Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

As I sat rocking little Lach Thursday…I had time to dream the dreams of one generation to the next…and the next… imagining what his life will be like. Every loved one’s hope for the baby’s future… is simply that the new child will “make the world a better place…just by being in it.”

Wisdom has come to me at this stage in life… in the realization that the “doing” in our lives never equates to the “being.”  In the end…our jobs/careers certainly don’t define who we are…it is our “being” that does.

I can’t think of a nicer way to remember a loved one after his/her passing than by simply saying… “He/She made the world a better place …just by being in it.”

Everyone understands this statement… even if we can’t always define it. We remember people for their “presence” in our lives and the void felt when their physical “presence”  left us on this earth. We felt a sense of ‘eternal’ connection with this person…as if God sent them, personally, to guide us along our path…and as if we had known them in another place.

When I came across this little short story…I read it, re-read it and realized that my rocking session with Lach Thursday was quite similar…we simply exchanged looks and whispers, hugs and kisses….we let the world do its thing…while we enjoyed each other’s “presence.” Just “being and breathing.”

Being and Breathing

Marc Chernoff

One warm evening many years ago…

After spending nearly every waking minute with Angel for eight straight days, I knew that I had to tell her just one thing.  So late at night, just before she fell asleep, I whispered it in her ear.  She smiled – the kind of smile that makes me smile back –and she said, “When I’m seventy-five and I think about my life and what it was like to be young, I hope that I can remember this very moment.”

A few seconds later she closed her eyes and fell asleep.  The room was peaceful – almost silent.  All I could hear was the soft purr of her breathing.  I stayed awake thinking about the time we’d spent together and all the choices in our lives that made this moment possible.  And at some point, I realized that it didn’t matter what we’d done or where we’d gone.  Nor did the future hold any significance.

All that mattered was the serenity of the moment.

Just being with her and breathing with her.

………………………..

That was the way I felt Thursday…It was just enough to be with Lach and breathe with him.

So until tomorrow…Remind us Father to stop and just be present for the special moments that won’t come around again in each child’s life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*A Shout-out to Madeleine and Ady Grace for our Spring Welcoming girls’ official birthdays!

* Just got these adorable pictures of Adelyn this “official” birthday morning…Happy Birthday my sweetie Adelyn!

You know you are getting a God’s Wink when: (Jocelyn Pryor…member of our Dorchester Presbyterian family shared this with us.)

Frustrated with my 2 hour 10 min commute this am…tuned in to WayFM Radio this am for most of ride. Heard a great interview with Chris Tomlinson. 

When at work…mini pity party, combined with headache, and commute frustrations, realized I needed to sign on to Pandora and pull up Contemporary Christian Music and put in my head phones. Made for a better day! 

On the way home…God winked at me and I wanted to share…see picture of truck that passed me...

*** Eva Cate and her four year old kindergarten class were waiting on the St. Patrick’s Day Charleston parade.

* Honey sent a picture of Hope Falls.…the water is running again…spring is here. Can hardly wait to see it when spring really reaches the mountains with trees, plants, and flowers all  in bloom!

Dear Reader:

I arrived home around 4:30 yesterday afternoon (following a three-day “tilt-a-twirl” tornado)… and my head is still spinning in happiness. Even now…parts of the last three days are beginning to blur and run together.

I fear if I wait much longer to share my feelings and impressions of my fourth grandchild’s birth…they will be carried out to the Sea of Lost Memories.

So bear with me today…a grandmother’s prerogative… to sit down and re-tell the story of  ” Once upon a time…something strange and mysterious began to happen on St. Patrick’s Day…  a very special event unfolded…  that would always change the way our family looks at this special holiday…”

Let me start first by introducing my fourth grandchild to you. After much soul-searching St. Patrick’s Day’s night (following the birth)…Walsh and Mollie decided to honor the occasion by returning to an Irish name they had discussed several months ago and then forgotten among other later name choices.

Lachlan Temple Dingle

The “Lach” is pronounced like “lock” which his name will probably be shortened to…at least during childhood. * Lach Dingle * “Temple” is Mollie’s maiden name. 

Here is a quick history behind the name. One historian had this to say about the Irish origin. LACHLAN

(*This Irish rendition’s spelling (I suspect) reflects Old or Middle Irish rather than Modern Irish. It’s rooted in the word for “lake” (as in “lake dweller”) and, in Ireland at least, originally referred to the Vikings.)

So, in my humble interpretation, Lach is going to grow up by a body of water ….not a lake necessarily… but a river (the Cooper) and take to the water like a fish.

One day Lach will travel the world looking for adventures…like the large, bold Vikings of old. Safe travels, my baby, safe travels.

On the last two “revealings” as to the gender of the newborn (the cake-cutting for Rutledge and the delivery for Lachlan)….Walsh has worn a pink shirt…getting the opposite gender from his attire.

I told Walsh that if Mollie gets brave enough to go for a third some day…especially a daughter…he had better wear blue for the “revealing.”

She deserves nothing less. Mollie was simply amazing… giving birth with no extra help except determination and pure “grit”…only pushing one time…I repeat…one time… and out came Lachlan… flying as if he was sliding into home. And I reckon, in a sense, he was!

* You might have noticed the cute little mittens Lach is wearing…(thank you Kaitlyn) He was scratching himself terribly and the hospital won’t cut fingernails…some legal reason…(have to ask Tommy) so Kaitlyn found these special “gloves” for newborns…for Lach to wear….it really works well!

Wednesday afternoon was the climax of the story…as we all waited for Rutledge to meet his little (big) brother for the first time. Both Mollie and I had read a lot of “Big Brother” books and he enjoyed them…but the reality was now about to hit.

When he first walked in…he looked confused and a little frightened…he sensed something wasn’t right. Both Walsh and I had taken some new little trucks for him (his whole world now is trucks from sleeping with them in his crib to playing with them at every opportunity available…he eats, sleeps trucks!

He just casually gave the baby a glance and then went to playing with his trucks…he appeared a little uncomfortable with the stranger everybody kept asking him about…

The break-through came when Walsh put him on the bed with Mollie and Lach and asked him if he would tell his little brother what each truck was. Now this was familiar territory!

I could hear Rutledge saying…”Dump-twruck”…Baby…yella twruck” and so on….From handing him trucks to kisses just naturally evolved. It was one of those moments we all knew would never leave our memories.

Suddenly when asked if he would like to kiss his little brother…

There will, inevitably, come the moments when he is jealous of the time mommy spends with the baby and all the “oohing and aahing” from family, friends, and strangers. But Boo Boo’s intuition predicts that these two will grow up to be more than brothers…they will be the best of friends!

I spent Wednesday night with Mandy and John so I could get over to Walsh and Mollie’s house Thursday morning for the happy arrival home.

Mandy still had her blue teddy bear/ribbon wreath from Jakie’s birth I had given her…so we got it together…I ran to Publix and picked up some ham and turkey to make sandwiches…potato salad, deviled eggs and a “Welcome Home Lach” cake. (Except after spelling the name three times for the cake decorator she had inscribed “Welcome Home Lack.”

 Ironically…I don’t think there will ever be any “lack” of anything for Lach…he will be loved, cared for, and big enough to take care of himself and his own problems.

Arriving Home…

After lunch Mollie was exhausted…so I begged to ‘rock Lach’ (rhymes doesn’t it?) while she rested… for the next two hours  that is just what I did!

Like Poogan…I inhaled the sweet smell of newborns…there’s nothing like it and sang songs…”Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” is his favorite…puts him right to sleep. (Or he might be faking it to get me to stop singing.)

“New Beginnings”

John O’Donohue

A Tribute to Lachlan Temple Dingle

In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

…………………………

So until tomorrow little one….“Loved you yesterday, Love you still…Always have…Always will.” Welcome to the family Lachlan!

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

* Anne said that in this picture by Kaitlyn… she detected a hint of red in his hair…was wondering if we were going to have a red-headed Irishman. We had all commented on it too…in the sunlight…Lach definitely has red highlights appearing…who knows…only time will tell. ***

I left yesterday before Rutledge got home…(more family and friends were coming…it was time for the Boo to go home)…but Walsh sent me this picture of what happened after he did arrive!

Uncle Tommy meets his nephew Lach for the first time…love at first sight!

* Thank all of you for your sweet comments through wordpress and/or emails. Will get back to you asap ….meaning after a good night’s sleep tonight. All your messages touched my heart.

Dear Reader:

I have had people ask me what I have learned from having a garden these past two years (for the first time in my life) and I can sum it up in two words: patience and surprise!

* Another interruption from the Dingle Broadcasting Company (from your regularly scheduled blog reading program)…our baby’s first full day on earth…being welcomed by one and all…He “makes my heart flutter.”

(He is a mixture of patience and surprise too…and chose to grow in our family’s garden…for which we will always be grateful!)

***

Last week when Anne stopped by I was showing her the garden and two plants appeared particularly pitiful…as in “dead.” We were trying to figure out (or remember) what was located there originally…these whitish, hollow-looking branches, devoid of any signs of life, just stuck out of the ground. One of the last hard freezes must have gotten them…I assumed.

Suddenly Anne cried out: “Look!” At first I saw nothing…but then way down inside one branch…a teeny-tiny, microscopic speck of green appeared. We started laughing joyfully…as if we were heart surgeons and had just heard the first beat of life again. In the plant world…green means life.

Two days later…when I returned…several other shoots had started popping up…the two plants are hydrangeas. They both survived the cold winter we had.

Patience and surprise! Life is amazing…if it is given any micro-chance of survival, it will do just that…survive!

In the Talmud…there is a belief that “Each blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, “Grow, grow.”

“If you’re green, you grow…if you’re ripe you rot.” Kermit the frog had it right all along. In order to keep growing, both physically and spiritually, we have to continue to stay green…to stay open to new experiences and challenges. We have to deliberately choose to keep growing.

Yet…don’t we fight this every day? We spend much of our lives trying to protect ourselves against life…to get past the constant “green” of change in the early stages of life and get settled into a “ripe” sense of security …good health, abundant savings, and controllers of time.

But no matter how hard we try to outsmart life…it always wins. Life doesn’t allow complacency and “security.” It is a series of challenges from the time we are born until we die. In order to live…in order to continue producing “green sprouts” year after year…we have to quit fighting the ups and downs of life…and instead accept them for what they are…life.

Most of us have to get backed in a corner to accept difficult changes in our lives…until we eventually arrive “at the day when the risk it takes to remain tight in the bud is more painful than the risk it takes to blossom.”  * (Anais Nin)

Life is constant change and  growth… We must continue to fight the odds, to find the courage to produce one more tiny speck of green, to let go of the familiar, and instead, show the world our unique bloom in it.

So far…in my garden…here are the plants who came out fighting again this year…many against the odds…and are now blooming (or on the edge of blooming) because they stayed “green” and open to new possibilities.

* Before I show you these garden pictures….(speaking of possibilites) let me digress and share with you an email I just got back from Kelly Rae Roberts…a leader in the “Possibilitarian” movement and one of my favorite artists.

I showed you several photos from her home and a variety of her artworks and designs in the blog titled: Celebrate Everything

On a whim (since I love whimsy) I wrote Ms. Roberts and told her what I a fan I was of her creative artworks…I felt a strong connection to her outlook on life as expressed through her artistic talents.

I sent in a few pictures…several containing works of hers I had purchased over the years…. in my whimsical Happy Room.

The next day, after sending the email and photos, I got this response from Kelly Rae Roberts.

Kelly Rae

…………………….

Here are some photos of the survivors so far popping up in the garden.

So until tomorrow….Thank you God for patience and surprise…they allow us to grow in Your design for us.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Let me interrupt this blog reading for a very important announcement: Which way did you vote?

*** The baby is a : BOY!

weighing in at 9 pounds 13 ounces and 22 1/4 inches…a BIG little brother for Rutledge!

He missed most of the St. Paddy’s celebration (arriving around 10:30 last night) but he is the celebration himself to all of us! Walsh and Mollie are narrowing down names and the baby’s name will be announced soon.

The voting contest ran 31 votes for a BOY- 13 for a GIRL (Johnny…you get a 1/2 vote for being right half the time) You blog readers are equally as good as predicting genders as you are with prayer results….thank everyone who participated…you “done” good!

Anne Peterson is the real psychic, however, as she told me two weeks ago she had no doubt the baby was Irish and waiting for St. Patrick’s Day to arrive…Way to go Anne…you nailed it on the head!

Yesterday the blog talked about the “afterglow” of life and I mentioned the special moments after birth …that sacred, beautiful time between mother and child is probably the most special afterglow of all. Look at the following picture of Mollie and baby… it proves the point.

Dear Reader:

A good portion of the Unity of Charleston’s service last Sunday dealt with (what we Presbyterians would call “silent prayer”)…quiet times of reflection after each reading or discussion. Instead of just one time to pause and reflect in prayer or meditation…this ritual was done in intervals throughout the service.

“Be Still and Know that I am God” becomes an important part of the daily life of each congregational member of this church.

It reminded me of a demonstration I used to do in workshops on student retention and achievement. Some teachers were trying to “cram” the standards into a classroom period of so many restricted minutes…and sigh in relief when the dismissal bell rang…congratulating themselves that they had gotten all the material and standards “covered.”

What they didn’t realize was that the fast-fed information was “covered” so shallowly that a slight wind could blow the covering away… leaving an (exposed) empty brain.

To demonstrate this…I took a pitcher of water and a drinking glass and started pouring….the object was to get the entire pitcher of water into the glass. Impossible, you say? Yes…if you did it the way some teachers were trying to force-feed the students so much material into one little “glass” period.

It always ended disastrously …like  Donald Davis felt when he asked his teacher, Miss Daisy…”May I go to the bathroom? My head is hurting. It is overflowing with all those names of countries and capitals and rivers…I can’t take any more in without something going out…if you know what I mean?”

But if the “pour-er” (teacher) stopped intermittently and gave the students time (a pause) to ingest/drink the information covered up to that point…and then resume teaching…the knowledge was retained longer and the goal was still accomplished.

Shouldn’t we all have time set aside each day…to drink from the “Pitcher of Life?” To ingest God’s Word…question Him, talk to Him, and give praise to our Creator?

One phrase at the church service kept coming back to me after we left….”Remember…God resides in the Now.” “Don’t put off spending time with Him each day in the present moment.”

In an editorial review from The Toronto Star Week about this book…two suggestions are shared with readers that I really liked…

“Life Lesson #21: You must remember: You are here now . . . no, no, now . . . NO, NOW! You are a human being and not a human was or a human will be.

Life Lesson #22: It doesn’t matter how fast you get there if you’re heading in the wrong direction.” —From HOW TO BE HAPPY, DAMMIT” – Offers tasty mood food. . . .a fascinating read.” —The Toronto Star Week

Haven’t we all gone through stages of life when we were a “human was” or a “human will be” but not a “human now?” The major problem with living this kind of life, besides letting life pass us by, is that God lives in the Now…and if we don’t…communication is (obviously) seriously hampered.

When Eva Cate spent the night with me a couple of weeks ago…she started playing with the coasters on the table in the “Happy Room.” Several of them had pictures of St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope on them…some came from Honey and some from the Summerville MS group… for sharing a Christmas story with the group last year.

Eva Cate wanted to know where the chapel was and if I would take her to the mountains…she hadn’t ever seen them. She wanted to know if God lived in the chapel and if that was why I loved to go there. (She takes after her Boo Boo…she’s an “asker”!)

In my “busyness” I almost answered and stopped short with “Yes…God lives there and I love going to talk with Him in this special place to me.”

Instead I started showing Eva Cate the old finger rhyme with hand movements…

Here’s the church, and here’s the steeple
Open the door and see all the people.

A sort of epiphany came over me…I explained to Eva Cate that God doesn’t just live in that one little chapel…waiting for me to come see Him…God is everywhere…because He lives inside all of us. So by just showing up… God has traveled with me /within me to the chapel.  And then by being very quiet and listening…I am able to hear God better there than anywhere else.

…That is why the little chapel in the hills is so special to me.

…And that is why every place of worship is so special…not for the building itself, or the beautiful artwork or pews or stained glass windows…but for the people who bring God with them into the sacred place.

So until tomorrow…1 Corinthians: 3-16. (See below) Let us take time daily to “open the door” to the inner sanctuary of our soul and have a heart to heart talk with God….now…not later.

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

“Today is my FAVORITE  day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Haven’t we all experienced watching the “afterglow” of a sun setting? The sun has disappeared below our visual horizon but a strip (of the most beautiful colors) remains behind bearing a   message from God. There is nothing in life that really ends… darkness is temporary and light always returns.

Scientifically the term “afterglow” is defined as a strip of rose-colored light, sometimes seen in the sky after the sun sets, caused by dust particles caught up in the natural color spectrum of nature.

All I know is that it is beautiful and never ceases to delight and amaze me with its beauty. I’ve always had the feeling, the impression, that the sun has turned around one last time to wave good-bye… before disappearing over the rim of our restricted human visibility… leaving us in darkness.

Of course if we could somehow ride on top of the sun and follow it throughout a 24 hour period…we would know that the sun never experiences darkness…it has simply moved on to light another place in our world. The sun doesn’t see darkness…only we inhabitants of earth do.

There is, however, more than one way, to experience the “afterglows” of life…than, simply, watching a sun set.  Haven’t we ever found ourselves caught up in an atmosphere of warmth and acceptance so stimulating that the “after glow”  stays with us long after it is over?

Every time I do storytelling, a presentation, or workshop I leave on a natural “high” from doing something I love. I usually leave consumed with a floating feeling of accomplishment.  I am, figuratively, basking in the “afterglow” of being able to use my God-given talents to make people laugh or cry or simply feel a part of the human experience. (Our basic need to reconnect to other humans through stories.)

*(One of the greatest moments in life is the “basking in the afterglow” of giving birth. After all the waiting for Mollie…I predict (this blog is written on Sunday, March 15) that the “afterglow” of accomplishment she feels following this baby’s delivery will remain memorable for the rest of her life.)

Like the metaphor of the sun turning around to smile and wave good-bye one last time before sinking below the horizon…I think all of us can do the same thing for the loved ones we leave behind…when it is our turn to sink behind the light of life on earth… in exchange for a new land of light…to see the sun rise on the other side of the horizon in a new frontier called “Glory.”

We can leave beautiful “afterglows” of memories… in the form of smiles, laughter, love, and friendship. We all have the potential each day to add a little more color to our “afterglow” through acts of kindness and generosity… given freely to our fellowman.

I am starting with Eva Cate and working down the grandchildren chronologically…to learn this special little verse (between us) as an “afterglow”….

Loved you yesterday, Love you still

Always have, Always will!

So until tomorrow…may we strive to bring more color into this world so the “afterglows” of our existence demonstrate our contributions to the light in the world during our stay here…for the “Light of the World.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* We are all connected…all living things….as I chose this vase of flowers as my “afterglow” in the first photo….like the bright red in the sky’s afterglow.

* Now you knew I wouldn’t leave today without wishing you the ‘Top of the Mornin’  and wondering if our baby has decided to join in the Irish celebration today. HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

I am trying to keep two days ahead of blogs in case I get the “call.” So this blog was written on Sunday …even though it is now Tuesday.

I feel like I am playing some warped time-capsule game….so who knows…maybe Baby Dingle has decided to make his/her appearance by now….or maybe not? Life is a mystery! And we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Yes?  No?

***** Update: Little Dingle has decided to join in the celebration on St. Patrick’s day! We should have known….a Dingle never misses a good party. Mollie is being admitted at 1:30 this afternoon. The ultrasound done earlier today confirms a big baby….now we just have to wait and see if Rutledge has a “Big” little brother or “Big” little sister. 

…is coming. Say some prayers for the good health of mother and child….here we go! I’m leaving for the hospital! Stay tuned! I am all “aglow!” 

