Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

“Big Red” senses something special is coming soon! The biggest red blooms are dangling down off the end of the bench due to the sheer volume and weight of the blooms!

With the gusty winds yesterday I wondered if they might get bruised bouncing around but then I looked closer and discovered that ” Big Red” had a “Plan B” contingency plan; in fact… lots of plans!

Sure enough…hidden in and around the plant, particularly on the next tier from the leaning blooms are buds getting ready to pop open. “Big Red” plans ahead!

*I had to sneak and take a peek at the seven day forecast… which I know intellectually is a waste of time since it rarely does what the forecasters predict…but one delightful surprise did await me. With a mid-week front coming through…the temperatures will drop and Friday and Saturday are predicted to be in the low seventies for a high! Spring is returning just in time for the wedding!!!!That makes me so happy!

Like Lily Pulitzer once said: “Despite the forecast, live life likes its spring”…and now it really will be!

Every wedding has its surprises and contingency plans which end up making it even more beautiful! When Walsh and Mollie got married there were a few sprinkles on and off prior to the wedding time…so they made the decision to have the actual ceremony in the once (stables/ renovated entertainment room) at beautiful Magnolia Gardens instead of chancing it outside.

What a wonderful turn-of-events because Marcia had everything decorated so beautifully in the rustic, cozy, and uniquely adorable setting!

*One interesting fact on all my three children’s weddings is that they took (and are taking) place in early May. It will be easy to keep up with anniversary dates.

The cutest part of John and Mandy’s wedding was the look of surprise and shocked horror on little Emma’s face (Bill Dingle’s oldest daughter and flower girl) when John and Mandy kissed. A beautiful teenager now…I think she will be able to handle Tommy and Kaitlyn’s kiss!

John and Mandy: MAY 3, 2008. Edisto Island

Walsh and Mollie: MAY 13, 2012 (Mother’s Day) Magnolia Gardens

Tommy and Kaitlyn: MAY 6, 2017 Isle of Palms (Coming soon to a location near you!)

(Tommy was a groomsman in his  Clemson buddy and pal, Jared Smith’s wedding, last weekend. Last picture of Tommy and Kaitlyn all dressed up for a wedding…still single!)

I decided a long time ago…it is how we handle Life’s Plan B that shows who we really are…the character within. It’s easy when life follows our Plan A…but guess what? It doesn’t and one day we will all look back and celebrate the fact that it didn’t (Plan A is pretty boring)!

So until tomorrow….

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

When I came across this cute saying from AuntBeesArtStudio…I “assumed” Aunt Bee must be from the south. If she is…she is a southern transplant living in Sacramento, California. Either way…I liked the saying Aunt Bee!

I feel like I am definitely going through a “living spree” right now. Having just survived my seven-year-old granddaughter’s PJ birthday party with six friends… moving from pillow case decorating to feeding the turtles, to dance contest, to pizza, to opening presents, sticking our feet in the pool with one falling in (always adds a little extra excitement to the party) to nail polishing and lip gloss lipstick applications to popcorn and a movie….ending with who could scream the loudest. Now that’s what I call a “living spree!” “Oh me!” Only the strong survive! Here are a few glimpses of the “living spree.”

Now that we have checked that beautiful benchmark off our agenda…we are rapidly moving in to the BIG EVENT! Tommy and Kaitlyn’s wedding!!!!! THIS MONTH, THIS WEEK, THIS SATURDAY MAY 6!!!!!!!!  (Everything has been ordered…outfits ready…manicures waiting until the last minute… since I can chip a nail faster than a southern mother can say “Hold your horses!”  * Note to self:  Just remember to pack kleenex …and … no matter what happens SMILE and LAUGH!!!!)

Today is May 1…Official kick-off day and season to “Barefooting!” in the South. Recent observation: As a child I didn’t particularly like to go barefoot…sensitive feet…hated pulling burrs from between my toes so I just stuck to wearing flip-flops and sandals. But now at the age I am today…I LOVE going  barefoot!

I remember seeing my aunts cooking in the kitchen barefoot in the summer and wondered about it…now I know. At a certain stage in life…barefootin’ is the only way to go.

*FYI: Today is also the 6th annual International Barefoot Running Day.  Be sure to check out the list of locations taking part around the world.

