Dear Reader:

Monday evening something unexpected happened that  took me a few moments to register. It was an unusual act of kindness… providing a much needed smile across my face.

Let me start at the beginning of the story ….since it is a true one we know to expect problems and this one doesn’t disappoint.

This is the box that brought me much relief when it finally arrived Monday evening. It contains my “miracle drug” that has kept me in  the beautiful game of life now for over three years.

I order it from a specialty pharmaceutical  site out-of-state. I tried going through my local pharmaceutical initially but too many times when I went to pick up my “drug” someone  had forgotten to order it and a long delay followed.

Finally the head pharmacist gave me the address and number of the specialty site and recommended contacting them  for my monthly medication…. having it sent directly to my house.

Within a quarterly cycle…the first three months go smoothly….but after three refills another medical authorization  is needed to refill the drug.Without getting into specifics, for whatever reason, there seems to always be a communication delay between my cancer center and the specialty pharmacy.

I rarely have problems with other re-fill medications from my cancer center ….in fact they are usually right on the ball. So I don’t understand why the specialty pharmacy appears to have so much trouble hearing back on this one most important drug. Something appears to be off somewhere…and it usually ends up with me calling it in and presto… everything immediately goes through.

Murphy’s law usually kicks in at the same time, however…it is always on these refill authorization months that the UPS driver can’t find my home when I haven’t had problems before getting my medicine delivered and it ends up back at the UPS Center. It is like the stars mis-align every fourth month to delay arrival.

This time it went from delivery on Friday to Saturday to Monday.

When I opened the box Monday evening (filled with bubble pop materials to secure and keep the capsules safe)….I had the usual receipt and information sheet on all the warnings concerning side effects inside the box. (You know, like the medical commercials on television that make you wonder why anyone (in their right mind) would even consider taking that drug at all…. with all the possibilities that could go wrong?) I never read that sheet….don’t want to put bad thoughts in my head. I stay focused on the fact that this medication has given me my life back and time to watch my grandchildren grow….enough to know.

But this time….there was a funny card attached with something behind it. When I opened the note card there was a sweet apology from the nice voice on the other end of the phone (when I called Friday to let the company know I had called the cancer center about the delayed authorization…nicest person was on the other end.)

The representative had written that he wanted me to have a happy day and enjoy all the cards. Laughter is the best medicine!

A series of index cards were strung together and perforated so they could be separated . On the top was a “happy mail” card.

A grin started spreading across my face….instead of just my medication and the nice apology for the delay was some “happy mail.” Each card had a positive, upbeat saying and some had an activity like viewed in the title photo

Here are the rest of the cards…

So until tomorrow… I decided to share the cards with all of you. Doesn’t it feel good when we really need a sign that someone cares about our little world and life problems… And then Someone decides to let us know He does?

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Yesterday I discovered that “birthing” tragedies affect plants, as well, as animals and humans. Monday night I watched as one moon flower bud almost unfurled by the light of the moon but it just couldn’t seem to quite push the bloom out.

Early the next morning (yesterday) I expected to see the new moon flower in all its glory but instead the old bud was still there….looking worse for wear. And then yesterday afternoon the budding blossom had died…it had missed its chance to bloom  the evening before and was killed by exposure to the hot light and temperatures from the sun. But life goes on….this beautiful moon flower (the bud behind the dead blossom) unfurled and showed the world its beauty last evening..

*The hostas around the fountain have blooms now too….beautiful lavender blooms….it was so nice to sit on the bench last night and simply listen to the fountain and revel in the hostas’ s beauty.

Dear Reader:

I am becoming pretty adept at telling time by the shadows on the driveway outside my “Happy Place” computer office/room. By just looking at the shadows in the photo…I would guess it is mid-afternoon. *(Just checked the bottom right hand corner of the screen and it is 2:49. Not bad!)

I really let my imagination go wild some afternoons, while working on the blog, by creating images from the shadows. You might notice in the right hand corner (in a clearing I worked on) my ginger shell plant is happy and growing…its fronds’ shadows stretching out towards me and the window as if wanting to slide in and hold hands.

Some days the collective shadows look like a pergola with vines of moon flowers falling down around it. On other days the shadows seem to form a bridge from the other side of the driveway to my window.

The “bridge” of shadows beckon to me to come cross the divide and come into the floral foliage of life just feet from my window.

In the sweet little story of Grandpa Green, a little boy, Grandpa’s first great-grandchild shares the secrets of family memory in Grandpa’s garden.

He learns about the full and varied life of his Grandpa Green by strolling through his grandfather’s garden, which is full of topiary trees that have been carved to represent a lifetime of memories and remembrances.

Grandpa has even made a topiary for every child, grandchild, and now great-grandchild.

(I have my four Japanese Maples for each of my grandchildren and Grandpa his lifetime full of family topiaries.)

Early mornings have gotten to be my favorite time for reverie in my garden. With this seemingly endless hot wave we are experiencing, there is no “dew on the roses” (or anywhere else for that matter) but, surprisingly, some of the coolest, most refreshing breezes appear at that time of day.

 The story begins with the acknowledgement that Grandpa Green was born a really long time ago…before computers, or Iphones, or television

He grew up on a farm raising vegetables. In the fourth grade he got chicken pox, but not from chickens. He wasn’t allowed to attend school so he soon began reading about wizards, tin men, lions, tigers, bears, and “a little engine that could.”

Grandpa stole his first kiss from a girl in middle school, and planned to go on to horticulture school after high school. But a war came along and he was needed to go fight so he never attended horticulture school.

After the war he met a beautiful girl who would become his wife. They were very happy together for a long time before she died and he was left alone.

These days Grandpa is having a hard time remembering things. like his floppy straw hat. (Sitting on the elephant topiary.)

…But the important stuff….

………………The Garden Remembers for Him…………….

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

This is a wonderful children’s book and I highly recommend it. One day, hopefully years from now, I want to be able to see tall, tall, Japanese maples providing luscious shade over the garden and large flowering bushes hiding all the secrets within….the stories of the joy and fun the garden has provided for the family.

So until tomorrow….memories take all kinds of shapes, even that of a topiary…or a Japanese maple. Let us all find a secret place we can go to remember how it was when and how it will look in the future.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Some little boy had the vacation of his life….ending in a fire station. It was “Rut, Rut, Firetruck!”

(If you can strut standing up, I think Rutledge pulled it off!)

Anne’s moon flower blooms are popping like popcorn….but we have made one (scientific) observation. Instead of popping wide open like Anne has videoed earlier of her moon flower blooms….the blooms, now, just slowly open and then only partially. We decided that it is just “too darn hot…to pop!”

My first moon flower bud bloomed Sunday might in the magical moon gate garden. There are a lot more buds….so I think we are both going to be busy enjoying the blooms.

Moonflower in the Pale Moon Light
Gently Unfurling
Willing to Nights Delight
⊙
Cloistered under the Bright
Clear Sun.. Shutting Herself
Till the Day is Done

 * I heard from Ambika yesterday….it had been a long time and I miss her comments and ideas. Somewhere in the blog I mentioned that I didn’t know if “I had an angel by my side” but definitely had one hanging from the front door.

Ambika sent me this song which I played over several times and really like….”Angel at my Side.”

Angel By Your Side~Francesca Battistelli – YouTube

Dear Reader:

This beautiful “birth stone” hanging angel that Marcia -Mollie’s mom gave me one year (several years ago)  – always lifts my spirits when I open the glass storm door to enter my happy room….the den.

For the most part the only times the flying angel has left its location  is when I am “windexing” the glass… and, then, as soon as I finish, I put it right back up. The door feels barren and uninviting without my flying angel, my protector of home.