* The glow and (after glow of beautiful English gardens)….you will love this tour! Thanks Joan for sharing!

 https://www.youtube.com/embed/9H9IojB9iYY

These three bunnies are excitedly awaiting the newest little bunny to come join them in time for Easter baskets this year. * They won’t have to wait much longer!

 Mike, Honey, and I went on our annual “pilgrimage” to the St. Andrews Parish tea room…delicious and back in time for all the baby excitement! It was so fun to have the Burrells involved in the impending anticipation!

Dear Reader:

I have always been an “asker” as far back as elementary school…much to the annoyance of one particular fourth grade teacher-Mrs. Persons. (As a nine-year old child I figured she had an “s“on her name because it looked like two people had squeezed inside one body.)

One day she was showing a map of the world to the class and telling us about different places that had been “discovered” by exciting explorers around the world.

I remember my hand shot up and continued waving until, with a quite audible sigh, Mrs. Persons glared at me and said, “Now what Becky?”

  “Mrs. Persons, I exclaimed excitedly, would you show us now all the places in the world that haven’t been discovered yet?”  (In my imagination…I already had my safari hat on and was wacking my way through the darkest jungles of Africa.)

“There are no places left to discover….no frontiers….everything has already been discovered!”

With that Mrs. Persons pulled the map down so hard that it flew up against the back wall as it wound around and around. I can still hear that loud, flapping, banging sound in my mind.

“No more frontiers, no unknown…?” I sank back in my desk, literally crushed at the prospect that there was nothing new to discover…no unknown territory left for me.

Today, of course, I know differently. I am living my life, every day, in the frontier…the unknown land of breast cancer. My medical “weapons”  (into this new frontier for me) are treatments and medications. My personal “weapons” are fortitude, gratitude, and a “multitude” of people and supporters, helping me fight the good fight with God leading the way through the darkest jungles of the unknown.

Inside…I am still that nine-year-old girl asking questions about everything, everyday. I have never met a stranger when it comes to asking questions. If I need a question answered it doesn’t bother me a bit to go right up to a stranger and ask….and nine times out of ten… I end up meeting a wonderful “friend” for the moment.

When Mandy was younger…she was horrified and mortified at me doing this…she would walk down the mall- leaving me behind (disassociating herself from that crazy woman talking to everyone) if I stopped to ask directions. Mandy did not and still doesn’t like asking anybody for anything if she can avoid it.

I think most people (particularly men) are more like Mandy than me. I, however, never think twice about asking a question. Isn’t the first thing we learn in school… is how to raise our hand before asking a question? Sometimes in church if the minister asks a rhetorical question…I literally have to grab my hand from going up in the air to answer it.

I confess. I am a perpetual “asker” and still have trouble understanding why so many people are uncomfortable asking for something they want or need from someone else.

I find myself talking to someone on the phone and saying “Didn’t you ask about this or that…or why didn’t you ask this person that question?” (I am sure to non-“askers” I am extremely annoying!)

Poet, Antonio Porchia, is quoted as saying:

“ It is a long time since I have asked heaven for anything, but still my arms will not come down.” 

Earthly and spiritual asking is certainly a paradox. We are so scared of being denied our request for whatever it is we yearn so for… in life… that most of us never lay it on the line. Instead we fall back on wishful thinking..chained to an unknown fear that never manifests itself because it doesn’t exist.

How easily that chain would break…if we just had the courage to ask? Of course…there are no guarantees we will get the answer we want when it comes to asking but if we never ask…we haven’t got a prayer of a chance to getting what we long for in our lives.

If we enter prayer (Madeleine L’Engle’s definition) treating it as  an “act of love” then we  understand that no matter the outcome, the other Person making the ‘call on the request’ is approving or rejecting the “asking” in our overall best interests.

Just like parents accepting and rejecting their child’s requests while growing up…God understands where we are in our own journey and what “tools” we need or don’t need at the stage of life we are in. But the one thing God doesn’t want us to do…is to stop asking. Because one day He will say “YES” and your life will change accordingly.

“Ask, and it shall be given to you, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.” ( Matthew 7:7)

So until tomorrow….never fear asking…”no” is not a dead-end response…just a detour to finding the right “yes.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Yesterday my brother, Ben, and I attended the Unity of Charleston church to witness Lee and Vikki join it. Vikki’s mother and grandmother were also there (from Florida) and we had a wonderful time reuniting and spending time together.

After the service we went to Cannon Green (beautiful restaurant on Spring street where Lee was playing for their Sunday brunch).. the food was was delicious. While waiting to be served…we explored the courtyard behind the building and it was exquisitely gorgeous. All the plants inside were alive and breath-taking.

Ben and I stopped by John and Mandy’s on the way home…to show Ben the pool and for me to love up on those precious grandchildren…Uncle Ben did too!

These days Jakie is into bouncing and Eva Cate-art. I believe she has inherited the art from her mother and grandmother Joan (BeBe)…Jake got the bouncing from me.

Using foam rubber shapes…Eva Cate made (L to R) Tigger, daddy, mommy, herself, and Jakie!

Dear Reader:

You might remember that I got this angel painting from Ernest Lee, a.k.a “Chicken Man” while we (Ya’s) were getting him to do a personalized painting for Jackson’s birthday last fall.

Mr. Lee was so sweet and (upon finding out about my breast cancer)  added the pink ribbon to this angel I had been studying… while we went to lunch. The only thing was…the head was triangular and looked just like an alien. The first time I posted it…Anne remarked that it was a little strange (as in creepy-looking.) I agreed.

When visitors would come in the “Happy Room” I would catch them doing a ‘double-take’ at the (now called) Alien Angel with the pink ribbon. So finally…a few weeks ago…I asked Anne if she could round out the head perhaps…just a little.

Which, as you can see, she did. She experimented with adding a facial expression and making a few other adjustments… but then stopped. Anything she did ‘major’ to change the angel felt wrong. It was “perfect” (with just a few dabs of paint added to round out the spooky contours) because Ernest Lee’s vision of it was perfect.

She was right.

My almost perfect angel fits right into my almost perfect Happy Room… in my almost perfect house with my almost perfect garden.

I really dislike any kind of perfectionism… so far as having the perfectly organized house, or the perfect cabinets aligned, or the perfect meticulously designed garden….quite honestly…perfectionism makes me nervous.

If I am sitting in someone’s house…perhaps in  a museum type living room…I pray the hostess won’t serve any food and I find, myself, getting so caught up in the sterility of the place that I can actually feel my mouth go dry with fear of spoiling the antiseptic atmosphere.

Madeleine L’Engle wrote several essays and books on avoiding perfectionism in our daily lives. God is Perfectionism…”to be human is to err.” There is a reason for this distinction in God’s Plan.

In one article she wrote on the subject she added an historical tidbit that I found interesting.

“I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect.” (Brainy Quotes)

…Here I go getting another book to stack in my imperfect book shelves…but I discovered a wonderful resource on this subject and decided that I, not only wanted,but needed to read it.

Because, as much as I am not a perfectionist in most of my daily life…it stops with my writings.

It isn’t just that grammar errors bother me…I dislike any of my writings that fail to convey what I intended to say. And I can be really hard on myself when I am just ‘not feeling‘  that a certain topic is being explained well.

So even though most of us would laugh off being perfectionists…if we look closer at ourselves…we all have certain aspects of life in which we really are.

After reading a few excerpts from the author Brande Brown’s book…some lights started turning on in my psyche.

For example:  We can live “perfectly” miserable, stressful lives if we “don’t let go of who we think we should be…but instead “embrace who we (truly) are.”

If we choose to live in a world where we fear what other people think or say about us more than the perfectly imperfect path God has chosen for us…this detour off God’s intended path can get quite rocky. We are making a critical mistake… we are deliberately putting man’s opinion of us above God’s creative plan for our lives.

These following quotes (from the book) made me stop and pause…

“Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.”

“Healthy striving is self-focused: “How can I improve?” Perfectionism is other-focused: “What will they think?

Brown uses the term, wholeheartedness,” for the goal we should be striving for in our lives.

“Here’s what is truly at the heart of wholeheartedness: Worthy now, not if, not when, we’re worthy of love and belonging now. Right this minute. As is.”

Perfectionism simply means we haven’t learned to love ourselves… as is.

“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

So until tomorrow…Let’s leave perfection to God and instead follow His guidance in this imperfect world to bring light to others in any imperfect way at our disposal. Let us strive to become recovering perfectionists, “Good Enoughists“… in God’s opinion.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

My lovely, beautiful niece (Ady Grace) had her birthday party yesterday…Looks like fun darling! Happy Early Birthday! Aunt Becky is sending you a birthday “surcie” back with Ben today!

Dear Reader:

In a perfect world…every baby should arrive with banners whipping in the breeze, balloons bearing personal inscriptions and well wishes, thousands of people waiting outside the delivery room and cheering…all chanting the same thing:

“Welcome to the World Little One… Always Remember… Along Your Journey: “YOU ARE LOVED! YOU ARE LOVED!”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if along our life journey, stickers, notes, or cards would suddenly appear with these three most important words for life on it: YOU ARE LOVED!

NO matter where you travel or how far you roam…you would never be too far away…to  not be able to find a “You are Loved” direction clue.

Don’t we all need reminders in our daily lives that we are loved? We all rush around, living our busyness, until we suddenly find ourselves adrift from others and even our inner selves. We no longer feel loved…we are simply living life “doing” and we have forgotten how to live life “being.”

The amazing thing about birth is …no matter all the busyness leading up to it…when newborns arrive and mothers take the first look at their baby… time stops and a “kairos” moment, (those eternal moments we only get a glimpse of on this earth) begins. These are the moments that stayed locked up in the most important treasure chests of our minds and memories.

I now keep “You are Loved” cards with me and give them out randomly…the startled looks on people’s faces when I hand someone (in the grocery line or shopping line) the sticker card is always amazing.

Recipients usually read it twice… as if they can’t believe they are love-able enough to deserve one. But then a big smile spreads over their faces…and they mumble “Thank you”…a little embarrassed… but also secretly delighted I believe.

Isn’t that what every soul longs for…to be recognized and loved for the sake of love? I think so and certainly every newborn deserves to know and sense this from all of us…that no matter how tough life gets…they are loved! It is really all we need to know.

You Are Loved

When the road seems too long
When darkness sets in
When everything turns out wrong
And you can’t find a friend
Remember ~ you are loved

When smiles are hard to come by
And you’re feeling down
When you spread your wings to fly
And can’t get off the ground
Remember ~ you are loved.

When time runs out before you’re through
And it’s over before you begin
When little things get to you
And you just can’t win
Remember ~ you are loved.

When your loved ones are far away
And you are on your own
When you don’t know what to say
When you’re afraid of being alone
Remember ~ you are loved.

When your sadness comes to an end
And everything is going right
May you think of your family and friends
And keep their love in sight
A thank-you for being loved.

May you see the love around you
In everything you do
And when troubles seem to surround you
May all the love shine through
You are blessed ~ you are loved.

by Roger Pinches

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So until tomorrow…Let us never get too busy to lose sight of the fact that God packed a special message in each of our hearts before arriving in this world… “Remember…You are Loved.” God.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Anne just realized that today is PI Day (we could always remember the baby’s birth with chocolate pies, lemon pies, sweet potato pies)….am loving this idea…what you think Little Dingle….or are you still holding out for St. Patrick’s Day?

It IS all about love, isn’t it? BTW, wouldn’t Pi Day (3.1415), 3/14/15 be a great day to be born?

* Libby (Tima) revised the following message to her daughter Betsy and Keely (her son Robby’s wife) when they were both expecting ….she said she would be glad to share it now with Mollie and anyone else somebody might be thinking of….it is so poignant!

These Last Few Hours

It is important to me that I spend a part of the next few hours

   here alone with you in the darkness.

You and I will never be this close again….by morning you will be a tiny person all your own!

No longer the kicking precious bulge in my body that I have grown to love so very much!

I pray God will safely guide us on our journey and I ask Him for the strength to help you all I can!

Again, I feel you signal your impatience to be free……Time to wake up your Daddy!!!!

Love, Tima

…………………..

You might remember that for Christmas Mandy and John decided to give each other a family gift that will keep on giving…a pool. The landscapers just finished up….and….! (All the extended family is delighted, too….Pool Party!!!!)

Dear Reader:

We have all heard the expression: “Still waters run deep” and we think that this is what is going on with our baby. Mollie and I are running around like crazy women to keep our minds off the delivery delay ( “delay” from the perspective of earlier predictions) and our little gentle baby is sleeping and quietly going about his/her life… calmly and deeply contemplating  the momentous challenge looming closer and closer.

After the Walterboro  fun-spree Tuesday I left to go back to Walsh and Mollie’s to stay since Walsh has been on night shift…I spent Tuesday night and Wednesday night there…leaving mid-morning yesterday with Walsh safely back home to ‘guard the castle.’

Wednesday Mollie asked if it would suit me to go with her to Lowe’s and get some plants for a wooden wheel-barrow planter…that needed sprucing up. She said she wanted to stay busy and keep her mind off the baby and concentrate on other activities. By the end of the day…we had completely filled the wheel-barrow with spring plants, two hanging baskets, and an aluminum planter with different greens.

Of course, I was thrilled…What fun we had…picking out a variety of flowers at Lowe’s and then heading over to the Hidden Ponds Nursery near Awendal. It was my first time visiting there and it was delightful!

As much as Mollie tried to out-run her thoughts on the impending birth…I caught unguarded moments when she was more reflective than the “hidden pond.”

We had fun too…we found a single putting area…and let’em rip…For once in my life…I got a hole-in-one!

Wednesday night I gave Rutledge a bath while Mollie cleaned the supper dishes. Rutledge is definitely sensing a change in the air…he wants to be surrounded by Mommy and Da-da, Poo-Poo (Poogie the dog) and Boo Boo.

I was able to get a shot of Mollie reading him a bedtime story…Poogan, who never sleeps in the room or near the crib…came in and plopped down…as if she, also, senses a change is coming and now  is very protective of Rutledge.

The last book Mollie read was one I had given Rutledge (at his birth) and now it was time for another baby to be the main character in the story…I had forgotten some of the passages and was startled to find myself tearing up over the ending of one special tribute to little Rutledge and now for another….

I think it was the passage about the geese that got me going because every morning (it seems) now I hear them flying overhead…

So whenever you doubt how special you are, and you wonder who loves you, how much and how far, listen for geese honking high in the sky…( they’re singing a song to remember you by)

And the last page…

Heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn…on the wonderful, marvelous night you were born.

(By the last sentence…both Mollie and I were gulping!)

I met Anne for lunch yesterday after getting back from Mount Pleasant. She came over to see the garden and lend me a hand getting the moon flower seeds ready for planting soon and getting up my last fence  art decor that has been sitting on the ground for months now. Last week the Bradford Pear had one bloom on it and now…the tree is 75% covered.

As I arrived home “Big Red” was there to greet me with two buds in bloom and the third almost …open!

While at Hidden Pond nursery I picked up some different sun-loving purple plants and have just about finished putting peat moss and pine bark around all the plants in the garden. Whew!

My yard is filled with bulbs from Harriett Edwards and I love bulbs because I never can remember what is going to pop out…it is like Christmas every day in the garden!

Here’s my latest artwork I bought for the fence.//and some of my purple beauties.

I told Mollie about the touching tribute Beverly Barutio (creator of St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope) gave her children in the dedication of her book on poetry (Poetry for Lovers) – I think we all need to have a card and pen ready when Little Dingle arrives.

You are the flesh

of our flesh

Blood of our blood

But more than this

You are our

“Thank you” note

To God.”

…………………………..

So until tomorrow…”Little Baby…come out and see…the wondrous world awaiting Thee. Leave the heavens high above and come to earth to bring more love.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Before I left Wednesday I accompanied Mollie to the hair salon to get Rutledge’s hair cut. You might remember from my first blog back (November 25) titled “Cutting Our Losses” this is not one of Rutledge’s favorite things to do.

He held out pretty good with just a few tears before the end (with all his ear problems/tubes…he thinks the stylist is going to do something to his ears)…I don’t blame him a bit for his apprehensions…he’s been through a lot with those ears and tubes.

*Brooke sent me this fun website…it tells you what song was the most popular when you were born….mine was “Buttons and Bows” by Dinah Shore.

http://playback.fm/birthday-song

Dear Reader:

During a question and answer period one day Madeleine L’Engle (popular children and adult author) was asked a question from one of the students in the audience. “How do you keep coming up with ideas for stories? 

This time L’Engle remembered a story she had once been told to answer the question:

“The most asked question that I generally receive is, “Where do you get your ideas?” That’s very easily answered. I tell a story about Johann Sebastian Bach when he was an old man.

“A student asked him, “Papa Bach, where do you get the ideas for all of these melodies?”

And the old man said, “Why, when I get up in the morning, it’s all I can do not to trip over them.” And that’s how ideas are; they’re just everywhere. “

That’s the way I feel when I get asked the same question…”How can you come up with a story idea each day? My response…”How can I not?” As long as I am breathing..I am surrounded by stories.

I decided to put myself to the test…to take a photo of five different objects that surround my computer and tell a little anecdote about each object..without ever getting up from my computer desk.. to remind ourselves how we are all surrounded with stories… all the time.

I received this Indonesian “storyteller”  for my birthday one year from my good friend, Carol Poole, when we used to travel together doing social studies/story workshops. The “storyteller” now sits atop the computer desk to remind myself that the one activity left that can still bring children running from their “cyberspace lives” is the question “Would anyone like to hear a story?”

This little “fella” sits on top of my computer desk for a special reason which I will tell you in a minute.

I always associate my “Boll Weevil” with Bishopville, SC-home of the Cotton Museum and the infamous Lizard Man sightings.

I was on a state committee to evaluate the high school there and stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast whose owners, of Scottish heritage, had Scottish paraphernalia scattered throughout the house. The owner even took me to the cotton fields, outside town, to show me where the Lizard Man, supposedly, lived when not scaring people.

The reason for the boll weevil sitting on top of my computer desk is told in a little story attached to the weevil itself…

Since being chased from the cotton fields, Boll Weevils have chosen a new occupation. As graduates of the Boll Weevil University School of Computer Sciences, these Weevils sit near your computer and protect it from harmful computer viruses.  Once more you can feel safe in this electronic age, knowing that a highly trained “Boll Weevil” guards your vital information.

  After delivering my 1002nd story to beat Scheherazade’s previous 1001 Arabian Night stories…the Ya’s got Ernest Lee (Chicken Man) to paint several symbolic benchmarks in my life and this was one – a painting of my ‘chicken self’ sitting on a boulder with pen in hand… finishing up my 1002nd story for the victory.

It was only after the celebration… that I had to make the first decision to continue writing the blog or go out on a high note…it was then that I realized the blog had become a life-line for me. If I had stopped the blog then…I never would have met so many amazing readers and friends…like you!

 When I retired from teaching at Alston Middle School, having spent three decades within its walls, before going to the district office…the Alston “family”gave me this wood-cutting, as a memory, of my stay there. So many memories of students and fellow teachers…I get a lump in my throat every time I glance up from typing and see this special school that gave me a second home.

 I was given this plaque one year at a teacher Christmas exchange and it always makes me smile. But just recently it also reminds me of a funny incident that took place when Eva Cate spent the night with me a couple of weeks ago.

On the way to my house we were listening to the radio and I was shaking my head and shoulders to the music. I heard Eva Cate giggling in the backseat…she said “Boo Boo…you act crazy sometimes.”

I replied, “Do you mean that it has taken you this long to figure that out, Eva Cate? I thought you were a  smart little girl.”

“Well now that you have we will have to write down the “historical” date (when we get to the house) when you figured out that your Boo Boo grandmother is C_R_A_Z_Y!” Eva Cate just burst out giggling again.”

The plaque is right “Well-behaved women rarely make history” but crazy grandmothers will be remembered forever.

So until tomorrow…Need a story…look around you!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh