Finally Cool Weather

It's finally cooling off here in Alabama, after a particularly hot summer. It is supposed to warm back up to the 80's in the next few days, though, so we're not through with summer temperatures just yet.

It's been really fun the last few days, as it really has felt like football weather outside. I remember going to games as a teenager and being all bundled up with layers of sweatshirts and coats and shared blankets. And we were still cold. Of course, the shared blankets were partially an excuse to cuddle up to the current sweetheart in public, but we really were cold.

For the last few years there has hardly been a reason to even wear a heavy coat until maybe the end of the season. Now don't get me wrong; it does get raw cold in Alabama. It's just we get our really cold weather in January through March. I remember a Valentine's date my now hubby and I had that was snowed out. So I'm not saying all this as a defense of those who believe in Global Warming. I will admit, though, that there does seem to have been a climate shift over my lifetime. And I'm nearing 70 years old now, so I do have some perspective on the matter. Not that 70 years means much in Earth Years!! The span of the whole human race is just a blip on the radar in God's time table.

It's no wonder the Bible tells us that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. (2 Peter 3:8 (King James Version) But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.) God's timetable is not ours. He sees everything from a perspective we aren't capable of comprehending. So, as I reminisce about Fall weather over the last 60+ years, I am reminded of a lesson about how brief our time on this earth really is.

I pray that I use my time wisely.

Remembering the March of Dimes ...

When I was a child polio was a horrible, terrible, fearful disease and no one knew how to keep from catching it!! It was 1949 when I started Elementary School, and I distinctly remember the little cards (there's one on eBay right now, if you're interested) we all had that we saved our dimes in. Each half circle slot held a shiny dime, and when the card was full, we turned in our contribution to finding the cause and cure of this unspeakably menacing illness. I still remember how proud I was to participate in that grassroots campaign to eradicate polio.

Millions of children and adults filled up those little cards, and The March of Dimes succeeded!! In 1955 Jonas Salk and his team found a way to vaccinate people to prevent this tragic disease.

Today's charities collect huge sums through telethons and receive large checks from corporations and foundations. But polio was defeated one dime at a time.

We do make a difference. Each of us makes choices in how to use our time and money that can help or harm humanity. I don't need to pray to God to open our eyes to what each one of us can do to help someone else. That is and always has been His Will. Rather, I pray that we would not blind ourselves by the fast paced, self centered lives we lead - that we each will have eyes that see and ears that hear.

Only God knows just what we could do if we all worked for the good of others!

Our WONDERFUL 44th Wedding ANNIVERSARY

Our wedding anniversary was yesterday, and we had a wonderful time celebrating it. Actually, we started celebrating on Thursday. The National Convention of Sacred Harp Singers was in the Birmingham area and we decided to go listen to some of it Thursday morning. We knew it would be loud, so we sat on the back pew as far away from the singers as we could get. It was still loud, but we both enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

The soundtrack from Cold Mountain is one of my favorites and had already peaked my interest in this form of music, but I was not prepared for the emotional reaction I had to many of the hymns. I cry much more easily now anyway, thanks to my medical condition, but there were several times that I had to fight back tears of emotion while we listened, particularly on some of the slower, more majestic ones. I cannot praise God enough for the wonderful improvement in my condition I have been experiencing for the last few weeks, and the music just brought all those emotions welling up to the surface.

We had expected to stay maybe an hour.... and ended up staying the whole day. There were plenty of breaks, it was easy to slip in and out to walk around for a bit, and we ate lunch there with them, too.

Then yesterday, which happened to fall on our normal Date Day, we ate out for breakfast. We both ordered what we wanted, with no regard for price or the amount of food they would serve. And we ate almost all of it, it was so good. We went to a few yard sales and one Estate Sale, did a little shopping, went to a movie, and then ate supper at a very nice restaurant not too far from our house - one that we don't normally go to due to the cost.

We told everyone we spoke to that it was our anniversary and how long we had been married, laughed, joked, and just generally had a wonderful time together. I think I was glowing like a new bride all day long. All that has happened to us medically the last couple of years, plus all the stresses of care giving that had accumulated just seemed to melt away. We were young again, dating. And it was a glorious feeling.

Extended Family Thoughts

Our parents are all gone to be in Heaven now, enjoying a wonderful reunion with their spouses. This is a very comforting thought. It's also very comforting that we were able to be with all four in their last moments here on earth. All four were surrounded by their loved ones. So many people don't get to share those moments with their loved ones, so I feel very fortunate to have shared that important time with them.

Don't get me wrong, though. Even in the best of situations, watching a loved one take their last breath is not easy. I really don't know how people who don't have confidence in life after death can deal with it. All our family members have strong Christian beliefs, and we know we will be reunited with them in the future, through the grace of Jesus's death and resurrection. With Easter so close, and Daddy's death so recent, I'm reminded of this gift of grace many times every day.

I realize there are plenty of loving family members who have not been able to keep their loves ones at home, as we were able to do with three of our parents. I don't want to sound like I consider us "better" than those who decide the best decision for their parent's well being is to move them to a Nursing Home or Assisted Living facility. I'm just grateful that we could help them age in place.

In times past, it wasn't nearly as unusual for several generations to live in the same home. Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles typically were included as part of the nuclear family, providing ready help, advice, and extra loving relationships for the children. They didn't just move in when their own health was ruined, but lived together as strong members of the family unit for many years. I wonder if we will ever see a return to that sort of extended family dynamic in large numbers.

I had to travel all the way to Chicago to see my grandparents, but they were still a strong influence on me as a child. Did you, or do you, live in an extended family?

New Year's Day Thoughts

This New Year starting today gives me the feeling of a clean slate, ready to be written on, with old scribblings carefully erased. I cannot know what the year 2007 will bring, and I really don't think I would want to know in advance. When I was younger, I wished the years away - to be old enough to go to school, to be in High School, to get my driver's license. I don't do that any more. They go way too fast as it is, and my life goals seem so much simpler now.

I've looked back on 2006, and in many ways, it was the worst year our family has ever experienced together. But we're still here, and the worst of those times have passed. Others struggled with far worse than we did this past year, so I pray that they, too, have a sense of renewed hope with a New Year dawning.

I don't make such elaborate long range plans any more, but rather, my time is spent taking one day at a time. This requires much more faith in God than my old way of writing to do lists and planning events far in advance. So, I'd say I've grown some spiritually in 2006. I pray that I continue to depend more on God than in my own waning strength in 2007 and years to come.