The blogs this week will probably be a little shorter than usual…since as you can see ‘I’ve got a living spree’ to attend!

So until tomorrow (Tommy and Kaitlyn): We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. Thornton Wilder

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Don’t forget! Say “Rabbit” first thing today to have a happy, blessed, and joyful month ahead! “April showers brings May flowers”…and a beautiful blessed wedding!

All dressing rooms now have dimmer switches

Dear Reader:

Aren’t there certain ‘subtle’ signs that we are getting older without having to wait on a birthday or glance at the calendar year or even mirror?

I was trying to think back when I first considered myself ‘not young’ any more or at least not as young. I suppose for my generation it was still the big “30.” Thirty…I am over twice that now….30? I was a mere baby back then. Yet society had already condemned me as aging. What is wrong with this picture?

With people living longer into their eighties, nineties, and beyond…do we really want to cut off youth at 30? We are only “young” for 1/3 of our lives and “old” for two-thirds?

Just in my lifetime I have seen a fast societal change on aging with us baby boomers. Since there are so many of us, by sheer numbers alone, we have been trend-setters by volume of consumption. If we say we aren’t old…then marketing follows suit….if the baby boomers want to dress and look young at whatever age…then merchandising follows suit.

Sixties, according to magazine articles and newspapers columns are the new forties. Mentally and emotionally I like to think that…but (as the Ya’s have discussed on numerous occasions) no one told our physical bodies they were supposed to act more “forty-ish.”

Brooke and I have experienced “shingles” in recent months (definitely a 60’ish health issue), Libby has had so many strange health episodes in the last couple of years that she said she could “hang a shingle”  out on her porch to help anyone with any kind of strange ailment. And Jackson is facing knee-replacement surgery in June. We aren’t sure we are buying into the new forties theme.

In fact in a Huffington Post article titled: Are 60’s the new 40’s for a Mid-Life Crisis? (by Charlotte Meredith) we 60 something (“silver sufferers”) even get to look forward to a second mid-life crisis now.

Your 60s are the new mid-life crisis for so-called “silver sufferers” rather than your 40s, according to a new report which has revealed a third of people in the age group undergo a period of questioning the meaning of life.

Crisis, often triggered by two or more episodes of loss or bereavement, may lead to a decline in physical and mental abilities experts have said.

A third of men and women said they went through a period of “developmental crisis” in their 60s, the survey found.

…………………………………

So to sum it up ….we 60’s silver sufferers going through “developmental crises” should still continue to try to look forty-ish. Look…no…but act…yes. I still feel young inside and I think that is the most important thing.

I must admit, however, that as we age we do have to start playing little games with ourselves…like getting dressed and putting on make-up in semi-darkness. You look good in the soft glow of dimmers (I find myself putting 40 watt bulbs in all my light fixtures)

The way I look at it…if I “think” I look good that’s all that matters. Like Dianne Keaton said in People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People (at 71):

” Keep everything covered, use soft lighting when you’re making up. The dimmer is your friend. But then you go outside and…”Of course it’s going to look worse, but you don’t have to look! And that’s the other point: Don’t take too much time on yourself. Keep looking outward-that’s where the amazing part of life is.”

How true that last sentence is. The other day on HGTV a middle-aged couple had moved to Costa Rica to start life (part two in retirement) and the husband was taking surfing lessons. The young boy teaching him kept reminding him: “Don’t look down at your feet and the surfboard or you will fall; always look out at the horizon and shore and you will stay afloat!”

So until tomorrow…I think staying comfortable in our skin makes us beautiful at any age….just happy to be alive and loved.

*Lightning bug! I saw my first lightning bug while sitting out in the garden Friday night a little after eight. I kept blinking because I thought I was seeing things…but no it was a lightning bug. I think mine might have been a Japanese lightning bug since it crossed through the bamboo barrier into my neighbor’s bamboo forest.

Happy Birthday to Brookie! Can hardly wait for our “Half and Half Birthday Party! Edisto…we are coming soon…ready to party down…us 60 somethings partying like 40 somethings! 

Remember to always wear a feather in your hair…ageless!

Jo sent these cute sayings and jokes about local “Kilroys!” Thanks for sharing Jo!

