The blessings of the Irish... Topic: Holidays/Vacations
*Two days late!* Though I only have a wee bit of Irish blood in me, I looked up some Irish blessings and sayings for ye this day in remembrance of a man named Patrick.....*I can't speak with an Irish brogue, but I can pretend pretty well*
As an aside: we went camping with my friend, Anna's family once for a week and we spoke with different Celtic accents the whole time. Anna can do each accent, including Scottish, Irish, British and even Cockney very convincingly...I got an A for effort. It was one of those very sloshy, soggy, downpouringish camping trips we've made to Colorado....just to give you the big picture of why we found this so entertaining. =) The whole camping trip is memories of trying to stay dry *impossible when camping in tents*, trying to start fires with wet logs, and chipmunks invading everything! We took a lot of drives that trip too. It is a good thing we found something entertaining to do, because all the cold and wet was coupled with having a 2 year old I was trying to entertain and keep dry and warm. For some reason, the celtic accents kept our spirits up and our husbands in less hot water. ;) So here's to the Irish! *cheers*
~May the road rise to meet you; May the wind be at your back; The sun shine warm upon your face, The rain fall soft upon your field. And until we meet some day, 'til we meet some day, May God hold you in the palm of God's hand.~
~May those that love us, love us. And they that don't love us, may God turn their hearts. And they that won't turn their hearts, May God turn their ankles, so we'll know them by their limping.~
~May you live as long as you want, And never want as long as you live.~
~May you have warm words on a cold evening, A full moon on a dark night, And the road downhill all the way to your door.~
~May the Lord keep you in His hand And never close His fist too tight!~
~~And some Irish proverbs~~
The work praises the man.
The world would not make a racehorse of a donkey.
There is hope from the sea, but none from the grave.
There is no fireside like your own fireside
There is no luck except where there is discipline.
There is no need like the lack of a friend.
Three diseases without shame: Love, itch and thirst. *?* lol
You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was. *for my Irish grandad who was only a smidge taller than me*
Soulful windows..... Topic: Other
They say your eyes are the windows of your soul.....so are the windows in your house the soul of your home? ....here's a little soul searching for you....
It started with wanting to take a picture of my cool geranium....my kitchen windows have my most satisfying sills...
The window over the sink is my favorite of all....my friend Tracy made a lot of the cobalt blue pottery and has very nice window sills herself.
Herbs growing on sill......
The window I look out of each morning, hoping for a snow day....heh
Gotta love ivy...
The front windows have the best view.....my oldest daughter's sill...
Another daughter's sill.....great view of the creek...
One of my favorite things about this house is that all the windows have sills. I enjoyed recording them and thinking about how they show the soul of our home...
Spring lost it's spring Topic: Other
I took these pictures a couple of days ago. Spring was peeping it's wee head up out of the warm ground, it's sleepy eyes, winking and blinking, shaking off an unwanted yawn.....heehee. Everyone in town was in a good mood, sporting the slight hint of sunburned cheeks and wearing things like capris and cotton t's.
This morning we woke up to 6 inches of snow! (and I have no desire to go tromping around in it to take a picture.) Spring is so crazy! I'm not complaining though, because I needed a snow day off of school. Company is coming today and I hadn't cooked or cleaned a thing.
Boo boop dee doo! Topic: Humor/memes
There is a theme around here this week ??.it?s a delicate subject, but it kept coming up, so I decided to wade in. It all started with my buying 3 new t-shirt type blouses at Sam?s club while innocently doing some shopping. Did you know you can?t try on the clothes at warehouse stores? I asked why one time and the woman said because of the fire code. She offered no further explanation, so I just assumed it?s against the law to have undressed people in the parking lot during fires. Well, you women who wear t-shirts in Spring time know?.you have to have the right undergarments to wear those?.they cling?.it?s a little chilly in Spring?.you need ?protection?. So instead of buying new undergarments, I decided to borrow some from my daughter?s drawer. I have experience buying those protecting, more secure feeling, thicker type undergarments, but the ones I have bought in the past have never fit well and by the time you find out how torturous they are, you can?t return them. They seem to have a life of their own, moving in odd directions, opposite to where I am moving. I end up feeling like Xena, princess warrior and it?s not a comfy feeling, let me tell you. ;) And I want things in the right place, not up in the atmosphere somewhere, jacked up and out. It?s a little claustrophobic I have found. So my daughter had a suitable looking undergarment...it took me a few minutes of browsing and holding things up and pondering?intimidating, but at least I wasn?t spending money on it to try it out. So on it went, then my nifty new 3/4 sleeved, olive green t-shirt. All set, all secure, all right! I was padded, protected and secure. All day, everything was fine?.chilly building?nooooooo problem! There is some weird kind of freedom in being all bound up. *think about that* As evening came things kind of shifted and it started poking me in the arm pit, but I was amazed it lasted that long on this 100% cotton, loose fitting please, comfort loving girl. So I found that I can feel secure without too much whining, but it does have a time limit. What we won?t do for a cute t-shirt!
To ?top? off the week of this amazing new freedom and security, I turned on a comedy show that we watch sometimes as I was cooking dinner tonight. It?s called Bananas and is on PAX as well as other channels. Tonight?s comedian was a woman named Anita Renfro. This lady is hilarious! She?s all about womanly humor and one of her topics was explaining a mammogram. Among other things she talked about laying your offering on the altar, being ?rearranged? by someone she?s never met, feeling like too much waffle batter in a waffle iron and how afterward a little chocolate and caffeine and they fluff right back up! I tried to find a website for her and couldn?t find one, but if you get a chance to see her on Banana?s, I recommend it. =)
?..that?s a wrap?and all I have left to say is?.boo boop dee doo! (since I can?t do the Xena war cry?..and I have tried.)
The balancing act Topic: Humor/memes
Something happened to my house while I wasn't paying attention. ......well, ok, I knew it was happening but it was so gradual that I am amazed at how invaded we now are. The invasion? Technology.....yeah, we are all wired up....so wired in fact, that we are now 'wireless' which means such much technology that you don't even need to be wired to a telephone line to be hooked up. Don't get me wrong...I like the technology, but I feel embarrassed to have so much of it. We now can watch the World Hunger commercials on a 47 inch LCD projection TV....whatever that means....I just know it's huge and I feel the need to explain it when people come in and see it. (My husband used his Christmas bonus to buy it, we aren't in debt because of it, I promise!)
My husband became mister gadget beginning in about 1995. When Apple computers were born into American homes, we got one. Now we have 5 Apples.....all different models and years...all used, but still up with current technology. iTunes, iMovie, iShufflethingie, iBook.....i i i...me me me....hmmm This may be too revealing to post now that I am thinking about it! lol
We have so many cords and converters and external thingies lying around...we have boxes of these things....boxes of disks and CD Roms and Mac Manuals. My husband can fix any Mac you give him....that amazes me too! MY husband, who has never been real handy with fixing things around the house, can take whole computers apart, fix them and put them back together. I am truely surprised by this new talent. And it's rubbing off in other areas. He actually 'fixed' my clothes dryer the other day. It was not heating up and now it is....hmmmm.
Technology.....who knew? This is the same husband who, when we were first married, used to like to buy things that didn't need electricity, 'just in case'. *sheepish smile* I can't remember exactly why we did that. I actually have a friend whose family moved off into the interior of Alaska, built a home that runs without electricity, you have to get there by boat and they grow and hunt their own food. I never heard from her again.....scawy.....
So I'll take the wires (and the wirelessness)...and the satellite tv.....as long as I can still get my husband to come out and sit on the front porch with me in our wooden rockers as often as possible to watch the birds that come to splash in the creek there. As long as we support missions around the world and pray for missionaries and go on mission trips as often as we can with our kids....and not turn the channel when the World Hunger commercials come on. As long as we turn off the embarrassingly large tv and play board games with our kids and read books and take walks. As long as we get back to nature and get truely 'wireless' and go camping each summer away from the bustle of the busyness of life. As long as my husband keeps going into the woods every summer to hunt down dead trees, chop them up, haul them home in the truck and stack it to make our own heat for winter.
OK, I feel better now....just gotta find the balance sometimes.....
Websites Topic: Other
In lieu of something to say today, here are some fun websites.....
My appologies if you read this earlier today and went to a site I had posted here....I looked at it again and it had some really crude stuff on it....so it went bye bye....very sorry....
Photography: http://www.theircircularlife.it/ Photography in 24 hour increments
http://www.amyhughes.org/lego/church/ This person is a lego artist!
Games: http://meph.eu.org/ Yeti games
http://games.yahoo.com/ Yahoo games...I play gin, almost every day....very addicting.
Blogs I like: http://www.kerismith.com/blog/ Creative, artsy and a good writer.
http://militarypages.com/cfiles/siteone.asp?p=38&id=23 Bob Zanga's Iraq diary...he died while there and his family kept his blog online...whatever your view on the war is, he has some very touching, wonderful insights into what is going on concerning rebuilding in Iraq.
This is the creek in front of my house as it looks today.
On the right is what it looked like a month ago at flood stage. Usually it is a dry creekbed, so I am obsessing on it while it's got running water.
My dog Winnie, who is very sweet. She was very curious about what I was pointing at her.
As I was taking the pics of the creek I noticed my crocuses are croaking! Ooooooh, get ready....I love to take pics of my gardens...humble as they are.
March is in like a lamb here this year! I was outside playing 2 square with my 7 year old today and we didn't even need our jackets! I think it was in the 50's, but felt warm with the sun shining on us...and I have not lost my edge in 2 square after alllllll these years! =) That's all for today....
Butt Prints in the Sand Topic: Humor/memes
Butt Prints In The Sand
One night I had a wondrous dream, One set of footprints there was seen, The footprints of my precious Lord, But mine were not along the shore.
But then some stranger prints appeared, And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?" Those prints are large and round and neat, "But Lord they are too big for feet."
"My child," He said in somber tones, "For miles I carried you alone. I challenged you to walk in faith, But you refused and made me wait."
"You disobeyed, you would not grow, The walk of faith, you would not know. So I got tired, I got fed up, and there I dropped you on your butt."
"Because in life, there comes a time, when one must fight, and one must climb. When one must rise and take a stand, or leave their butt prints in the sand."
Do you wanna dance? Topic: God things
I just got back from our annual church women?s retreat. Forty-five women laughing, crying, talking, singing, praying, eating, dancing. Our theme was Can I Have This Dance? We talked about joy?real joy?not fleeting happy feelings, but a deep rooted joy. Joy is more of a deep contentment that comes from trusting God through this existence that we call life.
As I was pondering the meaning of joy, I realized it was being played out right in front of my eyes. I looked at each woman there, those smiling, laughing, dancing women, and thought about the hard times they had each been through?.past abuse, death of a child or husband, suicide in their immediate families, divorce, poverty, eating disorders, chronic illness, women who had survived cancer, strokes, heart surgeries and ill children, single moms, moms who were taking care of elderly moms, and some who made their own trouble through foolish decisions, which we all do, but some suffer the consequences far more greatly. I realized as I saw these women laughing, singing and dancing that they chose to trust God?they chose joy. It?s offered to each of us, but for some reason, some people do not choose to trust?they choose to be angry, to question ?why me?, and usually they become very bitter, hard people. I have seen this too in some of the women I have known through our women?s ministry and I thought about them?why did they choose to go that way? Our retreat leader, Mary, illustrated this so well (and I'm all into word pictures, so I was all over this)?.it's as if we have these beautiful dancing shoes in a lovely box up on our closet shelf but we never choose to join in the dance. We choose to remain clothed in our comfortable clod-hoppers. But once we give in and put those shoes on, believing there will be a beautiful dance, we are set free from the bitterness and regret. ?You turned my wailing into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.? Psalm 30:11
I know some of my women friends here have struggled with putting those shoes on. They were in mourning or depression or self hatred or wrapped up in guilt or pain. To read that list of hard times they?ve been through one would think we are a very dysfunctional bunch, but when you open up your eyes, you start to realize that we all go through hard times?.there is no shame in it, no reason to hide it. It helps to release it and share it?it encourages others to do the same and when we do, we help free each other. One of the things that helped me the most through my own hard times, is that I saw other people who had been through my particular situations and they made it through?.and they still had joy and hope. And I remember even thanking some of those people who were vulnerable with me and shared that they too had traveled through where I was dwelling. It helped set me free.
So get that lovely box down off the closet shelf, put those shoes on, put your trust in Christ and accept his invitation to dance.
As a parting thought?.did you know that God sings? I never read this verse before, but when I read it at the retreat, it made my joy swell to know what he sings about?..
?The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17
After a hard day dealing with your kid, it's good to remind ourselves *myself* of why we're doing this....?!
If you talk to your children, you can help them to keep their lives together. If you talk to them skillfully, you can help them to build future dreams. --Jim Rohn
A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine. --Anonymous
You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. --Franklin P. Adams American journalist
In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul. --Lisa T. Shepherd
Good parents give their children Roots and Wings. Roots to know where home is, wings to fly away and exercise what's been taught them. --Jonas Salk
All kids need is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them. --Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said. --Unknown
Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush; anxious for greater developments and greater wishes and so on; so that children have very little time for their parents; Parents have very little time for each other; and the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world. --Mother Teresa
We (my husband and I) are in California for a couple of days.....Costa Mesa specifically....in the land of rain and mud generally and I have so much rattling around tiringly in the old noggin that nothing will come out particularly. That sentence reminds me of Winnie the Pooh for some reason....oh bother.....I think it's the adverbs?
Anyway, our church put us up in a very nice hotel and is paying for meals and expenses for us, and surprisingly, there are a bunch of cool people here we know from Arizona, so we are having such a nice get away as well as the great conference with such radical and encouraging speakers that I am about in heaven. In a half an hour I have to sneak back in to the end of the meeting so as to pretend to have been there the entire time...ha! My rear end is thanking me though and I'm glad to have a little time alone.
So that is my entry today....I'm going to try to be more concise and compact in my entries....the last few have been horrendously long that even I won't take the time to read them. =)
Rain revival Topic: God things
"And the streams are all swollen with winter...winter unfrozen, free to run away now."
It's all soggy outside today. The rain came down on the snow, melted it, and it is all running down our creek now. We are getting used to hearing the creek rushing and tumbling by with all the moisture we've had this year....we open the windows to hear it and I find myself staring out at it several times a day. (The above picture is of our creek) Arizona has very few creeks or rivers that flow all year round, so we have to enjoy it while it is running. Actually we call it a creek but it's really a drainage ditch that runs through our town from the dam. The only time it has water in it is when a heavy snow melts and the water runs over the dam. It is usually a dry creek with a puddle or two from recent rains. A mosquito factory in summer and always an adventurous pathway through town for kids....it winds from the reservoir, through down town and after our neighborhood it ends up at the baseball park, a very happenin' place in a small town. Once the police caught a small time thief because he took the creek path home from a fast food restaurant he robbed (next to the baseball park) and shed his robbery clothing as he went, also dropping cash along the way...and it led right to his home. I have seen some interesting things in that 'creek'....once 3 horses who are housed a few blocks from here got loose and were enjoying their freedom racing up and down the creekbed, their cowboy owners chasing them also on horseback up and down the creek. =) It was fun to watch but I didn't like what their hooves did to our front yard. Another time I saw this guy riding his 4 wheeler down the creek to my neighbor's house, where I suppose he was buying meth...that neighbor is gone now, along with his frequent stop by visitors. I've also seen a road runner walk out of the creek one day as my husband and I were enjoying a summer afternoon on the front porch. It walked up and out of the creek, across our driveway and down our street into a neighbor's backyard. (not the meth neighbor, in case you're questioning this bird's morals) We also have a wonderful array of birds frequenting the creek puddles in Spring and Summer, including huge ravens who sit and make the weirdest noises on the telephone pole by the creek....sounds like they are percolating. Skunks and racoons must also be briefly but memorably mentioned among the critters of the creek.
There is a persistent pattern of rain and snow coming in each week lately...it is like a weather revival after a 6 year drought. The city has been discussing ways to keep our town from drying up just this past year....talking of trucking water in from nearby towns with wells, rationing our water usage with high prices and fining people who watered their gardens or washed their cars when it was not their specified day for extra water usage. Churches had special times of prayer for rain and snow. There were scalding editorials about how the golf course stayed so green while the rest of the town was drying up. There was a huge scandal when a bed and breakfast inn was caught diverting city water through their well pump house and into their inn for free. People were getting desperate. So it was no surprise when the paper ran this front page headline when the rains began this Fall.....Ask and Ye Shall Receive!! I think our town learned a lot during the time of drought, including putting some safe guards and extra resources in place if this should ever happen again. But it's also about faith and hope....knowing through the hard times, the doughts, that things will get better and coming to the place where we know it's a special blessing just to return to 'normal' much less to be innundated with an abundance of what you've been lacking.
People are funny though....as soon as we go dry again, there will be great concern and tribulations and wonderings if it will never end. And we should be concerned. Water is the stuff of life. None of us can do without it, it is vital, necessary, undowithoutable! Yet we usually take the presence of it for granted. The Giver of life, the Sender of water, the Sustainer and Provider wants us to look for more than what we see. He wants us to look for Him, to put our hope, faith, trust and life in Him. Yet we do not seek Him until there is an emergency, as our last resort. A friend of mine who really has no religious persuasion told me thank you for our church praying for rain and snow. My husband, a pastor, was in a shop this summer too when a woman we know who is a self proclaimed 'pagan' and worships the earth as her religion was asked what we were going to do about this drought. She looked at my husband and admitted, "The one you should be asking is him." She of course meant it in a good way, that he somehow had a connection with the giver of rain that ordinary people don't. I guess if I were in charge, I might send a few wake up calls too (maybe weather related wake up calls?)....'hello, I'm here...you need Me....look to Me and find your salvation.' It reminded me of this verse from 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, wherein the Israelites were needing reminding *again* to look to God for help and life....
"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
I just wish we weren't so stupid. I feel like I'll never take water for granted again.....but then....I'm stupid, so I probably will in time. I'm just so glad and thankful for the weather revival we're having.....and I can't help hoping it will be a revival for the souls in our town too.
As I?ve mentioned before I?m way into studying the Jewish Feast Holidays and their meanings for Christians. The old prophecies and symbolism of the Old Testament make the whole Bible come together and mesh. Our school kids are doing reports for Easter and some are on the Passover meal. I can?t get over the beautiful symbolism that goes along with the seder meal, one being the Redemption cup and the Afikoman matzoh bread. During the Last Supper they were actually observing the Passover seder meal. Jesus took what we believe was the Afikoman, broke it and passed it around, saying ?Take and eat; this is my body.? The 3 pieces of matzoh in the seder represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Afikoman, the middle matzoh, represents the Son and is broken, wrapped in linen and hidden until one of the children present finds it and brings it back to the table. The symbolism being that Jesus was broken, wrapped in burial linens and found alive again. Cool, eh? Then Jesus took what we believe must have been the cup of redemption, the third cup in the seder meal, and passed it around and said ?Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.? Of course, Jesus is our redemption and it is by His shed blood that He redeems us.
All this to say?..Communion has such a deeper meaning for me now that I know the background and I thought I?d share some thoughts on it. It is through Jesus? sacrifice (the Lamb of God) that we have forgiveness of sin and therefore peace with God. And all He asks of us is that we believe He is who He said He is?.and follow Him.
This post simply started out with this song, but I started rambling. =) I only wish you could hear the music for it?..
Peace (A Communion Blessing From St. Joseph's Square)
Though we're strangers, still I love you I love you more than your mask And you know you have to trust this to be true And I know that's much to ask But lay down your fears, come and join this feast He has called us here, you and me
And may peace rain down from Heaven Like little pieces of the sky Little keepers of the promise Falling on these souls This drought has dried In His Blood and in His Body In the Bread and in this Wine Peace to you Peace of Christ to you
And though I love you, still we're strangers Prisoners in these lonely hearts And though our blindness separates us Still His light shines in the dark
And His outstretched arms are still strong enough to reach Behind these prison bars to set us free
So may peace rain down from Heaven Like little pieces of the sky Little keepers of the promise Falling on these souls the drought has dried In His Blood and in His Body In this Bread and in this Wine Peace to you Peace of Christ to you
And may peace rain down from Heaven Like little pieces of the sky Like those little keepers of the promise Falling on these souls the draught has dried In His Blood and in His Body In the Bread and in this Wine Peace to you Peace of Christ to you Peace to you Peace of Christ to you
The Greatest Love Topic: Holidays/Vacations
It is said that Valentine's Day is in memory of a follower of Christ who would not renounce his Lord and died a martyr. His farewell note to the jailer's daughter, with whom he had established a friendship was signed, "From your Valentine." There are a lot of things people call love these days. Some quite twisted and some simply misguided or superficial......but I don't think anyone can argue with this definition of true love:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not selfseeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
I woke up this morning to snow?it was beautifully coming down, covering everything with a clean coat of white. I would have been so thrilled and it would have put me in such a good mood?usually. However, this morning I had to go to a baby shower. This is the baby shower I was supposed to get a gift for yesterday. I went rushing after school to the next town over, 30 miles away, specifically to buy a gift for the new mom, then came home 3 hours later with groceries, produce, Walmart bags, a new Gameboy game for my daughter Emma, who was spending birthday money, but no baby gift. I realized this when I was almost home, but was already running late for a Valentine?s banquet that night, so there was no going back. The snow was coming down pretty hard by time I had to leave for the shower, so I put on boots. (this turned out to be a good move) Meanwhile I was racking my brain to remember WHO I had told I would give a ride to. I called several friends?no, they didn?t need a ride?but I knew someone had asked me. Hmmmm Thankfully, our grocery store has begun carrying gift cards for various stores and restaurants in a nearby big town, so my daughter Bethany and I stopped by and got a gift card for dinner out on the town for the baby?s mom and husband?and I was even running on time. Cool. Now for the reason I dreaded this shower in the snow?..the hostess lives up on a big hill. I?m talking major incline, scary hill. I got halfway up the street that leads to this hill and began sliding backwards??.waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, Rickyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!! *that would be my Lucy imitation* When I came to a stop I realized my friend Elaine was sitting in her car right beside where I had stopped?ha?so we parked and walked up to the house together. My daughter was not as prepared as I was in my boots however, and had to walk in snow in 3 inch platform flip flops! No sooner did we start to walk though and one of the husband?s stopped and we piled in for a ride up to the house.
The shower was fun, the brunch was yummy, the baby was a peanut and cute?all was well. We only had one activity at the shower?..I dread ?activities? at showers?they usually involve at least slight humiliation and/or work for the attendees or the showeree (who wants to work at a party? Can?t we just sit here visiting and munching?)?but it was a good activity. We wrote on cards any advice we had for a mom of a new baby boy. (She has 2 little girls) As we were there and I was observing her with her 3 little children, all 2 and under, I remembered how hard it was as a young mother with 3 children, all little and dependent on you and keeping you busier than you?d ever been in your life just to meet their basic needs for one day! And mine were all 2 years apart, so I was really sympathizing with her, hers being only 1 year apart?they are really all still babies. I remember not getting a shower because they wouldn?t take a nap, having to pack to the hilt to go anywhere, the frustration of feeling trapped at home instead of being free to go and do. But looking back, it all went so quickly?.my little ones I had so close together are all teens. Now I?m the one who needs naps and I beg to get to stay home and NOT have to ?go and do?. I still can?t get a shower some days though, as there?s a struggle for the hot water while it lasts these days.
Oh, I don?t want to go back to those days?I really enjoy my kids? independence and love that they are turning into real friends for me and for each other now. **usually** But it reminded me that some of the times in life are hard to get through. It comes in waves or seasons, but it always is changing ?.the wave breaks and dissipates or the season changes as we reach another stage of life. Each stage or event has it?s struggles and triumphs. But we make it through?either bitter or better we make it through. And ,that is a relief while you?re going through it?.it gives you hope to know that others go before you and they all seem to make it. I like to set my eyes on the ones who have made it gracefully and try to figure out how they did it. And although I can?t say all my transitions or seasons have been so graceful, I can say it?s all been good?even the hard times?.it all makes you grow, learn to trust, and gain faith and hope.
We were almost the last to leave and as I stepped out onto the front porch, I realized the snow had stopped and the slippery slush had melted into innocent little streams of water, rushing here and there. We hiked back down to the car and I realized it had been worth it to venture out on this snowy, messy morning ?.what had seemed such a hard task had melted away with the slush and become a fine day. I had been tempted to turn back, to give up and go home when I began sliding on the hill trying to reach our destination. It would have been the easy thing to do (and I do like easy)?.but now that I?m through it, I realize it wasn?t as hard as it had first seemed and it was worth all the effort?and not just for me?it was worth it to be there for this new mom who needed to see we all make it, we just have to hang in there, ride those waves and enjoy the beauty of each season!