Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Yesterday was a day for memories… celebrating family birthdays and soon-to-be weddings. These are times where we expect past memories to be triggered and pop up unexpectedly…but then sometimes it is the strangest things that take us back down memory lane.

It really was a fun day, all around, except that Mandy woke up sick…extremely dizzy…and was unable to go the tea room for Carrie’s  birthday luncheon for Doodle  or the Holy City Brewery for Tommy and Kaitlyn’s couples shower. I took Eva Cate to the luncheon and then Aunt Julie took her back home to Mt. Pleasant. Thanks Julie!

I love opportunities for the family to be together…because it seems that it gets rarer and rarer as time goes by. Eva Cate was dressed and ready to go three hours early. *Thank you Carrie for such a fun event.

Look at the cute butterfly plate Eva Cate received for her special meal from the menu!

*Important news for anyone out there who hasn’t heard…Eve, owner of Time Well Spent, is ‘closing up shop’ June 1. So hurry on over and get the delicious chicken salad, quiches, tea, salads, and pop-overs for as long as you can…for memory sake!

I followed Mollie to the Holy City Brewery where, like the cute invitation said…”Love is Brewing.”

It was so nice to put faces and names of some of Tommy and Kaitlyn’s friends together.

Especially Bristol, Kaitlyn’s former room mate who threw the party!

On this occasion ‘little bro’ is top dog!

Susan and Butch came down for the shower and we had a great time catching up and just hanging out!!!

Susan and I decided we need to learn the name of the young man officiating so we could make sure it was “official.”

Butch and the boys had fun playing physical games while the rest of us picked out the “perfect date” for Tommy and Kaitlyn.

Filled with warm memories I started back home around 5 yesterday, planning my itinerary on how to get home ( and avoid the festival crowd) as I went.

On Dorchester Road I pulled over into a gas station that had seen better days. After getting gas I went into the store to get some cough lozenges  and saw one single box of Luden’s Cough drops!!!!!!! (Almost impossible to find anymore!)

Memories flooded back! As a child these were the only cough drops I would take because they tasted like candy, not medicine!

And even now as an adult (with a minor sore throat) I reached for them again and happily sucked them all the way home!

Some memories are just as good as you remember! We just need to “bring them on home!”

So until tomorrow- the best memories are when we don’t realize we are making them…we are just having fun! That is what happened yesterday!

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

There is so much irony in life isn’t there? We spend so much of our childhood and youth longing to be grown up and have the freedom to do anything we like and go anywhere we wish…and then one day we realize that where we wish to be is surrounded with the very family that we were so anxious to leave and start a new life apart.

It is not the big things that start pulling us homeward but the memories of the little things we had pushed to the back of our minds that remind us that this was a place where sacrifices were made for us, rules were created for our safety and order in the home. Above all we felt loved there.

I have to admit that neither as a child, or mother of one (or three) did most rules work very effectively for me. In order for rules to work, someone has to be constantly enforcing them and in homes where there is just one parent…I found it very hard to enforce rules and spend time with the children and all their activities. Just loving them had to take precedence…keeping rules means consistency and consistency is one of the hardest things in life to accomplish.

Most of you already know I am a HGTV “junkie.” I have every show almost memorized. I remember when Nancy Fuller’s show Farmhouse Rules first aired…I never understood what rules had to do with cooking.

Finally one day I realized that in Nancy’s family (Hudson Valley) rules are called “recipes.” Now that made more sense to me! In a way rules and recipes really are quite similar…because in a recipe you still have to maintain order with all the ingredients needed to be successful with the final cooking product.

Somewhere in the midst of all these connections bouncing around me…I pulled up these Family Rules which made a whole lot more sense than the ones I came up with (that no one ever had time to read, much less act upon.)

Luke 16: 10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.

Isn’t it amazing how we can tell if someone is going to be successful by the way they treat their family and friends on a daily basis? If people mistreat loved ones and friends…there is almost a guarantee these characteristics will spill out in the work setting.

This next list I have decided to hang near the computer desk so I can reminded me of the ingredients I need in my recipe for success.

