A card I just made for a cousin's graduation.

I have no idea how to post this right side up.  If anyone does, please tell me.:)

Beginnings and Endings and Beginnings

So, here I am on a sweltering June Saturday in Arkansas.  Fortunately, I’m inside in the air conditioning, and I’m thinking of beginnings and endings.  Specifically the beginning and ending of Mim’s Scrapbook Spot that Jeannine and I own.  The opportunity to go into a business that was based around a hobby that we both love was just like a dream come true for us, and we’ve loved it.

It’s kind of scary to own your own business…it’s kind of a gamble, and if we’d known the economy was going to tank, I don’t know if we’d done it.  But you know, that’s where faith comes in.  It was so clear to both of us that this was the direction that God wanted us to go.  How do you argue with God if you’re a person of faith?  We didn’t.

We’re now faced with God wanting us to go a different direction for a variety of reasons.  We’re both still teaching full-time.  It’s been hard to have two full-time jobs for three yearsJ!  We have parents with health issues, in-laws with health issues, our own health issues…..and on and on.  So many reasons to go out of business.

I can’t say that the decision to close our store has been an easy one to make, but again, it’s so obvious to us both that this is what God wants us to do.  Again, being women of faith, how do we argue with God.  We didn’t.  That doesn’t mean that the decision hasn’t come without tears and hours of agonizing as to whether we were really hearing from God or if we were just both physically exhausted. (We are!)  But we now have perfect peace and certainty that this is His will for our lives at this moment.

And isn’t that all He promises us?  If we continually seek Him, He will lead us moment by moment and that we will know His will?  I am so often reminded of a conversation that I had once with a dear friend from my college days, Judi Matkin.  We were talking about the determination to know God’s will for our lives.  I said something to her to the effect that I wanted “writing in the sky” to always know for certain what God wanted me to do.  She looked at me and said, “But, Terry…God promised to be a lamp unto our feet…not a search light.”  I’ve kept that comment close to my heart for almost forty years.  I’ve remembered it and thought upon it many times when I was trying to decide what to do in various situations.  I’ve prayed, “Oh, Lord, just show me where to put my next footstep, and when I get there, just show me the next.” 

And you know, it works!  God has been faithful to lead me every step of the way…when I have chosen to stay on the path that He has illuminated for me.  It’s only when I go off onto my own path that the way gets dark.  Hmmm…imagine that.

So…as Jeannine and I embark on a new path that He has set for us, pray that we will continue to seek His will and that we will be as faithful to Him as He is to us.  Pray that we will stay on the path that He has illuminated with the light of His lamp.

Nature...why do we attempt to control it?

      I've been thinking a lot about the power of nature lately...yeah, yeah...me and the rest of the U.S.  I always love and dread spring.  It is, without a doubt my favorite season.  I have so many pleasant memories tied up with spring.  It's the time of year I always want to get out into the woods or on a flowing river somewhere.  It's the time of year that I always get a terrible case of wanderlust.  It's the time of year when my family when I was growing up, or myself as a college student, or myself as an adult always began to plan summer trips or late spring trips.  It's a time of great anticipation for the wonders of what the year will bring.  It's when my favorite flowers and trees bloom. (It's also when my ... yuk ... allergies bloom.)

     I've never been much of a yard work person...that was Stacey's passion, but with his passing, I've had to pick up the yard work pieces.  Admittedly, I just hit the high spots and try to keep the wilderness beat back a little, but I find that I'm enjoying even my little efforts at molding nature to suit my inner vision.

     Last Saturday, I spent six hours in my wilderness cutting limbs from various trees and bushes and trimming overgrown and sometimes dead vines from fences and out of trees that they were beginning to take over.  This is something that I have to do every couple of years.  I always have a terribly satisfied sense of accomplishment when I've finished.  The yard looks so pretty and manicured. 

     Then...we had severe storms.  My yard looks browbeat.  My limbs are still trimmed, but now there are new broken ones scattered about the yard, and one gigantic limb that I had yesterday morning mistaken for an entire tree blown down across my road is still there...down across my road.  I could cut it up and haul it to my wood pile...if I could reach it with my electric chain saw.  I don't have 400 feet of heavy orange extension cord to stretch that far, and I can't operate Stacey's gas chain saw.  There's something about me and pull-cord yard tools.  I have an electric weed-eater, and a riding lawnmower.  Pull-cord tools just defeat me!

   Now, my little nature control problems are minor, but they have made me think about the Mississippi River flooding.  For at least twenty-five years there has been much debate as to whether we made a mistake in putting our extensive system of dams and levies up and down the length of the river.  Yes, they have controlled farmland flooding, and, yes, they have allowed us to build closer and ever closer to the river banks, but I wonder...have we been smart to do so?  Before these dams and levies were built, those areas were not so heavily populated, so when the areas flooded, it was mainly woods and/or farmland that flooded.  There wasn't the huge loss of human life or the huge loss of property that we see now.

     I often times think that we should pay attention to where the various American Indian tribes wouldn't live.  They didn't live in the less geologically stable areas of the west coast.  They didn't put their teepees or their lodges on the very banks of low lying rivers.  They didn't keep their permanent homes in hurricane ridden areas.

     What is it about modern man that makes us think that we can control the forces of nature, that we can make ourselves totally safe or immune to it?  Why do we persist in living dangerous lives in dangerous ways and then crying to the government to fix things for us?  Why do we continually see ourselves as victims rather than being pro-active and living more sensibly or safer or, or, or...something?

     I don't get it; I really don't.  Even the ancient Egyptians didn't live right ON the banks of the Nile.  They didn't LIVE in the floodplain, and their homes and businesses didn't get washed away when the Nile flooded each year.  They had their crop land there because they depended upon the annual floods to renew and rejuvenate the soil.  Maybe that's the way we should look at it.  Maybe we should learn to "flow" with nature and work with it instead of fighting it and trying to make it do what we want it to do.

   We "modern" people think we're SO smart, but I am reminded of one of my favorite Michael Crichton quotes from Jurassic Park,  "Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean we SHOULD do it."

     I mean, I don't even manicure my own nails.  I leave that to the experts.

16,800 Minutes

     A friend of mine posted on Facebook today that we have 16,800 minutes left of this school year.  She also said that we have only eight Mondays.  Some  friends said they liked the sound of only eight Mondays, and others said they liked 16,800 minutes better.  Aren't these interesting comments?  Perspective...that's what it all boils down to.  Everything that we experience, do, say, or think is colored by our own personal perspectives.  Not a profound thought, I know, but still it's one worth thinking about.

     How many times have I misunderstood someone or have they misunderstood me because of our different perspectives?  How many times have wars started because of our different perspectives?  How many divorces, slanders, fights...?  It seems to me that we could avoid all sorts of uncomfortable, negative situations by being willing to stop and seriously consider someone else's perspective.  I know that my BFF Jeannine has several times told me that a perspective or two of mine that I had always assumed everyone shared were actually not universal.  I was surprised...I mean really surprised!  

     When I say that we should seriously consider someone else's perspective, I'm not suggesting that we agree with it or even necessarily validate it, but we should consider it.  I am not the only intelligent, rational being on the planet, but if I refuse to even consider someone else's perspective, then I might as well be suggesting that I am.  I mean, that's a "my way or the highway" kind of position to take.  I'm not that vain, or arrogant, or stupid. I'm reminded of a chastisement that Benjamin Franklin gave to John Adams when they were arguing for independence, and he was taking Adams to task about his attitude toward those who were against independence.  He reminded Adams that these were proud, intelligent, accomplished men whom he "could not order around like ribbon clerks."  He was reminding him of different perspectives.

     Having said that, there are some perspectives that I refuse to change because I know down to my core that they are right and true.  I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God and is the  only means available for salvation and eternal life in total communion with the Father.  I know that murder is wrong.  I know that child abuse is evil.  I know that deliberate cruelty toward any creation of God's is evil.  I know that cruelty, and vulgarity, and rudeness are wrong.  I know that bigotry toward someone of another race, creed, religion, gender, social class, etc. is wrong.  I know that trying to judge another's heart is wrong.  There are many things that I know to be wrong, but those are not original perspectives with me.  They are, whether you are a Christian or not, God's perspectives.  They are things that he has written on all of our hearts, whether we are Christian, or Jew, or Muslim, or atheist and whether we know or not that that's where those perspectives came from.  Some things we just know are wrong whether we ever admit it out loud or not; we still know.  We may not act on them, but we know.

   So, I like the sound of 16,800 minutes instead of eight Mondays because minutes are shorter than weeks, and 16,800 minutes makes me feel that summer vacation is truly "just around the corner."

The Joy of Grandgirls

Granddaughters...one of my great joys.  I have two; one is five, and the other is seven.  I was there when they were both born. Miss J was the first, and when her daddy (my son) carried her out of the delivery room...I couldn’t breathe.  She will always have a certain kind of specialness because she is first.  When Miss J looks at you with her green eyes, they seem much older and wiser than they should be.  She is perceptive and intelligent beyond that of most seven-year-olds, and talking with her is many times like talking to an adult. An overheard at the Weisenhaus conversation...
 

The little J Dub just came in here and said, "I'm writing a no meat clause into this family...I shall never eat meat again. Not ever," and then she left.  And I wondered: Why the devil does my five year old know how to use the word clause in a sentence?

I can’t wait to see what she does with her life.  She goes back and forth on her career choices.  One day she will be a paleontologist, one day a zoologist, and one day a pet shop owner.  It will almost certainly be something to do with animals.

Miss H, the second one, is also amazing...sharp, funny wit, good story teller.  She is the perfect blue-eyed, blond-haired Nordic princess. Her favorite color is pink (a princess color, of course), and she is currently planning to be a famous singer when she grows up.  She loves to sing. She dances and twirls and is almost never still. She calls herself “an amazing child.”  An example of a conversation overheard at the Weisenhaus...
 

H: Do you think my sparkly shirt will impress my teacher?
    

Jessica: I think your teacher is already impressed and it has nothing to do with your clothes.
    

H: Well......I AM a child of many talents.

These girls are incredibly funny...or at least they are to all of us.  Another example of a conversation overheard at the Weisenhaus...
 

J: OK, you be the zoologist and I will be the pet store owner.   

H: OK....ummmm...the snake is sick! She needs a steak, some guacamole, a lemon and a tattoo! SNAT!   

J: Wait, wait! What does snat mean?  

H: It means in a hurry, and also a snack for snakes.   

J: Alright....ummm...you be the store owner and I'll be the zoologist.

I thank God every day for giving me the privilege off being with these girls and for being able to a part of their lives.  Who knew being a “mim” would be so much fun?

Loose Lips Sink Ships

     Loose lips sink ships.  Does anyone remember that phrase?  It's always one I've liked...that rhyme thing. I've always known on a theoretical level that it's a truism, but I've never thought about it much on a personal level.  Oh, I've thought about it in terms of  not gossiping about people.  I've thought about it in terms of not saying something recklessly that might hurt someone else, but I've never thought about it in terms of shooting myself in the foot, so to speak, if I say something carelessly and without thinking of its impact.
     This past week I made a comment in a blog that upset a lot of people and caused them to worry about me.  I've had to stress to several people that I only meant what I said as a figure of speech to explain how depressed I was at that moment.  I didn't mean to worry anyone or make them think that I'm unstable, or that I am a danger to myself.  Not at all!  I hope everyone is now less fried and that they realize what I meant.
     But when we talk about being sadder than sad, and that some things in life get us down so much that we don't see the answers, that we can get so weighted down that it seems as if we will never get up, how do we express those things in a serious way that gets our point across without causing others to flip-out and worry?
     When I talk about missing Stacey (and that pain is the only one that gets me into a pit), how do I put that so that it doesn't sound trite or contrived?  Because my feelings like those of everyone else's, are not trite or contrived.   I try not to dwell on it, and I am truly happy these days; it's just not the 100%, over the moon, head over my heels happy.  Maybe that will never come again; maybe it will.  I can only go back to trying to trust God with my whole being instead of just on an emotional level and trust that he will hold me up.  As he said, he won't give us more than we can bear.  I just need to remember that and curb the things I say publicly.
     My deepest apologies to everyone I worried.  I'm truly sorry you were, but also extremely touched that you care so deeply for me.  Thank you.

Missing Stacey

     I probably shouldn't write when I'm so depressed, but sometimes it's the only way to sort through things.  I've already suggested to my mother that one of us sell our house and move in with the other.  That got a no.  Then I suggested it to my son.  That got an even bigger no.
     It's just that I miss Stacey so much.  It's been five years and I still miss him so much. I realize tonight that I can NEVER stop taking my anti-depressants.  I've always struggled with depression, and my doctor says that it's a brain chemical thing that I can't really help, but having Stacey in my life sure was better than being on anti-depressants.  I didn't take them when he was alive, but I don't seem to be able to cope without him and anti-depressants both.
     It's been already five years, and I feel no better.  I'm just as sad, just as bereft, just as "cut loose".  Sometimes I think it's not fair, but I'm not really mad at God, I don't think.  In fact, I wish Jesus would come in the next five minutes to end this misery.

Why do I clean at all?

My mother raised me to be better than this...cleaning I mean.  But since I live by myself, I can't seem to stay on top of it.  There's always something else I'd rather do, and things just go right back to unruly in a matter of minutes.  It things would just stay clean and picked up for a couple of days.  But I know that the real reason things don't stay is that I'm depressed.  Yes you heard it first here.  Deep down, I'm depressed that the love of my life is gone and he's not here for me to make a home for anymore.  I just find that I hide behind reading or being on the computer.  I can't seem to work up the energy to keep things picked up.  I don't have the enthusiasm either.  I like things clean and orderly too, so why don't I do it?  I don't know,  but I'm saved again for a few more days.  Mom is coming over tomorrow to help me whip the house into shape.  Thanks Mom...you really did raise me to be better than this.

SpringSleep

Spring is officially here!  WooHoo!  And now that daylight savings time is once again here (which let me state FOR THE RECORD that I HATE for a whole host of reasons!) I’m sleeping even less than usual.  I don’t sleep much anyway.  I mean, as I type this, it’s 1:40 in the morning.  Just having that extra hour of daylight makes me want to stay up even later.  I really meant it when I “WooHooed” about spring being here because it is my favorite season, but I do want to sleep some in every 24 hour period.
    Instead, I find myself rearranging my craft room or reading or piddling on the computer.  I could at least be outside howling at the moon, which my grandgirls and I have actually done several times just to get all the dogs in the neighborhood howling.  TeeHee.  But whatever happened to sleeping?  I love to sleep, I love my nice comfy bed, I love snuggling with my cats, but going to bed early seems to elude me.  There is just so much that I want to do and there is so much that I am interested in that I can’t seem to get it all in before I finally collapse into the bed each day.  I just love to come home at the end of a work day and start fooling with all the things around here that I love to fool with.
    All of which reminds me...how can anyone ever say that they are bored?  I don’t remember very many times while at home that I’ve ever been bored.  Oh yeah, I’ve been bored at other places, in meetings, sometimes at church, out and about, but never at home.  I guess that comes from having created a home that is a sanctuary, a refuge, a fortress from the outside world.  In that regard, I’m indeed blessed.  I’m safe, I’m warm, I’m dry, I have food to eat, air conditioning when it’s hot and heat when it’s cold.  I have cats to pet, crafts to do, books to read, tv to watch, a computer to play on, flowers to pick, acres to stroll on, and neighbors to visit with.  My mom is nearby to drink coffee with, and oh yeah, I have a bed to sleep in.  But all these other interests seem to keep me from sleeping in it.  I just can’t seem to make myself get into it even though I do love it.
    So I guess I’ll rephrase a favorite corny poem that my dad used to say each spring:
        Spring is sprung
        The grass is riz   
        I wonder where
        My sleep time is.
‘nite all.

A Crystal Stillness

Early Christmas morning

     Right after midnight mass

We came out of our warm   

     Sanctuary cocoon

                        Into

The frozen crystal stillness

            Of the night

I could see right into heaven…

            The sky was so clear,

And as I saw God’s face…

            I said,

Thank you for your son.

TW March 2011

Canoeing in the River of Life

     This time of year my thoughts always turn to canoeing.  I have been privileged to canoe or raft on some fine rivers: the Mulberry, the Illinois, the Buffalo, the Cossatot, the Kings, the Ocoee, the Nantahala, the Pigeon, the Hiwassee, Lee's Creek, Webber's Creek.  I am most composed and peaceful on the banks of a creek or river.  There's just something that the sound of flowing water does for me, even if it's up way too high to float, and it's all muddy, frothing foam.  Of course the cold, clear spring-time rivers are my favorites, but often, they're too cold to float.  Even so, I love them and would like to immerse myself in their clear flowing sweetness.
     I think often of what Heaven will be like, and I'm hoping my fine old Victorian with the full wraparound porch will be on the banks of a clear flowing river.  Well, actually, I know it will be on the banks of a clear flowing river.  "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as a crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb."  When I think of the beauty of our earthly rivers and the peace that flows from them into me, I can barely wait to float down the River of Life.  But, you know, I don't want to be in a canoe.  I want to float down it on my back buoyed up by only the will of God. I want to roll and float and immerse myself in the River of Life.  I want to drink deeply of its waters and let it roll into my mouth and across my eyes.  I want it to drip from my hair.  I want to be saturated with it.  I can't wait; I just can't wait to roll along in that pure water of the River of Life which is clear as crystal and feel it's cold refreshing, knowing that it comes from the source of life itself.  
     I don't want to just cross it.  I want to drink from it, bathe myself in it, immerse myself in it and be eternally refreshed, and then at the end of the day, I will rise up from the water, and I will sit on my wrap around porch and drink my sweet peach tea and stroke my cats and hold my Sweet Stacey's hand, and listen to the heavenly choirs  practicing up for singing their eternal praises of the Lord of Hosts.
     How could I not be perfectly calm and perfectly at peace living in my home made for me by the author of peace and sitting on the banks listening to the rolling gurgle of my river, my very own river...the River of Life.  I am so grateful to be written in the Lamb's book of life so I will get to inherit my wrap around porch on the banks of the River of Life.

Letting Things Go

     I have been thinking a lot lately about the concept of letting things go, out of my life, I mean.  Not in terms of selling things.  How does one let go of things that are dear to them and that they have invested a lot of time in? I'm not sure that I know the answer.  It's so hard to say goodbye when it is something that we love and that we really want to keep in our lives, that we want to keep being a part of.
     I've always had this trouble.  Yesterday I wrote about being a collector.  Maybe one of the reasons I collect is due to my trouble with letting things go that I love.  Maybe if I were more comfortable, philosophically, with the idea of letting things go then I wouldn't be such a collector of physical things.  Hmmm...interesting thought. I AM a packrat; I haven't quite reached the status of those people on "Hoarders", and I never will, but I'm always so afraid that if I let it go, then I'll need it again later.  That's probably why I have tools in my barn that I have no idea what to do with.  (They were Stacey's and Dad's).
     I also think that one of the reasons that I hate to let things go is that I have trouble giving up on things or situations.  I don't like to admit defeat.  I'm not a quitter.  I even finish books that I don't particularly like.  It's that seeing something through to completion idea, I guess.  I keep thinking that if I just try a little harder, whatever it is will work out.  This isn't a bad quality, it's just that it doesn't always work out the way you hope it will whether you see it through to the end or not.  And...to make matters worse, what if you're not sure you're really at the end?  "Ah," as Shakespeare said, "there's the rub." 
   I've sort of come to a conclusion about knowing whether I should let something go, and it goes back to something I heard in college.  A person said to me, "If I give it to God, and He gives it back, then it's really mine.  If He doesn't, then it really wasn't mine because He didn't mean for me to have it."  That's profound, I think.  But that to me is the easy part.  
     Maybe the issue isn't even really knowing when I'm at the end of something.  Maybe it's that I do know, and I don't want that to be the answer.  Wow!  Maybe this is really about accepting the will of God.  Maybe this is about being willing to accept a new direction from God but wanting another one.
     Oh brother.  Time to get out His road map.