Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

This is my “listening” spot….when I eat breakfast outside and listen to the birds and the world waking up….when I eat lunch or dinner out here and watch the sun set, while listening to the last coo’s of nature saying good-night.

One of my favorite times is when darkness is descending and the solar lights come up one by one throughout the garden. It is during these moments that I really “listen” and feel closer to God than any other time.

It is important for us to take time out of our day to simply listen to nature and God.

Ever since I heard the words “Hold my Hand” back in 2008-the night before my first surgery for breast cancer- I have come to recognize that inner voice directing me. Isn’t it amazing (watching all the animal shows) how baby animals always recognize their mother’s voice and vice-versus?

Even now…when I take Eva Cate to the parks here in Summerville…I can distinguish her voice from all the other children’s voices shouting, laughing, and crying.

I think this is true, as children of God, we know when we hear God’s voice…sometimes it just takes us a few more moments to admit it to our mortal rational minds. When people ask how you recognized the voice…the response is universally “Oh you know…you know.”

While reading Godwink Stories- A Devotional (Squire Rushnell * Louise Duart) a “listening” story appeared that I would like to share with you.

“The Voice”

(Dean and Sue Beyer)

Dean and Sue volunteered to help a congregational member move from Arizona to Las Vegas. They arrived safely, unloaded her belongings, grabbed supper in a diner and headed towards Hoover Dam.

They found themselves stuck behind an eighteen wheeler on a two-lane road but Dan knew it would expand to three lanes at the 10 mile marker and he could pass then…so he patiently bided his time.

They had just reached the marker and Dan started pulling out into the middle lane and passing the semi when he heard a voice.

“Quickly! Pull over in front of the truck”! 

Dan looked at the radio but knew it was off…Sue had fallen asleep…where had that voice come from?

There was no one behind him and he had plenty of time to pass the truck before the road went back to two lanes…so he shrugged and kept going.

Suddenly he heard it again…louder and more demanding:

” PULL OVER IN FRONT OF THE TRUCK NOW’!

Dan had been in the military and knew that type of command…and quickly obeyed. As he began turning back off his lane into the lane in front of the truck…he nearly missed some object in the dark night that was standing still…not moving.

He swerved the car quickly and barely missed the object. From his car lights and another coming the opposite direction…he saw what it was. A full grown burro standing in the middle lane.

If he had hit that burro going 65 miles per hour he and his wife Sue would have been killed instantly. He woke Sue up to explain what happened. They pulled over at the next rest stop to say a prayer and thank God for their lives. Dan said he would never forget that voice as long as he lived.

Scripture says: Isaiah 30:21

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying-This is the way, walk in it.”

So until tomorrow…Help us Father take time to listen to You as we are guided in the direction intended for us.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

 Some Bunny is sleeping away…like little bunnies do! Hippity Hop Hop little Lachlan!

Eva Cate spent the night with me last night…trying on my earrings, a little lipstick and make-up for some modeling…it’s a girl thing we do!

Dear Reader:

I used many of Paul Harvey’s books (The Rest of the Story) to teach history to my students…(because his stories were so fascinating)….He would tell this amazing narrative and then wait for the conclusion to name the famous person he had just described (unknowingly to the reader)…like a Patrick Henry or Benjamin Franklin.

The students had to guess who it was we had been studying and it always made for a fun lesson…because Harvey’s stories personalized these historical figures and turned them into “humans” that students could relate to…

Books, of course, are only one way to tell stories….pictures tell stories too. And today we are going to finish the second half of the alphabet with a “vignette” beside each letter. (Yeah…I figured out a photo for “V” now!) We left off with “M”…so here comes “N”!

N – ightingale (The) – this is novel I am reading right now that I can’t put down! I am sure many of you read it when it came out previously…but somehow I missed it. Brooke is reading it and told me about it. I have been yearning for a book that I can’t put down…and this is it!

The backdrop is WWII-the location France- I am already finding myself looking for things to do around the house so I won’t sit down and finish the rest of the novel at one sitting. I don’t want it to end. The characters have become good friends to me.

O – “Oh how I love my new rabbit (last year’s threaded apart) in the beautiful orange flower basket…I even added some carrots this year!”

P – etunia – This tiny little “bush” came up with even  teenier buds and I couldn’t figure out what it was. (It earned the coveted “Plantus Unknownest” spoon beside it) Finally it started popping open this weekend and a dozen striped (yellow and white) blooms appeared…adorable!

Q – ueen – Queen Eva Cate continues to reign alone as the only female in this generational “pack” so far. She was sad that there wasn’t a princess for her to play with (Lachlan)…but somehow I think she will always keep a “handle” on the situation!

R – ow of Azaleas. As I was throwing empty plant containers away ( I must have a  zillion of them) I glanced down the side yard and driveway seeing a row of azaleas in bloom…a happy sight.

S – weet potato plants with beautiful shades of green….they add so much to the garden with their diversity of color…and the solar ball decorations (like this one from Joan) add so much color and light at night! 

T -hrift.  My latest addition to the garden…Thrift…these beautiful red blooms are named “Ballerina Red” and they do look like red ballet shoes….so pretty! Some dance music please?

 U- Universally happy to be who I am, where I am, and how I am…at this stage of my life. Thank you God for your many blessings!