So until tomorrow…I am participating in two wonderful family “small things” in a global perspective but top priority among the loved ones attending. Will share more information on these activities tomorrow.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Don’t forget! Today is April 1! “Rabbit”!!!! May good luck follow you all month with lots of bunny sightings!

Plants and birds love Doodle’s yard so Mandy and I added another home for a lucky little bird for Doodle’s bird zone!

I decorated a box with pictures of Ireland for Tommy and Kaitlyn…in a little more than a month they will be off to see the Emerald Isle! Maybe they found some “gold” inside?

Dear Reader:

Last weekend when Eva Cate spent the night with me she had a moment of homesickness that coincided with bed time. I am afraid she has inherited her “Boo’s” (“When the crickets’ start a-chirping’ I start a’ crying“) syndrome.

I am very sympathetic since I suffered badly from homesickness…it plagued me most of my childhood…so I take it quite seriously in others. For Eva Cate, it just means listening to her sob about how much she misses her mommy, daddy, Jakie, and Tigger. I rub her back and remind her that she will see them the next day and by the same time tomorrow night she will be right there with them.

It worked, like it always does. Eva Cate was out like a light. (And Boo followed about five minutes later!) The thing that I am amazed at with Eva Cate is that she knows when it starts coming over her and what she needs to do about it (lots of air…a fan in her face if possible) human contact, and deep breathing exercises…she mutters to herself “I must calm down now…I must calm down now.” (In a sense she is already self-healing…)

While we were waiting on a pizza over the weekend…Mr. Rogers’ advice on kindness flickered in my memory so I told Eva Cate to remember that the three most important things to hold on to as she grew up…was to remember to: “Be kind, be kind, be kind.” She responded that sometimes boys and girls at school weren’t kind to her and I told her that this didn’t matter…she was to be kind back, regardless. Over time things would probably change…or if not, she knew she was doing right and that was all that mattered.

Guess what came yesterday in the mail. Phillip Keller’s (Lynn Gamache’s father) book titled: A Gardener Looks at the Fruits of the Spirit. 

As I started reading it…suddenly, a God Wink…a special section on looking at kindness differently popped up. Keller compared people who were religious and some who were not…some who were believers, and some who were not, and realized that there was about the same amount of equal kindness among both groups.

But there is a difference between the two…a very important difference…that requires faith.

As God’s children we should understand that “Our kindness should be of such a quality that we can even love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who despise and persecute us. In so doing we demonstrate that we truly are His people.” 

As proud Charlestonians, Americans, and World Citizens didn’t we witness this spiritual level of kindness right here in our own lowcountry? When a disturbed young man  shot and killed nine parishioners, from the Emanuel AME Episcopal Church, during a Wednesday night evening study, the perpetrator’s thoughts of starting a race riot were soon dashed-by the reactions of the grieving families. And what unexpected reactions they were!

(I couldn’t help but think he must have felt just like the Grinch…”Christmas came anyway???” )

As we watched in “amazing grace” the sequences that followed,  we witnessed what kindness, forgiveness, and redemption really were. I remember thinking how could these family members stand there and forgive this young man for killing their loved ones in cold blood?…I witnessed, like thousands and /or millions of others, what this spiritually deeper type of  kindness (Phillip Keller in his book) describes.

Sunday of Unity…following the Wednesday night killings at the Emanuel AME church…people of all races, backgrounds, and religions joined hands on the Ravenel Bridge to show their unity to the fallen citizens of Charleston.

Keller admits that to reach this level of kindness and understanding, “calls for courage.” It means that we understand not everyone will return our kindness, in fact, we might be snubbed or scorned and our “best intentions misunderstood and misconstrued.”

Keller’s last paragraph in this section is my favorite: “When the good seed of God’s own life germinates and takes root in the soil of our souls we give up our little games of playing ‘tit-for-tat’ with others. No longer do we show love to get love back. No longer are we kind in order to be complimented and thought well of. We no longer give for what we can get. Those days are done-those tactics are terminated. Selfish self-satisfaction is no longer the mainspring of our actions.”

So until tomorrow…Let’s hope our seeds are planted deeply to provide the sustenance we need to dig deeper to find the courage to show others the type of kindness God wants us to extend to others.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Updates:

I really like this remark/memory Dee shared on the blog post comments about mirrors and seeing our real selves.

Reading your post today about the mirror brought back a memory to me of yesteryear! Some years ago, a teacher for our Adult Sunday School Class shared this comment with all of us: “We all tend to compare our insides with the outsides of others.” His remark has always stuck with me, because…When I look into a mirror, I see not only a mere reflection of myself; I can also see “inside” me. But, I cannot see “inside” others. Sometimes, I need to remind myself of that. Amen! Dee

*I came across this photo today and it is one of my favorites. As most of you know Rutledge “Ding-Truck” loves trucks (and today super heroes.)

When Lachlan was born just over two years ago…we all held our breath to see how Rutledge would react to his new baby brother…especially with sharing his trucks. We soon found out! 🙂

 And speaking of the grandchildren…look what I found under my sofa pillows when I changed the seasonal throw quilt yesterday and was tucking it behind the seat cushions. Three “snowballs” from Marcia and Bruce Christmas Eve. How about it? A snowball fight at the Easter Egg Hunt??? Let’s do it!

Happy Birthday Doodle! The Matriarch of the Dingle Clan is having a benchmark birthday this year…which is only fitting since Doodle is a benchmark for all of us every day of the year!

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Reader:

It’s time to start sprucing up the garden to make way for the Easter Bunny! I still have a lot to do… first thing…I need to get an electrician out to help me check the fountain and see why it isn’t working….why the water isn’t flowing these days and the lights aren’t on at night?

Then I need to remind the two oldest grandchildren that they must do good deeds for their parents if the Easter Bunny is going to help their seeds grow a lollipop by Easter Sunday. This has become an annual tradition.

(By next Easter I think all four grandchildren can plant sprouts for kind deeds …however, this spring both Jakie and Lachlan are two years old…need I say more? Everything out of their mouths is “NO!!!!!!” )

I looked today for little boy fairy figurines for the fairy garden and found one at Flowertown Garden and Nursery….it is too cute! A little boy holding a frog…now I need to find two more for Jake and Lachlan.

Continuing on my less is best theory for the garden…I checked to see how many flower basket hangers were in the garden and then found some beautiful baskets at Bi-Lo in the Galleria. Great prices everyone! Picked up two hanging baskets…(Dahlia and petunia) plus one pot of Gerber daisies. (I am addicted to them.)

I moved lawn chairs around one of the Japanese maples…hoping the leaves are in by Easter to provide shade.

I replaced last year’s faded Easter flag…you want everything bright for Easter!

I am leaving three of last year’s flowering baskets under the tree house to have as much time as needed to strengthen their spindley stems!

 Can anyone identify this gorgeous plant? I took a photo of it out of curiosity so I could look it up when I got home from the nursery? A Dutchman’s Pipe?

The name alludes to the shape of pipes once common in the Netherlands…This variety is protected in Hong Kong. *It is sometimes called the “Calico Plant” for its blooming design.

An evergreen woody, sun loving climber known for the pipe shaped flowers it produces. Twining smooth stems wind and curl around each other accented by flowers that form on the axis of the leaf. This variety produces a longer, more slender, pipe than other varieties.  Grow as a tropical or tender perennial. Attractive to butterflies and some birds.This plant is host to two rare butterflies the Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) and Common Rose (Pachliopto cristolo-chiae asteris)

So until tomorrow…No matter the weather or temperature Easter Sunday, April 16…we will have fun because it is so hard to get all the family together but this is one holiday we will be, along with jelly beans, eggs, chocolate bunnies and crosses with beautiful flowers…if it rains…the gardener in me will smile…a little rain has never stopped an egg hunt.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

After all the fun we have had commiserating over our ‘cardinal’ problems… resulting in a unified chorus of “Never more” (like Mike suggested) I got some sad news from Patty Knight yesterday. She found their little red bird dead…defeated by the enemy in the mirror…defeated, unknowingly, by himself.

Poor little bird…Mother Nature steered him wrong…he was just trying so hard to defend the nest from the “enemy” at large. He just didn’t comprehend that he was that enemy in the mirror…much like this adorable baby in the ad.

After Patty told me what happened to their cardinal I went and covered the mirror with a potholder!

It was 1971 when Pogo said his famous words “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Truer words were never spoken. Aren’t we all sometimes our own worst enemies….fretting about being too heavy, or too thin, or critical of our nose, mouth, hair, build, etc. We are rarely happy when we compare ourselves to others who we deem more beautiful.

Yet, if we could see what God sees when He watches us…it would be perfection…because He created us to be so. An example of how misguided we can be in assessing our own looks is time.

We all remember the insecure adolescent within us….who was never happy with his/her appearance. Yet, now, when we pull out the old scrapbooks and look back on that same time period…we have to laugh. Our memory of our self-perceived looks (during this time) don’t match the smiling face of youth in all its glory now.

Why in the world did I think I was too big or little back then?…I was just a normal size…a handsome young man or pretty girl misguided by the veils over his/her eyes while watching the mirror’s reflection.

Our problem…we couldn’t see ourselves for who we were for comparing ourselves to others. If God had wanted all of us to look alike…I feel sure He could have made a large cookie cutter and just put us all on an assembly line turning out all the same.

God loves diversity…that is why He filled His Earth with animals of all kinds and people of all colors and characteristics. What a boring world this would be if we were all alike.

When will we ever learn to value our own worth and not compare ourselves to others? If we insist on comparison in our lives…then we should compare ourselves now to the person we want to be in this world…the legacy we want to leave behind. We should be continuously looking for ways to improve ourselves to be the person God intended us to be.

Mirrors should be for pep talks, God talks, not shrugs of indifference, or hostile outbursts at our misconstrued perceptions.

Theodore Roosevelt, a president known for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, is quoted as saying:

Comparison is the thief of joy.

The problem, we have, in comparing ourselves to others, is that most of the time we are comparing personal time periods. We think we should be able to do things our favorite mentors did later in life…after experiencing failures and picking themselves back up and getting back in the game of life. For example:

• Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star in 1919 because, his editor said, he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
• Oprah Winfrey was fired as an evening news reporter because she couldn’t keep her emotions from her stories.
• Elvis Presley was told by the concert hall manager at the Grand Ole Opry that he was better off returning to Memphis and driving trucks.
• Henry Ford went broke five times with his early businesses which all failed.
• Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was four, and couldn’t read until he was seven.
• …………………………………………….

So until tomorrow…God doesn’t compare us to others so why do we? God made each of us perfect in His image and loves us for who we are…with all our strengths and weaknesses. Be kind to yourself…You are loved for being you!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

If this weather pattern, we are in right now, is any indication, it could be a long, hot dry summer. So, as much as watering is not my most favorite thing to do ( I see dollar bills spraying out of the hose) I have decided that I must change my attitude about it. The sun has helped me do just that.

The last few times I have watered one area of the yard (that doesn’t get watered from the garden hose set-up) beautiful little prisms of light have appeared reflecting off the water droplets and spray emitting from the hose. I can’t help but smile at the little rainbows forming, almost at will, in the daffodil area of the back yard.

I found these directions for making rainbows, after I just accidentally discovered the process, by being at the right moment, at the right time, at the right angle to the sun. (I love the idea of touching the spray that is causing the rainbow…as close as we will ever get to feeling a rainbow.)

Turn your back so you are directly opposite the sun (you’ll know when you see the shadow of your head in front of you). Using a garden hose with a nozzle, spray some water about 40 degrees from the shadow of your head and you should see an arc of color. Lee said that much as you can touch a mirror but not the image in it, you can also touch the spray that’s causing the rainbow — about as close as you can get to actually feeling a rainbow. 

Sprinkler in a rainbow

Is there anything prettier than catching a rainbow in your own backyard with the sprinkler on?

Under an article titled: “7 Colorful Facts You didn’t know about Rainbows” (Adrienne Lewin, Today contributor made this comment about Kermit and his top recorded song “Rainbow Connections.”

Kermit was wrong when he sang “rainbows are visions, but only illusions” in the song “The Rainbow Connection”: They are indeed visions, but not illusions. “A rainbow is very real in the sense that it’s an image that you can photograph,” explained research professor Raymond L. Lee Jr. of the U.S. Naval Academy, co-author of “The Rainbow Bridge.”

“Anything that can be photographed is not an illusion.” To be more technically accurate, “The Rainbow Connection” should say, “Rainbows are images but certainly not objects.” (Lyrically, however, Kermie wins on this one.)

The Muppet Movie (1979) | Rainbow Connection | Kermit … – YouTube

If I ever listen to this sweet, sweet song (The Rainbow Connection) I know I will be humming it for days. It is one of those songs you just can’t get out of your head. In fact, yesterday, after writing this blog, I watered another area of the yard and hummed it every time another prism formed…I have the formula down pact now for producing rainbows….such a feeling of power! *

Maybe I have found the “Rainbow Connection”! 🙂

Talking about connections.…our Jo Dufford and Lynn Gamache are connecting since Jo has read many of (Lynn’s author/father) Phillip Keller’s books and enjoyed them so much. ( I ordered the Phillip Keller book on the theme of spiritual gardening…it should come in any day now!)

Lynn also sent some photos of her life in British Columbia. I am having some problems saving them to my file….will keep trying…but the pictures are beautiful….Lynn has a home, along with her son on a five acre stretch of land that is breath-taking…seeing pictures where someone lives and family helps us identify more with each other doesn’t it?

I remember when my own “children” went off to college and then got their first apartment…it was important for me to go and visually see their “digs” so when I talked to them I could envision their surroundings.

Don’t get me started on the red cardinal “condition.” I have moved my car and gone overboard to accommodate the cardinal’s family but all in vain. The side of my car and mirror are beyond disgusting…no matter where I park. I have been gagging just thinking about it when I go armed with paper towels and Windex to clean at least twice a day.

Many of you have “chirped” in with similar problems (Lynn, Patty, Dee and Mike, etc.) Everyone has tried covering the mirrors with hair nets, cardboard, bags and it proves only a temporary solution until a storm comes along and blows them off or they have practically wrecked their cars changing lanes…having forgotten to unveil the mirror before driving.

And yet, as Rodney Dangerfield would say, “We still can’t get no respect.” Here we try to be compassionate and accommodating for nothing. It is becoming a contagious problem I think since when I went to the Bi-Lo parking lot yesterday, I spotted two cars and one truck, besides mine, plagued with the same disgusting problem on their side view mirror and side doors.

“Yes…we’ve got trouble right here in River City!”

I am beginning to think that TIME is our only friend…we must survive this nesting period, with hopefully a long break, until next year rolls around. I salute you my formidable cardinal…you have been a determined opponent!

*And Mike I think you are right…I can identify ‘my’ cardinal now, also, with his beady eyes, pursed beak, and cocky attitude…I talk to mine like you…to no avail.

So until tomorrow….Have a wonderful day….with thoughts of rainbows in your head!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale once said, “Deep within you nothing is hopeless. You are a child of God and hope has been planted in you by God.” 

Squire Rushnell thought about these words one afternoon after receiving 30 rejections from publishers about a book that talked about a connection to what we mere mortals may call coincidences, but God sees as spiritual directions. Hope was all he had left.

He had never forgotten the night when he threw out his notes on a speech he was giving to a congregation in a little church on Quaker Hill in upstate New York…located well off the beaten path. He had written it weeks earlier and titled it: “Coincidence; Is it Evidence of a Grand Plan?”

Rushnell had just discovered that this little church was located across the road from the country home of his hero, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the prominent author of “The Power of Positive Thinking.”

Then just days before his talk, Dr. Peale died-on Christmas Eve-and was buried behind that little church, causing him to alter his opening remarks.

“President Clinton said something this week that resonated with each of us. He said, “What a coincidence that Dr. Peale, who gave his life to the celebration of Christ, should be called to God’s side on the very eve that the world celebrates the birth of Christ. Coincidence? I wonder.”

At that point Rushnell felt like Someone else was talking to the crowd..  as he began telling folksy and homespun tales of his own personal encounters with  “coincidences” that seemed bigger than mere chance to him. He started looking into the faces of adults who appeared, like children, listening intently to a bedtime story. The audience was engaging him with smiles, nods, and wide-eyed wonder.

It was that extraordinary experience that made him determined to write a book on “God Winks.” The whole process of writing, publishing, and marketing would take almost a decade. God, however, had not steered him wrong…the readers were there, yearning to hear of others experiences and then bravely writing their own spiritual encounters to send in to him.

Rushnell knew he had made it when his publisher called and said that Oprah had given a tour of her home and upon entering her bedroom she mentioned that she liked to keep her favorite books by her bed and the one on the very top was called When God Winks by Squire Rushnell.

Oprah told the camera…”I have a book called When God Winks…I love that… little stories about how there are no coincidences in our life. I believe that…don’t you?”

All it took was that one comment and Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble were scrambling trying to meet consumer demands. Hope and perseverance had won.

Dr. Charles Vincent Peale, had once told a congregation this anecdotal allegory on hope.

Catching Hope

Hope is a powerful force in life. It’s like going into the kitchen, turning on the faucet, and being surprised by the water pressure. You almost jump back, giddy that there’s so much energy pouring out.

Your hope is stored up inside and wants to burst out of you the same way. You need to turn on the faucet of your faith and then feel the surge of hope that springs forth.

If you are fully hopeful, you’ll cause other people around you to almost jump, happily splashed with your enthusiasm.

Reinforced by the wonderful Godwinks that happen to you, hope is contagious. Go ahead. Spread it around!  

……………………………..

So until tomorrow let’s never forget that hope is just a twist away…turn on the faucet of hope and see what happens…dreams come true.

“Today is my favorite day.”  Winnie the Pooh

*Saturday night I pulled a grandmother “mistake.” I had almost finished the blog except for adding some of the new fairy garden update photos, along with some “girl time” fun with Eva Cate. By 9:05 she was down for the count. Unfortunately by 9:10, I was too!

As soon as I knew she was asleep…my original plan was to sneak in the computer room and add the photos. Obviously I was a lot more tired than I recognized….so if you thought that the blog post yesterday was rather visually inhibited, it was Boo Boo falling asleep on sentry duty.

Hopefully these photos will show you some of the fun of a “girl weekend” with a granddaughter.

Big Red has never had more blooms- perfect for a little girl and a keepsake!

I delivered Eva Cate home safe and sound last evening- she was happy to have gone and happy to be back with her family!

Dear Reader:

Last week, about mid-week, I sent Mandy a text simply asking how the week was going and how the grandchildren were doing….I got back three words. “I am exhausted!”

Ah…that brought back memories. When Easter arrives late…teachers pay the price. Spring fever becomes epidemic, there are lots of extra-curricular activities going on….especially for special areas with art contests , plays, recitals, competitions, etc.

When Mandy called back Friday…she was so relieved the school week was over. It turned out to be Teacher Appreciation Week so she said that all the nice things the PTA and others did for them definitely helped tired teachers and administrators keep plugging away until Spring Vacation and Easter.

A thought formed in my head that surely teachers have been just as tired and exhausted, from the very beginning, as they continue to be now. There are just too many requirements for a limited amount of time in a school day to accomplish. Poor teachers always feel like they are lagging behind in all their check-off lists.

(One bit of information I can pass along, coming from a retired teacher, is that a teacher will never be finished as long as he/she teaches…The teacher will simply pass the baton down to their replacement one day, and another will take up the endless check-off requirements for another year. A never-ending cycle.)

When I came across this humorous anecdote about the trials and tribulations of teaching…even with Jesus as the Teacher…I had to laugh. Enjoy!

 THE LESSON

Then Jesus took his disciples up to the mountain and gathering them around him, he taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are they that thirst for justice. Blessed are you when persecuted. Blessed are you when you suffer. Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven.”

Then Simon Peter said: “Do we have to write this down?”

And Andrew said: “Are we supposed to know this?”

And James said: “Will we have a test on this?”

And Phillip said: “I don’t have any paper!”

And Bartholomew said: “Do we have to turn this in?”

And John said: “The other disciples didn’t have to learn this!”

And Matthew said: “Can I go to the boys’ room?”

And Judas said: “What does this have to do with real life?”

Then one of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus’ lesson plan and inquired of Jesus: “Where are your anticipatory set and objectives in the cognitive domain?”

And Jesus wept.

…………………………..

So until tomorrow….Thank a teacher for demonstrating the virtues of patience…what would we do without them?

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*These days I love ‘teaching’ my grandchildren. I picked Eva Cate up yesterday afternoon and we came back to “work” in the garden…specifically the new 2017 Fairy Garden. We cleaned out the old wheelbarrow, with dirt filled with old roots and debris, put fresh sod in, added foliage for beauty, cleaned up old fairy items that had been buried in the dirt, and selected a few new fairies to call the wheelbarrow home.

*Honey had made  Eva Cate some fairy mushrooms for the new garden. So much fun!

Dear Reader:

Isn’t it amazing how just by expanding our perception, even a little, the answers to many of our questions lay in wait…and always did. We just didn’t see them.

Case in point: Thursday morning…I was on a mission. Ever since my bank switched over to a new digital/electronic customer service program, I have experienced several password dis-functions. resulting in new passwords. (I find much security in my ‘old’ passwords because my feeble brain can remember them. But if I start messing around and changing an exclamation to an asterik, or whatever I am required to do, it takes me forever to transfer my brain neurons into accepting the new password/icons.)

I had finally gotten that straightened out, mentally, when I noticed another problem. When I went into my account…it only showed the location where I spent money, usually with my bank Visa check card, or perhaps a partial copy of a check…but it didn’t show me the amount.

To me that is equally important! Now and then I would get a glimpse of part of a check I had written but that was it. When I explained the problem to the teller, she had me wait outside an office for additional help.

The woman was so nice and after explaining my dilemma, she said that I should be getting all the information…type of payment and amount for each purchase made. So she went into my account and bingo…there it all was.

I sat there stupefied (is that a word…it should be if it isn’t) staring at the screen…”That’s not what my screen looks like at home”  I responded. She clicked on something and suddenly it looked just like what I saw. “Yes” I said excitedly…that is all I am seeing.”

“Then you are seeing only half the screen.” You need to enlarge it in order to see the amounts listed beside each purchase… on the far, far right.”

Where is a shovel when you need one? If I could have dug a hole through the office floor to China, I would be in  Shanghai as we speak.

Even though I was embarrassed, when I returned home, I realized that my screen was automatically on as big as it could go…in order to squeeze in the location on the left and the amount on the far, far right I had to center the screen perfectly and then I could just barely see it all at the same time.

There is way too much space between the location information on the far left and the monetary amount on the far right. Two-thirds of the screen is just a blank screen….doesn’t seem too efficient to me…I find myself having to turn my head from left to right to take in both pieces of information at the same time. That seems a little silly…why aren’t they closer together?

Never-the-less, I now have the information I wanted and needed. It was right there the whole time…but my perception was limited resulting in misinformation. I started thinking about this problem on a bigger scale and isn’t that how most conflicts begin? Two sides don’t see the same problem at the same level of perception. One side might only be getting part of the escalating troubles, while the other side is privy to the whole picture.

…And what gratitude I felt when I was given a simple explanation for the confusion and a quick remedy to the problem. Even after just a day or two I am automatically adjusting my screen to the “magic centerfold” that allows me visual access to everything I need.

Now I smile when I open my electronic account instead of shaking my head in frustration. It just took a bigger perception than what I had available in my knowledge on this particular dilemma. I needed someone to show me the way.

Now gratitude has replaced frustration and I am more open to exploring new possibilities with other digital sites as they appear now and in the future.

Thorton Wilder said: “We can only be said to be alive in those moments where our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

So until tomorrow..If our treasures consist of measures of gratitude, then we are wealthy indeed.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

A mystery solved: Remember my challenges with my red cardinal who insists on beating himself up on my right reflective mirror and then leaving splatters of “white” all down the side of the door. Yesterday I had finally reached my limit of tolerance. I had gone out and cleaned the mirror, the car window, and the sides of the car a few minutes before I left to meet friends.