Two stories about Kilroy came to my mind from yesteryear. One was about a sign in a very small popular eating place in Columbia when I was a USC student. It read “Kilroy never ate here; he couldn’t find a seat.” The other was there were 2 men outside the Vatican when two men appeared on a balcony above. One man said, “Who are they?” The other replied, “I’m not sure who the one in the white robe wearing a cross is, but the other guy in Kilroy.” (OK, I didn’t say they were funny..just ancient memories.) I really liked the real message of your story today because it is great to know that no matter how far we travel or what happens in life, “Jesus is already there”.

Dear Reader:

It has been awhile since I have just shared a history story with you for a blog post…so when Jo sent me the ‘story behind the story‘ of the expression “Kilroy was here” I knew it was a story that needed passing on to all of you.

Even though, as a “Baby Boomer” (born after World War II was over)… thus not growing up with this expression…I told Jo that I remembered being asked about it by an enthusiastic WWII history buff student one year and together we discovered the story behind the expression.

My feeble brain slightly remembered some (but not all of the story)…so when Jo later sent it…I thought it was time to work it into today’s post… a great patriotic story to tuck away in our treasure chests of stories to tell our children and grandchildren.

Since the story is pretty long I am going to try to condense the main ideas with a few important excerpts….Hope you enjoy a little history trivia on this last weekend in April!

He is engraved in stone in the National War Memorial in Washington, DC-back in a small alcove where very few people have seen. For the WWII generation, it brings back memories…a bit of trivia that is part of our American history. No one seemed to know why he was so well known-but everybody rallied around him. So who was Kilroy?

In 1946 a radio program “Speak to America” sponsored a nationwide contest to find the real Kilroy, offering a prize of a real trolley car to the person who could prove himself to be the genuine article. Forty men stepped forward but only one could provide the necessary proof of his identity – James Kilroy from Halifax, Massachusetts.

The 46-year-old shipyard worker was a checker at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. His job was to check on the number of rivets completed. (Back then riveters got paid by the rivets. He would count a block of rivets and put a check mark in waxed lumber chalk, so they couldn’t be counted twice. However, once he left, the riveters would erase the mark so they could be paid twice.)

*(Later on, an off-shift inspector would come through and count the rivets a second time, resulting in double pay for the riveters.)

It didn’t take too long for the boss to catch on that something funny was going on in that section of the assembly line and asked Kilroy to check on it…it was only then that he discovered what had been going on behind his back. He continued to put his check mark on each job he inspected, but added “KILROY WAS HERE” in king-sized letter with a sketch of the chap with the long nose peering over the fence.

* In 1945 at the Potsdam

 *Donna and Sam….when I passed your beautiful mailbox with the purple clematis falling down around it…the framed picture (you did Donna) of this special site for me came rushing back. You don’t know how many times I glance up from the computer and see the words: FEAR NOT tomorrow. Jesus is already there! What a daily comfort!

Dear Reader:

I loved yesterday morning…the cloud coverage was wonderful…keeping the direct sun off the plants and me…allowing me to work in the garden in total comfort! Wasn’t it a refreshing breeze blowing most of the day? A great day to be alive!

I discovered an interesting analogy on our problems as we go through life. They are like clouds. In her article, Made for Joy, Alice von Hildebrand, philosopher/theologian and widow of the famous anti-Nazi German philosopher- (Dietrich von Hildebrand) makes this observation.

…”Of course, in life there are moments of darkness. There are periods of discouragement. There are times when we lose sight of the beauty of the sky for all the clouds. You may have to bear severe sickness, or deal with tremendous pain, or you may be disappointed in this or that. But remember, whatever difficulty you have to face, it will not last. It is only a cloud. For God has made each of us with a purpose.”

*

This paragraph (that became Hildebrand’s personal philosophy) began when she was pushed off an American ship by a German submarine crewman at the end of WWII. Alice thought she was preparing to die when these “last” thoughts flooded her.

During the war I was on the last American ship to leave France, and we were arrested by a German submarine. We were given one hour to leave the ship. I was absolutely convinced I was going to die. Absolutely! And I had such an overwhelming experience. In a tenth of a hundredth of a second I saw my life in front of me in the greatest possible detail that you can imagine. It was unbelievable. What did I realize?

God has created each person for a purpose. He has his plan of love for you, for me, for everyone. The problem is that we make our own plans. We want them to be realized in a certain way and at a particular time. Then we get resentful when our plans don’t materialize. Yet, you have to come to a place in your life where you can say, “You, O Lord, you choose for me.

There is an enormous blessing in having faith, in trusting there is a God who has created you and loves you, in knowing that you have an immortal soul. Respect your soul. That is what matters. Whatever happens to you, say to yourself, “My God, it might not have been my choice, but it is your choice. And therefore I love it.” I believe that is the key to the meaning of life.”

In a perfect world  our souls and bodies ( made for joy) would all be filled with joy from the moment we rise until we recline. *But this isn’t a perfect world…so we have to make some adjustments in our expectations. Or as Alice says:

“We are made for joy. But this joy can never be fully experienced here on earth. God’s joy is ultimately realized in eternity. To be a Christian is to understand that the cross, and the suffering of the cross, has meaning, and that suffering and woe are part of our state on this earth.

Don’t expect Paradise on earth. Don’t. But there is meaning, and this meaning is the love of God and gratitude for life on this earth. Whatever your state, whatever your situation, whatever your purpose, always remember that you are made for joy.”

So until tomorrow…

Joy and Woe Are Woven Fine

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I drove over to Mt. Pleasant to Whole Foods to order some fresh fruit tarts for one of our desserts following our rehearsal next Friday. They looked so good the girl gave me one to take home and try! Delicious!

*

While checking out…I picked up two items, a beautiful flowering basket that can take full sun (to replace the poor pansies who don’t want to be out in it directly any more with these high 80’s temps floating around) and this National Geographic Magazine on Jesus and the Apostles. 

Somehow I felt that it was appropriate to buy a sun-loving flower basket along with stories of Jesus since “He is the Light of the World.” The magazine was filled with beautiful medieval art work and new discoveries confirming certain incidents in the life of Jesus that had been held in doubt by some historians.

Hikers, today, can scout the Jesus Trail: which begins in Nazareth and winds 40 miles to Capernaum. Since Jesus spent most of his ministry in Galilee, many key sites can be reached by foot..thus the trail’s motto: “Jesus didn’t take the bus.” He met people, face to face walking life’s paths together.

National Geographic also unearthed a controversial issue that had disturbed some archaeologists…it had to do with the length of fishing boats. They didn’t think boats were big or long enough to accompany Jesus and all his disciples, in that day and time, until a drought unveiled the ” Jesus Boat.”

*It still amazes me how the physical life of Jesus came and went like a spark from a fire…leaving behind no physical evidence of His being, no written first-hand accounts of his stories and messages…nothing more permanent than “doodles in the dust.” YET…

…“The short life and violent death of this obscure Jew soon took on a meaning that eclipsed the blank pages of his years on Earth, filling whole libraries with depictions of what his life produced. Over the ensuing centuries the religion that grew around Him-Christianity-would alter the course of history and become the world’s dominant faith, with an estimated 2.2 billion followers spread across the globe. An inconceivable idea to anyone living in Palestine when Jesus walked there…” (Don Belt)

Truths, that all of us as humans living on Earth can understand and want for us and our children were given to us by Jesus. Love over hate, forgiveness over revenge, kindness to others over self-greed, compassion over apathy, sharing over hoarding, healing over fearfulness of contagion, and loyalty/faith to our Creator, not leaders of men by men.

If one believes in love, it is hard not to be “crazy in love” with Jesus.

Christianity is a matter of faith. Through it we seek to find the answers to age-old questions that define our humanity.

“How can we understand the nature of the universe? How do we fit into the scheme of things? How should be lead our lives? Our striving to comprehend the infiniteness of the world in the here and now-and to consider what might be beyond-is one of the most profound traits that mark us as human.”  (Chris Johns Chief Content Officer, National Geographic.)

The last picture in the magazine shows a nun in a hidden alcove in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem where ‘tradition says a manger stood where Jesus was born.’

Bo Portrait

“From humble beginnings sprang the world’s foremost religion, which still finds power in moments of solitude, reflection, and conversation with God.”

So until tomorrow… My love of solitude, reflection, and conversation with God are three reasons why I call myself a Christian. Before Jesus lived and his teachings taught us differently… we didn’t think we had the right to talk to God one on one…(common man was just too common)…It is hard for me to imagine going a day now without conversing with Him.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Guess whose birthday it is (officially) today? Miss Eva Cate’s!!! Seven years old…I can hardly believe it! Seven years I have been given to watch my grandchildren grow! How blessed I am indeed!

Dear Reader:

Sometimes it is really strange how I can be looking for something and one of the sources that pop up on the internet for me to look at  is “Chapel of Hope Stories.” That always makes me laugh!

Sis, for some reason the expression you told me about that your mother used…”How THOUGHTY of you” in response to a kind deed popped up in my mind. I wondered if there were any Thank You cards out there that used the word “Thoughty” and bingo…these two relic ballerina thank you cards from the forties popped up on Pinterest.

If you look closely at the first ballerina card on the left you will see the line under the drawing, “How Thoughty of You”…now we know that your mom was using a popular colloquialism from the past…the forties.

I have fallen in love with that expression and find myself responding to a kind deed or act with an oral “thoughty” response more times than not!

While on my expedition to find a ‘thoughty’ thank you card, I came across another old photo of the Tip Top Inn at Pawleys that the Dingles ran for many years… and I discovered this vintage post card.

When I pulled it up there was another blog post from an earlier Chapel of Hope Stories (post) telling the family joke about the clock, once found on the wall in the dining room, that had no numbers…just the words “Who Cares?”  I searched high and low for a replica but the closest I could find was a “Who Cares…I’m Retired” which works well too.  (The only problem being, of course, is now that I am retired and could have gone and stayed there…a little storm by the name of Hugo washed it away.)

Yesterday was my monthly visit to see my oncologist, Dr. Silgals. I was slightly apprehensive because the sinus infection and antiobiotics I am on, besides the chemo regiment, have made me feel like a rag doll. Every time I sit down I practically fall asleep…very unlike me. It made me wonder if my blood count was really low again.

But again…my worry was for nothing…the blood count was still about the same and I only have two more days on the Z-Pak so hopefully I can begin perking up again just in time for the wedding. The cancer, while not disappearing completely, is staying put and not venturing out so that news made me take a deep breath of relief. Bring the wedding on!

I, also, want to take a moment and thank all of you readers for taking time to make comments and add personal anecdotes…it means a lot to me. It is very “thoughty” of you!

Mari Gramling, a fellow Erskine graduate, remembered this powerful incident in her life concerning the beauty and healing of silence and time with God.

“Beck, this is one of my main memories of the 9/11 tragedy. I went “to the mountain” literally to try to find solitude and quiet. No one was out and about and all airplanes had been grounded.

On top of Pinnacle Mountain, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, I realized immediately that it was the only time I could remember and probably the only time I will ever experience the beautiful, unadulterated pure sounds of nature with no outside human interference. It was a gorgeous spiritual experience.”

Here is one Jo wrote yesterday:

Becky, as usual, I really enjoyed your thoughts today, but the story of the light bulb is so powerful that I just had to say, “Thank you,again.” I’m a big fan of “Light”. In fact, I get accused of using up our natural resources because I turn on the lights in my home all the time. However, there is no light as bright as the light God has provided us from the sun and through His Son. Love the image and feeling I get when I remember the words, “Jesus said, ‘I am the Light of the World’ “. You are absolutely correct that we just have to be sure to stay connected to the Source so that we might spread a little sunshine to others.

I loved that little story too, Jo….and the importance of staying connected to our source of light and hope. I saw and felt that again yesterday at my oncology appointment. For whatever reason…my white jacket high blood pressure problem has suddenly disappeared in the last few months….it is in the 120’s over the high sixties now when taken.

I must thank God for giving me the calmness to produce these great blood pressure levels…now I get smiles from the nurses taking my blood pressure and not frowns with me explaining I have white jacket high blood pressure syndrome.

“How “thoughty” of you God to give me the peace and serenity to show my ‘true colors’ or perhaps numbers!

As I came into the house around eight last evening…and darkness was quickly falling…I took pictures of the source of my light of happiness God has given me with my beloved home.