V – Vignette. Doodle gave me a copy of The Country Rabbit and the Little Gold Shoes this weekend and I am thrilled! I can hardly wait to read it to Eva Cate and Rutledge. Some of you might remember it was written by Dubose Heyward (Porgy and Bess) and tells the story of a female rabbit who is chosen to wear the magical gold shoes (makes you fly) to deliver treats at Easter.

It was written in the 1920’s when “girl power” was making the news… women were seeking the right to vote and flappers were breaking older socially accepted barriers along many lines.

Heyward wrote about a female bunny who gets chosen to deliver the Easter eggs. She does it with a lot of help… everyone of her little bunnies helps out at home while she is away. A great history lesson on the women’s rights movement. And just adorable. Carrie said it was her favorite Easter story!

W -Wreath  Show me an empty door and I will show you a wreath! Wreaths add so much happiness to plain doors.

X – “X” marks the spot for a luscious looking fern in an old wicker chair…southern charm.

Y – “Ya Ya” bench….given to me in 2012 when the garden was still just a dream…it sat inside my house taunting me for over a year…(“Do It!”)…to follow my dreams…create the secret garden filled with imagination for the grandchildren.

“Build it and they will come.” It must have worked…the grandchildren have kept coming! And with a lot of help from many of you readers…the garden is “real.” The bench is a testimony to it!

Z- Zinnias  Thank you God for zinnias so I have something that starts with a “Z”! Amen!

So until tomorrow…You never cease to amaze and delight me Father with Your alphabet of creations on earth for us to enjoy during our stay.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Since it was pretty cool yesterday morning…(like Lucy the cat) I found myself basking in the beautiful sunshine…actually sitting on the deck in “Lucy’s lounge chair” as she looked at me disdainfully for taking her “throne.” (Hey, I paid for it…it is brand new…thank you!)

As I was drowsily drifting off I started remembering games we used to play as kids…especially road games when traveling.

“I See” was always a popular one. (besides counting cows and then losing them to the cemetery on the right or left of where you were positioned in the car…sadly there are few cows or church cemeteries left  (even on the back, back roads) any more for this game)

One version of “I See”  that we played was the alphabet game. Whoever spotted an “A” word first got  1 pt and so on…so I decided to take my Iphone camera and play the game…both in the house and outside. No pressure in this version to find it first…just find it and document it with a photo.

So on this cool spring afternoon….here goes. I will do the first half of the alphabet today and the second half tomorrow.

A – Azalea– What would our beloved  Flowertown in the Pines (and Festival) be without our famous azaleas? (even if the larger Formosas are late coming in this year… which is rather ironic…since we have had years they have come and gone by the festival.)

B- Barbour – Even after all this time I can’t bring myself to take down mother’s door knocker that she received as a retirement gift before moving to Summerville to live with us.

After her passing…none of the subsequent renters ever questioned it remaining intact on the door…and it still makes me happy to see mother’s door knocker symbolizing daddy’s Scottish heritage every day.

C – Cat.…as in Lucy. Her owner thought she was on her last stretch a few years ago…but with some food and a little loving she is still here. We share a lot in common as two older gals just enjoying the sunshine of life. (You noticed that she “skunked” my lounge chair back when I moved on.)

D – Dogwood.  In Fayetteville, NC (where I grew up) we had more dogwood trees than you could “shake a stick at.” Not as many azaleas, like Summerville, but big beautiful beautiful dogwood trees.

In my childhood neighborhood…I can’t remember a single house on my block that didn’t have at least one dogwood in it. It truly looked like a faerieland in the spring! (Picture of my across the street neighbor’s dogwood)

E – Eating. The Charleston area is certainly famous for its cuisine (which is part of the popularity problem for the ever-growing population)

As for me…I have simple tastes…for example I took this picture of my favorite Girl Scout cookie (mint) to use for the letter “G”…after which I took a bite for the letter “E-ating.…two birds with one stone! (or that’s how the cookie crumbles)

F – Faeries (old English spelling that I love)

I love this art decorated window frame that I bought from Kay at Baker’s ( Pond) Nursery …it now hangs on my side fence and makes me smile in imaginative anticipation at the sight of faeries playing in the garden…playing peek or boo with us.

G – Gerber Daisies.  Since I just finished filling my front porch planters with Gerber daisies (to sit on the front steps below the morning glory and moon flower seed planters) I choose them for the letter “G“…they make me happy with their bright colors and cheery disposition…even if they are thirsty little creatures. (and of course the original Girl Scout cookie photo…before the food attack.)

H- “Happy Room”– My den changes in decor….along with my personal changes in life…but, still, it always remains cloaked in sunshine and bright primary colors. I never tire of walking into my home and brightening up at the sight of it. It never fails to put a smile on my face!

I- I Love You! …for all of your support and encouragement throughout the years since the blog (Chapel of Hope Stories) started in August 2010. You have been there for me through highs and lows and kept me writing…helping mecontribute my part to the “lake.”

Jean Rhys famous quote:…”All that matters is feeding the lake. I don’t matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake‘”…keep writing!

J-akie. Eva Cate, Rutledge, and Lachlan….My “Thank You Note” to God…my breath of life.

K – Key.  A change in the “Happy Room“…with a large decorative “key” that lies on the wall behind the mantle to remind me that I must keep turning the key to every possibility that arises in life. Locked doors just produce dusty by-gones.