The first time the angel fell, without my removing it, was a couple of years ago….I remember it because of the surrounding story that accompanied the fall. I was running late for church, slammed the storm door hurriedly, got to my car….no car keys!

I wish I could say this was an infrequent occurrence but I would not be telling the truth.

I ran back in the house and it was then that I noticed the angel had fallen. I stopped to pick it up….the suction cup, string and angel were all intact but to my dismay the sapphire (September) birth stone was missing! I temporarily forgot about my car keys in my new quest to find the birth stone.

“Where could it be?” all the other parts were scattered on the front entry rug….but no birth stone. Finally I ran down the steps and looked around the photo table where a beautiful plant (that one of Mandy’s college friends sent me after I was diagnosed with breast cancer) sat. (It is just as old as “Big Red.”)

Something sparkly caught my eye. It was the sapphire stone. But that wasn’t all…right next to the stone sat my car keys…both had fallen into the planter.

I had draped the keys over the banister while I fixed my scarf and they, too, had fallen to the planter below. When I got to church (wasn’t too late) and had time to think about the incident….I felt that it was the angel who purposefully fell to help me find my car keys.

Then a year ago, last winter, I fell asleep on the sofa one night watching television, and forgot to cover “Big Red” my faithful geranium of eight years. When I woke up past midnight, I hurriedly went up the steps to lock the front door and turn out the light.I was only half awake and gave no thought to “Big Red”‘s critical situation on the porch.

When I opened the first door to lock the storm door something caught my eye and then I heard a tinkling sound. My angel had fallen again. I picked it up….still intact and went to put it back on the glass door. It was then that I realized “Big Red’s” leaves were curled and the stems looked a sickly color. The temps were already in the 20’s. I had forgotten to cover it.

I, somehow, found the strength to lug “Big Red” (in its container) back into the house. It came close to dying….I had to “amputate” most of the limbs but by summer “Big Red” had completely recovered.

As I finally went back to turn off the porch lights that night….I noticed that the sapphire birthstone was shining brightly….a beacon of hope for “Big Red.” A flying “guardian” angel.

Every day I can hardly wait for the afternoon sun to streak across the porch and set the sapphire-carrying angel aflame in beauty.

Today “Big Red” looks more like “Big Green” but that is okay…after the Fourth I had to give the geranium a good “limb cut.” The limbs had gotten so long they were falling off the bench and touching the floor. The poor stems were breaking under the pressure.

I cut the limbs back to the point that the geranium could fit inside the bench. But believe me, it is alive and well with buds popping up everywhere.

So until tomorrow….I may not have an angel by my side but I sure do have a door angel who protects and helps me and my “foliage friends” when emergencies arise.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Walsh sent this picture of Rutledge fishing with PaPa (Bruce,) What a lucky little boy Rutledge is to have such wonderful grand-dads….each with their own special talents to share. Memories for the ages. (Rutledge caught THREE FISH!)

Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning I realized when I went to water the garden that Mother Nature had “snuck” in during the night and done just that  for me! All the flowers and plants were beaming in satisfaction… fully refreshed and ready to grow and go wherever the day lead them.

When I got to the “back” of my garden and took the title photo, I suddenly realized that this angle of the main path through the garden is so much clearer and readable (backwards) than a photo taken, from the “front” of the garden, by the moon gate, going forward. The bend in the path, from that spot, prevents one from getting the “big picture” of where the garden leads and ends.

I went and sat down on my yellow garden bench and started thinking about my own path through life. Initially my path looked quite similar to so many others of my coming-of-age generation, especially for young women.

I was informed before my junior year at college (by mother) that I simply couldn’t just major in history….after all, what kind of job could I get from that? Oh no…I must get my teaching degree, thus buying me a “secure future” that I could always fall back on whenever… as life necessitated.

Mother was right in a way, I suppose. Teaching did provide me job security when I found myself a single parent with three children. The children and I had the same holidays and summers together….and overall, I enjoyed teaching….being able to create new learning ideas within the curriculum.

But I also felt trapped many times by circumstance and practicality. I feel sure if I had felt freer to detour off the same secure path I would definitely have leapt at the chance. But after awhile our paths become so familiar to us that it is simply easier to keep going the direction we are headed than take a chance at something different.

It is, at crossroads along our paths, that the trickster, life, likes to erase our nice, familiar, secure path and throw us into the unknown. My new frontier was called breast cancer. I sure didn’t know the direction I was headed and I suspect most of the doctors weren’t too sure either. At times the new path didn’t even appear viable, much less do-able.

But God knew something I didn’t….the “dead-ending” I feared, looming closer somewhere around a new bend, suddenly disappeared and the path took  a completely new direction. Here I was at the end of my working career, getting ready to ease into retirement and suddenly my whole life was about to be turned upside down. (Obviously I was a slow learner.)

My age, however, actually helped me understand that I was being given a most beautiful gift…..the gift of hindsight. I understood that it was time for Becky to leave the pre-“Little c” person she once had been and morph into the person God intended her to become.

It was time, for me, to look at my life path differently….by starting at the back and now working forward….the new path would be leading me… home. It had been there all the time…right behind me.

It was time to stop with all the obligations and commitments left behind on the old path and seize opportunities to travel new paths going in different directions.

As I looked at the beautiful morning glories forming two different climbing-vine paths, along the fence yesterday, I realized that soon the two separate vines, across the top ledge, will connect… uniting into one.

If we listen to our heart and God’s Voice….we  discover one day that it isn’t the “right” path taken that is as important in life… as the knowledge that by the end of our journey we will all be united again…as we realize, collectively, we are finally home.

My detour, brought on by “Little c,” (breast cancer) allowed me to add my voice to the world’s in something as small as a little blog. Yet the magnitude of being a voice for everyday path seekers, has renewed my passion as a wordsmith and a path-finder. It has filled my soul with joy and gratitude for the gift of life and new opportunities to share it with others.

So until tomorrow….God will find a way to make us pause and find our passion if we just turn our faith over to our Creator. There’s a beautiful, personalized path that calls all of us home one day…when our mission is done. The secret to life is discovering our passion, the gift of ourselves to fellow path-climbers beside us.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Libby shared this beautiful photo her son Robby (with some of his friends) took at Edisto Beach on a weekend retreat a few months ago. It is just breath-taking. For all of us who think Edisto is a slice of heaven anyway….this just confirmed it. It certainly is my image of what heaven should be…”It all started and ended in a garden.”

It’s Coon Dog Days in Saluda and Brooke, Ted, and family are all up  in them there mountains. Brooke’s son Riley, his wife Veronica, and precious little Caleb is making his appearance too.

Dear Reader:

The problem with living alone is that when the house gets messy there is no one else to blame. That said, ever since the children all moved out (long ago)…overall the level of messiness is minute in comparison to earlier years.

It is the kind of messiness I can fix, given about 10 minutes warning. (When it was me and the kids all living here…I would have needed at least an hour’s notice and that would involve throwing items from the floor to the closet….out of sight, out of mind.)

In the summers, while not teaching, I used to love to watch soap operas, not for the non-existent story lines, but simply to drool over the houses. Adultery, murder, mayhem would be circling the main actors’ lives but their homes were immaculate. I would stare at polished floors, beautiful fresh flower arrangements, with no speck of dust allowed to settle…in complete envy. “One day” I kept telling myself….“One day” that will be me and my house.

Yeah, right!

In order for that to happen we first have to completely change ourselves from who we are to an alien with a vacuum cleaner attached to each robotic arm.

I have always seen posters and read articles that creativity and messiness go together. I do believe there is something to that….In movies…don’t we always see the brilliant but absent-minded rocket scientist (who will save the world from little green men) behind his desk filled with books toppling over, along with complete chaos throughout the house?

