for this opportunity is stressful but she hopes (the discovery of the Pawleys Island seashell) means that many of the scholarships her daughter has applied for will be awarded to her…so as to make this dream a reality.

*As a proud mom she said that her daughter…” has been class president at Waccamaw High School the past 3 years and Student Body President this senior year!! She is top in her class and was Homecoming Queen !! She is such a sweet and talented girl!! She has applied for every scholarship out there , so maybe our shell will bring her funds to pay for college!”

Kim concludes with: “Blessed beyond words!! I’m going to take the shell to ‘Mr. Whitmire or Jeremy and have it cast in 14k for her graduation gift from me and her dad, brother and sister!”

*( Anyhow, I enjoyed reading your blog and I plan to keep up with it in the future!!)

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It makes me so happy that a seemingly random occurrence sent out waves of happiness that ended up “beaching” in my email. It made my day…and Kim I hope for the very best for your daughter…however, from what you have told us…I think everything is going to work out just fine…in fact better than fine.  Keep us updated when she starts school.  Again…thanks for sharing this God Wink with all of us here on the blog.

*That was so much fun because it was so unexpected…the best kind of email surcie!

Today is a very special day…it is our little Leprechaun Lachlan’s third birthday…a St. Patrick’s Day baby! The family party is later today …a combination of birthday and Irish festivities…it should be so much fun! Happy birthday Lachlan…the cutest little leprechaun around!

You know you’re getting old when three wheelbarrow loads of raked debris and two basket plantings lay you low…my muscles are complaining accusingly…”Now why did you go and use me today…you haven’t used me in months…what do you expect?” But the results are wonderful…I planted Canary Yellow Erysimums in the fence planters.

As I was putting all the garden tools up around 6:00 the rays of the slowly setting sun hit Rutledge’s tree head on and the red leaves lit up like a fire. Beautiful!

Dear Reader:

Every time I look out, onto the front yard, from the porch, I notice how my Bradford Pear leans (slanted-ly) to the right. My neighbor’s oak tree’s branches grow over my driveway and block the Bradford Pear branches from the sun on the left…so it leans right…searching for the light. (Eventually I imagine it will topple to the right also…but not today hopefully!)

Yesterday was a day spent in the garden and with  some ‘digging help’ from Luke…new plants interred for the spring. This year I am wanting varying heights in the garden…like tall blooming grasses and wild flowers…I want to add some height dimension and some mystery where everything isn’t seen all at once.

Of course it will take time for this to happen…perhaps  a few seasons but that is okay…my dream garden is just as real to me, today, as my ‘right now’ garden…all I have to do is close my eyes to see it.

With Luke’s (Thank you Lord for Luke!) help we even got the fountain cleaned out ….coins soaked in chlorox and hundreds of oak leaves removed… The fountain is now running again with ‘clean’ change, clear water…wishes will just have to come true with shiny pennies!

I had forgotten how much I missed that sound of trickling water…what is it about softly running water that soothes the soul?

I am only going to share two more excerpts (today and tomorrow) from Small Graces since I heard back from some of you that you are ordering it… I don’t want to be a “spoiler alerter” sharing too much …so the excerpts from five of the vignettes (used in my blog posts) still leaves 15 more in the book…There are lots of wonderful thoughts and anecdotes for you to explore and (hopefully like me) embrace in your heart, as well as, your thoughts.

This vignette is titled “The Gift of the Garden”

Nerburn admits that he was never a ‘garden’ person most of his life and even now only keeps a mental one….but still it is a garden created from a chance encounter with a Jesuit priest, a friend of his, who opened his eyes to the life lessons found in it.

The Jesuit priest had spent most of his life studying, learning, and reading…earning many advanced degrees in his pursuit of the meaning of life. He now spent more time in the garden and less time with his books.

When Nerburn asked him about his change in perspective… between the garden and his library…he answered;

“I still ask the large questions, ” he said. “But I no longer seek large answers. A flower, or the space between a branch and a rock, these are enough.” 

He pointed to a leaf he was removing from the stem of a small plant.

“Look here,” he said, as the leaf released and fell softly into his hand. “This looks like nothing more than an insignificant shrub. But in fact it is a small tree, strong and full, with a rich and private life that no one knows or sees.”

He pointed to a sliver of sunlight beaming down upon its branches. “…See how this branch is now turning to the light…I opened this to the sun last year. I knew that by allowing the smallest bit of light to shine upon this plant, it would slowly turn its face toward the sun.”

He stopped and smiled “Are any of us so different from this tree- strong, full, with a life almost unnoticed? And who among us does not grow and prosper when someone shines even the smallest bit of sunlight upon us? What more do I need to know of God and faith?”

“If I cannot see the face of God in a flower or a shaft of light, why should I expect to see it in ideas and books?”

Since then Nerburn is drawn to various gardens in his travels…and in his mind he pictures himself reaching down and touching the delicate leaf of a plant…remembering his wise friend’s words:

“Everything lives, everything dies, everything leans to the light.”

So until tomorrow… Nerburn concludes: “If I knew only this, it would be enough.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Some of you on Facebook have already seen Frances Townsend’s notice about the Gullah basket ladies arrival this Saturday…tomorrow! It is always fun and they bring lots of merchandise at good prices. So if you are in the Summerville area…do stop by and pick up a little bit of history as a keepsake.

Address: 302 Marion Avenue   (843-873-1341)

Eloise’s tree marker finally arrived yesterday. And as if to celebrate… the newest Japanese Maple’s first spring leaves flooded the branches of the youngest tree…growing like our Eloise.

Dear Reader:

I think I mentioned a couple of days ago that I got so excited reading Kent Nerburg’s Simple Graces that I stopped reading and ran to get my yellow highlighter marker. When finished…the book looked like it originally was published with yellow pages…not white and black ink.

My mounting enthusiasm peaked because I finally felt like someone ‘got me’ … somehow ‘knew me’…or at least the author could identify with me when it comes to philosophy on life and spirituality.

Let me just pick a couple of excerpts I highlighted and explain my happy reaction to these personal revelations.

...”We want to live spiritual lives. We know, at heart, that we are spiritual beings. But our lives are small, our concerns immediate. The days we live seem to conspire against our spiritual selves. We look longingly at those who shine great light into this world…Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr- and our lives and accomplishments seem paltry in comparison. 

…”The world contains many paths, some exalted, some mundane. It is not our task to judge the worthiness of our path; it is our task to walk our path with worthiness. 

…”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. “

Suddenly I felt a huge weight fall off my shoulders…these days when I find myself smiling at first rose buds of the spring season bursting into bloom,the grandchildren’s Japanese Maples transforming into colored leaves while petunias and pansies hold hands to transition late winter and early spring…I am filled with an inner joy that I can’t even explain..

Am I just being selfish with my time to want to linger longer in my garden and dream of more natural beauty spreading throughout my sanctuary?…Is my new-found love and appreciation of sunrises, sunsets, early frosty mornings, or walks through the neighborhood enough to fulfill life, to live a life worthy of God’s most precious gift?

For me the answer is “Yes”…I find God in the ordinary…and if He is there…then that is place I should be. (And He is.)

And then that is when I was reaffirmed (where I fit spiritually in this world) with the next paragraph in this vignette.

…I am a “Lover of the quiet God, one of believers in the small graces of ordinary life. These lovers know for certain that life has a beauty and a joy that transcends all the darkness that surrounds us, that something ineffable lives beyond the ordinary affairs of the day, and that without this mystery our lives would not be worth living.”

Nerburg concludes the dedication of his book to “…those who search for the quiet God, who seek the spirit in the small moments of our everyday life. It is a celebration of the ordinary, a reminder that when all else is stripped away, a life lived with love is enough.”

So until tomorrow…Thank you family, friends, and readers for sustaining me through this life with your loving support…it far exceeds “enough.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Here are some of my “extra-ordinary loves” I experienced yesterday.

It was “Eloise” day and when I got there she had just returned, with Mollie, from taking her two big brothers to Preschool. It made my heart sing when she beamed at her crazy Boo Boo…smiling and smiling.

Eloise’s hair is getting lighter and lighter…she is in love with the ceiling fan….happiness at 10 weeks is a bottle (from me) and a twirling fan to watch.

She has also just discovered her hands and will spend long periods of time raising both together and then separately…staring in delight at the two miraculous appendages attached to her…especially when she finds the fingers to stick in her mouth.

*Of course this time she could have been staring at the angel behind me…who knows?

I am hoping the last hard frost took place last night…I had to call Luke to help move Big Red one (hopefully) last time for the winter season. Luke barely got Big Red in the door on the B*B side…it is outgrowing the white bench…I think if there was a county fair contest for the largest geraniums “Big Red” would be a contender. *Check out the bloom on the tip tip top of the plant…Luke said it now looked like a Christmas tree with a star on top.

Dear Reader:

I got the deck cleaned off yesterday…it was a chilly start with frost…but warmed up nicely…especially in the early afternoon hours…I just wanted to curl up and take a nap on one of the lounge chairs.

Instead I curled up and read some of the twenty vignettes in Kent Nerburn’s book (Small Graces) over again. One particular story really brought back so many childhood memories. To date, since 2014, (Chapel of Hope Stories, Pt 2) I have written about my love of nooks and crannies four times….averaging one blog post a year. I just love corners.

After reading Nerburn’s vignette on the power of corners…I realized why they are still so ingrained in my psyche. Here is the story.

“Pat had been teaching kindergarten for over twenty years. So long, in fact, that she had almost become a child again herself. 

Her classroom was a joyous place, full of laughter and play. To some of the more serious minded of the children, it was almost too raucous, a betrayal of the severity and silence that they were already learning as the price of survival in a world governed by adults.

But this did not deter her. There were hugs, small animals, baskets full of clothes and costumes; colors, shapes, signs that meant nothing at all. Put them on, march around, crawl on the floor. Speak in a language that no one else knows. Draw a picture of something that no one has ever seen. 

What’s your name today? Why don’t we all talk backwards? What would a starfish say to a star?

And gradually they all came to her. She was a gift to behold, the wonderment of childhood written large upon their hearts. 

“What is the secret?” I asked her, as the children filed out one day, their minds full of kaleidoscopes, pinwheels, and dinosaur dreams. 

“Corners,” she said. “All children need corners.”

I looked around the classroom. Small piles of stones in shoeboxes. Little worlds constructed in cubicles and cubbies. Corners.

She showed me a hidden place behind a bookshelf where one boy had strung a complex web of string, yarn, and filled it with climbing plastic men. 

“If I could, I would give him an attic. But this corner is enough.”

We walked to the center of the room. A circle had been taped on the floor. “This is where we meet together,” she said. “It is good for them to know that we are all part of a whole. But there,” she continued, pointing to the corners, the boxes, the cubbies “is where they go to dream. Show me the corners and I will show you the child.”

Right before remembering Miss Pat, Nick’s kindergarten teacher, Nerburn had been distraught over his young son’s room…completely in disarray…beyond help…or perhaps only salvageable with a lot of help. But the memory of Miss Pat stopped him from yelling at Nick to get in there and start picking up. He deliberately walked over to a corner in the bedroom and found it.

“There, beneath the table, Nick had constructed a spaceship, a wild and fanciful winged creation of plastic parts populated with dinosaurs and tiny figures. Next to it miniature plastic monkeys climbed a tower made of sticks and straws. Pieces of string and ribbon connected the tower to the ship.”

Nerburn slowly and carefully backed out of the room…returning to the family’s organized, neat adult living room. He took a seat in his chair in the center of the room and smiled.

As a child, I sought out the corners of life to play in with my imaginary friends, as well as, neighborhood children and family cousins. At grandmother’s house I set up “shop” in corners of the hayloft over the barn, behind a corner field oak tree, and lots of corners in the attic.

It was there I read, had tea parties with dolls and dreamed…always dreamed…about what my life would look like. When I walked back into my bedroom off the deck (after reading this vignette) I had to laugh…at two corners in my adult bedroom. The child in me still lives there.

This corner in my bedroom is the grandchildren’s favorite place to run to when they come visit…especially Rutledge and Lachlan…they always want to know if there is a new truck or car in the cloth truck basket. I just wink and tell them to go see…there always is. *Jakie doesn’t come very often but he has caught on quickly… he now asks me about my truck basket and if there is something in it for him when I go to their house. I tell him “Yes” but he must come and see.

Eva Cate used to come a lot… but with her bouts of homesickness now…less often. In the Boo Boo basket (Mandy decorated for me)…my old doll Polly waits to be played with…she holds a photo of Eva Cate meeting her for the first time . Eva Cate was about two.

Before we know it…Eloise will come and get to meet Polly too and play with her…In fact maybe one day both girls can have a tea party with her. Polly would love it…it has been a long wait.

My other corner in the bedroom is filled with my favorite color…all shades of it…orange…with little white fairy lights surrounding some of my favorite things…pictures of my children when they were little, candles, floral decorations and angels to guard it all.

So until tomorrow…My hope and faith is still drawn to corners…those special crannies that offer security, hope, and faith in a world that tries to erase these attributes… if we let it. So we must prevail with fostering dreams in our corners, along with the child, in each of us. (Not only for us…but for our loved ones who follow us)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Jo and Colby…Your rose bush had its first bloom open today…welcome to Spring 2018!

Dear Reader:

One of my favorite authors, Madeleine L’Engle’s, works are in demand again with the release of  A Wrinkle in Time…a popular children’s book turned into a movie.  She used the “story as a redemptive act” about her own father’s death that occurred when she was only 17.

Madeleine writes in her book (The Rock that is Higher) “His lungs were irrevocably damaged by mustard gas in WWI. He lived with physical pain and the pain of being unable to do the work he loved, traveling all over the world as a foreign correspondent. When his last attack of pneumonia finally killed him, I was stunned, but somehow not surprised.”

Madeleine described the sadness in her father’s eyes when he put her on the train from Jacksonville to Charleston to finish her senior year at Ashley Hall. In her journal the night of the news of her father’s death…stunned..she wrote simply…”Father died.” But it was his death that started her on a new path…using fairy tales and science fantasy to explore her grief for a father she loved but didn’t get to fully know as an adult, herself.

“In fairy tales and myths there are doors that should not be open, boxes that must remain closed. And human curiosity being what it is, we open the doors and open the boxes, like Pandora; we eat the forbidden fruit, like Eve. Now we have to live in a world that is irrevocably changed by what was in those secret rooms and what has escaped from the mysterious closed boxes and by the loneliness that came from being forever expelled from the Garden.”

Madeleine reminds us that it has only been in recent times that fairy tales, fantasy, and myths have been thought of being exclusively for children. Originally they were not written for children at all. In fact when she wrote A Wrinkle in Time publishers thought the reading and content were too difficult for children. But children proved them wrong.

Madeleine’s comment to this criticism still makes me smile:

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

It is easy to underestimate the ability of children to understand complex concepts and want to protect them. By doing this, we rob them of the opportunity to receive new information, process it and better understand the world around them—and their own imaginations.

L’Engle said that it was adults who thought children would be afraid of the Dark Thing in A Wrinkle in Time, not children. If we are writing for younger audiences, our responsibility is to write honestly and not shy away from more advanced ideas if those are part of the story we want to tell. Children will appreciate it.

L’Engle recognized that fairy tales prepare adolescents for the inevitable question “Who Am I?” Fairy tales assure us we are all on a special quest…we do not know the entire nature of the quest, nor where it is going to take us…for that we turn to faith in our Creator.

The great Sufi master Nasrudin went into a small store and said to the shopkeeper, “Have you seen me before?” “No, never,” replied the shopkeeper. “Then how do you know it is me?” the Sufi master demanded.

*It was here I stopped in my reading yesterday and thought to myself “How does anyone really know it is me?” “Sometimes I have a hard enough time figuring that question out myself.” Don’t we only show what we want to with the people around us? Does anyone really know who we are deep deep down inside ourselves?”

Yes…God does.

Our relationship with Him should be wide open…no hidden boxes or doors…just ‘face to face’ daily encounters that go like this “Good morning God (my eternal prince charming)…Thanks for knowing who I am, really am, and still loving me unconditionally.” 

(When I cuddle Eloise each week I wonder what all is going on in her  mind as she watches the world come into focus a little more each time. L’Engle says “In folklore it is usually accepted that infants in their cradles understand the language of angels and fairies. What finally eliminates them from our daily lives, tragically, is time.”)

So until tomorrow…As I rock Eloise my wish for her is that angels and fairies encircle her life forever…as they still do mine!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Ken Nerburn’s book, Small Graces, arrived yesterday and I read it last night. It is a small, thin book and one I could not put down…I have never underlined and highlighted a book as much as I did his book. Profound…at least to me…  in his amazing ability to take complex spiritual concepts and turn them into something so basic, clear, and concise it leaves the reader in awe.

In fact…I discovered something in it that made me stop reading and start remembering. Nerburn writes:“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.”

Bingo…my episode Sunday morning with the scripture message on the new church sign, ‘Let there be light’ followed by the sun immediately breaking through the morning clouds to shine down upon me through the branches and Spanish moss draped over the old oak tree. It was a holy moment …because it brought the moment, the message, into the light.

A wonderful God Wink. Thank you God!

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I left for Sunday School early so I could try and catch my young confirmation partner… whom I am mentoring… during her faith journey. Since I was out of town last Sunday… during one of the scheduled confirmation group sessions…I wanted to check in with her and make sure she was feeling good about her evolving faith statement .

I discovered that daylight savings time had thrown the family off and not all got there in time…but I was able to talk to her mother and pass on a (hopefully) ‘helpful hint.’

I was planning on staying for church and it was still way too early for that…so I decided to just go sit in the car, catch up on some blog comments and personal texts. As I looked up one time…I saw it!

Our new church sign was finished! Between family, the snow/ice storm, babysitting, Eloise’s arrival, and the scare of the flu epidemic my oncologist warned me about (the procedures I would need to do if I got it)…I had been more like a ‘ghost’ myself at church since the new year.

I knew the new sign was close to completion but now I was seeing it for the first time with much delight! It just blended into the beautiful surroundings that our church site is blessed to be situated on. As I watched its information flick on and off…like the time of Sunday School and church service…it went to a third message that said…“Let There Be Light!”

Immediately I jumped out of my car with my IPhone and waited until it changed to the scripture line and took the photo. Then I looked down at the church nestled in such beauty and took another photo.

I felt such a wave of emotion pass over me…a sense of nostalgia for what this church has meant to me over the years of watching my children grow up in it. It was just then that the sun broke through the early ( daylight savings time earlier) morning gray clouds and brilliantly shone down on the exact location where I was standing.

“Let there be light!” and there it was. I glanced up…aimed my IPhone blindly and clicked. When I got back in the car…I had gotten it…my God Wink for the day…my message from God… early on a Sunday morning.

*I know I am an imaginative creature…but does anybody, besides me, see a red heart smiling back at me through the trees? Well, that’s my story and I am sticking with it. 🙂

Aren’t we all guilty, as hard as we try, of spending too much of our time here on earth in the darkness? The darkness of mis-understandings, misjudgments, and missed opportunities to be a light for Christ.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke:

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Paul wrote to Timothy listing these six attributes as a compass for following the light.

“…As we prove to be examples in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, and in purity, we will qualify to be lights to the world.”

(Excerpt from article “Be an Example and a Light” – President Thomas Monson)

The ray of light, yesterday, breaking through the gray clouds of early morning darkness, reminded me of my role in this life…to spread the light of faith.

So until tomorrow…Father, Open our eyes to Your compasses, guidelines, and winks. Sometimes, we  just have to blink a few times to catch on.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

More ‘delights of the day’ on my walk

*This azalea bush has won the battle against the fence…toppling over the top and growing through the links. Beautiful scene!

My white bridal veil bush (I think) decided to ‘marry’ Mr. Azalea since the two bushes are completely intertwined…the combination is extra extraordinaire!

Dear Reader:

After all the adventures in the first week of March at Pawleys…I am ready to settle back down and take refuge in my garden, visiting my neighbors, and walking farther distances around the neighborhoods adjacent to Miler.

So when Honey sent me this simple little message yesterday with the following question  (excerpted from the book Small Graces by Kent Nerburn) it really struck a chord with me. It is right where I am at the moment…it is time to return to “the quiet gifts of everyday life.”

“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?”  Kent Neburn

After reading this paragraph…I found myself talking back to myself…answering with a resounded “No”…we don’t need more than this…it is enough.

Neburn concludes his message with these three powerful lines:

“To do justice. To love mercy. To walk humbly with our God.

To bring peace to the old. To have trust in our friends. To cherish the young.

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

One reader, David Doane, commented on the entire article with this insightful and powerful response:

“All that is, living and not living, is God incarnate, and is a gift and a grace.  The gifts or graces are everything, including this day, my every breath, my every heart beat, my hand, the ability to move and think and feel, the ability to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, other people, a glass of water, a butterfly, my cat, a tree, a rock, a lifetime, the entire world in which I live.  It is difficult for me to differentiate between small and great graces.  I think all graces are both small and great.  What helps me value and treasure the graces in my life is knowing how precarious and temporary they are and how little control I have.  What helps me feel complete with the graces in my life is being aware of and grateful for them.”(Awakin Readings)

So yesterday I grabbed my Iphone and started taking pictures of the garden and how it has changed in one week…looking at what is and what my future dreams for the garden holds…It was enough. Peace and happiness.

Looking out my “office window” the azaleas bushes are smiling back at me…they make up one small section of what I call Azalea Alley now…I even park my car in the other driveway so cars driving by can see the gorgeous azalea bushes blooming all the way down my driveway.

My view from my computer…I type and then daydream…lazily staring out at the beauty on the other side of the window…so close to me.

I love my two Anemones…the purple and red…they are gorgeous!

Susan and Kaitlyn…the Amanda Rose just produced its first rose of the season…Spectacular!…I hope this is going to be a great season for roses –  See below.

(* The J&C rose (Jo and Colby) has just produced its first bud…picture coming soon of its first bloom too.)

I must have dropped these three marigolds when I was separating them into the three pots…they managed to root and bloom all by themselves. When I returned from Pawleys there they were. I just might add some more and have a little marigold patch by the fence. A lesson for us all…life finds a way to survive.

I asked Mandy if Eva Cate had a plain drawing of a garden or flower or tree since the essence of this message today is to enjoy the simple beauty all around us. Mandy found this old drawing in her bedroom and sen…t since Eva Cate was playing with a friend elsewhere.

What is remarkable about children’s drawing, at different ages, are the subtle awareness developments evolving in their perceptions of life. At first glance, it looks like a simple flower, with a sun in one corner and a butterfly in the other…but children’s drawings teach us a lesson.

Children live in the moment…the beautiful blooming flower is the highlight of the picture…where the child’s attention is drawn, the sun is no longer just yellow but oranges and reds are being added, and the butterfly has antennae and more developed wing spreads. It is how a seven-year-old sees nature. Simply beautiful at the moment.

*I wish Archibald Rutledge and Kent Neburn could have met before Rutledge’s death in the early seventies…their minds thought alike.

“I do not need some tremendous miracle to give me Faith in God; a violet would do, or a spire of goldenrod, or a daisy or two. But if I had to have magic and wonder, to render any doubts asunder, to prove God true…It would be you.”  (I wonder if ‘they just don’t make’em like that any more? 🙂  )

Yesterday was a ‘eating out and lovin’ it’ day. I met Doodle, Lassie, and Carrie for lunch at the tea room…Delicious and made more fun with just being with all the Dingle girls. Thank you Doodle for the invitation…so much fun catching up!

And speaking of catching up…Anne and I have been doing lots of different things taking each of us in crazy directions but Anne’s invitation for supper last night worked…the best. I told her Five Star…chicken, new potatoes, and asparagus, key lime pie for dessert and a wonderful fig spread on crackers…I think Anne needs to open a tea room too. I brought Nala treats and she was very happy also.

Anne’s talents never cease to amaze me…she needed a gate to keep Nala on the deck…so she studied it awhile and then just made one. Good grief Charlie Brown! Artist, musician, gourmet cook, educator, and now a wood craftsman/woman?

Thanks for a fabulous dinner last night friend! 🙂

Don’t forget! It’s Spring Daylight Savings Time. We lose an hour of sleep but gain an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day.

Set your clock up one hour and enjoy the day longer.

Dear Reader:

It would be a shame to leave Pawleys again without sharing one of its most famous ghosts…to leave it behind without recognition from us. He is, of course, The Gray Man of Pawleys Island.

As a child, I remember delighting in reading low country legends and ghost stories while at the beach with large family groups and sometimes just individual family members…usually renting a place at Myrtle Beach or one of the surrounding smaller beaches. I always took my trusty flashlight along so I could read secretly in bed. Nothing was more fun than reading a ghost story during a rainstorm at night (at the beach)…shivering with delight.

The Legend of the Gray Man of Pawleys Island was one of my most favorite apparitions to read. Little did I know then that I would have the opportunity decades later to actually stay at this legendary beach for a week each year. Life is funny that way, isn’t it? And that isn’t the only strange coincidence I have with the Gray Man…but more about that in a minute!

Legend holds that the Gray Man is the ghost of a young man traveling from Charleston to see his fiancée. On the way, he and his horse were caught in quicksand-like pluff mud in the marshes before Pawley’s Island, and died. His spirit has haunted the shore nearby ever since, looking for the girl he loved…returning once to her and her family to warn them to leave the island quickly….a hurricane was approaching. The warning saved the girl and her family’s lives.

Some stories have conflicted on his identity, but three ideas include:

• Percival Pawley, the island’s namesake
• Plowden Charles Jeannerette Weston, an early resident who owned the home that is now Pelican Inn (or perhaps his son)
• Edward Teach, the pirate better known as Blackbeard

Although there are, also, many variations of the legend, most say the Gray Man was first seen in 1822, three years before the town government was incorporated. The last sighting was just before Hurricane Hugo hit the area in 1989.

Author and professor Charles Joyner’s research on the subject, concluded that the legend appeared to have originated in a book of ghost stories by Julian Stevenson Bolick, published in 1956. The original book was Georgetown Ghosts of the South Carolina Lowcounty followed by Return of the Gray Man.

The Gray Man got national attention just after Hurricane Hugo when residents Jim and Clara Moore were interviewed on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries.” They told their story about seeing the man on the beach and how he disappeared when they waved. Their house was spared in the storm while the homes of their neighbors were heavily damaged.

(Others, also, who have encountered the spirit have credited him with saving them or their homes. Either they have come ashore or left the area and return to find their homes and belongings unscathed by severe storms. *The Gray Man never returns to the same location…so one warning or luck of the draw, when it comes to hurricanes, is all one gets.)

He has been described as a man wearing gray clothing, a long coat, dressed “like a pirate” and sometimes as having no legs. Others says he is just a gray shadowy outline.

The most recent national story was aired by the National Weather Channel (2014) on a program called American Supernatural...featuring the Gray Man of Pawleys.

Sightings of the Gray Man come from three distinct historical inns…one of which no longer exists.

1. The Pelican Inn– Brooke and I stopped to take this picture of the Pelican Inn and were saddened by its deteriorating, weathered condition.

2. The second site is the Sea View Inn, which has been the location for a sighting in one of  Mr. Bolick’s stories…another charming but definitely “aged” inn on Pawleys.

(* Another cat in the picture…looking away…perhaps seeing The Gray Man himself…since we felt like we were blowing away last Friday and Saturday.)

3. The third inn  (sadly for the Dingle family) was the Tip Top Inn – another location where a sighting of the Gray Man was reported right before Hurricane Hazel in October of 1954. (It got swept out to sea during Hurricane Hugo…what a beauty it once was…perhaps it is better to just remember it the “way it was.”

(Besides it had already gotten its warning once before from The Gray Man and did survive Hurricane Hazel in 1954. No small feat. It then underwent months of repair but  stayed open another 35 years…Way to go Gray Man and thanks!) *Picture of the Tip Top Inn (below) taken shortly after October 15, 1954…when Hurricane Hazel hit.

To finish up…here is my personal link with the Gray Man… indirectly. The summer before my senior year in high school, late sixties, I got an intern job working for Julian Stevenson Bolick…the original author and creator of The Gray Man! How cool was that?

(My high school graduation picture taken the following summer after I worked for Mr. Julian Bolick.)

I seem to remember his office was above another building downtown, over a store or bank or something. He lived in Clinton, SC but worked in Laurens where I lived…(As the crow flies…probably only 10 to 15 miles apart or a few short “crow” minutes.)

He needed extra help that summer because his earlier books on the Gray Man legends and other low country tales were going into second and third publication while he was busy at work selecting  some stories from each (while adding a few new ones) for his upcoming book –  Ghosts from the Coast…A Collection of 12 stories from Georgetown County, SC) This book was going into publication that summer.

I tried to pull a picture of him off Google to refresh my own sixteen-year-old mental image of him. Unfortunately I could not find one. Being sixteen I regarded him as an “elder statesman” definitely ( Just figured out he was about my age now when I worked for him:) He had thinning hair, was quite tall, with the beginning stages of a slight ‘noble pouch.’ He had aristocratic facial features and a ‘funny’ gait…as if his feet hurt all the time. (Being the same age now…they probably did!)

He was a quiet man who loved history. Part of my job that summer was taking messages from civic organizations who called wanting him to come talk to them about the history of Laurens County or to read one of his low country tales…He was much sought after…our most famous local historian at the time.

My greatest honor was when he let me read three or four different stories and then tell him which was my favorite. He was down to his final selection and the local publisher (Presses of Jacob Brothers…Clinton SC) was ready to go to press. He concurred with my selection and it was put into the Ghosts from the Coast.

I was in college when mother called me one night (about three years later) to let me know Mr.  Bolick had passed. I was shocked, yet at the same time…his strange gait, soft-spoken voice, and rather harried appearance of a man trying to complete his life’s goals quickly…started to make sense to me. He must have known his health wasn’t good.

*This is a ‘little late’ Mr. Bolick…but I still want you to know…You were one of the major factors for me deciding to major in history in college. Your love of history was contagious that summer and opened my eyes to my own passion for it.

Rosemont Cemetery

So until tomorrow…May our lessons and memories from the past makes us better people in the present…remembering to recognize those who came before.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday I had the strangest, most beautiful experience! I entered my bedroom “office” and looked out the window by the desk computer. It was early…around 7:00 am…and the slanted early morning light made the scene outside the window (lots and lots of azalea bushes blooming now) blend together like a water color painting…It took my breath away.

When the winds picked up last Friday…to the point that just opening the front door to the porch knocked you back in a foot or two…I told Libby that I took a picture of the swing rocking back and forth…as if someone was in it…perhaps it was The Gray Man trying to tell us that it was definitely blustery…but we were safe and sound.

Linda and Sherrod Eadon…Once again I can not thank you both enough for allowing us to return each year for our winter retreat…It seems like each time we return… we need it more and more…Plus we discover new adventures!  So from all of the Ya’s….THANK YOU!

Kaitlyn sent me some pictures from the big surprise party Mollie threw Walsh last Saturday for his Big 40..it looks like Eloise was the most popular gift around…everyone wanted to wrap around her!