Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Yesterday might have been the Sabbath but it was definitely not a day of rest. I was up early cooking a casserole for our church family Christmas luncheon held at Anne’s this year. Then I was off for the church service I look forward to each year….the service filled with Christmas readings and music….absolutely beautiful music!!! The talent we have in our church is unbelievable starting with our music director Kevin Gossett! *And you should have heard Anne playing the violin…she is so multi-talented…it is unbelievable!

I left the service a little early to go to Anne’s to help set up… plus I had left my Iphone charging at home and definitely wanted to take some pictures…so here they are …Everything was so beautiful using all the plants and blooms indigenous to the lowcountry. The potluck lunch was beyond delicious and richer for the warm fellowship.

Our hostesses with the mostest’s! Mary Lee and Anne!

On the way home from the luncheon Honey called and said she had the “Apple Tree” centerpiece ready and some smilax greenery…could she stop by? “Yes!” I replied…”I am on my way home.” It is amazing what greenery can do to a room and the “angel planter” from yesterday.

*Like Honey said about the ivy…”First year ivy sleeps, then creeps, and the third year it leaps.” (With smilax we are covered while waiting for the ivy to do its thing)*Honey, you just get younger and younger…it must be a magical pineapple or those magical apples! Great picture!

Other examples of smilax changes…

Soon as Honey left Vickie stopped by with Maggie and Fuzz the cat for our daily walk…but not before Vickie showed me her gigantic Christmas cactus. Gorgeous!

When we got back from walking… Fuzz, for some reason, wanted to go home with me so I stayed and petted her on the front porch…then soon as I came back in the house and shut the door she started meowing and I found her peeking through the blinds. Vickie and I aren’t sure what is going on ..She must be warming up to me up for some Christmas treats.

Fuzz had just given up and started trotting back home when the doorbell rang and the best surprise of all…a former student I taught at Alston Middle School (Blair and her family just moved into the neighborhood) arrived with her precious one-year-old twin girls and her husband bearing gifts of gold…fudge...wonderful delicious fudge! Bart, Blair, and the twins…Anna and Delaney. I also got a Christmas card which I will cherish but nothing takes the place of the real things…they are precious!

So until tomorrow…It’s a Wonderful Life!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I found my little angel planter tucked back between two bushes in the front yard. I brought it out, cleaned it off, and remembered it once had ivy growing up the sides by the candle and some type of blooming plant in the center. All of this greenery had long since died and only brown brittle vines reminded me where once beautiful green life grew.

At Ace Hardware I found a small container of ivy and stuck a tiny poinsettia in the middle…One day the ivy will grow up and over the angel but this Christmas I will just have to keep the faith that the ivy will grow and climb to the top of the halo at a later time. For now it is pretty the way it is.

A  website called Rootwell mentioned that ivy’s unique characteristics included its amazing ability to flourish in the shade and winter as an evergreen and its ‘super-hero’ like powers to cling to almost any type surface…even the smoothest surfaces. 

Ivy is undaunted by the size or shape of an obstacle in front of it…it will steadily continue its upward climb to the top …never seeing the tiptop ending…only continuing to climb in faith that it is there…until it reaches its goal.

So I have now named my angel planter…the “Angel of Faith.” (And this discovery could not have come at a better time.)

While we have all been getting flu shots and pneumonia shots…I think this time of year we need to add “Faith” shots to our ‘to-do’ list. The family could all use a faith shot right now as I ask for your prayers to help Walsh and Mollie (and family) get through a  tough health-crisis time.

Most of you know my lovely daughter-in-law Mollie is expecting little Eloise any time now. In fact, according to her last check-up this past Friday…her obstetrician said Miss Eloise might even make her appearance this upcoming week or very soon after…

So will Eloise come before Christmas, during or after we don’t know?…But right now is not a great time. The stomach virus has hit their home with a vengeance…unfortunately it is not the quick 24 hour kind but the lingering one.

Walsh got it first several days ago and was home sick with it…after three or four days he tried to go back to work only to be sent back home yesterday… still sick. Mollie tried to quarantine Walsh off in the bedroom, as much as possible, but we know how limited that can be with two little boys.

Then yesterday Lachlan, still recovering from his adenoid surgery, started throwing up…now he has it. So far Rutledge has avoided it but for how long no one knows?

The biggest concern, now, of course, is Mollie. With the baby so close to delivery the idea of  Mollie getting the stomach virus is not something any of us want to contemplate…for the health and well – being of both.

So that is why we could all use some “Shots of Faith.” A God-Wink drew me to the story of ivy and the discovery that it grows, like faith, not knowing where it will stop or the outcome… but continuing to grow anyway.

When Mollie texted the updated news on the spread of the virus…she admitted being concerned about getting it and the possibility she might have to go to the hospital early to be monitored for dehydration but then she texted me back and said:

Mollie’s last text was: “I’m doing everything possible not to get this stomach virus. But if I do then I do and we deal with it.

That is faith. That is acceptance. When something gets too big and out of control for us to handle…we must turn it over to Someone who sees the path ahead and guides us through it…no matter which way it goes.

Catherine Marshall once said: Acceptance says, “True, this is my situation at the moment. I’ll look unblinkingly at the reality of it. But I’ll also open my hands to accept whatever a loving Father sends.”

So until tomorrow “Father please take care of Walsh, Mollie, Rutledge, Lachlan, and little Eloise waiting to be born. This situation is out of our hands and into Yours. Provide everyone concerned with the ‘shot of faith’ needed to carry us through this ordeal ending with a beautiful little addition of joy to a loving family. Turn our worry into wonder.”

Hopefully, one day, far down the road, this situation will become one of our favorite family stories…the Christmas of the “Monster Stomach Virus” and the superheroes in the family who fought them off to bring Eloise into the family…safe and sound.

“Today is my favorite day”

Yesterday afternoon when I was leaving Bi-Lo something bright and shiny caught my eye. The late slanted sun’s rays had hit a penny in the parking lot and it was glowing. I stopped and picked it up…heads-up.

I gave God a nod and put it in my coat pocket…hopefully a sign that things are going to start improving for the family…bringing back good health to all.

Walsh and Mollie texted me early last evening and said all was in good hands…a male nurse had taken charge…Rutledge. He was quite serious about his responsibilities. The Superhero who came to save the day.

Dear Reader:

Honey’s home from the mountains! It was hard to get down this Christmas season with the recent snow but she and Mike slipped out between two snowy cold fronts this past Tuesday. Yeah!!!

I ran over yesterday and we had time to talk a little and catch up a little bit more. I discovered that Cocoa, Mike’s little dog, and I love each other. Brooke, Riley was jealous…you must come with me next time…so neither dog feels left out.

Everything  looked so pretty and Honey was busy preparing collards to cook…now that is one southern woman.

Honey says she just picks up things that remind her of friends or family throughout the year but it all adds up to grocery size bags filled to the brim by Christmas time. Honey is the giver of all givers…hands down.

This is a taste of some of the fun, sweet, useful, and whimsical gifts in the bag.

Honey is now making bowls and other feeding decor with bumblebees…a reminder of my mother. Honey’s hummingbird and its subsequent legend was an addition to the tree this year.

Honey supports so many fellow artisans… like the wine glass hand-painted by a friend.

Legend says that the Hummingbird floats free of time, carrying hope for love, joy, and celebration. The Hummingbird is delicate grace reminding us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning and that laughter is life’s sweetest creation. 

After returning from Honey’s I was determined to finish my raking job. Vickie had suggested that I just rake the two piles over to the side of the street instead of stopping to pick them up and put in a wheel barrow. It was still hard work but so much easier on the back than stopping and bending every few minutes. I really did feel like Wonder Woman by the time I had finished…I had done it. (Some ‘Rocky” music please!)

Darkness was beginning to descend when I looked up from raking and saw the last streaks of a winter eve. (winter solstice is next week.) Winter is beautiful in its own right too.

CHRISTMAS AWAKENS WONDER

Christmas awakens wonder in the heart. All belief depends on wonder. Where there is no wonder, there can be no faith. Wonder is a beautiful way of seeing. Wonder never rests on the surface of a fact or situation. It voyages inwards to discover why something is the way it is. Wonder celebrates the mystery and depth of presence that is within us and around us. It has no greed to grasp or own the heart of a thing. As Patrick Kavanagh said: “Through a chink too wide comes in no wonder.” Wonder keeps experience fresh and original. At the Winter Solstice the divine presence stirs in the crib of the heart infusing our eyes with the glow of wonder.

John O’Donohue
Excerpt from BBC Radio 4, Christmas Reflection, 1998.

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So until tomorrow….Take a minute to pause and wonder at the miracle of life in all its beauty! Even a pile of leaves!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I did find “Peace like a river in my soul.” My long-time friend, Alston Middle School colleague, and neighbor, “Miss Janie” is about to celebrate her 90th birthday! (Her official birthday is December 21 and her calendar is almost completely full up to and even after her birthday. I knew I had to jump in or lose a slot!)

I thought about a peaceful place I could take her for her birthday to escape the Christmas rush and immediately I saw it in my mind…my vision of peace- Mepkin Abbey!

First I took Miss Janie to the Barony House in Moncks Corner for lunch…the waitress was all decked up for Christmas and so sweet…she told us that Bubba (owner and cook) only made fried oysters about three times a year but we had come on a very lucky day…they were out of this world. She was right!

When she found out it was Jane’s birthday she brought her a big slice of coconut cake with a candle in it. So sweet!

Then it was on to Mepkin Abbey…where the Trappist Monks live and farm. It was an absolutely beautiful (almost winter) day in the high fifties with the sun out and shining. The welcome sign says it all:

I think the garden of Mepkin Abbey is how I picture Heaven…words and/or photos  don’t do it justice. One has to use all the senses to absorb the beauty and simplicity of these surroundings. I will however, share a few of my snapshots and the exquisite wooden sculptures carved from fallen trees that line the road leading into the gardens.

So until tomorrow…Let us all find a special place of peace where we can go physically or mentally to escape the hubbub of Christmas frenzy and find the inner peace of the real Christmas…

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I remember giggling as a little girl, with my cousins, when we would hear one of our mothers or aunts talking to themselves in the kitchen or living room. Old people are batty we thought and giggled again.

Well…hello…”Batty Becky!” I find myself talking to myself more lately as time goes on. The two -way conversations between me and me generally fall into one of three categories: A personal admonishment for forgetting to do something, a pep talk, or a self-scolding for letting myself worry about little things instead of turning them over to God…and just letting go.

There are some chores around the house and yard that allow us to “think-talk” to ourselves without getting busted…the conversation is going on inside our heads and like a good ventriloquist our mouths don’t even move. Yesterday’s chore was one of those opportunities.

Raking. I must confess it is not my favorite chore. I don’t mind raking…it is the bending over and picking up the leaves in the freshly raked piles and then dumping them in the wheel barrow and then dumping the wheel barrow by the pick-up site next to my house… that wears me down.

While I was raking yesterday a young woman walking/running her dog slowed down and said to me “Don’t you just love raking leaves?” I confess I lied and nodded…mumbling something about yard work lasts longer than housework and you can appreciate your efforts longer…

She enthusiastically nodded her head in agreement…waved…and then she and her equally sleek, fit dog jogged away. All I could think was that I would have traded the raking for walking the dog any day of the week. (Except now that I think about it…the dog would have been dragging me down the street by the stop sign at the end of the road…no doubt.) They were definitely out of my fitness league.

I actually got one pile of leaves into the wheelbarrow, dumped it, and finished raking the rest of the yard putting the leaves in two big piles in the front yard…but that is when I had done all I could do. The two piles would have to wait another day to be dumped.

It was while I thinking about Christmas and other things approaching (while still raking_…I saw something that first upset me but then made me laugh.

After raking both sides of the yard, especially around the Bradford Pear tree, I glanced down and it looked like more leaves had mysteriously re-appeared. As I stood there, with rake in hand, scowling down…I realized it wasn’t old dead brown leaves falling or ones I had missed…the sun was casting its afternoon rays on the few  pear tree leaves still left on the tree. I was so relieved! Whew! It was just shadows scattered around the tree.

I stopped and looked up at the few leaves still attached to the branches and made a wonderful discovery! They must be  Christmas leaves...the ones still left were all combinations of bright colors…especially red and green! This was their reward for hanging in there so long…I thought to myself. They were gloriously beautiful! (Like gorgeous packages glittering and glistening in tinsel and ribbons of every color.)

I took one vivid solid red leaf and draped it over a branch on the Christmas tree…it belonged there. It’s reward for hanging tough long enough to reveal its true colors.

So until tomorrow…It is nice to find a task where our minds can wander as we work…and see nature’s revelations up-close and personal…or as my selected ‘Winnie the Pooh’ card says today:

“HELLO, SELF…NICE OF YOU TO BE HERE.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

When I talk to Mandy on the phone about her day or week this time of the year (elementary and middle school art teacher) a tired sigh precedes her answer. Without her uttering one word I know what that sigh means…

The students are wild and ready to get out for Christmas. Special Christmas events are happening at the school in the evenings, besides at school, which leaves little time to “re-coup” before heading back to the “front line trenches” the next day to try to find a way to keep some semblance of “heavenly peace” in the classroom.

I can certainly sympathize and empathize at the same time….been there, done that. It is hard but every time a long-ago student recognizes you in a store or movie or wherever and comes up to you saying that it was your class that made them become a history teacher or an art teacher…all the memories of crazy pre-holiday students disappear. (leaving only a wonderful feeling of accomplishment)

When I came across this beautiful little story on Amit.Awakin this week the same feelings of gratitude for certain teachers came rushing back from memories of school days of old.

“What You Missed in Fourth Grade”

Brad Aaron Modlin

 Mrs. Nelson explained how to stand still and listen
to the wind, how to find meaning in pumping gas,

how peeling potatoes can be a form of prayer. She took
questions on how not to feel lost in the dark.

After lunch she distributed worksheets
that covered ways to remember your grandfather’s

voice. Then the class discussed falling asleep
without feeling you had forgotten to do something else—

something important—and how to believe
the house you wake in is your home. This prompted

Mrs. Nelson to draw a chalkboard diagram detailing
how to chant the Psalms during cigarette breaks,

and how not to squirm for sound when your own thoughts
are all you hear; also, that you have enough.

The English lesson was that I am
is a complete sentence.

And just before the afternoon bell, she made the math equation
look easy. The one that proves that hundreds of questions,

and feeling cold, and all those nights spent looking
for whatever it was you lost, and one person

add up to something.

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Wow! Powerful, true gritty lessons that never leave one’s memory. I especially love the English lesson…that I am. is a complete sentence unto itself.

One of Amit. Awakin’s regular readers and responders, David Doane, wrote that “I am” is not only a complete sentence but the most important statement we need to remember about ourselves. He quoted two other sources to re-enforce this thought:

As Rumi said, I’m not just the wave in the ocean, I’m also the ocean in the wave…  And remembering Mary Poppins words, “Enough is as good as a feast.”

 Jo Dufford invited me to a Christmas lunch at Time Well Spent yesterday  …When I got there she had a bag full of goodies for me. Some of her favorite Christmas stories over the years, a pretty-in-pink glass plaque that says “This is My Happy Place” right next to my computer. One the left side…I have my favorite gift…a box of Winnie the Pooh cards for every occasion so I can change out the cards according to the day or my mood. Love it and love you Jo!

 Jo was waiting on me for instructions on how to open the gifts…starting with the Christmas card that looks like a door leading to my “Happy Place” inside (pink plaque.) Wonderful lovingly used Christmas stories followed …ending with my Winnie the Pooh card box and the print Jo had selected yesterday. So creative!

Jo and I definitely broke “bread together”…the best kind…hot butter cinnamon scones!

So until tomorrow…Let’s take a moment during this busy Christmas season and remember those special teachers who taught us much more than academic lessons…they taught us life lessons.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Joan Semle called me yesterday and said while looking up scripture around the “eye of the sparrow” Google lead her to the post (Sounds like Reign) and a singing family (we think from the North Carolina mountains.) The wife sings “My Eye is on the Sparrow” on top on their mountain home…beautiful in its simplicity. Here is the home page…If interested just scroll down to see the song and click on. Thanks Joan for sharing.

Sounds Like Reign – Home | Facebook

Thanks Kaitlyn and Tommy for the Christmas card reminding me of the most special day…your wedding day. Hugs and kisses back.

      Holiday Kisses

With love, The Dingles

Dear Reader:

Yesterday started with a text that had me sitting right up in bed. Lachlan needed to have his adenoids taken out and originally it was scheduled for Monday morning…but MUSC called last week and said it would have to be postponed until after Christmas. I had already planned to go with Mollie and spend Sunday night since it was an early procedure until it was cancelled.

Around 8:00 Monday morning…my beeping text (from Mollie) said the nurses had just come for Lachlan and he was getting his adenoids out after all…Apparently there had been some sort of miscommunication glitch between departments at MUSC with mixed dates and times.

Mollie told me everything went well…he was knocked out on the “happy juice” but as soon as he was released he was crazy wild instead of sleeping like everyone thought from the morphine…When they got back he was mad about the procedure and hungry…he wanted breakfast.

It was a long day for everyone involved…but when Mollie later checked on Lachlan…Rutledge had joined him in bed…and they were both “sleeping in heavenly peace.” Most deservedly so…Sleep well Dingle family. Night, Night!

The only good thing about an unexpected turn of events…like this one… is that it whizzes by so quickly  all one can do is go into survival mode and breathe a sigh of relief when it is over. Hopefully Lachlan will be free of these colds and nasal/throat/lung infections he has kept on a continuum basis…Now making Christmas healthier and more enjoyable for him.

Vickie, Maggie, and Fuzz (the cat) stopped by today bringing me a Northfork Island Miniature Pine Tree! Isn’t it beautiful? I am praying I can keep it alive and plant it later in warmer weather. ( Do you notice the “Sammy the Cardinal and wife” note cards beside it….( title photo) Cindy Ashley dropped them off last week….love them!) *After my birthday Sammy never pecked again…or pooed on my side car mirror. Good birdie!

Then when I went to the mail box yesterday afternoon…I had my annual original Christmas card from Joan Turner…I could hardly wait to open it! (* Joan, all I could think of was “Five little doggies jumping on the bed…one fell off and hit his head” (except it looks like six…an addition?) I wish I could get my four (or five) grandchildren in a picture with me…now that would be a Christmas miracle. You might have to just come paint us.

Remembrances of earlier cards….

Speaking of Christmas miracles…this was the first year Jakie wasn’t terrified of Santa and screaming in the picture…Way to go Jakie!

  The Last Christmas with just the “Two Bro’s” Together!

And to think it all started with just one grandchild… not so long ago…But oh how far we have come…and grown!

Another cold morning…the frost on the rose was just gorgeous early yesterday morn….

Susan Cadwell…I keep waiting for my CD (you gave me a few years back) to blow up…I have played it so much…fourteen wonderful Christmas songs on the piano!…It is the perfect gift-wrapping and dining music…and I love my Ady Grace Christmas photo! So glad your children and grandchildren will be in Conway for Christmas…I know you are happy!

Isn’t the Christmas season a mixture of profound, whimsical, complicated and funny? But most of all it is filled with surprises and I love surprises…never knowing what one might find in the mailbox or on the front porch or on a walk through the neighborhood…everyday is filled with anticipation.

So until tomorrow…I was going to ask for prayers before Lachlan’s adenoid surgery (I thought in January) but now I think the prayers need to be for mom, dad, and big brother as Lachlan “recovers.” More crazy times in store I feel sure.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

A frosty morning might be as close as we will ever get to a “White Christmas” but it sure is pretty. The low’s Saturday night dipped down into the high 20’s….I covered up “Big Red” and prayed hard it would do the job. It did! The cloudy rainy days were gone and Sunday morning shone cold but bright with the sun’s first rays hitting the porch.

When I took the table cloth off…”Big Red” was still smiling with all its blooms intact…I hope it can hang into there a few more nights until the temps level off again to more seasonal temperatures. (Too big to get in the door.)

Yesterday was my Pre-Christmas “Ho Ho Ho” day. For the first time in my life I actually ordered some Christmas items after Christmas, last year, when all the merchandise was at its lowest and then even more miraculously I found it all while cleaning out all the drawers last summer and fall! (My reward for cleaning!)

So I bagged up ornaments for each of the children’s families…personalized Christmas plaques, Christmas bubble night lights…I took tins of those wonderful World Market Swedish Ginger Biscuits or simply as we like to call them here…Ginger Snaps! I can eat them like potato chips! I like getting Christmas -related gifts to friends and family before Christmas so they can enjoy them.

I climbed in my “Green Vue Sleigh” after church/lunch and talked to all the “reindeer power” in the car to get me safely to all the homes in Mt. Pleasant and back home again.No problems!

I first went to Tommy and Kaitlyn’s house….Kaitlyn took some pictures of the gifts after I left…Her and Tommy’s first Mr. and Mrs. Christmas ornament. I love Kaitlyn’s natural wreaths…she makes so many pretty bows.

Then it was over to John and Mandy’s house…Jakie was taking his nap so I dropped off the gifts including the Christmas bubble nightlights for the children (and one for Tommy and Kaitlyn too.)

I asked Eva Cate if she would like to be my elf and go with me to her cousins’ house to help give them their gifts. She enthusiastically agreed and we were off. (Is that lipstick on her palms…where was my pocketbook in the car? Hummmm?) A sly elf I believe.

Everything was decorated for Christmas at the next Dingles’ new home…Walsh and Mollie. Mollie was making some m&m cookies so I told Eva Cate we could stay until they were done and she could get one for her “elf help.” Mollie had an elf helper too.

Uncle Walsh started a tall tale about a strange clown living in the attic…(The children had shown Eva Cate a secret door in (soon-to-be Eloise’s room…looks like a fairy door leading to the attic. ) Eva Cate and Lachlan just giggled and laughed but Rutledge took the story seriously and didn’t appear to be too happy about a deranged clown in his attic…it took a little cousin team wrestling to move on past the “clown.” (Walsh has always been our family clown…since he was a baby!)

It was a wonderful day…a taste of the feeling Santa Claus must get on Christmas Eve in every house around the world. There is a reason why traditions begin…to bring family together and hopefully over the years it is something the grandchildren will look forward to…Boo Boo bringing a Christmas ornament for the family’s tree in each home (and a Christmas bubble nightlight)…one ornament that matches the interests of each grandchild at the age he/she is that particular Christmas.

This year it was a little truck for Jakie, a globe for Eva Cate, an elephant for Rutledge, another truck for Lachlan and a pickle for both brothers who can eat pickles out of a jar until they are all gone. (Maybe I ought to try it…Could it pickle me and keep me from aging as I grow older…hummm?)

To me annual traditions are the best way to bring Jesus back into the season…no matter how silly…even a “fake” snowball fight can remind one and all of the years past when families stopped the mundane business of life and became children again in the eyes of God and in the surprised and appreciative eyes of their own children. Generation after generation.

So until tomorrow…Quinn Caldwell prays:

God, grant that the rituals and the songs and the traditions of this season might become for us passageways that lead  right back into your heart. Amen.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I came across a written Christmas remembrance by author, Sue Kidd Monk, who was reminiscing about her relationship with Christmas nativity mangers,  as a child and then later…. from a different perspective as an adult. (http://www.sermons.com)

Sue Monk Kidd, in one of her books, recalls her youth and how she would prepare for Christmas. In early December, she would sit by the wooden nativity set clustered under their Christmas tree and think over the last year of her life. She would think deeply about Christmas and the coming of Jesus.

She remembers, one time, visiting a monastery. It was a couple of weeks before Christmas. As she passed a monk walking outside, she greeted him with, “Merry Christmas.” The monk’s response caught her off guard a bit. “May Christ be born in you,” he replied.

His words seemed strange and peculiar at the time. What did he mean, “May Christ be born in you?”

At the time she was unsure of the response, but now all these years later, sitting beside the Christmas tree, she felt the impact of his words. She has since discovered that Advent is a time of spiritual preparation. It is also a time of transformation. It is “discovering our soul and letting Christ be born from the waiting heart.”

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The more I thought about the monk’s response the more, I too, realized he ‘nailed’ the meaning of Advent precisely.

Once we pull ourselves away from the secular…and concentrate on the real meaning of Advent as a time of spiritual preparation and transformation everything else just seems to fall into place.

My epiphany…The manger is in the shape of a heart…everyone’s heart who will give the Christ-Child “room in the inn.”

So until tomorrow…Don’t count the days until Christmas…count each moment the Christ-child enters your thoughts…the more it happens..the more joyful the Christmas!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*We have been talking about snow balls…Honey sent this picture from Pinnacle mountain (see yesterday’s blog at all the snow they got) and Mike and Honey laughingly said they now have snow “cone heads.”

Oh…I can hardly wait for my Christmas card!  Too cute!

Dear Reader:

Last Tuesday when I ran to the bank and was waiting in line…this (title photo) bright red wooden plaque was sitting beside one of the cashier’s windows. I couldn’t help but start laughing…how true! I had left my Iphone in the car and I ran back out to get it.

Haven’t we all played this game since we were little children? When we knew we were going to do something”bad” that we might get in trouble for…we figured out what the worse consequence would probably be and then made a decision based on the amount of fun prior to the punishment and occasionally opted for fun.

Jakie is the funniest because he is so matter of fact about his “take” on life…he is the smallest one in his class but also an persistent “pusher.”  He has definitely had his share of “time out” experiences for this “indiscretion.” He always says he is “shorry” but it has been a hard habit to break.

I talked to him one afternoon when I was at John and Mandy’s. John shared the teacher’s report on his misbehavior (after they drove up) with pushing that day. He told me who he pushed and how he had to go to time-out. I asked him if he was sorry and he nodded yes but then when I asked if he would do it again…he slowly nodded too. “But Jakie don’t you think your pushing makes your classmates sad and  mad at you?” He nodded yes.

“Then why do you think you will probably do it again?” He nodded, “It’s fun Boo Boo!”  The “Terrible twos and threes” are always balanced by perfect honesty…it is only later…that the cover-ups start. Right now the fun outweighs the consequences.

( And he is so darn cute…the teachers have a hard time staying stern with him for very long. He is a charmer and a honest one to boot.)

Aren’t we adults pretty much the same when you think about it? Don’t we also weigh the consequences of our actions against the potential outcomes? Most of us have learned (through life experiences) to know exactly how far we can push the perimeter before imploding.

Dr. Seuss defined life as a “balancing act” and for those of us who have been around awhile… who have experienced just about every kind of scenario there is in life…we know this to be true.

Since I am a “Libra”… moderation is where I feel most comfortable and when my own personal “scales” get off-balance I am the first to know and find myself trying to balance myself again whether it is dealing with my personal, social, or professional life.

I, also, do this with my own spirituality and apparently I am not the only one. Ora Nadrich (The Blog) in her article “Keeping Your Spiritual Equilbrium” remembers this conversation with her husband.

(Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.” — Thomas Merton)

The other morning when my husband asked me if I wanted another cup of coffee, I replied, “No thanks, I want to keep my spiritual equilibrium.” I went on to explain that I don’t like that jittery feeling when I’ve had too much caffeine, especially when I want to stay calm and peaceful for whatever the day might bring.”

As I think back on scripture didn’t Jesus Himself maintain a sense of spiritual balance with his disciples…sometimes herding them together if he suspected danger or asking them to follow him and do what he did. Case-in point:

When the disciples are battered by the waves at sea, Jesus comes to them walking on the water and calms their fear with his assuring word, “It is I.” At the Lord’s command Peter also walks on the water, but in fear and loss of faith, he begins to sink. Jesus reaches out his hand in rescue, but reproves his little faith.

As long as Peter kept eye contact and faith…he and Jesus were equal…each walking on the water…against the laws of gravity that govern the earth but not the spiritual world.

Haven’t you experienced having a serious conversation with a parent, teenager, or troubled friend and for just a moment, keeping eye contact throughout the conversation and watching the possibility of hope flicker until loss of contact by one side halts the healing, the recovery?

At Christmas time it is so easy for our equilibrium to get off-balance. We know in our hearts what true Christmas is all about…but we still find ourselves worrying about gifts, food, and other mundane things in spite of our best intentions.

Yesterday I told my Christmas story at the annual MS Christmas luncheon and once again my spiritual equilibrium was restored. It was so fun seeing everyone  and catching up….lots of free hugs and kisses. And I even lucked up and won a great door prize!

The theme this year was “Joy” and I told the group that every year I attended the MS Christmas luncheon to tell a story I was filled with joy! I thanked them because this gathering brought balance back in my life when I needed it. Here are some pictures from the luncheon yesterday…I even won a wooden plaque with the word JOY all over it! It is hanging in my Happy Room as we speak. *(Andrea and I having our annual photo taken!!)

Here are a few more pictures of Christmas at home…

So until tomorrow…Keep reminding us Father what Christmas is truly all about…and let us not lose eyesight of that insight.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Honey sent me a picture of some light snow up on Pinnacle Mountain where she and Mike live yesterday and just this morning Honey sent me this photo! WOW!