Heart To Heart

When we came home from our road trip I noticed that a plant I had (from my dad's funeral) looked to be in pitiful condition.  Plants don't last long in our home - I always apologize to plants and goldfish given to us because my track record with them is really, really not good. I am currently in a "let's get rid of things" mode, so when I looked at this plant I thought it's time had come.  I cut off the dead leaves and watered it and kept it only because there was no more room in the garbage can. It perked up. And to my amazement it actually has 2 "blooms" on it this week.  It hasn't had "blooms" since my mom died (after my dad died).  It has 2 blooms from out of nowhere...just pointing upward...randomly.  For no obvious reason. Truth is, I've watched many a plant die in my house.  My past experience was definitely influencing my anticipation of that plant's future success. This got my attention.  It's a picture of...

Voices are pretty interesting to  me.  They represent something that you just can't get from the written message - like an email or a text.  But, if I really know someone well, I can hear their voice in my head while I read their message. Our friend, Stan, used to leave messages on our voice mail.  I kept them all because they made me laugh due to his sense of humor, or cry because of his heart for God and for us.  He's Home now - no more messages.  And, some freak thing happened at some point (with electricity and our voice mail) that resulted in the loss of all of our saved messages.  Bummer.  But, I recently received a video that was made of him, right before he went Home.  It's weird, but good, to hear his voice. Our friend, Gaylon, also had a crazy sense of humor, heart for God, and heart for us.  I got to go over to he and Sally's home one evening to sing songs of worship.  After we sang, Gaylon started talking - with a wa...

The coolest thing happened a few moments ago....                ok - maybe not the COOLEST - but pretty cool... The sun is shining through these high windows we have in the family room and for a few minutes I saw glitter on something made of wood.  Why is the cool, you ask?  Because it means that grandkids have been here!  We did stuff with glitter and it's hard to get all the glitter gathered after a project. The gentle reminder of the presence of our grands.  Smile.  Smile.  Smile.  They don't live close, so every visit is a treat. There's some green spray paint on the floor of the garage from a "make your own foos-ball" project.  Smile. Gentle evidence of their presence. Evidence of the presence of God is not always a loud shout, a mighty wind, or a pillar of fire.  Sometimes it's gentle or quiet...or just.....there. This is where I learn the most about the treasure of "abiding".  I...

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good,  for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Hammocks are...weird.  Fun, but weird.  It sounds so romantic - "let's go read in that hammock out there."  Whatever.  First I get on, then DW gets on which means I either roll (somewhat violently) toward him or roll off the edge of the really fun looking hammock.  (Is that even how you spell "hammock"?)   Next, we try to balance so we can read.  Did I mention that I had a Diet DP sitting on the grass that I wanted to drink every once in awhile?  Or, that DW likes to SWING the hammock if we are feeling at all stablized?   The fact that we got a selfie while still on the hammock is pretty great.  (Yes, I enjoy small victories!) Maybe your tired of me talking about looking for the good....being surprised by small blessings....being intentional and grateful for even the smallest gift.  ...

Two of our grandkids stayed with us for a couple of weeks. So much fun. So much energy.  (Them - not me! No problem reaching my 10,000 step goal everyday.) So much laughter. So many "moments". What a gift. But I did learn some things... 1.  Kids are super honest 2.  Kids remember a lot 3.  Boogers don't bother them as much as they do me 4.  The singing bellybutton man looks better when they do it than when I do it      (and no, I will not explain what that is to you) 5.  Kids ask hard questions 6.  I want to do everything perfectly for and with them, just like I did with our kids 7.  No one is perfect After a few days it became apparent that I needed to help the kids center in on good things.  For every  negative thing they said about someone or something, they had to come up with five positive things.  Sometimes they had to really think about it - but, they couldn't go back to playing until they cam...

I think there are "honking" people and non-"honking" people.  I am among the non-"honkers".  Honking rates right up there with the one finger salute to me (unless a life is at stake). "Honkers" want you to know what they think of your driving - I prefer to talk about your driving in the quiet of my car.   ( No, I don't get honked at very often... ) But the other day a weird thing happened.  I was on my way to an exercise class ( no, that's not the weird thing), driving down our road.  I saw a neighbor out walking...with her dog...off the leash like it's accustomed to doing...but she was looking and talking to something across the street.  I slowed down in case there was something exciting I didn't want to miss.  She waved...at something... and I don't know exactly what happened, but my elbow slipped and honked the horn.  I don't know if it involved a 'wave back' reflex or what, but there is was.  I honked.  ...