There was a survey done in an old Huffington Post article, from years back, that stated messy housekeepers were intellectually superior to their clean house friends. They just had so many thoughts and ideas they wanted to explore that it didn’t leave time to stay home and use the hours for cleaning house.

An updated version of this article (December 2015) called

Messy People Are Really Just Productive Geniuses, According To Science (gives this insight.)

Three examples of creativity and messiness.

Dear Reader:

It does work! I couldn’t resist the urge to crack an egg on the ledge of my deck around 3:00 yesterday…. Then I forgot about it for about half an hour before I went to look and there it was… a fried egg….of sorts… but definitely cooked by the sun….solar cooking! It is hot out there folks…Crazy hot!

Yesterday (for the first time) my moon flower vines had buds on them….the rain storm, Wednesday night, brought so many good benefits with it….soon I will finally have a moon flower bloom. Stay tuned. I can hardly wait!

I have decided that children are natural born swimmers. Just having a pool with a child in it over a period of time produces swimmers….the children watch, then try it, then practice it, and bingo…they are doing it.

Last year Jakie didn’t care about the pool at all/cried at getting in….now he jumps in and floats all around the pool just doing his thing and loving it.

Eva Cate has made a new friend, Lily, who will go to her school (James B. Edwards) next year…..they are spending Tuesdays and Thursdays split between their homes together this summer.

Lily’s grandmother took the girls to Paiges Okra Grill on Coleman and then on to the movies yesterday. She took a photo shot of them on the big rocking chair in front of the restaurant. Mandy is loving this new friendship…for many reasons…sharing the summer with another caregiver makes the days shorter for moms with little children.

One nice thing about it being so hot…it’s too hot to do much but reflect and relinquish some stress to the memories of carefree summer days from our childhood. As Carl Jung observed about leisure time: “If you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you find time to create yourself.”

Like the insurance company ad on television where the couple can find any and everything to do rather than call their insurance agent to sit down with him/her and work out a long-term insurance plan….Don’t we all do the same thing with finding something or anything to do rather than have a good talk with our inner self….our soul?

It can be scary but the more we take time to check in with our soul…the better we begin to see our role in this universe and the creative abilities we were given to benefit others.

We don’t have to be able to dance, sing, play an instrument, act, paint, build or any other artistic activity….recreating ourselves to make a difference in another’s life can be as simple as planting a flower bed, nurturing a child, cooking a meal, sewing a curtain or closing a deal. If the end objective results in helping someone else then we did use our creative strengths.

So until tomorrow…Let us recognize what a wonderful life we are living while we are living it….And not wait to recognize the sad reflection one day that we wished we had realized it sooner.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Delight of the Day: My old-fashioned long-leaf sunflower bushes have grown tall with beautiful yellow-looking sun flowers forming a perimeter around my wonderful “Boo’s Potting Shed” sign.

Dear Reader:

The drought over my beloved “Rainbow Road” is over! As I am typing away,  the rain is falling…beautiful, beautiful rain. It is 6:30 P.M. and the rain storm started right around 6:00. This is the first rain in over a week. (I realize now that I have morphed into an official gardener. I lament when Mother Nature doesn’t provide enough water for my “garden children.”)

The title photo was taken right out by by Happy Place window… next to my computer. The gray imagery of fast falling rain is manna from heaven.  I can almost feel the delight in each plant and flower as they joyously lift their heads to the skies and quench their thirst. Rain water taste so much better than water hose drinks.

This was the first photo I took of the rain from the front porch….I was so happy to witness rain falling again…I felt like I had come out of a creative drought, along with the weather one. Now ideas are starting to form again and fall down around me like the raindrops outside.

All of us go through droughts, not only in creative endeavors, but also in personality or moodiness or spirituality. We wake up one day and realize that we are just going through the motions…but the joy of life and a new day has paled into apathy.

And as much as we understand it intellectually, the harder we try to pull ourselves of our “funk” the deeper we become mired in the mud? What to do?

Sarah Breathnach (Simple Abundance) ran into this dilemma while writing her New York Bestseller book. She woke up one morning, all ready to drink her coffee, grab a sweet roll, and take off typing when she found herself simply staring at the computer. Nothing popped or danced in her head….she realized, for a terrible moment, that she had lost her imagination and visualization of what is not on paper but, instead, floating out in the invisible world of “What isn’t yet.” She could no longer find it.

She started asking friends and other authors what to do with only lackluster results. Finally…she met her agent in a coffee house and confessed her dilemma. “What do I do” she begged in desperation.

” “You don’t do anything” her agent responded. ” Zilch. Nada. Zip. Wait it out…Accept the fallow period as graciously  as you can, and get ready for a quantum leap  in creativity or conscientiousness.”

Often the derailment of too many dreams, the reality of too many urgent problems with deadlines can bring on a drought….but always remember there’s still plenty of Light. We just can’t see It for the dark dust storms. Perhaps God is trying to tell us to slow down, eat better, rest more, simply be good to ourselves. Give ourselves a break!

Sarah’s friend, Dana Cooper, reminded her that drought periods in life come under God’s domain too…. Remember…” This, too, is God.”

So until tomorrow…We must remember that in the natural world. droughts disappear as suddenly and mysteriously as they first manifest themselves. “This, too, is God.” This, too, is rain!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

(Left-garden 2013 and Right-yesterday 2016)

Dear Reader:

I had an epiphany yesterday as I went out (one more time) to water my garden. (How my side of Summerville lucked out on any substantial rain is a mystery to me?….My neighborhood got rain a week ago yesterday and for all intents and purposes that was it….except for an occasional “drop” and I do mean “drop.” We definitely got swindled out of our fair share of rain.)

But I digress…as I watered the garden early in the morning, the thought came to me that that it was only by working through my fears of inadequacy and lack of knowledge about creating/maintaining a garden that freed me up to begin. Secondly, I, then, had to commit to giving up my time to have the sanctuary garden of my dreams.

It does seem to be a basic law of life that we have only what we give up. Now the garden isn’t a dream. It is the sanctuary I go to… to walk with God. In order to be truly alive, the price exacted is letting go of the past and embracing the moment.

*

I came across this anonymous piece of prose that falls along the way of thinking that we must give first, to get later.

You Only Get to Keep
What You Give Away

---

It’s a universal law:
     You have to give before you get.
You must plant your seeds
     before you reap the harvest.
The more you sow, the more you’ll reap.
In giving to others,
     you’ll find yourself blessed.The law works to give you back
     more than you have sown.
The giver’s harvest is always full.
Those that obtain have little.
Those who scatter have much.

Nature does not give to those
     who will not spend.

Source Unknown

……………………………..

Isn’t this also true of friendship and love? As a mother of three children, I was conscious of the fact that one day I would have to “give my children away to the world.” The thought pained me but, at the same time, it excited me.. What would my children contribute to this world by their presence in it?

I have been blessed to see three children develop into confident, good decent human beings, who give back to the world through their strengths of personality, perseverance, and  principles. They are devoted to their special relationships, marriages, and children. I am a very blessed mother and grandmother.

The only way to have a friend is to be one and the only way to be loved is to love others….God gives us unconditional love far above man’s ability to do so. Give first, receive later.

So until tomorrow….“Whenever we do give up a person or a thing or a position, when we truly give it up, we die-yes, but we die into greater aliveness. We die into a real oneness with life. Not to die, not to give up, means to exclude ourselves from that free flow of life.” (Brother David Steindl-Rast)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

From the Federalist Papers that Madison and Hamilton wrote together….(though later they would disagree on many political philosophies) they both agreed on the following thought:

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Dear Reader:

It is over….Alexander Hamilton and I bid each other “farewell” at 5:45 p.m. I finished the book. A paradox of feelings accompanied the final sentence…. First I was saddened by the loss of a fascinating friend from history, but also I was relieved that his parting took place in a timely fashion. He left me on Independence Day with more knowledge than ever before of American government and a deeper understanding of Hamilton’s influence on our country today.

I thought the duel would be the climax of the book but, in actuality, Hamilton’s ‘bigger than life personae‘ only grew following his untimely death. Whereas Burr’s personal and political life dwindled accordingly… leading President John Quincy Adams to sum up his life with the words  ” Burr’s life, take it all together, was such as in any country of sound morals….so deplorable that even his friends would be desirous of burying him in profound oblivion.”

*Interesting tidbit…Hamilton’s oldest son, Philip, was tragically killed in a duel just three years prior to Alexander Hamilton’s own death (1801) in a duel defending his father’s honor…at the exact location of his father’s later duel: Weehawken, New Jersey. He was nineteen years old, Philip  had just graduated from Columbia College in N.Y.

*Philip was killed in 1801 in a duel with George Eacker, whom he had publicly called out in the middle of a Manhattan theatre after Eacker gave a speech during the Fourth of July readings at Columbia University that criticized his father.

Two sections of Hamilton’s (long) biography touched me more than anything else….After Republican Jefferson took office as President, Hamilton, a Federalist, began pulling away from the political scene of his time, and he decided to build a country home for his large family (7 children)

Like any endeavor in his life…he threw himself into the building of his home named for his Scottish ancestral home…the Grange.

(Hamilton-biography)

“Perhaps the aspect of this hideaway that most captivated Hamilton was landscaping it and growing fruit and vegetable gardens.”

Today his famous round garden is admired by thousands who visit the national park where his home is located.

“Hamilton even managed to “communicate a political message through his gardening. Among the many shade trees that he dispersed around the grounds, he planted to the right of the front door a row of thirteen sweet gum trees meant to symbolize the union of the original thirteen states.” *His last dying words were: “If they break this union, they will break my heart.”)

*In a funny self-effacing way, after friends had admired his gardening skills one day, Alexander said; ” A garden, you know is a very usual refuge of a disappointed politician.”

“John Church Hamilton believed that the time his father spent at The Grange, strolling about his gardens, broadened his religious awareness. During his final months, he was walking with Eliza in the woods one day and speaking of their children when he suddenly turned to her and said in an enraptured voice: “I may yet have twenty years, please God, and I will one day build for them a chapel in this grove.”

A garden, symbolic tree plantings, and an idea for a chapel….who knew Hamilton’s and my life could connect at some point in the story…who knew?

The first and last chapter of the biography aren’t about Hamilton but his wife Eliza who would be left with seven children to raise with little money to do so. She would live to be 97 and become known as the “Oldest revolutionary war widow.”

Am amazing woman, in her own right, she would help Dolley Madison work on the Washington Monument, set up the famous New York City orphanage (since her husband was orphaned… in his memory) and fight to tell the whole story of her husband’s illustrious career while dismissing  falsehoods through proven documents.

Throughout their marriage Eliza truly was Alexander’s “anchor of hope.”

So until tomorrow… “Farewell” my friend, Alexander….we had a l-o-n-g visit together… but an unforgettable one. Rest in peace…you certainly deserve that!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Eva Cate said “Farewell” to her first tooth yesterday (on July 4th) ….this “frees” up the tooth fairy to come for a visit! Good luck!

Fourth of July Family Photos:

Here are some hilarious photos (below) Kaitlyn took with distorted, creative images….too funny! (Click on and scroll down)

https://m.facebook.com/kaitlyn.r.swicegood/posts/pcb.10101628097247074/?photo_id=10101628097067434&mds=%2Fphotos%2Fviewer%2F%3Fphotoset_token%3Dpcb.10101628097247074%26photo%3D10101628097067434%26profileid%3D729896231%26source%3D48%26cached_data%3Dfalse%26ftid%3Du_0_1a&mdf=1

Dear Reader:

My garden wants to wish you a special Fourth of July Independence Day with red, white, and blue symbolic flowers of “ripples of hope.”

But before we talk about “ripples of hope” on a very special Happy Birthday to our Country/ day….let’s talk a second about inner strength. Don’t we all, at some point, envy other people who seem so much more capable than us at contributing back to their country, state, town, neighborhood and/or community with so many (seemingly) strengths in their tool box?

“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within” – Maya Angelou

All of us have been born with just the right amount of strengths to make a difference to others in our lifetime…..examples of some of these skills might include strengths like articulation, writing, a non-judgmental personality, sense of fair play, calmness/steadiness, humor, curiosity and so many more than I can’t possibly list here. None of us have been left out or short-changed in the strengths area.

The most important thing each individual, granted life on this great planet, must do for him or herself is discover his/her own personal strengths and then use them for others.

Kate W. Jenson, popular blogger/author, describes this scenario.

“We are easily confused, we humans. We compare ourselves with others and judge ourselves lacking.Suppose, instead, we approach our lives with gentle curiosity, like an explorer coming upon a new, shy species of bird. Notice its markings…Watch how it moves…What startles it? What makes it stronger? When does it sparkle?
Such observations will tell you what you have to offer.“

A well-lived life moves inward, to gather resources, connect with the sacred, be inspired, and then radiate outward, to share experiences and serve others.

This is a lesson I have learned from my commitment to help Anne distribute cookies and ice cold bottles of water ( “Water on Wednesdays”) to those  in need who are down and out…. suddenly someone is tapping on your window with water and cookies to let you know that we are all members of the human race and as such capable of showing compassion to our fellow man.

We are just sending out small ripples of hope but that’s how change occurs….with that first ripple. A affirmation that things will get better because people care enough to help solve a problem.

“Call for Change”

 June 6 was the 60^th anniversary of Bobby Kennedy’s “Ripples of Hope” speech, given at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In the U.S. in 1966, the civil rights movement was in full flow. In South Africa, apartheid had been law for 18 years and Nelson Mandela was in prison.

*Updated with more inclusive language, Kennedy said:

“Each time you stand up for an ideal or act to improve the lot of others, or strike out against injustice, you send forth a tiny ripple of hope and, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

It is up to us to discover what nourishes us and be who we were created to be. Bring what strengthens us to the world.

……………………………………..

Having read, now, though three quarters of Hamilton… one conviction I hold  true is that there is no doubt in my mind  it was only through God’s Presence that our country came into creation… against all odds.

I don’t think I fully understood how difficult building a government, based on democracy (a foreign concept for most people in the 17oo’s) was….the American Revolution paled in comparison to the warfare of writing a Constitution and implementing our first example of democracy to the world.

The Founding Fathers differed in age, personality, experience, and philosophy but somehow the Creator of the Declaration of Independence (Jefferson), the Father of the Constitution (Madison) the Father of our Country (Washington) and the Father of our American Government (Hamilton) miraculously  created the framework of our country that still exists today.

Each personality had his strengths and weaknesses ( ego’s, tempers, vanities, etc.) but in spite of the in-house bickering, there came some compromising that produced our American government today….the ripples from these amazing Founding Fathers have indeed built “a current that continues to sweep down the walls of  oppression and resistance.”

So until tomorrow….Let us pause to remember the sacrifices of so many who gave so much by giving us the greatest gift on this earth- freedom.

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” Winston Churchill

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*We have talked several times (in past blogs) about John Adams and Thomas Jefferson dying on the same day, July 4 of 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Quite a strange coincidence.

But here is another little history trivia/ tidbit… we did have one future President  born on July 4th. It was Calvin Coolidge. When he was a little boy he thought the big parade and fireworks celebrations, in his hometown in Vermont, every year on his birthday,  were just for him. Happy Birthday Calvin!