As I approached my car…to my dismay, the cardinal had returned and made the most of its time completely messing up the mirror, glass, and car door again.

While eating a friend suggested that there must be a nest nearby where I am parking my car and the cardinal thinks an “enemy” (mirror reflection)  is lurking nearby who could endanger the nest. So that is why it keeps attacking over and over again.

Sure enough, in the woods and Azalea Ally, located beside and farther down my drive-way…I discovered a bird nest with Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal pecking away in the foliage near the drive-way…not far from it.

I didn’t have a white flag…but I cranked up the car and moved it to the other driveway…as far away as possible. Stay tuned…I will let you know if this was the right solution to the problem. I sure hope so…and if so…this solution will be met, on my part, with much gratitude…treasured gratitude.

Dear Reader:

Legend has it that the ‘bigger than life’ actress, Mae West, coined the expression “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful” in her sultry, sexy voice to the delight of audiences everywhere.

Today this expression has been used in marketing to lure more customers into picking companies,buying stock, and sticking with them..

Maybe it is my “Libra” birthday (horoscope) but I am always more comfortable ‘in the middle’ when it comes to life…following Aristotle’s famous line of advice about life: “Moderation in all things.”

I was also raised along the line of moderation in my own personal life-changing decisions through examples in my family. If the pendulum swings too far right or left, life becomes chaotic and out of control. Keep the pendulum anchored in the center, was my family’s philosophy.

It was this movie, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, that started our first Ya Ya reunion soon after its first showing in the summer of 2002.

We played the movie for everyone and decided on which character each of us best represented…we even had a secret Ya Ya ritual with fireworks and sprinklers on the front lawn of the Edisto Beach House…all dressed up in our Ya Ya attire…chanting away! I am sure the neighbors thought we were completely “looped.” (Maybe a ‘tad’ but certainly not completely.)

It is one poignant scene in the movie that has remained with me long after my first viewing.

But first, let me give you a quick synopsis of the plot…Sidda (Sandra Bullock) is estranged from her crazy but endearingly vulnerable mother (Ellen Burstyn) Vivi. Sidda has finally fallen in love but has been so traumatized by her own childhood that she is scared of marriage and is thinking about calling the whole thing off.

To the rescue go Vivi’s three best friends from old high school days (the Ya Ya’s) to kidnap Sidda, bring her back home to Louisiana from NYC, and finally explain to her (now as an adult, herself) what caused her mother to be the way she was, which also included loving her above all else.

Vivi’s first true love was killed in WWII and on the rebound she married a local boy, Shep (James Garner) had four children and  a miserable marriage…fighting loss of dreams, drugs, and mental break-downs.

When Shep hears from the Ya’s that Sidda is out at the old lake house while they try to set her straight about the reality of her childhood and the huge mistake she will be making if she throws her chance at love away out of fear of repeating her mother’s mistakes…he comes to see his daughter.

As Sidda and her beloved daddy talk…she stops and asks him:

James Garner’s response to that question touches me so much “What’s enough?”  And then, in typical daddy fashion, he wants to be reassured that his little girl got enough love…to be able to return love, now, as an adult.

“What’s enough?” On this Earth, in this life, that’s a tough question to answer. Can we ever really get enough love?

I have realized in reading, watching talk television, watching movies, that ‘life after death experiences’ follow one same pattern. When the directive to return to earth is given, no one wants to return. The reason: Most children and adults, alike, talk about being completely filled with love… an unconditional, amazing love that completely consumes them. It is so overwhelmingly beautiful and powerful, at the same time, that it is hard to give that up and return to a diseased body or other restrictive environment…even to a healed body.

On earth, it is rare for us to feel that kind of empowering love…we only catch quick glimpses of it along our path through life…if we are lucky. Love on earth is tainted by requirements to prove we are good enough to be loved. God loves us without such judgment. (Thank goodness!)

One great truth in this life is pretty simple…our most important compass marker: “Love and be Loved.”

So until tomorrow: If we want to feel that we have been loved enough on this Earth…then the only way to fill our bucket is to love others first…it is only then that love can be enough to fill all our personal bucket lists.

“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful” if that good thing is love.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh