Sweet Saturday

Caleb's here! Hooray!  

Football in the front yard for the big guys.

Leaf-picking and toddling for the little guy.

Then Emmy and the big boys cook "breakfast for dinner" for the family.

It was delicious!

Sawyer kept calling this our Thanksgiving feast.

And why not?

I am so thankful for sweet times like these.

(Ooooh, Rob, wish you were here to see and be part of this.

Feels like you are...)

And who is that in the background?

It's Mommy taking down the Halloween decorations.

Somebody's got to!

 Touchdown?

 He's walking!

 Go, Daddy, go!

                                                                      Shiny times...

Who-da-thot?!

Mary gave me this sign for my birthday a few years ago.

I brought it home to the Sweet 16,

and the message was perfect for that time.

I soon took it to my office at RWFE,

and the message was perfect for that time.

Then it was in my High Rise at 1001B,

and the message was perfect for that time.

It now sits on the mantel in my Tree House,

and the message is perfect for this time.

Interesting, isn't it, that the words have never changed,

but the message changes in meaning with every new season.

I AM truly astonishing myself these days by

DOING

so very little, 

something of which I am obviously quite capable.

AHA!

Shore Time

Woke up with thoughts and images of just letting myself float gently with the current, back to the shore...along with lots of "debris" from the past that has washed up there...rather than rowing so desperately away from the shore...the past...the place I fear means going backwards or missing out on WHAT'S OUT THERE...I can actually feel myself just letting the waves take me ashore, and just lying there in the sand, not getting up, but trusting that right where I landed is perfectly okay for now...Just lie there...Don't be afraid of what might wash ashore with you...memories I've tried not to remember, thoughts I have tried to not think, feelings I've tried to not feel...They are just pieces of the past...none of them can hurt me...in fact, when I see them now, think them now, remember them now, feel them now, I am doing so with different eyes...in a different spirit...in a new frame of mind...in retrospect...with love and understanding I couldn't have had "back then"...

Let them come...Just lie there...You'll know when you're ready to get up and move on down the beach with expectation, anticipation, and energy for "next"...Right now, though, it's okay to just lie there like a beached whale, helpless to do anything but lie there, knowing that "Help" is on its way, and you will be revived, in time, to get back in the water and "PLAY" again, perhaps in new waters...Who knows?And "Who" can always be trusted.

Courageous CJane

"One of the great things that's happened as I've had a faith shift 

is losing the idea that I know everything. 

When you don't think you know everything 

all you are left with is a sense that there is nothing to do 

but try and love people."

cjanekendrick.com

Speak it, Sister!

Interpretation by Jim Powell

I played the piano for a memorial service this week, 

and reconnected with Jim Powell (one of Jud's brothers), 

who was doing the service.  

He read the following, 

and it made this well-loved scripture come alive for me.  

How nice to reconnect with Jim and this passage in new ways.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-9

I have seen many of the events of life and I have studied how and why things are the way they are.  I have concluded that much of this life is beyond my control and my understanding.  I try to give reasons to the things that happen but there seems to be no adequate rationale.  I try to understand but it continues to be a mystery.  I am constantly being confronted with experiences that are confusing and over which I have no control:

• The times when we celebrate birth and then we experience death,
• the times when we are active and thrilled to participate in life and then the times when we are quiet and withdrawn,

• the times when our spirits suffer and then when we experience healing,
• the times when we laugh heartily and the times when we weep profoundly,

• the serious times and the frivolous times,
• the times we remember and the times we forget,

• times when we feel successful and those times we feel that we have failed,
• times when we persevere and “hang in there” and times when we succumb and abdicate,

• times when we overtly express our love and times when we love but don’t show it,
• times when our hearts are filled with tears of grief and times when our grief is silent and too tired to give expression,

• times when we are the one who gives support and times when we are in desperate need of someone to hold and support us,
• times when we want to be with others and times when solitude is an oasis.

So what am I to do?  How am I to respond when I am in the middle of these confusing and mysterious times?  What is my purpose?  How do I live through these mysterious and difficult events in my life?

“The end of the matter is this: love God.  Trust the ways of God.  For God knows the plight of man; those things that we are able to see and have some understanding, and those things that are mysterious and hidden from sight.”

Meeting Sarah

I went to Walgreen's for my flu shot yesterday and met 94-year-old Sarah.  She was waiting in a chair at the pharmacy after being told she would have to stand in line to receive her paperwork.  The line, it turned out, was for prescription drop-off, and it was long!  When I asked her about the flu shot process, she said she guessed we had to wait our turn in that long line, and she just couldn't stand that long.

Long story short:  I felt sorry for this little elderly lady and told her I'd see what I could do.  Folks in the line overheard us talking about just needing flu shot paperwork, and kindly invited us to step in front of them, so we did.  She commented to me that this would probably be her last flu shot.  When I asked why, she said that for the first time in her life, she was having difficulty doing the things she'd always done, and she feared her health was failing. She seemed quite resigned.

While we waited, both in line and eventually in our chairs, we learned we were both "Sarahs", and that we both indeed had the much-needed "h" at the end of our names. I learned that she was 94 years old, the youngest of 7 children, with a current family of 81 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (she maintains a list of them to keep up with the growing numbers).  

She was married for many years and her husband died; then she re-married and her second husband died of a heart attack after only three years of marriage.  She was "only" 60, and decided to move to Lubbock to be close to her youngest son.  And, she's been here ever since. She is still living independently, drives her car, and keeps her mind active with word puzzles and television.  

By the time we parted with a hug and a "see you later", that "poor little old woman" who looked so weak and helpless when I first saw her sitting in the Walgreen's pharmacy waiting area, had come alive and had shared her life with me...and, I think, got to remember again who she really is.  It would be so easy to become less than we are.  Connecting with someone else lets us be our whole selves. 

It was a pain to have to wait an hour for a flu shot, but I wouldn't have missed meeting Sarah.  Somehow, as I told her, I think our paths will cross again.

Conversation at Bahama Bucks

"Emmy, I don't want to die.  

I have so many friends... 

and I love my friends...and my friends love me...

and I just love...I just love..."

"Life, Sawyer?  

You love life?"

"Yes, I love life, and I don't want to die."

"Well, you and I are so alive today.

Isn't that wonderful?"

"Yes, it is."

(Now, back to that blue sno-cone...)