Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Today I am leaving for Edisto Beach for our Ya Fall Retreat. We meet in early summer, fall, and winter. It is always a wonderful way to start the season spending it with “seasoned” friends of the past, present, and future.

I thought I would do a five-day challenge (not as strenuous as Anne’s 30 day painting challenge.)

I scattered the cards on the den floor and chose five “thought” cards at random…one for each day of the week while I am gone.

The challenge is to find a personal thought or little story to accompany each “power thought.”

I know ahead of time that this gathering, without doubt, will provide new ideas and thoughts for me to dwell on…and there will be plenty of opportunity for new growth and new experiences.

There is always such a sense of security when we are all together. We relax more and sleep later. It is like we can put our guard down and just chill…and talk…without worrying about saying too much or too little. We can tell each other anything…and we have !

It is such a gift…the gift of knowing three other people who know and understand you better than yourself most of the time. We can advise with a clear picture of each other’s personal patterns.

(Back of the Card)

The one thing we have all shared in common is experiencing life’s tougher moments with difficult answers or solutions and realizing that we have to turn it over to God…He is the only one Who can guide us out of the dark valley we find ourselves in from time to time. We all understand when that time is better now than ever before.

With that thought in mind…I loved this story about a little boy who understood the answer to a question long examined by people of all ages…but simply answered by a child of God.

“Where God Ain’t”

He was just a little lad
And on the week’s first day
He was wandering home from Sunday School
And dawdling on the way.

He scuffed his shoes into the grass
He found a caterpillar
He found a fluffy milkweek pot
And blew out all the “filler.”

A bird’s nest in a tree o’er head
So wisely placed on high
Was just another wonder
That caught his eager eye.

A neighbor watched his zigzag course
And hailed him from the lawn
Asked him where he’d been that day
And what was going on.

“I’ve been to Sunday School,” he said
And turned a piece of sod
He picked up a wiggly worm and said,
“I’ve learned a lot ’bout  God.”

“M’m, a very fine way,” the neighbor said
“for a boy to spend his time.
If you’ll tell me where God is,
I’ll give you a brand new dime.”

Quick as a flash his answer came
Nor were his accents faint
“I’ll give you a dollar, Mister
If you’ll tell me where God ain’t!”

……………………………

So until tomorrow…Let’s keep our dimes and dollars…God’s so close… we needn’t even holler. (A whisper works well!)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I sent a warning to all my grandchildren…it’s getting close to Halloween so look behind you…you never know when a monster will come in a drug store and sneak up behind you. Keep your eyes open! Boo had to run (very fast) out of the drug store and jump in her car!

Dear Reader:

Friday when I returned back home it was too dark to see anything in the garden and then yesterday morning when I first woke up…it was drizzling and gray outside.  I walked out on the deck and my mouth fell open. (When I had left Thursday there were two giant white blooms on the Confederate Rose tree and then yesterday the white blooms had turned to light pink, then dark pink, and fallen down on the ground.)

But by yesterday afternoon with the sun peeking in and out the white blooms were already turning light pink.

It really is like having a “reality” kaleidoscope that you can just keep turning around and around and each slide is better than the last one…the Confederate Rose is simply amazing….and big! My bush has grown from two feet to twelve or more in two seasons…by fall it turns into a tree.

Global warming is scary but the Confederate Rose is very happy about it…each season there are more blooms than the season before…and with frost coming later and later…the enjoyment period of watching the Confederate Rose change colors continues for quite a while.

The real name for this plant is Hybiscus mutabilis. That genus and species name is one of the reasons I am glad I took Latin. Immediately one knows this is a hibiscus family member. The species name, mutabilis, tells me something equally as interesting, for mutabilis means “variable or changeable” in Latin.

In other words this is the hibiscus that changes colors throughout the day. And it really does remind one of antebellum ladies with their layered skirts dancing on the old southern plantations in all shades of white, pink, and purple. It is a cousin to the regular hibiscus.

In one diary a Confederate widow recalls that ladies in Mobile, Alabama gave these flowers to Confederate soldiers returning home from the war.

It originally began in China but found a home in the south where there is lots of sun and semi-tropical weather.

James Farmer says:

Watch with amazement the color change of the flowers, the rapid growth of the plant itself, and even the gawks of a passerby taking a gander at your Confederate Rose. From this Farmer’s garden and father’s farm for that matter, I hope your land is graced with its very own Confederate Rose; for, “land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.” Mr. Gerald O’Hara, Miss Scarlett’s father.

So until tomorrow….

 

Dear Reader:

Kelly Rae Roberts painted this particular ‘mantra of the soul” painting calling it “Divinity of Gladness.” Happiness, humor, and laughter should be a divine attribute to our Creator.

I think we got off to a rocky start with happiness and humor associated with religion… with our ‘first’ founding Mayflower immigrants…especially those Puritans. They were a quite “hell, fire, brimstone” group of worshipers who were definitely not in the category of “a laugh a minute” kind of personality.

Over the years humor has slowly but steadily returned to most religions with some exceptions. I would think most “men of the cloth’ would much rather look out on a smiling group in their congregation nodding at them encouragingly than a terrified, shell-shocked group wondering about being left behind to be eaten by seven-headed serpent monsters.

A friend from church, Pam Stewart, gave me this book several years ago to read soon after my diagnosis…it was the perfect read then…and again now. Humor does more to tear down barriers between races, political ideologies and religions than any weapons of destruction.

One can’t  keep a straight face as Father James Martin shows the humorous side of saints and even Jesus himself. Here are some examples from the book and questions asked about the place of humor in religion.

In Between Heaven and Mirth, Martin uses scriptural passages, the lives of the saints, the spiritual teachings of other traditions, and his own personal reflections to show us why joy is the inevitable result of faith, because a healthy spirituality and a healthy sense of humor go hand-in-hand with God’s great plan for humankind.

A Guidepost writer interviewed Father Martin with some of the following questions and got these wise and witty responses.

Why do you think that most people don’t see humor in religion?

I think we have a fundamental misunderstanding of who Jesus was. He was fully human. So he had a fully human sense of humor. The image Jesus chooses for heaven is a banquet or a party. It’s very significant that his first miracle is to make more wine at a party. That symbolism would not have been lost on the people of his time. Jesus’ miracles would have been occasions of joy for people.

How do you think humor is significant when it comes to a relationship with God?

God became human so we would be able to approach and encounter God. If we always see God as serious and judging and angry, then our ability as people of joy to relate to God is going to be limited. It’s going to really prevent our entering into a relationship with God on a deep level because we’re going to be afraid of God. You might even think, for example, that God frowns on laughter, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Are there any Biblical examples of Jesus’ humor?

Sure! Many scripture scholars say we don’t understand the humor of first-century Palestine. Many of the parables probably would have been laugh-out-loud funny. Stories about a man who built his house on sand or gave his son a scorpion instead of a fish would have been seen as humorous. Jesus told clever stories and funny parables.

One of my favorite examples of biblical humor is that at one point Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You strain out a gnat and you swallow a camel.” The Aramaic word for camel is gamlâ’ and for gnat is qalmâ’. It’s a little wordplay. He’s doing a little pun. You can imagine his hearers thinking that’s pretty clever. But when we translate it into English, it doesn’t retain that sense of playfulness.

So what do you think the spiritual significance of laughter is?

I think [laughter] is a spiritual release. Many times we laugh at something that is ridiculous so there’s a sense of perspective that the world is not perfect. If we can laugh at ourselves, it’s even better. It’s a sense that we’re not God. Even if we just laugh at a joke, we can enjoy life. There’s a release of spiritual energy. It’s like saying “I love this life” or “I enjoy this world” or “I’m not so perfect after all.” How can we say that each of those insights is not spiritual?

How can we cultivate a more joyful perspective of the world?

Well that’s a good question. I think the first thing would be to interact with people who have a joyful perspective and try to see the world through their eyes. The second thing is creating a joy inventory where you list all the things that make you joyful or make you laugh. And the third thing is taking every opportunity to laugh at yourself. That’s invaluable. There’s good laughter and there’s bad laughter. Good laughter builds up, bad laughter tears down. Good humor is self deprecating. Bad humor tries to make fun of someone else. It’s important to keep those things in perspective.

………………………….

Humor has always been a beneficial release of both physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual stress for me. A night out with friends laughing over nonsensical conversation is just what the doctor ordered many times for me in my life…a shot of medicine to strengthen my resolve that this world is a wonderful place to fight for in our lives. I have discovered that the funniest things are the every day aspects of living.

Speaking of…I mentioned Eva Cate had some minor oral surgery and we were all worried about her reaction to this and post-surgery soreness. Look what a new pair of unicorn pjs and ice cream can do to change that around! (Not to belittle Eva Cate’s bravery and definitely some soreness when she woke Friday morning…but little things certainly help the bounce-back recovery time in children!)

The Turners are getting ready for fall and Halloween…

Jakie got new PJ’s too…so both siblings were all smiles. Eva Cate decided to draw her self-portrait of her costume Halloween night…her rainbow dress and shoes and mane for her Unicorn Pony.

So until tomorrow…laughing at ourselves can be the most therapeutic thing we can do!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Creative Vickie, across the street, made Halloween cards from a photo of her BOO sign on the back door. I just got it yesterday when I got back….so cute!

Dear Reader:

It happened! I went out yesterday morning to admire all the work my “fire boys” (as I call my firemen lawn cutters) had done. They surprised me by digging up all the dirt, leaves, and pine straw that had accumulated over thirty years by my right driveway.

I was always asking if someone had time if they could come and clean out that side but it seems like it was the chore no one wanted to do and it kept getting put off…until another time. Thirty years of “another time” had built up a fortress wall of dirt , pine straw, and leaves from my neighbor’s oak tree adjacent to my driveway.

I wish I had a “before” picture but believe me anyone who ever saw that side of the house knows it was completely filled with nature’s leftovers from year after year after year. It looked more like a jungle than a driveway.

Wednesday morning I woke up to some strange sound….my “fire boys” had brought in some type of vehicle that scraped and scooped up debris and neatly packed it on the side street for pick-up. When they were done…I about fell over…they had discovered about two more feet of driveway that I never knew existed.What a gift!

Now as I look at this rich dirt…my mind is already racing as to what I can plant there in my new space. It is the first time I can park my car and look all the way to the back yard. It is so beautiful!

It is like finding a buried treasure! Two more feet of driveway…who knew? Then yesterday morning as I followed the driveway to the back yard something caught my vision. My Confederate Rose was blooming…two beautiful huge white blooms (title photo) were shining in the early morning light.

“Nature always wears the color of the spirit within” (Emerson) and look how beautiful my Confederate Rose’s spirit is.

As the day slowly passes…the white bloom will grow darker…first a pale pink, then a dark pink and then an almost purple color.

There is a legend about this phenomena that I wrote about a few years ago when it was first planted…here is a synopsis.

Every day I will now get to see the “Legend of the Confederate Rose” replayed, like in an outdoor drama, for a private audience…me and any other interested participant…just stop by anytime!

You might remember the story (in a nutshell it went like this):

Once the Confederate Rose was pure white. During the Civil War, a soldier was fatally wounded in battle. He fell upon the rose as he lay dying. During the course of the two days he took to die, he bled more and more on the flower, till at last bloom was covered with his blood. When he died, the flower died with him. Thereafter, the Confederate Rose (or Cotton Rose), opens white, and over the course of the two days the bloom lasts, they turn gradually from white to pink to almost red, when the flower finally falls from the bush.

There is so much symbolism with this flower….two days of changing colors, one day of a pure purple/reddish color and then the bloom dies late on the third day.

By tomorrow’s blog we should have pink and dark pink colors….we will just have to wait and see how it plays out…but look at this new bud forming this morning…already with a slight pinkish tint….it looks promising.

I left yesterday afternoon to help keep little Miss Eva Cate…she is having some minor oral surgery but her mouth will probably be pretty sore so I am going to just go play with her and will return home Friday evening.

So until tomorrow: Like waiting on the Confederate Rose bloom….“Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.” Bob Goff

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I came across a funny little poem about “Grandma getting lost in cyberspace”…and I thought  to myself,  she sure isn’t alone.

Every time I start getting just a little cocky about my “fair to middling”  computer skills it all falls apart in a skinny second. The other night after saving my copy of the blog post (I had just finished)…poof!  It disappeared…I went searching through all the back-up programs, supposedly in place to avert this from happening, and nothing.

It was like I never wrote the post. That used to happen to me when I first started out before I knew to save the original draft but I had saved it…what key could I have possibly hit to wipe out the whole blog and back-up. It is still a mystery to me. I think it is a lesson in getting “too big for my britches” or something along that over-confident line. So when the “Grandma getting lost in cyberspace” popped up I could chuckle at myself.

(*I hope my family and friends are reading this…just in case I suddenly disappear!)

Dear Reader:

While I was walking around taking photos of decorated fall designs on homes in the neighborhoods near me Monday…I came to a dead end and there was the most breath-taking fern forest, for lack of a better description, with these beautiful lavender wild flowers  peeking out among the fronds.

The first ferns appear in fossil record over 360 million years ago. The current families and species of ferns we enjoy today appeared about 145 million years ago. They only appeared after flowering plants came to dominate many environments.

Ferns have a spiritual symbolism that means “sincerity.” What you see is what it is…faithful and beautiful. It has been used for medicinal purposes by the Native-Americans in the past and today scientists have recognized the fern’s ability to remove some chemical pollutants from the atmosphere.

Ferns are member of vascular plants that produce spores and have neither seeds or flowers.

The tightly curled fronds of young ferns are deceptive (appearing like a curled human fetus) and it would be impossible to guess what a full grown fern would look like at this stage of development. Human kind is the same. Our consciousness must be awakened through life experience, learning, and awareness. Like the fern, we grow and flourish if we unfurl toward light or truth. The more we unfurl, the more the tendrils of our true nature begin to show as we loosen, surrender and soften, releasing and opening as we let go of old stories and rigidly constructed belief systems which contribute to negative patterns of behavior. . The example of a slow, but steady opening toward light is the miracle of Mother Nature’s creation and is exemplified in the model of the fern.  (Why the Fern? …Fern Life Center)

The Finnish have an interesting folklore take that involves ferns and Mid-Summer’s Eve (Summer Solstice)

A will o’ the wisp  is the phenomenon of seeing a far-away light at night, very similar to a flickering lamp, which seems to move away if you get closer.

In most European folklore traditions will o’ the wisps are usually associated to fairy lights.

…But in Finland they believe that will o’ the wisps are lights that mark the spots where treasures are hidden. According to a Finnish myth, if someone finds the seed of a fern on Midsummer night (as ferns are said to bloom once a year, precisely on the Summer Solstice) he/she will be transported, invisibly, to the places protected by the will o’ the wisps, where these fantastic treasures are hidden, and which only the holder of the fern seed can see.

*Darn…I will have to wait until Midsummer’s Eve next year to go hunting for a fern bloom….but now I know where to go!

I have several ferns, the Boston, asparagus, and rabbit ones.

The ”Good Luck” plant! Rabbit’s Foot Fern is sometimes called the ”Good Luck” plant because of its brown, fur-like rhizomes.  This fern grows 12-18” tall, and does well in direct sunlight or under lights. (I bought this good luck plant and put it in a basket hanging down from the front yard Bradford Pear. )

After one storm one of the wires broke…and it was hanging upside down…so I literally stuffed the pot and plant into a “seat” in the tree (among three branches) and forgot about it. Now it has literally grown into the tree and is part of it…really cool!

So until tomorrow remember…Everything in life has a story…even the ones who go back hundreds of millions of years ago…isn’t that mind-boggling? These beautiful plants have a never-ending tale to tell.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

More time well-spent at the Tea Room yesterday…it was decorated so whimsically for fall. (Instead of “Three Pines” in Summerville we have “Three Oaks” beside the Tea Room.

This tray was so beautiful! And dessert even better…lemon cake with blueberries/whipped cream.

Look who showed up next to me (right by my feet on the grass) while watering the garden yesterday…it patiently waited for me to take its picture and then slowly flew off….a moth on a mission. (or a butterfly…still can’t keep them separated this time of year) *I want to call every pretty winged creature a monarch.

Dear Reader:

I was looking for an excuse to be outside yesterday and I found it. When I went walking Sunday evening I took my IPhone and found some Fall decorations in a few yards, porches, and doors. I took some “shots” of them and then set aside about an hour to follow up yesterday morning with the neighborhood’s fall decorations.

It felt so good to walk in the cool refreshing morning we had yesterday, to speak to neighbors and new folks a few blocks over whom I had not met…so glad little Maggie the dog has gotten me out walking again. Even when Maggie and Vickie can’t make it…I find myself needing to get out and walk…I had forgotten how good it makes one feel.

I used to walk when I had things on my mind…and yesterday all of us woke up to another incomprehensible assault on humanity. My fear is that these types of bizarre attacks will not only continue but also continue to grow. I wish I knew the answers…I still believe love is the strongest force in our lives…but how do we channel it so everyone feels its strength?

All my walking finished up last night just as it was getting dark and I was heading back down my street…my street has already started getting ready for Fall with bright orange lights set against an almost full moon… just a day or two away.

Enjoy my neighborhood search to find Fall all around me…

I don’t have a Beware of Dog sign so I figured “The Witch Is In” will work equally well! Sometimes a good witch and sometimes NOT…

As I started down my street as darkness was settling in…it made me so happy to live in a neighborhood where everyone gets in the spirit of the seasons.  I immediately lit my two pumpkins and called it a night…an ending for an amazing Fall day!

So until tomorrow…Let us always give thanks for special days that make us glad to be alive! Let us always be prayerful for those whose loved ones’ lives have been taken in such a terrible way.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Eva Cate has decided to be a “Rainbow Unicorn”  for Halloween…so cute!

Vickie’s beautiful granddaughter, Christy, came home for her birthday and look at this beautiful cake Vickie had ready for her…she decorated it with our co-owned rose bush….just beautiful…will share the story behind the cake with you in an upcoming post. I love caramel cake…apparently Christy does too.

Vickie said they went shopping on King Street over the weekend and by the time they got to Victoria’s Secrets...she was exhausted. Luckily they had a bright pink chair which she grabbed quickly before anyone else could…it made the time spent there much more enjoyable.

I told her I knew she had simply sat in it to show her support for the Race for the Cure. (She laughed!) And Joan sent me new socks for the race….we are less than three weeks away from race day and a little over halfway to our initial goal… so let’s all rally and support a good cause for one and all!

Here is the Race for the Cure Donation Information for anyone interested in donating this week for the cause. Thank all of you so far for your generous donations…the team is so excited!

To make an electronic donation…just click on this link. (Remember to scroll down for all the information-can choose a team participant or simply the team (Legally Pink) itself.) Thank you so much!

Link: http://www.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/CHS_SouthCarolinaAffiliate?pg=entry&fr_id=6930

To write a check:

To send a check: Make it out to: Komen Lowcountry…*On the check memo line, please include the participant’s name you wish to honor or the team name. (Legally Pink)

Address: Susan Komen, S.C. 50 Folly Road Blvd. Charleston, SC 29407

Blessings from my home to yours!

Dear Reader:

We are the universe. Doesn’t that sound like something out of a sci-fi fiction novel or a space alien B-rated movie? Me…little me…I am the universe? Ah…you’re pulling my leg! Really?

We are not “in” the universe, we “are” the universe. Could that really be? And if so…what an amazing miracle!

This blog post was intended initially to be about the importance of connections…to other people… but I soon realized that connections on earth extend farther out that just our own planet we call home. How many times in our own lives have we been able to reflect back on a time when a connection to another human being lead us successfully getting in the college of our choice, or landing that first job, or finding the person or house of our dreams?

When someone says something like “Connections are everything in life…it’s not what you know…it’s who you know”  we all nod because we have all been placed in situations where that observation played out that way for us…in one form or another.

The other day I had a little epiphany about the importance of human connections along our life’s journey…why human connections are the secret to a fulfilled life.

Isn’t that what Jesus left telling us with the last commandment… today often called the New Commandment? Judas Iscariot had already left the “Last Supper” and Jesus then turned to the eleven other disciples and gave them his final farewell with these words…“Love one another; as I have loved you.”

Isn’t this commandment another way of saying today to reach out and help others who walk beside and behind us in our path through life?…To make human connections with as many people whose paths cross ours as possible and assist them into discovering the right direction to their own fulfilled lives?

When I read these words the other day “Do not be lonely,  the entire universe is within you” once again I paused and re-read the quote. How could I not remember my dolphin episode at Edisto Beach almost nine years ago? If that dolphin could have left me a written note it would have been very similar to this one.

That memory is still crystal clear…I was sitting on the jetties that foggy fall morning in 2008, following my diagnosis of breast cancer, wondering what a future (if I had any) with breast cancer would be like… And then suddenly that dolphin jumped up right in front of me and for that split second made contact…eye to eye. I knew immediately what this creature of God was telling me.

“All is right in the world…everything is just the way it should be.” I heard those words in my head so clearly and immediately my doubts and worries dissipated like the early morning fog…and now here I still am in 2017 writing my blog post.

Theologian C.S. Lewis tried to tell us the same thing when he said:

“We don’t have a soul. We are a soul. We happen to have a body.”

Once again…we keep hearing it over and over…in thousands of different ways…we are all connected to the universe because we are all the universe…we are one in the spirit!

One of the great things that has come out of living with cancer is the fact that I understand my body better than I ever have. (Hate to admit it but I “semi-dosed off ” in most biology courses I took.)

Everything in the body is connected. I realize now that many cancer patients never die from cancer directly …but from the side effects on the body from different powerful medications and treatments. Any time we do one thing to the body it affects so many other things…because like the universe our body parts are all connected in the same way. Every part has a special job to do for the benefit of the whole…to sustain whole wellness.

Bless my little old body…it has definitely taken a “licking but keeps on ticking” and I thank it every morning when I wake up for doing so. My body continues to fight hard and that is all I can ask of it.

My body keeps me walking (even running after grandchildren) eating, sleeping, talking, laughing…it keeps me connected to family, friends, life and then God keeps me connected to Him. What a blessed woman I am! All I need do is pause now and then to see my connection to the world every single day.

So until tomorrow…Let us be thankful that our universe never stops moving…  because the sprocket of God keeps our world turning… connected to everything needed to keep the world ‘going round’ for all of us.

(Original watercolor by Anne Peterson)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I have never been an obituary reader…unless, of course, the death announcement involves someone very close to me. But I don’t read the obituaries daily or  “religiously” like some folks. In fact I have always gotten tickled at people who seem pretty obsessive about it.

Take, for example my grandmother. She sure was an avid and loyal reader. It was the first thing she checked when the paper arrived. When I would spend summers with her I would listen to her and her friends (in a circle shelling beans) discussing the merits of someone’s obituary notice or what was left out and why. One good obituary could keep grandmother ‘in the know’ for a week.

When my brother Ben delivered newspapers one summer to make some spending money…the only angry calls he got was when the paper wasn’t delivered on time or was lost behind a bush or something. And it wasn’t even about the newspaper, itself per se, but several people  missed reading the obituary section and wanted to know if  Ben, at least, could come back and drop off that section to them so they could keep up. (Implication, of course, curious as to whom was still living and who was not.)

I have often thought to myself that someone must be way down on the reporting “totem pole” chain to get “stuck” writing obituaries but as I discovered…many reporters love writing obituaries and do it all their lives.

Several obituary writers commented that obituaries aren’t about death but life and a morality lesson on how to live it. One writer cited six things obituaries teach us about life:

1. Don’t Wait: Act Now
2. *Humor Always Has a Place
3. Be Bold: Live a life worth writing about
4. Be Thankful: “It was people who paused to appreciate life and give thanks who were the happiest.” 
5. Everyone is human and as such had weaknesses as well as strengths
6. Put relationships first. “Be nice…  No matter what you accomplish, how you treat people has a lot to do with how you will be remembered.”

*I came across this funny little “obituary” in a church newsletter while researching this topic and it did make me pause and smile.

Obituary of Someone Else

I know that all of you were saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our church’s most valuable members — Someone Else.

Someone’s passing created a vacancy that will be difficult to fill.  Else has been with us for many years, and for every one of those years, Someone did far more than the normal person’s share of the work.  Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results.  Someone Else can work with that group.  Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, one name was on everyone’s lips, “Let Someone Else do it.”  It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the largest givers in the church.  Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed that Someone Else would make up the difference.

Someone Else was a wonderful person, sometimes appearing super-human, but a person can only do so much.  Were the truth known, everyone expected too much of Someone Else.  Now Someone Else is gone.  We wonder what we are going to do.  Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it?  Who is going to do the things Someone Else did?  Remember, we can’t depend on Someone Else anymore.
– Author Unknown –

…………………..

* I remember a few years when the Oprah Show was still on each afternoon at 4…she had a young woman, her husband and small children on her show….she had advanced cancer but she had the most joyous take on life filled with humor that made the audience laugh through tears. A few weeks after this initial episode Oprah announced the young woman, wife, and mother had died but her husband had sent a photo of what she had secretly arranged to have engraved on her tombstone. When He had gone to see it…he sat down on the ground by the marker and laughed and cried at the same time…only his wife could have come up with this.

She was buried on the banks of a beautiful river (overlooking it) in a peaceful old cemetery…the words on the tombstone read: Would you please move…you are blocking my view. A sense of humor to the end.

So until tomorrow….Let’s all live a life “worth writing about.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Oops! I almost forgot today is the first day of the month….lovely October has arrived and brought with it much cooler weather. I appreciate it already. My two faithful rabbits stand sentry duty on each side of the blooming lantanas…great job guys! Don’t forget to say “rabbit” first thing today for a wonderful month!

I must have to thank my feathered friends for transporting this little purple beauty and plopping it down right beside Rutledge’s Japanese Maple.

Since we didn’t get any rain from the weathermen’s predictions Friday…I had to break down and water yesterday morning. That’s when I discovered it. Shimmering in the sunlight.

Dear Reader:

I think we all forget that just like our bodies…our souls need nourishment and healing too. If we have annual physicals…what about annual soul “physicals?”

Do we stop and re-think life based on what our soul is telling us to do…or do we stay too busy to stop and simply listen?

All of us question, at one time or another…if we really can accept a God who becomes a man and models for us how life should be lived…really? Haven’t we all, in our darkest times, questioned the “practicality” of this thinking?

Of all the stories I have ever read explaining the transformation of God into man….this story explains it to me better than any other…you might have heard it before…but think about it this time as you read the story…the best metaphor I ever heard.