L- LOVE.  These days my heart overflows with love…it happens every time I get a glimpse of the future with the addition of another member to our family.

The latest being an “L” of course (Lachlan). Walsh said when he was good ….he would be the “Lach” (luck) of the Irish and when he was bad…he would be the “Lach” (loch) Ness Monster. Either way Boo Boo will love him forever…as she does all her precious treasures… called grandchildren.

M-My “Magic” Moon Gate.  Like my “Happy Room” I never tire of walking out on the deck and seeing my moon gate smiling back at me…the entrance to a dream turned reality with the help of Anne, Doodle, Harriett, my Ya’s…and so many of you readers who have contributed a flower, decoration, bench, solar light, or plant to it. (And John Lee for building the moon gate for me!)

The “MY” in my garden only means “My My” how blessed I am to have friends who take time to reach out and push another fellow traveler… higher to the stars….higher to her dreams!

……………..

We are half-way through the alphabet so I will end here for today but as Scarlet so aptly expressed: “Tomorrow is another day” and more pictures to come.

So until tomorrow…remember to pause and capture memories on photo before the memories fade from our minds.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* We heard from the prayer line that my (our) friend, Linda Carson, had to return to Trident to make some repairs from her earlier surgery last Monday.

Please keep Linda, her husband Rick, and her caring family in your prayers also. I don’t know what I would have done without Linda by my side explaining everything to me during the chemo sessions I underwent. God ran out of sugar after making Linda…sweetest girl, friend, and nurse around!

*Linda with Eva Cate in one chemo session a little over a couple of years ago. They grow up too fast!

* Anne emailed to reassure us she had reached Hawaii and gotten hooked up with her sister and brother-in-law….she said they were chasing rainbows and soon would leave for their snorkeling adventures. (Let’s hope a certain kind of fish isn’t chasing Anne)

The South
The place where…Tea is sweet… accents are sweeter
Summer starts in April
Macaroni and Cheese is a vegetable
Ya’ll is the only proper noun
Chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy
Everyone is Darling’ and
Someone’s heart is always being blessed (unknown)

…………..

 Dear Reader:

I love this phrase defining the South and nothing denotes summer more than sunflowers! I couldn’t help myself Thursday when I was in Mt. Pleasant and stopped by Whole Foods… I just had to break down and buy these beautiful flowers and berries!

Why? Because it makes me happy and I have finally reached the stage in life when making me happy is getting a lot easier.

The subtle innuendos for permission to treat yourself to something for yourself (really hard for mothers) arrived in 1971 with the MacDonald marketing ad:

“You Deserve a Break Today”

Two years later came the famous advertising campaign from L’Oreal hair coloring…using the sexy voice of Cybill Shepherd saying “Sure it costs more…(dramatic pause) and I’m worth it.”

Actually the L’Oreal product just cost 10 cents more than their largest rival, Clairol’s Nice & Easy…but it was those three famous words “I’m worth it” that has made L’Oreal out-sell their competitors for over four decades.

In 1991…Cybill Shepherd re-appeared in another sexy commercial ….now saying:

“ Like a  lot of us, Preference just keeps getting better and better. And I’m worth it.”

While debating whether to buy this bouquet of beautiful flowers at Whole Foods…I really did justify the extra cost …because “I am worth it”…to myself and the people around me…to occasionally do things that make me happy and subsequently… a happy person to be around.

It has taken me decades to be able to do something like this… I proudly paid the cashier the money while we both oohed and aahed together over how pretty the flowers were…leaving the store with two sets of smiles…mine and the cashier’s…

Like the phrase …”Summer starts in April” (in the South) we, the residents of the South, know that, the reality is, it can be summer one day and winter the next. ( This weekend’s weather report in the last days of March…before “summer”… gives credence to this fact.)

Spring, here at home, is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs on the temperature gauge. The long process in accepting myself, with all my weaknesses and quirks (and more importantly liking myself) has been quite a roller coaster ride in itself.

I can now look back at some turbulent events in my childhood that took place…uncontrollable events that rocked my security … and see how it all pushed me down a “dead-end” detour for too much of my life. In hindsight I made some un-wise choices based on the need for security.

I didn’t realize that by letting God be my security and lessening my reins on earthly “uncontrollable events” and “fickle people”… the creative side of myself (that God bestowed upon me) was now free. I was finally ‘free to be me.’

Self-compassion is so important in our lives.

We think that by striving to be “perfect” we can avoid pain and suffering but it is the quest for perfection that brings anguish into our lives. Instead we need to actualize self-compassion.

” A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” ( Chris Germer)

To be one’s best is not the same thing as being perfect…there is no such thing as a perfect person. (with the exception of Jesus) The rest of us need to strive to encompass our God-given talents and then share them with our fellow man. Period!

For me…worrying about what other people thought was my other downfall.

I needed someone to pull me aside, as a youth or young adult, and say, “Becky, quit worrying about what someone might think of you. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself to please someone else.The only person you need to please is God…If you put your priorities there, the rest will fall in place.” 

Since I never got that message during my youth I had to detour and travel the bumpy road in the quest for perfection and all its failures accompanying it…to find the truth myself.

This quote from Anna Quindlen pretty much sums it up:

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”

Isn’t it a wonderful feeling of release when we finally grasp the truth about “Imperfection”? …as expressed in this idea:

If you look closely at a tree you’ll notice it’s knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty, strength, and imperfection go together wonderfully.

So until tomorrow…Help us Father learn to love ourselves as You love us…not as “perfectionists” (but as recovering perfectionists)  “good-enoughists” in Your Eyes.

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

* In response to the play with words blog yesterday…Sis Kinney replied with:

I LOVE hearing about new words – sometimes they’re really corny, and other times they really do make sense! My mother always used to say, of a person who had done something particularly nice, kind, or thoughtful, “How thoughty of [her, him, them].” I find myself using the same word every now and again. (Don’t we all become our mothers?)

(“Thoughty” will be my new word now… (I love it!) and yes…we certainly are our “Mother’s daughters”….seeing it more and more every day of my life.)

* A “Shout-out” to Sarahliz Photography for taking pictures that melt a grandmother’s heart. Some of you might remember the photos Sarah (friend of Mollie and Walsh) took in the fall with the pumpkins of Walsh, Mollie, and Rutledge.

She has her website set up on FACEBOOK now and you can go on her site for information on how to contact her if you would like her to come take pictures. She is marvelous and so good with children.

SarahLiz Photography | Facebook

If you would like to look at her pictures of Lachlan and family…you may do so by clicking on this link.

http://sarahlizphotography20.pixieset.com/babylachlan/

Dear Reader:

After receiving that wonderful gift from Jo and Colby Wednesday about the 100th anniversary of Webster dictionary… with the reproduction of a page from Noah Webster’s very first dictionary…I decided to look up the latest words to be added to the dictionary.

I discovered a marvelous website called: Mental_ Floss created by a personable-looking young man named Lucas Reilly. I love the way he thinks…very creative and funny. He had a list of 35 words that Oxford dictionary has accepted into its latest publication.

It is from this list that I came up with three new words in the title blog….like “truthiness” (which Stephen Colbert discovered and used over and over on his show.)

“Truthiness” (n) means: the quality of seeming to be true…even if it is not.

Noob (n): A person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the Internet. (Definitely me!)

Woot (ex): (Especially in electronic communication) Used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph

I am a happy “Noob” who manages to somehow stay afloat in the computer age (barely) and every time I learn something new or do something correctly on the computer or Iphone the first try out…I will start yelling “Woot!” from now on!

One of the grandchildren’s toys is still here (photo picture) and (in all “truthiness“) I can barely manage to work it…but I did manage to get the first line melody to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” played and then gave myself an oral “Woot” for my perseverance!

As Reilly observed…most of the words that made it into the Oxford dictionary were two words put together….like:

Screenager (n): A person in their teens or twenties who has an aptitude for computers and the Internet

Locavore (n): A person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food

Infomania (n): The compulsive desire to check or accumulate news and information, typically via mobile phone or computer.

………………………..

Lucas Reilly produces a magazine I want to subscribe to (named Mental_Floss) which contains all kinds of new words, ideas, expressions…I feel that I will need this to be able to communicate with my grandchildren soon! It’s a whole new world out there I am learning.

His website also connects to some other great, creative websites and I loved this one on innovative Easter eggs. These creative “eggs” aren’t really eggs at all as you see in this link. Miss Cellania is really imaginative! These are too too cute!

9 Strange and Different Easter Treats | Mental Floss

If coming up with new words means simply putting two ideas/words together…as a grandmother I can come up with:

1) Eva Cate-avore    

2) Rutlege-avore  

3) Jakie-avore

4) Lach-avore  

They all mean that I could just “eat them all up” every time I see them….(figuratively, of course!)

Speaking of…I am getting hungry for supper…so this will be a short blog for a fun Friday… especially since it is the beginning of spring break for the public schools… With teachers and students alike…  more than ready for it! Everyone have a safe, fun break and Happy Easter!

So until tomorrow…as Robert Frost once said:

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. “

 Thank you God for life and its continuance for all of us, our families,and loved ones.

Words come and go but if we follow the Word we never get lost.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Perhaps I should have named Lachlan….”Dimples-avore” as you can readily surmise from this adorable photo Mollie sent me yesterday.

Dear Reader:

Within a two foot radius in my garden…there are three different shades of green growing stronger every day…stemming from dark to light to yellow-green…all strikingly beautiful.

I remember a couple of years ago when I toured Linwood’s Bed & Breakfast gardens…(Linda Shelbourne’s beautiful home and gardens)…she told our group that she didn’t try to keep blooming flowers alive in the hot summer months in the lowcountry…she simply diversified the shades of green in shrubs, bushes, and trees through-out her exquisite gardens.

It was a lesson that stuck with me. If I were running an “official” B&B I wouldn’t have time for all the pruning and watering necessary to keep flowers alive in the hot, humid months of the lowcountry south either. (So I pay the price for my love of flowers with high water bills  through-out the summer and early fall months.)

But I did take to heart the lesson of planting varying shades of green… and now I purposefully look for flowers or plants that diversify this color- the color that dominates nature.

The word “green” has a Germanic origin and consists of two root words “grass” and “grow.” Perfect combination, isn’t it? The color green symbolizes the hope of life and continual renewal of it.

Because the color green is so familiar to us (through its dominance in nature) it is a peaceful color to use and hospitals have traditionally gone with it to help patients heal in calming harmony with nature.

* And of course our latest “addition” (Lachlan) arrived on St. Paddy’s day ….the day when “green” rules.

I agree with all these ideas about this beautiful color…because as I walked around my yard, garden, and neighborhood yesterday…I felt a calming, peaceful presence accompanying me.

So now come along…and I will show you (perhaps not 50) but several diverse shades of the color green in my neighborhood

Here are the three plants from the title photo (taken separately)…they are all close neighbors and offer such a variety of green in their section of the garden.

During this time of the year I keep an on-going love/hate relationship with my two oak trees…one in the back and one that hangs over my car in the driveway from my neighbor’s yard. The continuous brown leaves falling, falling, falling gets pretty old about now.

But then, once they have fallen, the beautiful shade of green that emerges is breath-taking! Never again….will the green on an oak tree be that fresh-looking…like it just went through the washing machine….it sparkles and how I love it. (Throw in some yellow jessamine growing among its branches and it is just about perfect!)

I have been fighting a bare spot around my Bradford Pear tree for several years…nothing sticks in the way of grass seeds. But this year moss has appeared and I am perfectly happy with it…maybe some Irish moss got stuck to the bottom of my shoes while there last summer….However it arrived…it is getting the job done…covering the bald spot! I also like the contrast between my boxwoods…

On the right side of my house (facing it) nature has pretty much been left alone to do what it wants. (In other words I haven’t touched anything over there in a long time.) The azaleas have become trees and really large bushes…but it is this “wilderness” separating my neighbor’s and my property that is I am drawn to each spring.

Even the grass re-appears as if it has just finished a calming shower and smells as fresh as it looks…especially after the first cutting.

The tea olive bush isn’t my favorite in the green coloring category but it sure makes up in fragrance what it lacks in color…especially right now as we speak….I love walking around the corner of my house where my tea plant is located…UMMMM!

Let’s turn out attention now to flowers and lovely green plants….with creeping Jenny to add another dimension of color…..to so many floral pots.

Even this indoor plant that I have had for several years keeps its green gleen…I think the plant is in love with girl behind it….

Last week I heard a thump and jumped. Redbird had fallen for some strange reason…I jumped up and placed it back in its spot quickly…don’t want any bad luck following me!

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.”

–Pedro Calderon de la Barca [Spanish poet and playwright, 1600-1681]

So until tomorrow…let us all stay green, fresh, and open to God’s voice leading us along our path through life and the green of nature.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* I just talked about geese in the blog yesterday… and then two of them stopped in the middle of the road on Marion Avenue and stared at me as I slammed on brakes while they slowly and regally crossed the road. (Maybe that is what the I-26 signs are all about back home here in Summerville: (Expect the Unexpected.)

* Donna Clark responded this morning with a quote she remembers her grandmother saying:

My grandmother always said, “God’s favorite color must be green because He made so many shades of green”

( I read once that God picked green for earth and blue for skies because they are the most calming, peaceful colors to live in and under….Since God is the meticulous “detailer” and “planner” I think this is probably right….great choices!)

* I had another lovely surprise yesterday…Jo and her granddaughter, Colby, stopped by bearing gifts from Simple to Sublime. Jo said when she saw this… the history gal recognized what another history gal would love… and I did.

Most of you recognize John Lennon’s lyrics from his song “Imagine” (which is pretty cool in itself) but it is the words behind the Lennon lyrics in dark black… that are fascinating.

The words come from a reproduction of the original dictionary by Noah Webster celebrating its 100th birthday from 2013. What a lovely keepsake…thank you so much Jo and Colby!

And speaking of keepsakes Colby handed me this silver token with the words IMAGINE on it since I love imagination so much…but not as much as I love Jo and Colby!

You knew I would have to place it on my “green” place mat…bring the blog full circle!

* Sorry I missed you Lassie, Pap, and Doodle….my Easter bunnies who hopped by when I was returning something at Belk’s…glad you got to see the garden and liked it….Love you sisters of mine!

Dear Reader:

I find that in this stage of life my imagination has been re-born. It isn’t that it ever truly disappeared…I have always loved creativity…it is just that it had to take a back seat to the reality of working and raising children for a few decades.

Now that I have time, these days, to unlock it from my rather dusty treasure box of memories…it pops out unexpectedly…more times than I can count.

So come with me and let me share my imagination through nature in the ‘every day’ of life.

1) I have decided since it seems so hard for us to get a pretty snowfall in the winter…that the Lowcountry Snowfall makes up for it… arriving at this time (early spring) each year in the form of falling white petals from Bradford Pear trees.

While Anne and I were busy working (on the front porch) on the morning glory and moon flower planters Monday afternoon…the wind picked up and suddenly I looked out at a “snow storm” consisting of the most beautiful elements…the soft white petals from a pear tree.

I stopped my planting and dreamed of falling softly into cotton, clouds, and pear petals to make angels in the “snow.”

2) When I came across the side part of my front yard and saw the different azalea bushes blooming with the butterfly stake nearby…I imagined a conversation going on with Mr. Butterfly commenting:

Butterfly: “I sure missed all of you this winter…it was lonely here all by myself with just your bare sticks and branches left to tell me where you once bloomed.

“I looked kinda dull with just brown sticks surrounding me…but now that you are back to encircle me with your beauty…I am beginning to shine again…because, I realize now, that my beauty shines through you.“

3)    These past few mornings when it has been gray and cloudy (and I have decided to sleep in) I have been awakened by geese flying over. I find myself going out on the porch to watch them fly by and am always happy that they are in groups…sometimes three in one and two in another…but no matter the combination…they all seem to have a friend or friends to fly with….it reminds me how lucky I am that I have friends to fly with, through life, also.

4)   Going down Palmetto street the other day…I had to stop and take this picture…it doesn’t do it justice…there were literally hundreds of robins feeding on Doty Field….I had never seen so many robins congregated in one area like that before. I stopped, pulled over, and watched in amazement….another sign that spring was coming…no matter how hard Old Man Winter was trying to prevent it…the robins were winning!

5) Since Anne and I had several moon flower and morning glory seeds left over…after finishing up four planters on the front porch…we decided to plant the rest in the back.

The moon flower seeds by the magic moon gate (of course) were a given… but we didn’t stop there…we planted morning glories and moon flower seeds by the tree with the green chair so it would be covered in periwinkle blue…we added morning glory to the two other wooden columns under the apartment (next to the clematis, two seeds by the yellow bench and tree house….

In my imagination…my backyard and garden will really be a secret garden this spring and summer…covered in vines of mystery and faerie homes and magical moonbeams! I am so excited!

The smell of a newborn was calling me yesterday and it was time to rock Lach some more, let Mollie run a few errands and get caught up with Walsh now that he has some time off too…for the first time in a long time.

Besides Lach has been with us for a whole week…hard to believe that everything “went down” a week ago on St. Paddy’s Day…what a whirlwind of emotions since then.

The nice thing about being around babies and children…one’s imagination jumps right back into action and we, ourselves, become children again…re-born in the next generations.

I am sure you have probably picked up on the fact that Rutledge does nothing without his ‘twucks.’…skateboarding, riding in the wagon, swinging…you name it. He, also, goes nowhere without his “twucks.” (Meant to take a picture of Rutledge eating with his “twucks” in the high chair…but I was too busy stuffing my face to remember.)

This is the only “action” shot taken without his twucks…since he had to hold the ball to dunk this basket.

Paraphrasing…Dr. Suess said that imagination and fantasy is like looking through a telescope from the wrong end and laughing at reality. We can all use a good laugh so maybe that is why I choose to live in both worlds.

My first day in chemistry class in college…we had to all line up and look through a microscope at something the professor wanted us to see ‘upclose and personal’. I closed one eye to look into it…but then used the closed eye to look. (or not look)

You can only imagine the rather sarcastic remark when the chemistry teacher said, “Miss Barbour…closing one’s eye to look into a microscope is a quite common reaction…but in all my years of teaching I have never seen a student use the closed eye to make the observation. I strongly encourage you to use your open eye since the success of your passing this course, most definitely, depends upon it. ” (I barely did pass)

So I reckon I have always looked at life upside down and with one eye closed to excessive reality…but that is all right too….in fact…it is all good. My imagination has saved me many times from the stark realities of life.

So until tomorrow…Let’s use our God-given imagination to picture a world without violence- instead a world as seen through a child’s innocence…a beautiful world filled with love.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Yesterday was Jakie’s sixth month birthday…a 1/2 year…it is hard to believe…and what a joy he has brought into our lives…such a sweetheart with the disposition of an angel. Happy Birthday Jakie…we have both grown six months older! (It looks better on you!)

Dear Reader:

Sometimes… how I arrive at the “thought for the day’ in my daily blogs… is a combination of seemingly unrelated incidences that finally jolt my memories and produce an idea for the blog.

In today’s blog…several reflections merged. I told you the other day how excited I was to just be able to hold and rock Lach for a couple of hours and sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”  Of all the lullaby songs…this seemed to calm him more than any other…and finally lulled him to sleep.

I decided to look up the history behind the song and discovered that the main melody is also shared in the children’s  ABC song, a  version of “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World” (talking part) and even in some of Mozart’s musical works. ( 12 Variations)

Even more interesting…was the fact that this is the first song in a child’s development that triggers the imaginative connection between two different objects…an understandable metaphor for tykes.

When the song says…“Like a diamond in the sky” for the appearance of a star being looked upon at night… small children readily pick up on this analogy.

I received the title photo (gift of a hanging star) for the Christmas tree last year from a friend I met years ago while doing a workshop in Florida.

We had emailed a few times in the past and both loved Kelly Rae Roberts’ artworks…Right before Christmas she sent the “imaginary” star to me with a note: “Always follow the star…always follow your imagination.” ( Since I was sick last Christmas it really cheered me up!)

On Sixty Minutes Sunday night the program had the famous and quite popular astrophyisicist (COSMOS narrator) Neil deGrasse Tyson. He explained why we are comprised mainly of “stardust” ….the same molecules found in us are in the center of stars…we live in the universe and the universe lives in each of us.

Listening to all of this…took me back to my first visit to a planetarium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (school field trip) when I was in elementary school. Like Tyson…when the lights first went off… leaving all of us school children in the dark…surrounded by (what seemed to be) trillions of stars…I sat there with my mouth hanging open…”star-struck!”

I thought to myself…’You mean there is this whole other universe of stars out there and I didn’t know anything about it..another whole other world that I didn’t even know existed ?’

The stars are mind-boggling.

So now I had four seemingly unrelated connections: a child’s lullaby, a first imaginary connection for a child, a gift from an old friend, and a segment on the universe with a popular astrophysicist. The crucifix, or common denominator, of course, was the stars.

I started thinking of all the idioms and expressions we use connecting stars and one particular part of our anatomy…our eyes. Expressions like: “Star-struck” (astounded) “Stars in your eyes” (wanting to grow up to be famous…a celebrity) a “twinkle in your eye” (a hint of laughter or amusement) “In the wink of an eye” (quickly or suddenly)…we could go on and on.

The fifth and final incident that made me realize I had several pieces of information circling around the universe and stars… came in the form of a poem ….then it clicked. The final connection: Stars and God’s Eyes in our Creation!

“You’re a Special Person in God’s Eyes”

” On the day you were born…

God held the stars

Within His hands

And watched as they twinkled and shined.

He tried to find two

of the best He observed,

But he couldn’t quite make up

His mind.

Then suddenly two of them

danced in the air,

And the rest of them

took to the skies.

On  the day you were born,

You were blessed with the stars

that were chosen

To shine in your eyes!” 

(-Desiree Derosier-Kaczor)

All these seemingly unconnected events were just waiting for the catalyst to set my mind in the right direction…God’s Eyes and the stars He sees outside and within us.

So until tomorrow…Let us watch the stars with fascination and awe…in reverence of the Creator who made it all. (If the weather ever clears up)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Anne is leaving Wednesday for Hawaii for two weeks! So I treated her out to lunch at our favorite “haunt”- Oscars…so yummy! Then we returned back to my home for (a now annual tradition) the stringing of the porch for the moon flowers and morning glory vines to climb.

Anne is called Dr. Morning Glory and I am her assistant…she takes the high road (literally) and me…the low one. She always sends her calling card before arriving…

For the “high road,”in other words, Anne attached the twine to the top of the hooks in the porch ceiling and then threw the twine to me (“low road-er”) to connect it to the planter hooks on the porch floor…We got a rhythm going tossing the twine back and forth…hilarious!

The hardest part was hooking the twine at the ceiling…I know Anne’s arms must have been turning blue for holding them so high for so long…the “low road” (whose job it was to tie them to the planters) was certainly easier…but still we were both “pooped” by the time we finished planting and stringing up the morning glory and moon flower planters.

* Actually this was just the ‘tip of the iceberg’…we went to the back yard and garden to finish up planting some left-over seeds…more to come tomorrow.

*When I received these pictures (last night) I got “starry-eyed” …looking at the universe of family residing in my heart.

*Walsh said while the baby eats, sleeps, and poops inside… Rutledge takes on Poogan outside…From my babysitting observations…Poogan never loses and Rutledge never stops trying to win.

Dear Reader:

I just recently discovered a quite interesting story about the Beatles and one of the last songs written by them in the album Abbey Lane called “The End.”

The quote in the title of this blog is found in the lyrics to this song and how introspective they are when read and contemplated .

Before the author included this historical “tidbit”… another story was told in connection…from sermons.com. Here is the “catalyst”anecdote.

Years ago, when the Betty Crocker Company first began selling their cake mixes, they offered a product which only needed water. All you had to do was add water to the mix which came in the box, and you would get a perfect, delicious cake every time.

It bombed. No one bought it and the company couldn’t understand why, so they commissioned a study which brought back a surprising answer. It seemed that people weren’t buying the cake mix because it was too easy. They didn’t want to be totally excluded from the work of preparing a cake; they wanted to feel that they were contributing something to it.

So, Betty Crocker changed the formula and required the customer to add an egg in addition to water. Immediately, the new cake mix was a huge success.

Unfortunately, many people make the same mistake when it comes to “packaging” or presenting the Christian religion. They try to make the call of Jesus Christ as easy as possible because they’re afraid people won’t “buy it” if it seems too hard.

I remember every year part of my first day “sermon” to my new class of eighth students always ended with…”Remember, you will only get out of this class what you put into it.”  (If they only knew then that I was talking about life…not just my class.)

For some students…this never materialized…they put little or nothing into the class. For others…(who now stop me in stores or on the street- as adults- to tell me they remember this story or that historical story from my class)…I know they did their part that school year…  so many years ago.

In sermons.com (story during Lent season) the author concludes with:

…”It’s true in life isn’t it? If we are going to get anything out of it we have to invest ourselves in it. Do you remember the second to last album by the Beatles? It was called “Abbey Road” and for my money it was their best. The last song is a little musical reprise called “The End.” It’s the last lyrical statement the Beatles make on the album. And it went, “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

As I watch my family grow…I know this to be true personally. The more who enter the world and family…the more our love grows to encompass every new arrival. As a unit we are expanding our love… so that by the end of all our lives we will have much “love baggage” to pack with us. The bigger the bag…the better. Love grows exponentially…doubling over and over and over.

Easter 2014 and Our 2015 Additions- Jake and Lach- From 2 to 4 grandchildren and blessings! (forgot the addition of Atticus…my fourth grand-dog!)

Love was always the only thing we needed entering the world…and the only necessary “baggage” to take with us leaving it. Once again the Beatles summed it up: “All We Need is Love.”

The lyrics to “The End” are implicitly  basic…but then isn’t love?

Oh yeah, all right
Are you gonna be in my dreams tonight?

Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you
Love you, love you

And in the end, the love you take
Is equal to the love you make

The Beatles-The End (Animation) – YouTube

So until tomorrow…May we never forget that the love we make today… is the love we take tomorrow.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I think our “Queen” will still be right in control of her male cousin and little brother “subjects”….She appears to be quite comfortable around her male peers…like the birthday party (McGinnis) she attended Saturday. She can hang with the “boys”!

Dear Reader:

Spring is officially here and somehow I always feel that if it is “official”…(the real deal…the equinox…) then the weather has to start behaving itself and stop its unpredictability and see-saw winter-spring games.

Perhaps Charles Dickens (Great Expectations) said it best:

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. “

We can certainly appreciate Dickens’ observations of March …especially since we have all lived this scenario over and over in the last few weeks.

But I decided to brave the odds and continue adding a new plant here and there…bravely tempting Old Man Winter to stay back up north and leave us alone.

Come with me on this sunny, breezy, cloudy, rainy day to my garden…and see the on-going changes for the 2015 spring season….some flowers and plants have been moved or given a new “wardrobe” to wear for the spring season.

I removed the cabbage and pansies from the barrel in the front yard and replaced them with gerber daisies and a mixture of shades of green ivy.

I took the cabbage to the garden to live out the remainder of its seasonal growth time.

It seems quite happy joining the rest of the cabbages creating their last “plumes”  of beauty.

Last year I planted clematis next to a post leading up to the back apartment. I thought it would be pretty climbing up and around the upper deck. It did nothing…didn’t take one single step.
 …and then yesterday I glanced down and there it was…climbing away…it must have needed a season to acclimate…but I am so excited at the thought of seeing purple blooms climbing up to the apartment deck.

(* Let me stop here and let you know that I must be going through a purple phase in life…as everything I have planted lately…seems to be purple.)

I read a quote the other day that reminded us to be eccentric now and not wait for old age to wear purple….so I am letting all my plants and flowers wear purple for me. (I’m crazy enough, as Eva Cate informed me, without wearing purple myself!)

I am trying out the “Passion flower vine” this year (for the first time) near the side fence….I hope it doesn’t take a season to acclimate and grow like the clematis did…so far it is hanging in there with some buds about to bloom.

The forsythia bush is finally taking off this season…this is the third “official” spring season and it is like every plant and flower is finally fitting in together in the garden and doing its own thing!

I discovered the secret to maintaining flowering baskets during the hot, simmering summertime…Buy succulents! They last until the first hard freeze and love the sun…the hotter the better.

 Our state flower is very happy and budding on top of itself continuously…Go Yellow Jessamine!

  Laurapedium… ( It didn’t pull up on Google))…not sure of the spelling….tried laurapodium but all I got was a picture of Laura Bush giving a talk at a podium during her husband’s first administration.

* Doodle to the rescue: This is a difficult spelling: Loropetalum – Think I will just nickname her: “Laura”

A dwarf spirea….maybe “mock orange” type of spirea…first little “cotton ball” popping up.

 I love zinnias! Like daisies they just make me smile.

 I finally found a platter that was big enough to cover the entire seat that has fallen out of this chair on the deck and I couldn’t resist getting this beautiful arrangement of purple colors. This basket is filled with lavender and purple petunias.

*When I went to plop down in my new lounge chair (so I wouldn’t get a “crick” in my neck again if I fell asleep on the deck) guess who beat me to it?

Sarah Breathnach, in her book Simple Abundance, makes the observation that there are two types of women gardeners…the first wear big floppy hats with pearls around their necks, matching garden gloves to the floppy hats….they know, not only the name of each plant or flower planted…but also the Latin derivative/correlation. They never break a sweat (just a beautiful dew upon their faces) and never, ever get dirty in the garden…

And then there are the rest of us…aptly called the “Grunge.” We have permanent red faces from squatting down with our little shovels and spades. We are recognized more for our dirty fingernails (where are those gardening gloves?) than “green thumbs.”

We call all our flowers by colors because we can’t remember their names. There’s “Big Yella” and over there is “Little Yella”, etc. We point to flowers more than we introduce them…but somehow, nameless or not, our gardens bring us such joy that the anonymous foliage doesn’t matter. It still becomes a sanctuary to our souls. (Thanks Anne for helping me name them)

What I find in myself (in my garden) is what is important …and that is inner peace. At the beginning of the Unity of Charleston’s bulletin…there is a quote from their Unity co-founder…Charles Fillmore. He lauded time in silence as follows:

” The highest form of prayer we know is quietly entering the inner chamber within the soul, shutting the door to the external thoughts of daily life, and seeking conscious union with God.”

……………………

So until tomorrow…Help us Father remember to give ourselves the “gift of peace” each and every day.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Gin-g gave the perfect example of “being” not “doing” in a comment she sent me involving her last hours with her mother.

Amen to just being…which is exactly how I felt with Mother the week I was here before she went to Glory. I kept thinking that I needed to say something wise or profound, but somehow words were inadequate.

I just sat quietly and enjoyed with people who knew and loved her and had cared for her came into the room to share their stories about Mother. It was so good for my soul and I knew that God had allowed for his perfect timing.

* Mike shared this funny picture with me….When he and Honey walked the 50 mile three day walk for MS in Savannah….there were many “rest stations” along the way. Each was competing for most creative…and the “Living Dead” with their “Dead End Station” was definitely a winner in creativity!