So until tomorrow….May we let God always be our source of light and hope for each day.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

For anyone lucky enough to be retired or at home yesterday, wasn’t it a most soothing, restful day? What is there about the sound of falling raindrops on the roof that just makes us close our eyes and take cat naps throughout the stormy periods?

I slept in late yesterday, most likely due to the unusual darkness of the morning, and when I woke up…it was during one of the intervals of the sun peeking through the clouds.

With the soil finally soft from the overnight rains…I grabbed my shovel and got one potted lantana and two potted morning glory plants into the ground…just in time before the afternoon showers moved in again.

Victory in perfect timing for the gardener! Sun and rain. Sun and rain. Just like plants, we too, need both bright and dark days in our lives to teach us courage, perseverance, gratitude, thankfulness, and feelings of blessedness. The dark days make us shine brighter when the sunny days return.

In a recent Huffington Post article: Happiness: Remembering the Sun is always Shining…author, Maura Sweeny, had an epiphany while visiting her daughter in London, where fair weather, is rather unfairly proportioned. Sweeny cited her dislike of cloudy, rainy days due to growing up in in a rather perpetual overcast area of New Jersey. So as soon as she was old enough to choose where she wanted to live she chose Florida where she is presently living quite happily ever after.

However, a couple of years ago, while visiting her daughter who lives in London, she had a sudden thought dawn on her. “The Sun is Always Shining.”

“The sun might become temporarily obscured by dark clouds — and, by analogy, life circumstances — but I could remind myself that it is always present. My thoughts just needed to be mindful of what was above the clouds rather than below them.”

Isn’t that what we need to remember when we have bouts of set-backs, overtly stressful periods, and anxiety attacks? We are being tested, in our faith, to see if we can still shine above the dark clouds where the “Son” of God sees nothing but sunshine pouring down on us.

I love this creative analogy of darkness and light (The Little Lightbulb) that I  discovered in a post from P31 Ministries by Holley Gerth.

“The best part of all is that we don’t have to be like the light bulb that said, “I have to find a way to shine!” The light bulb went to a self-help meeting to learn about its inner capacity for light. It read books about how to get brighter. Each morning the light bulb would get up and recite positive affirmations. “I am a light bulb. I believe in myself. I will shine!” But nothing happened.

Eventually the light bulb became weary and discouraged. It began to doubt who it was and what it could do. It almost burned out completely. Fortunately, one day the light bulb was carefully placed in a fixture. Light burst forth and filled the room. The light bulb finally understood. The key was not to try harder but to plug into the source.

Trying to shine on our own can be exhausting. Instead, we’re simply called to be closely connected to God and remain in Him. When we do, His light pours forth through us in powerful, brilliant ways that change the world. The ways we shine might not make the news, but they make even more of a difference than we can see.”

…………………………..

So until tomorrow: Let us remember that the only way to rid the world and ourselves of darkness is to create more light to dispel it.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Some of you might have seen the episode on the CBS Sunday Morning Show yesterday titled: Recording the Sounds of Nature’s Quietest Places. The entire segment was a wake-up call for all of us to realize that Earth is losing it’s “silence” due to man. It is almost impossible to find a site in our country where there is complete silence with only nature breaking the reverie.

The first place we were taken to is one I was not familiar with but would now like to add to my bucket’s list.

It is the Hoh Rain Forest situated in and around Washington State’s Olympic National Park. It was absolutely beautiful…a place where one could actually hear their own footsteps in this magnificent oasis of quiet.

Here is a short excerpt from this ‘awakening’ show on the loss of silence in our world.

Gordon Hempton, who calls himself the Sound Tracker, is an “acoustic ecologist” who has traveled the world recording the sounds of nature, from birdsong and rainfall to babbling brooks and the rustling of leaves. But the noise we humans make is making it harder to find those quiet places – and, he says, it’s having real consequences for wildlife as well. Bernie Krause, a musician and sound recordist, has become an audio anthropologist, documenting the sounds of nature. He also has noticed dramatic changes in some areas, such as in a Costa Rican rain forest. He helps correspondent Lee Cowan (and us) listen to the difference.

The National Parks are trying to collect data, also, and see what can be done about maintaining places for people to go to meditate, think, and just cocoon themselves in silence.

Unfortunately this urge is becoming more popular as millions flock to the parks for the same reason….silence…with the result being the opposite of the quiet they are seeking so desperately.

My special ‘quiet’ place is on the yellow bench under the tall pines looking backwards on my garden…listening to the fountain, the birds and bees, and watching the butterflies. I find myself automatically tuning out traffic horns blaring from Highway 17 or trucks and cars traveling too fast through the neighborhood.

Still, relatively speaking, it is as quiet as I can find where I live and I am very lucky to live in an overall quiet neighborhood.

I crave silence and time by myself each day…I can’t go a day without it, my “Me time with God”…if I do I can tell that my body is reacting negatively towards the over-abundance of too much stimuli. That is why I am always surprised when someone comments that too much silence makes them nervous and uncomfortable.

Is it perhaps because many of us are afraid to start peeling back the layers that make the physical composite of who we are in order to find the true essence of our real self? Like the popular program search for our ancestry and heritage-“Who Do You Think You Are“- are we afraid of finding the answer to this question?

How many of us remember our ‘first puppy love crush” in late childhood or perhaps early adolescence? These feelings of love were so powerful yet we were equally terrified of letting the other person know for fear of rejection and/or ridicule.

Is that why we fear quiet time with God? Is it still so hard to simply say “I love you God” and feel the love of God in all its amazing reciprocation? When we feel estranged from our Creator it is not on His end but ours…we haven’t gathered the courage to proclaim our love completely to Him.

So until tomorrow:

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Eva Cate and Jake came to hang with Boo for a little while yesterday – it was fun play and pizza night!

Dear Reader:

As many times as I have said the Lord’s Prayer out loud in unison at church…I realize now that too often I have just given lip service to the meaning of the prayer without truly understanding all the lines.

One line has never been clear to me, but I, also failed to take time  to pursue it…“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” (We Presbyterians are “debtors: whereas several of our denominational brothers and sisters are “trespassers.”)

*If I had ever went to church with a friend (as a child) at another denominational church…I learned quickly to mute that part in fear of “debting” too loudly over the “trespassers” voices… united in unison.

When I ever gave that line much thought, it was placed in the category of mercantile debt…like a subtle hint from God to pay off all my credit cards and get out of debt before leaving our earthly home.

And then today…it suddenly hit me. We come into this world in debt to God for breathing life within us. We are already debtors before we put the first taste of water or bread in our mouths. Each day of our lives we become more entrenched in debt for the privilege of simply being alive and consuming what is needed to maintain it.

In one spiritual anecdote I read a few days back a little boy was asking his spiritual teacher for help about his fear of death. One quote from the teacher I recognized as my own “Aha” moment.

The teacher picked up a small piece of soil from the ground and said, “You have received your body in debt with required return. And every bite of bread eaten by you, every sip of water tasted by you increases that debt. You are made from dust on which you walk and the ground is your main creditor, constantly reminding you of this debt…until it is your time to lie down with it.”

The teacher concludes telling the little boy that death is as natural as birth and there should be no fear IF he shares his debts with as many fellowmen as he can along his life’s journey. Sharing is the secret to relieving ourselves of debt…the opportunity to exist, to live fully for others!

In Biblical study books and translations “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” focuses on the “Forgiveness” part of that line. Along these interpretations, most scholars agree that these two lines are the most serious of all…a warning to all of us about forgiveness.

Jesus explains this “terrible petition” (as Augustine called it) again at the close of the prayer in Matthew 6:14-15.

“For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

This short anecdote explains it again in a very straight-forward example of a true incident.

When John Wesley was serving as a missionary to the American colonies, he had an encounter with General Oglethorpe, a man known for his pride. Wesley pleaded with him that he should forgive a man who was given a severe penalty for a minor infraction.

In a particularly prideful moment Oglethorpe said, “I never forgive!” Wesley replied, “Then I hope, for your sake sir, you never sin.” Wesley knew that if we make an unforgiving spirit a virtue, we cannot be forgiven.

So until tomorrow: “When you forgive, you free your soul. But when you say I’m sorry too, you free two souls.” (Donald Hicks)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh