Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

When I taught middle school and would tell someone what I did for a living…usually a look of sheer horror would cross their face…middle school! Are you crazy! The worst age possible!

Since my first teaching job (right out of Erskine College) was at Alston -Junior High- as it was called at that time…one year out of segregation…one year into integration…I never knew there were other grades possibly less demanding.

That is until I became the Social Studies Specialist for the district and realized that I probably was more suited for elementary than secondary grades…but, to tell the truth, I adored my little harmone crazy adolescents.

The first year I taught…I, along with a handful of other baby boomers entering America’s classrooms, was sent to a conference on classroom management and discipline. It was pretty boring until the luncheon started.

We all had name plates at numbered tables to sit at and I found myself with a ‘seventy-something’ year old retiree beside me. The funniest person I have ever  met… before or since this encounter. She had me in stitches…laughing so hard…I can’t remember ever eating lunch that day.

She was complaining about the inept advice she was hearing concerning middle school classroom management. She reassured me that she could help me in five minutes just by remembering these three things:

“When you teach middle school …you can safely assume that the three “H’s” are present in your classroom.”

1)  Hungry: Middle Schoolers are always hungry. That is why you find candy papers all over your classroom after your students have left. Oh they are tricky about getting the food in the mouth (without you seeing it) …but the left-over garbage, on the floor, gives them away.

2) Hormones: They are bouncing off the walls…shooting out this way and that way…by spring each year…you will feel like you need to hose down everything in the room. Every feeling, good/bad, love/hate are magnified during the middle years.There will be lots of tears… so keep spare boxes of tissue on your desk.

3) Horny: There is no way getting around it…all the boys can think about are girls and all the girls can only think of boys. Thank goodness, most of the time, it stops with  thinking and daydreaming…but watch out for the “mavericks” in the class…they will lead the weak ones down the primrose path if you aren’t careful.

Now if you can handle the 3 H’s …God bless you…you have earned a special place in heaven…Congratulations! You are a middle school teacher!

Years later…as I ( exhausted by the end of the day) would glance in the desk openings ….only to see candy wrappers stuffed in almost each one… and then stop to hand Susie another tissue because Sallie told Edna who told Susie that the boy she had a crush on thought she was a real nerd…

…And the gossip circling the eighth grade hall was that Billy almost “got it on” with Judy under the P.E. trailer…but a mouse ran by just in the nick of time…well, I remembered my old dining partner and her advice about the “Three H’s.” She was right on every account!

God bless ’em, though, these same young adolescents were the most giving creatures in the world. They still believed in right over wrong and helping others.

* (A little advice) If you ever want to raise money for a community project…”Sic”a bunch of middle schoolers to the task and you will raise more money than you ever imagined!

So when I came across this true story…it really hit home. How I loved my young “Wonder Years” students!

“Share a Smile”

When I was in middle school,I got mad at my parents because they would never give anything to the homeless that would pass us by.

On a family vacation in Washington DC there was a homeless man down the street who would say the same thing “food, money, a smile?” My family always walked past with our eyes at our feet.

On our final day in the city, when my parents went for an evening walk I snuck out of our hotel room and ran down the street to the homeless man. He looked at me with curiosity, surely not expecting anything from a middle school girl. I asked him what he would have for dinner if he could have anything in the world. He replied ‘lunchables’.

I ran into the grocery store down the block and bought 5 lunchables, 3 bags of chips, one chocolate bar, my favorite candy, 1 smoothie, 1 juice, and a bottle of water. I ran back outside with a grin on my face and handed the three grocery bags to him. His smile has been in my mind ever since.

I ran back to the hotel room and when my parents returned my dad told me he had a story for me. He asked if I had remembered the homeless man down the street from our hotel and I shyly nodded. He then told me, with a grin on his face, a story of how as they were returning from their walk the homeless man was sharing grocery bags full of food with other homeless people around and they were all smiling and laughing as they ate.

I smiled at my dad but never to this day have told him the true story of that homeless man. The next morning my mother saw the homeless man with a ‘mile-wide smile’ as she describes him at the Starbucks across the street buying a fancy drink with dimes. She then went on to lecture me of the importance of dignity.

 I still haven’t forgotten that man’s smile but I wish I had the courage to do this more often. One small fearless act by a middle school girl can begin a ripple effect of smiles and dignity. So please, share a smile and give some dignity to the homeless even if you can’t afford to help them.

-Amanda Stapp-

………………………….

Isn’t it sad that, as adults, we sometimes lose that freely given gift of unconditional help by adding judgmental criteria to our giving? Aren’t we glad God doesn’t do the same for us when we need help?

By our own actions we teach our children how to give. We must remember “Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” ( John Whitehead)

So until tomorrow… (C.S. Lewis) “Nothing that you have not given away will ever truly be yours.”

* If we could somehow musically combine this C. S. Lewis quote and today’s story…it would sound like this: one of my favorite country songs: “What We Give Away” (Vince Gill/Sheryl Crow)

Gives me chills every time I listen to it!

Vince Gill & Sheryl Crow – “What You Give Away” (Live …

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I remember the first time before entering St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope…stopping to read the scripture outside the entrance (one of my favorite verses…and as I recall, Pap, yours too.)

It was the Welcome sign “Everyone Welcome” however, that grabbed my full attention…especially the words under it….stop – rest- reflect. 

And that is exactly what happened inside the chapel and inside me. My life, as I knew it, up to that moment “stopped.” I felt the weariness and burden of  worry over an on-going sickness dissipate…leaving me feeling more “rested” than I had in a long time. Then, after understanding the story and history behind the chapel’s creation…I took time to “reflect” on the miracle behind this mountain chapel in the hills.

It was that very day that I first grasped the idea that, not only were miracles real, they happened on a constant basis in all our daily lives. But in order to “see” them we first have to believe in the Creator behind them.

We have to believe in a power so far beyond the human capacity to comprehend…we have to believe in the greatest power on earth – LOVE. God is Love. We can not separate the two words…they are one and the same. My first epiphany.

The “Presence” I felt that late afternoon… sitting in the little chapel with lengthening shadows streaking the walls within… (like a crystal prism) from the stained glass windows…has never left me. What I felt was LOVE. Unconditional love!

And it is that love that  draws me back year after year to St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope. I need to partake of that nourishment of love…to envelope my body and soul in it…to last me until the next visit.

On most of my return trips lately…one or more of the Ya’s have gone with Honey and me to the chapel. Like myself…they, too, are pulled back to this special place and want to capture the peace and stillness (beyond description) found there. (It is well worth the trip to do so.)

It was on our last return to St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope that something quite special happened. It has taken me a few months to absorb the enormity and uniqueness of a few moments that all of us shared together.

At some point in the last couple of years…someone has left a jug with healing waters from Lourdes in one corner of the room. This time…without any questioning…we shared a blessing while sprinkling the other with the healing water.

Besides the blessing uttered for each of us…there was complete silence. Complete reflection. It was nothing we later talked about…it just was… the power of living in the moment and everything that defines that thought.

For all of us…facing our own demons in the form of  “illnesses” and personal challenges…this bond of united strength, through friendship, was felt…along with pure love…for our fellow man…through Christ.

Enough said. Some happenstances in life don’t require discussion or conversation…they just require a prayer of gratitude for a special moment shared with friends.

It is amazing what can happen when we let go of our human inhibitions and let God lead us to His world of compassion and reassurance that He is in charge and everything is just the way it should be…it is all good.

So until tomorrow….“I will lift up my eyes until the hills from whence cometh my help.”

From the photo below…you can only imagine, especially in the fall, how those words take on a deeper meaning by the beauty that surrounds you…

 “Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE AND MARCIA!!!! Just think…both of you were born on Robert E. Lee’s birthday….no doubt both parents shared the same excitement…Lee, a southern boy, and Marcia…a northern gal! Lee even got his name from the southern general and I have no doubt Marcia’s middle name must be Lee too. Right Marcia?

* With I-26 a parking lot near the Summerville Exit (John and Mandy/children returning from the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia Saturday afternoon pulled in for a much needed bottle for Jake and ear plugs.

Eva Cate and I got to play…there are no such words as Stop-Rest- Reflect in a four year old’s dictionary…so play we did!

Dear Reader:

What a day May 29, 2013 was…a day that I honestly didn’t know would ever come to fruition! It was the day I told the 1002nd blog story to beat the famed Scheherazade and her 1001 stories in Arabian Nights!

It all started with a comment from a wonderful lady who used to substitute at our school when I was teaching at Alston Middle. I bumped into her waiting on a prescription at CVS one afternoon… soon after the blog had started in 2010.

She came running over to me and we greeted each other with a hug…it had been years since we had seen each other. She told me that she had heard about my blog and how I was posting a story each and every day.

“Imagine…writing something every day,” she said. “But then I told someone that you were always the teacher of a 1000 stories.” I remember thanking her and then my name was called for my prescription pick-up. She left and I almost forgot the conversation until later in the night when I couldn’t sleep…(was going through chemo at that time.)

Something she said was nagging at me….”the teacher of a 1000 stories.”  Then it hit me…Scheherazade and her 1001 stories in Arabian Nights. With my health condition still ambiguous at best…I felt like I needed some goal to concentrate on to keep my mind off the different medications, as well as, different treatments with their own unique side effects.

I decided to start the contest on my Aunt Eva’s birthday (as well as my two cousins birthdays) August 31, 2010 ( using the computer calculator to figure out the finish date) and end it with the 1002nd blog on May 29, 2013.

During this period…at the bottom of every blog….the number of blog/stories left to write were given until the triumphant day arrived! I had ‘skunked’ Scheherazade with my 1002 blog/stories.

My daughter, Mandy, made a banner for the occasion and added an Arabian cap (on an old photo of me) for my victory decor!

We also had Scheherazade cupcakes and gave everyone in attendance a “Blooming Buddy” seed of happiness….(here is where they came from Honey. Thanks again!)

I received an Ernest Lee (a.k.a.) Chicken Man painting from my Ya’s (unbelievable!)….the book of 1001 Arabian Nights  (title picture) from Jo and the adorable Colby.

So many friends and family and so many lovely mementos to remember this celebration of life!

The “contest” ended up being more than a competitive challenge between me and a fictitious character.

 Scheherazade and I shared one big similarity…she was telling stories to save her “head” and I was telling stories to keep my “head” above water too. And my heart and my soul!

For both of us storytelling was a “life line.”

………………….

I will continue to use my original story about myself as an autobiography (About Becky Dingle) for readers…though, at some point, in the near future, I need to do some updating there too.

However…the main thoughts behind the people in my life who have taught me how to use stories to carry me over the rough terrain of life are still the same… near and dear to my heart.

And as I plan for a storytelling session for next week…Kermit’s quote comes crashing into my memory: “When you’re green you grow…when you’re ripe…you rot.“

As long as I can still tell a story and help someone along the way…I can stay “green” and excited about this thing we call life.

So until tomorrow…Thank you Father for Your stories given freely to us to use as a road map for our return to You.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Love telling stories!

Dear Reader:

It was time to “clean house” and Saturdays are notorious for just these types of chores…except in this case…”cleaning house” was my blog format.

On the right hand column of the blog…were certain links that lead to nowhere. If anyone wanted to know, for instance, what the contest with Scheherazade was all about ….they sure weren’t going to find out by clicking on the information…it just took the blog reader to a “no permission to use” (quite negative sounding) page.

If a blog reader started to  read the story (About Becky) on the right hand column, the story died out after Read More instructions…. leaving the reader lost with no ending.

And then I realized that new readers had no clue why I chose the title of my blog to be Chapel of Hope Stories? What was St. Jude’s  Chapel of Hope and its connection to me and the blog…and you…as fellow journeymen?

Yep…it was definitely time to clean and update the blog. Like all cleaning chores…it wasn’t easy-beginning was the worst part…but once I got started I felt so much better having taken the time to do it.

So today….let me share the changes with you and then from now on….you can just click the icons on the right and pull the updates/stories any time you wish.

Let me start with the Chapel of Hope Connection: (the beautiful title picture today is of the little stream and woods behind St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope in Trust, North Carolina)

The Chapel of Hope Connection

I realize for some of you new readers…you might be wondering why I chose the title for my blog as: Chapel of Hope Stories. It’s a good question and the answer is one that produced a life-altering detour in my personal journey through this life on earth.

I will have to take you back in a time-capsule to July of 2010…the year I first saw St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope in Trust, North Carolina.  I had been fighting breast cancer for two years at the time…having already had two surgeries, two rounds of radiation and chemo. It was an uphill battle. But, quite honestly, my thoughts were not on treatments, at that time, but on my new grand-daughter, my first grandchild, little Miss Eva Cate.

 She was born April 27, 2010 and you couldn’t budge me from her side. I thanked God day and night that He let me live long enough to see that beautiful symbol of new life and hope.

So when my friend, Honey Burrell, called and asked me to come spend a few days in the mountains with her and her husband, Mike…I kept thinking of excuses why I had to stay home.

Finally Mike got on the phone and told me that he had discovered a special place with a special story…that he had already shown  to Honey… and they both agreed that it would prove even more special to me.. He had caught my curiosity and wonder…how could I not go see this place?

From the moment Honey and I drove up the gravel driveway and I first laid eyes on the little doll-house sized chapel…I was in love! When I entered the chapel I immediately felt a presence there….warm and inviting. Newspaper articles about the creator of the chapel lined the walls and I began reading.

Dear Reader:

I sincerely hope that we all wake up to sun today…as the weathermen (women) have promised…and we can actually walk on the real sunny side of the street.

When Anne and I met at Oscars Wednesday for lunch…a fair portion of our conversation dealt with how our criteria in picking men have changed….when we were young….looks took center stage on our priority list…followed by nice and a good personality.

Now at the age we are…these priorities have changed…to Anne religion (being a Christian) plays a big part on her priority list… we both agree that looks have fallen to simply “okay looking”….but not necessarily drop dead gorgeous.

I told Anne that humor topped my list and she agreed it was high on hers too. I like to be surrounded by people who do ‘walk on the sunny side of the street’ …the “half glass full” people…who make me laugh!

So today (with hopefully the sun out to let us know it’s still alive and well) I think we should have some sunny stories…I found two in the Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul that made me smile and even chuckle.

The first story deals with chickens and roosters…thus the reason for the title picture. This is actually an ink print drawing (done on fabric) that the late/great local artist (“Sammy” Ravenel Gaillard) gave me many years ago when I worked some Saturdays each month in his art gallery.

Sammy was a very private person…but when you got him showing you pictures and photos from his past…it was quite a window into another world that most of us just dream about…a gilded age from another time.

…………………….

But now… back to a fun story on some fowls that made one gardener’s mood go “foul” and what she did about it.

“A Few Strings Attached”

Marcia E. Brown

This story is told by a granddaughter about an incident she remembered growing up… concerning her grandmother’s pride and joy in the form of a three acre flower garden in Oklahoma.

One day….her beautiful garden was attacked! A neighbor’s rare game hens escaped their pens and ran to the garden eating seeds, bedding plants, and small shrubs.

At first her grandmother tried to be diplomatic and explained the problem to the neighbor…but with no results…no fence or other precautionary measure was taken to contain the hens.

Finally….Grandmother’s patience had had it….and her temper caught up with her red hair. First she began scribbling notes on pieces of paper. Then she threaded kernels of corn on pieces of string. On each “corned” string she attached a note.

When the hens descended the next day they quickly gulped down the strings with corn and ran off clucking with a note dangling from their beaks. That was the last time we ever saw the hens in the flower beds or gardens again.

It was only later that the whole story emerged with an explanation about the messages on the notes. Grandmother explained:

“Now I wasn’t ugly…in fact, downright neighborly, I  invited my neighbor over for a few meals of chicken…one note might say “roasted chicken tonight with the date” the next… “barbecued chicken and the date” and/or “fried chicken and the date.”

With a twinkle in her eye…she said that her neighbor never took her up on any one of the invitations…imagine!

……………..

“A Bedside Story”

Pat Stone

The second (and last) narrative deals with the power of the story and the gift of a storyteller… in any profession. The author recalls the history of her father, a very popular physician in town, and her memories of all the gifts he would receive each Christmas.

It would take him until late in the evening to finish opening up his presents from his patients…there would be lots of fruitcake, pies, and other sweets, but also $100 bills in pipes and baskets full of colored socks.

As a child the author realized, at some level, how well-liked her daddy was but she wasn’t quite sure exactly why….at least until the day she heard her daddy use his southern storyteller’s charm on his vegetable garden.

She was playing behind a honeysuckle vine when her father arrived at the garden with his basket. He didn’t see her and once his “conversation” with the vegetables began…she sat mesmerized… listening to his skills as a story teller.

“Good evening, Miz Lettuce. You’re looking mighty pretty tonight, young lady. What’s that? Wilted? Nah…you don’t look a day over thirty. In fact, I was hoping you might drop by for supper tonight.”

He then pulled a few lettuce leaves and put them in his basket while moving over to another section in which he straightened up some fallen vines.

“Hey there, old bean, old rascal! Been chasing after the marigolds again, I see. You’re going to have to start staying where you belong-you’re all the flowers talk about anymore you know. Now sit up straight and let me check you over. Hmmm, leaves normal. Flowers, um-hummm. Pods look good. You’re the picture of health, Chief. We just need to fix a few weeds around your roots.”

Moving on…she saw her daddy stop to address the tomatoes.

“Now don’t worry, Miz Tomato, I wouldn’t ignore you. After all you know you’re one of the gals on my short list. Yes, Ma’am you bet-right there at the top.”

When her daddy got to the corn stalks he pulled out a pocketknife and began cutting away at something.

“Calm down, Corn, old pal, you gotta expect a few ear problems as you get older. I promise it won’t hurt but a second. Now…for being so good you get a good, long drink of water; it’ll give you a sense of well-being.”

The little girl watched her daddy whistle happily as he walked away with his basket full of vegetables for supper.

Now she knew what the secret of her daddy’s popularity was: his bedside manner.

………………

So until tomorrow…let us never overlook the opportunity to tell a story… instead of facts.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

  * Please keep the Temple family in your thoughts and prayers…Mollie emailed me yesterday to tell me her Uncle Paul, her father’s brother, had a massive stroke (following a bout with cancer) and is now under hospice care for whatever time he has left.

Again…another type of waiting…which most of us can relate to…It’s difficult at best…but we know God is in control.

* I love Mollie’s “pass it on” during this troubling time…she told me to give someone else a hug today for Uncle Paul. So for Uncle Paul, Betsy, Linda and all who (family/friends) love them going through anxious times…a hug from me to you!

…And a special hug to Jackson…who has come down with the flu! Bummer! We love ya Jackson…fight, fight, fight!

* Linda Carson emailed me with this song  Always There by the Canadian Tenors that really touched her as she listened to the lyrics on her CD…and then yesterday’s daily devotional was titled “Always There“…a God’s Wink in the making for your test today Linda. You will not go it alone… that we do know!

This song is beautiful and the words so reassuring!

The Canadian Tenors, ALWAYS THERE – YouTube – YouTube

* To end on the sunny side of the street….look at what Lee (my nephew) is up to now….or perhaps what he isn’t up to? Go Lee Lee!

Lee Barbour does everything – Charleston City Paper

Dear Reader:

Lately on the local weather reports…I have heard the term “unsettled” ad nauseum. I feel like yelling back at the television “Enough of this unsettled weather….Get settled… and bring the sun back while you are at it!”

When I walked out on the cold, damp, misty deck yesterday I thought that this poor chair summed up my mood. I, too, am feeling “unsettled“…like the  bottom is falling out of my customary happy daily routines…suddenly they seem to be unraveling …leaving a hole or void where I have always felt support.

Different activities that usually get me in a creative or happy place just aren’t quite doing it for me…books aren’t holding my interest enough to finish them, I can’t think of anything I want bad enough in the food category to bother making or especially going to the dreaded grocery store for…I can’t find anything on television that I am excited about watching….I reckon I am just back in the annual January “blahs” funk.

Too much cold, wet weather, and inside time are the obvious culprits…aren’t they? Or are they?

I had several God Winks yesterday morning directing my “blah mood” into a different perspective on my “unsettled” condition.

The first came from a friend’s quote that she posted on Facebook: (Barbara Barfield May…thanks girl…needed to hear this)

“It’s funny cause we ask God to change our situation not knowing He put us in that situation to change us.”

It has taken me a lifetime to realize that if we are looking for security, comfort, constancy….we sure aren’t going to find it here on earth. Once we get past that abrupt truth…and give up the fairy tale endings…we finally begin to grow into ourselves.

The second Wink came in the form of a quote I found:

Emerson said it best:

“People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.”

If our interpretation of security is sameness…  then we are in for a disappointing and bumpy journey through life.. because that definition of security prevents us from considering new possibilities. Emerson believed that some “conflict was necessary in every life to encourage continued growth.“

My third Wink came from an excerpt from Anne Lamotte in the book Stitches.

Most of us can identify quite closely with spiritual writer, Anne Lamotte, and her lament over this same Emerson quote.

“I hate this idea more than I can capture in words < being unsettled> but insofar as I have any idea of the “the truth,” I believe this to be as true as gravity and grace.”

With age on my side now…hindsight has become more revealing and insightful. (My foresight is still limited.) And my hindsight tells me that it was only when I was forced into a corner and pushed into  “change” that new possibilities entered my life that improved it.

For example: It took several “head honchos” at CSU to convince me that I should and could return to school to get my Masters degree…even as a single mom  with two children in college and a third to go. That Masters degree opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me that would never have come to fruition without it.

I realize now that God pushes us out of our little corners of comfort to help us climb the next hill towards our destiny. It is never punitive… He does it out of pure love…unconditional love and grace.

When I saw this “metaphorical” little story….I knew it was a perfect ending to today’s thoughts … So until tomorrow:

Even after all this time the sun never says to earth

“You owe me” 

“And look what happens with a love like that…

It lights the whole sky.”

…………

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* How can I stay too “blah” with my beautiful amaryllis in full bloom?

*…And I didn’t have to cook yesterday or go to the grocery store…met Anne for our monthly Oscars (eat anything you want) rendevouz…I had enough left over for supper and the company had me in “stitches” ….which I needed.

 I found a little prayer that I would like to share with everyone…especially going out to our (Junior) Ya friend Betsy, who is waiting on two more test results, and my wonderful friend, Linda, who is having tests this Friday. Both women are stuck in the health “waiting game”(as Dr. Seuss calls this period of life)… and it is a hard place to be. To Betsy and Linda…

“You Will Get Your Smile Back”

When you’re feeling off-balanced or puzzled

by the detours life puts in your way, trust that

things will eventually get easier. Your hurts will

melt into lessons learned. There will be peace

and possibilities, and you will feel better again.

********

The twinkle will come back to your eyes. There

will be a skip in your step and a big sun

in your sky. The melody will play again to the

song in your heart. Eventually hope will replace

discouragement. There will be answers to your

questions and resolutions to your conflicts.

*****************

Your smile will come back and things will get

better. Just remember…those who care for you

are standing with you, praying for you, and

believing that there will be a favorable outcome

for all you’re going through.

-Donna Fargo-

* Jo Dufford shared a personal story about the connection between the “peace” rose and a memory she has of her mother. Thank you Jo for taking time to respond with this wonderful memory!

Boy! you always stir something good within me with your blog. Today it was memories of Mother’s “green finger”, as everything she planted grew into something beautiful. The story of the peace rose is so inspiring and brings memories of Mother’s peace rose bush, which was always laden with the largest most gorgeous roses, and that, my friend, brings such “peace” and joy to my soul today. Thanks!

Dear Reader:

I enjoyed the rainy Monday to catch up on some reading…and once I did I started skimming through the Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul book. I enjoy the short stories about so many different flowers, plants, and vegetables with a life lesson attached to each.

I had the news on when I got to one story…so I put the book down to listen. It was a report on the terrorism in Paris and how the French police are now trying to track down many of their own citizens who have sided with the terrorists.

A French father was interviewed who kept breaking down saying that his son refused to go to school…he was too scared of what might happen. The father went on to say that the worst part was that he felt he could no longer reassure his son that nothing would happen. He thought he would never see this day in Paris.

Like everyone watching…the story broke my heart. It is like a terrible disease that some ‘lost individuals’ are purposefully ‘catching’ it in order to belong to something. For many countries now…( including the United States) it feels like we are all looking into a giant mirror and like Pogo quoted: “We have met the enemy and it is us.”

When the news moved on to another topic….I picked the book back up and started on a story called “Of War and Roses” by Carol McAdoo Rehme.

This true story begins with a famous French rose breeder, Monsieur Francis Meilland,  frantically searching rows of roses to find the exact rose …the plant which produced the “most breathtakingly beautiful blooms…the masterpiece” of his life’s work.

Time was running out. The year was 1939 and war was on the horizon. The Nazis were destroying small French villages, one by one, spreading defeat and disaster.

Now pressed for time Monsieur Meilland took cuttings from his favorite rose, still untested and unnamed. He began shipping the cuttings to rose breeders around the world. He could only hope and pray that the cuttings would make it and somehow survive.

On the last plane out, before the Nazis took control of the Paris airport…he placed the final rose cuttings in a diplomatic pouch and sent them to the United States.

The war continued for four more long years with shellings and death a part of daily life. Then it happened. A letter arrived from a rose grower in Pennsylvania praising the beauty of the rose Meilland had sent those long years before…the description from the rose grower included adjectives like ruffled, delicate, petals of cameo ivory and palest cream, tipped with a tinge of pink. 

Joy engulfed him…it had survived!

A God’s Wink of some magnitude occurred on the very day that Berlin fell to the Allies….rose growers in California, unknowingly, had gathered at a ceremony to christen Meilland’s amazing rose. White doves were set free to wing their way across the bluest of skies.

And now finally, the fragile rose with no name, which had survived against all odds…received one… on this most important day in the war.

“Peace.”

As I read the description of the rose again and pulled some samples on the internet (not to be used of course)…. an artificial rose that I had placed in Eva Cate’s “B&B” guest bedroom rose in my memory.

I grabbed my camera and hurried over to the bedroom. I stared at the flower…going over the description, from the story, again…and this artificial rose appears to meet every specification.

So until tomorrow…Father, please help us in this latest endeavor..to overcome evil from within…and help us build a better world, a peaceful world…for our children and grandchildren.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* I got back in my “grandmother saddle” yesterday and kept Eva Cate for John to get back to work….and loved every minute of it…manicures and playing hair salon…a real girl day!

When Mandy, John, and Jakie got home I had to stay and play with my youngest grandchild since I haven’t seen him since Christmas with my “forever bronchitis/laryngitis” ….he has discovered his tongue and loves showing it off. The cutest “baldie” baby around in Boo Boo’s opinion!

While babysitting… Doodle called and we got caught up a little…Doodle had given me the most exquisite tea cup/saucer for Christmas. I fell in love with it and used it constantly while keeping hot drinks down my sore throat after Christmas.

But what I had not seen (without my reading glasses) was the information on the bottom of the saucer… it was Royal Albert china…with the name: Dingle Dell! Gotta love it even more!

Gin-g….Murphy’s Law…Been home for five days and no one has dropped in…leave to keep Eva Cate and I miss you and your delicious yummies … then Tim drops by with more fire logs…go figure! But thank both of you so much for your kindness and generosity…I will chew the yummies by the roaring fire…life is good!

* Anne Peterson has been more than up to the “Five Day Challenge” to share three pieces of artwork each day for five days. I love this scene from Bohicket at John’s Island. Anne…your talents amaze me my friend!

Dear Reader:

One rarely hears “winter” used outside of a noun…especially as a verb. When we do…it usually has to do with wealthy “migratory” families and migratory animals…as in these samples:

Henry Flager (Standard Oil) and his family began to “winter” in Palm Beach during the Golden Gilded Age of the 1870’s.

This particular species of birds “winter” in Mexico before returning to the states.

(The rest of us, I suppose, just have to try to hunker down and get through the winter the best we can…wherever we live.)

Even though I am starting to get a little bored with myself lately (forced inside for longer periods of time) I do so appreciate sleeping in on these cold, rainy mornings and not having to meet deadlines all day ….each and every day.

Retirement is a most beautiful gift…and I honestly can never come close to expressing my appreciation to God for allowing me to live long enough to experience it.

I came across another new word (wonderosity) yesterday that sent me in lots of new directions and thoughts…while simply sitting at my computer. I, actually, discovered the word indirectly through an earlier blog quote.

I am forever jotting down quotes that I like and sticking them all around the computer so I can memorize them by osmosis. My favorite for this month started on New Year’s Day. It was John O’Donohue’s blessing for the new year. So beautiful!

“May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.”

The last three words of the quote spoke to me for whatever reason…so I googled the words and discovered an article with several links that produced new ideas and thoughts about winter and wonder.

“Winter Wonder”

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussert

… Philosopher Sam Keen coined the term “wonderosity” to describe the combination of wonder and curiosity. Wonder is a natural response to the reports of our senses; we are dazzled by something in the world around us. Curiosity helps us stay open to new experiences, and it takes us to places where we can be amazed.

Winter can be a wonderland for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. While on the surface the winter world appears drab, especially compared to the riot of summer and fall colors, with wonderosity we can find much to celebrate in these months. Increasing our appreciation for all of God’s Creation by consciously noticing what arouses our wonder is a spiritual practice

 Following their own advice this couple began taking walks while simultaneously taking pictures of strange and fascinating branches from neighboring trees (now exposed in the winter) ….or taking seasonal pictures to compare the beauty of one tree in all the seasons…even the quiet beauty of winter.

* I remember taking an earlier photo from this same location in my house of my Bradford Pear….at that time…the red leaves of autumn were falling and it was beautiful…but I felt the same beauty yesterday on a cold, dreary winter day staring out at the tree in all its quiet dignity…maintaining its secret that inside life was simply waiting for the right time to emerge again to the world with bright green leaves and beautiful white blooms.

Don’t you think wonder, inevitably, brings us closer to God? I love to watch my grandchildren when they don’t know they are being watched…when their eyes are filled with wonder and awe… simply caught up in the moment.

One of the links coming out of this article really caught my interest. The link is a book that talks about finding spirituality and wonder throughout our own homes on a daily basis.

  Several examples and excerpts were freely given from this book and I can see why there was a link between the author and the O’Donohue quote…because both writers see (saw) life through Celtic Christian origins. The following excerpt, from this synopsis, explains this better….

Similar to Celtic Christians, Norris opens her eyes and her other senses to the lessons and the liberations within ordinary activities. She communes with her experiences and savors the graces that come. For instance, while washing, the author prays, “Help me scrub my face free of its masks / so I can return to the true self you gave me.”

While looking at herself in the mirror, Norris hopes she will be able to mirror the will of the Holy One. While arranging flowers, her dialogue with the Creator turns to thoughts of how she and the flowers share the states of blooming and dying.

One of our favorites is “Dusting” where Norris envisions this chore as “a kind of lovemaking . . . the chance to appreciate by touch / what I live with and cherish.” Taking out the trash reminds the author that waste is inescapable, and mending reveals that everything gets frayed over the course of time.

  My personal favorite observation was her metaphor concerning paper around your desk ( It gave me the courage to take this picture of my desk…as is)…

Create an image of a nest of papers on our desk as being a place where we can nurture new things…(like new life from a bird nest.)

*An image of a bird nest with new life….is certainly more visually stimulating than just a pile of papers surrounding the computer.

I have used my “wintering” time to cozy up the Happy Room with quilts on a rocking chair (easily accessible for those long winter naps) and wall changes/exchanges of artwork to brighten new spaces and places.

So until tomorrow… as Socrates said: “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” 

* I had to laugh at this poem that Gunilla Norris created…she found wonder in paying bills…amazing! (I will have to stick a copy of this in my monthly check book/accounting notebook.)

An Excerpt from Being Home: Discovering the Spiritual in the Everyday by Gunilla Norris

In her lovely book about discovering spirituality in everyday life, Gunilla Norris enables us to relish the significance and messages in even menial tasks. Here is a glimpse of how she turns a simple activity into a practice of gratitude.

“Paying Bills”

“Here are the bills again.
I always dread them a little.
They are familiar presences:
first in the mail box, then in the bill drawer,
now on the desk. Services Rendered.
My life is dependent on services rendered.

“Somehow I am glad to pay Richard
for the plowing, Chic for the plumbing,
Walter for fixing the roof. I know them.
They make my life possible.

It is harder to pay the faceless ones
— the ones behind these white envelopes.
Here are the lives behind the heat,
the light, the telephone
— behind the counters and computers.
I want to learn to feel a friendliness toward them.
I want to acknowledge them.

“When I write my checks I want to feel
that I am returning energy in the form of money
for energy given in the form of service.
It is all Your energy. We are only each other’s way
to share in that great service which is Your life
poured out continually for us all without exception.

“Guard me against the arrogance of privilege,
against the indulgence of feeling
that I don’t have enough, and the poverty of spirit
that refuses to acknowledge what is
daily given me. Keep me truthful in knowing
where I spend, where my values actually are.

“Let me not skip this monthly knowing.
Instruct me in judicious spending
and in gratitude with no holds barred.
I want always to give thanks and acknowledgment
to the ones I know who help my life
and to the faceless ones whom I will never know.

*Joan just completed this sketch of Sadie….too adorable!

Dear Reader:

The third amaryllis bloomed yesterday on a cloudy Sunday morning. It brought sunshine into an  (otherwise) rather gloomy, shadowy surrounding…it “restored my soul”…”my cup runneth over.”

What makes it even more special is that there are three more buds about to burst open. So, not only do I get to enjoy the gorgeous bloom today, but I have the excitement of anticipation for three more to follow.

I have mentioned to many of you earlier… that when my marriage went south…I made a promise to myself to buy fresh flowers every week and I kept that promise. I needed it emotionally and spiritually for strength because flowers bring me such happiness.

The purchase of fresh flowers was a personal reward for me for getting through another week with the promise of a weekend and fresh flowers to renew my strength for the next one.

I decided to do some research on the relationship between flowers and healthy living and discovered some new ideas on the subject from different researchers.

Here are some interesting findings from different universities:

 “Flowers and Their Effect on Us”

We all love flowers, don’t we? Now researchers are proving that flowers have a significant positive impact on our lives.

Last year at Harvard Medical School a behavioral research study showed that fresh-cut flowers have an important role in our lives. Psychologist Dr. Nancy Etcoff said, “I’m particularly intrigued to find that people who live with flowers report fewer episodes of anxiety and depressed feelings. Our results suggest that flowers have a positive impact on our well being.” That research study also found that living with flowers can provide a boost of energy, happiness and enthusiasm at work.”

In 2005, a Rutgers University behavioral study had similar findings. Said Jeanette Haviland-Jones, professor of psychology at Rutgers, “Common sense tells us that flowers make us happy. Now, science shows that not only do flowers make us happier than we know, they have strong positive effects on our emotional well being.”

In a Society of American Florists report on that 10-month-long Rutgers study, it is noted: “Flowers have an immediate impact on happiness.  Flowers have a long-term positive effect on moods. Flowers make intimate connections.”

Dr. Andrew Weil, author of “Healthy Aging,” among many other books, includes bringing flowers into one’s home among the eight important steps to aging gracefully. “Any activity that makes you feel more alive, more connected to others and to nature, less isolated, more comfortable with change, is beneficial. It will enhance your physical and mental health.”

Dr. Haviland-Jones of Rutgers agrees. “Happier people live longer, healthier lives and are more open to change. Our research shows that a small dose of nature, like flowers, can do a world of wonder for our well-being as we age.”

…………………………..

This past pre-Christmas season I did something a little different…on the first day of December I took some potted green/red poinsettias to family, neighbors and friends. I had found them on sale at Lowe’s and bought several. I wanted to deliver them earlier this year so the receivers would have almost a full month before Christmas to enjoy them.

I am hoping that the recipients of these Christmas flowers are still enjoying them….since mine is still sitting, as a centerpiece on my dining room table in all its original beauty, for me to seek pleasure in… every day at every meal.

In another article I really liked, titled ” When Life Gets Hard” the author, Geneen Roth, remembers a purchase she made after discovering that she and her husband had lost their entire life savings in a financial scam. She bought peonies…lots of them….that even on sale, were still costly.

I could relate to her questionable purchase…because some times when life gets really hard…we have to grasp the one thing that still reminds us that it is good… that life is still beautiful. Money will come and go…but the moments we live, the beauty we inhale, will be what defines our lives. And now an….excerpts from:

 “When Life Gets Hard” 

I bought thirty-six peonies yesterday at Trader Joe’s. They were having a sale, six stems for $6.99 and although my grandmother would have disapproved—she wouldn’t buy flowers because “they always die”—I decided that staggering beauty was at least as important as Greek yogurt.

As the cashier—a twenty-something woman with pink hair, three silver nose rings and a rainbow-serpent tattoo twining around her left arm—was ringing up one double-ruffled bunch after the other, she said, “forty-two dollars and worth every penny!” (She understood me.) 

Roth goes on to talk about the fear of loss of financial security…but out of these troubled times…she did learn a great life lesson to take with her throughout the rest of her journey.

No one can take your “moment” from you. God has given each of us every single moment in our lives and we should never, ever let another human being destroy our sacred moments of breath…of life.

…after we lost our money, and because wandering one millimeter away from this exact moment (where nothing was wrong or lacking) felt like going insane with grief and terror, I realized that what I had been looking for (in relationships and in success, in chocolate and in wealth but mostly in more of anything or everything) was here the whole time.

In the smoothness of the cup in my hand, in the click of my heel on the pavement, in the sound of the hummingbird’s wings. In the fact that water came out of a faucet when I turned it. It was as if I’d been blind and half-dead for sixty years and was suddenly sprung into a life brimming with color and double-ruffle peonies.

When you’ve lost your money and think you might be living with your dog and your husband in a friend’s trailer and you feel—for the first time—indescribably unbelievably stunningly rich, you realize there is nothing to find or have or get that you don’t already have. You realize that for every doubt, for every fear, for every question you’ve ever had, there is only one answer, and it is now.

………………………….

So until tomorrow….go get some fresh flowers and enjoy them for each moment of their life while doing the same for yours.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Gotta love a man in a tie….

 Please keep Mandy and John in your thoughts and prayers this week…everyone started back to school last week…with all kinds of germ bugs just waiting to attack…John had  bronchitis/laryngitis and was home one day…by the end of the week Eva Cate had the flu and little Jakie had a rash and a cough…with everyone on some kind of medicine…preventive or mandatory.

Let’s hope that good health prevails this week!

Dear Reader:

Buddha said, “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

  Do you remember this flower basket from last Easter when I bought it?…It stayed on the deck all summer and fall until I put it in the garage a few weeks ago….and now stems are changing from brittle brown to green and one orange bloom has emerged…life never ceases to amaze me!

Buddha was right…a single flower is a miracle! Everything about it is so natural. It doesn’t have to think about being ‘natural’…it just is. It doesn’t have to think about being a flower… it just is.

So why do we humans struggle so to find our ‘natural selves?’ Self-help authors and television hosts have gotten rich off this search….one of the most popular ‘catch phrases’ today still is “Be Your Authentic Self.”

When I typed in that phrase…here are some samples of the articles dealing with the theme:

1)“How to Find the Perfect Balance”

2) “6 Ways to Listen to Your Higher Self”

3) “Natural You”

4) Living as Your Most Authentic Self”

5) “In Search of the Authentic Self”

I remember Oprah was /is always saying things like: “being her authentic self was and is the key to her success.”

  Sarah Ban Breathnach used the term “authentic self” too many times to count in her bestseller Simple Abundance. And, then, she followed this up with her second book: Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self  (In this book she takes readers through nine passages to find their authentic selves.) Sounds like a pretty arduous journey to me.

Dr. Phil hopped on the bandwagon with his definition of the term: authentic self: He defines it as : “the you that can be found at your absolute core. It is the part of you that is not defined by your job, your function or role.”

Hunting for our “authentic selves” can be quite confusing…because where is that core again?

While flipping through Simple Abundance yesterday, however, I found a true story that Breathnach told that does resonate with me…we would call it a “God’s Wink” for sure.

Here is an excerpt from her story: “The Golden Mirror Meditation”

For years I have used a special meditation… I call the golden mirror meditation. I visualize in my mind an enormous mirror the size of a room, with an elaborately carved, 24-karat frame. This is my materializing mirror. Those dreams I wish to materialize in my life are first viewed here. 

Now let me share with you an amazing coincidence that a French proverb would suggest is “God’s way of remaining anonymous.” After I had been doing the golden mirror meditation for about a year, I was invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to Dublin, one of my favorite cities. 

I was  to stay at one of Dublin’a oldest, most beautiful, and expensive hotels, the Shelbourne, where I had never been before. When I arrived at the hotel and walked into the lounge, what should I see but the physical manifestation of my daily meditation: a beautiful mirror with a gold-leaf frame that was so large it took up an entire wall of the lounge.

I laughed with delight when I saw my reflection in it, for here was the Universe’s way of demonstrating to me that whatever we visualize in our minds can come to pass in the physical world.  

_____________

At this point yesterday I decided that my “authentic self” was really hungry and stopped to grab some lunch. While eating at the table in my little dining room I noticed that the mirror in there had hand prints on it from Christmas. (All the grandchildren are drawn to the angel chimes that hang down from the mirror)

So when I finished eating…I grabbed some Windex and a cloth and began wiping it clean. It was while I was doing this…that a certain pattern running beside the mirror on the white wooden frame  started taking shape in my memory and suddenly I forgot about the smudges on the mirror. Instead I ran to get my Iphone to take a picture.

While angling for the best position…I didn’t realize, in my excitement, that the mirror was reflecting me taking pictures of it. Here are the results!

  Do you see a pattern on the white frame developing  that looks familiar? Let me enlarge it for you.

  Look at the first figurines right by the mirror…if they weren’t vertical but circular…could they possibly be……”the stones of  gratitude” in my mirror?

*That was the moment of connection caught on my face when I saw what was in my memory…now physically before me.!

I can share Breathnach’s pleasure in this God’s Wink when she said:

I laughed with delight when I saw my reflection in it, for here was the Universe’s way of demonstrating to me that whatever we visualize in our minds can come to pass in the physical world.

Now every time I walk past this mirror a smile of recognition and gratitude will definitely put a spring in my step.

So until tomorrow…thank you God for unexpected surprises and connections of gratitude that have no limits or boundaries…that just come “naturally.”

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

* When I returned yesterday to check on the sasanqua bush…it was pretty much as I feared…all the blooms were brown and wilted….but then I realized that the buds (which stayed wrapped up tight) were still pink and ready to bloom in all their glory.

There must be a parody Kenny Rogers song to accompany this scenario in nature….something like “You’ve got to know when to bloom…know when to hang tight…know when to hide away…from Jack’s frost bite”…. 

* When I received this powerful video clip from Joan yesterday….all I could think of….was…it is naturally us. The premise behind the video is: What if a painter could paint you at birth and see you in every stage of your life…the natural you as you age at each benchmark along your journey?

I don’t think I blinked for four minutes…see if you do! Amazing!!

Aging in a Painting