Melancholy

Today I went to a funeral at Westover UMC in Raleigh.
The service was for Carol Hines Watson.
Carol was a strong, talented, Southern lady who possessed faith, foresight, & leadership. She was a charming lady:)
She was also the mother of my good friend Anne.

Twenty years ago my family left Westover UMC. It was heartbreaking to leave that church but circumstances pressed us, ushered us (and over 100 other friends), to pack up & move on.
Suffice it to say that our basic beliefs were being tested (Carol & husband Roy left with us, then returned to Westover friends after a time)

I had not been back, til today.
I must say it was humbling.
Time heals much.
Regrets & unforgiveness have been erased long ago.
A sense of melancholy overcame me (besides grieving for Carol's husband Roy & Anne).
Why?
Maybe it was how things should have been or could have been at Westover.
Maybe it was because Keith & I grew spiritually while there (with Kenneth Sexton as pastor & precious Rosamond his wife).
Maybe it was that twenty years had passed so quickly.
Maybe it was because my children were born while we attended Westover & spent part of their childhood there.
Maybe that our New Life Class was such a precious tight knit group for many years, & we were sent out to worship separately.
Maybe it was all the above?

I firmly believe God has a purpose for all things, so when doors are closed & other open, when our lives take a turn in mid-stream where we're so comfortable & we're driven to another part of the river, there's a reason.

I admit it was a sweet feeling to see Rev. Kenneth Sexton in that pulpit again:) Did twenty years melt away?
For a few minutes:)

I'm a better person for Kenneth, for those years at Westover, and for being nudged to another place where people of faith love & care for one another--I'm at Peace:)

Ponderings of a Western Christian

Last Sunday Reverend Issac Shaw spoke to our Peace Church congregation.
Whoa!

He is a Christian pastor and from New Delhi, India, a native of India, who is dedicated to spreading the hope of the Gospel of Jesus to Northern India. This region is full of the poor and homeless, and populated by people of Hindu & Muslim faiths. This area makes the Western culture look extravagant to excess. Christians in this region of the world are in the minority and are persecuted and martyred daily.

This is a hard fact to wrap around my Westernized mindset, where I'm surrounded by people who have much, who strive to get more, and, honestly, I'm right in foray with them; I do love to buy and want so many things:(!

I'm addicted to HGTV and all their make-over home shows. But lately it seems that people blessed with lovely homes are willing to spend thousands of dollars to have a 'more lovely' home:(
Success breeds excess, doesn't it?

Issac challenged us, tried to shake up our comfort zone, to realize the North American church lives in the midst of unbelievable blessings that few others in the world have and can only dream of. We, the Western church, are 'called' to be generous with our wealth and/or time and to pray for/ or go to those that are living in poverty and hopelessness in order to love them in Jesus' name and care for them.


Jesus chose to live among the common people, ministering to the poor & downtrodden, those forgotten by the world.

Saying all that, Cary/Apex/Morrisville, for the most part quite affluent, is filled with needy, desperate, people as well. Many of us live in luxury compared to Northern India and other countries of the Third World, but we struggle with hopelessness & despair in our midst; broken relationships, broken dreams, health issues, loneliness, struggles of old age & living on an income that will not stretch, abuse, neglect, mental health problems galore---should I go on??

Yet God is able to use us wherever He desires. The only thing Christians are called to do is to be available to be used by Him & to love those around us.

Am I listening?
Am I loving others?
What are my priorities?

Rev. Shaw, you did rock me.

May Already!

 
Where has 2009 gone??

Here it is the 15th of May, the pool is opening this weekend, Skye has finished her Junior year at Appalachian, ball season is in full swing, & the honeysuckle is blooming!

Last weekend my family helped me paint my bedroom, & I love it; it a tan color, like coffee with cream:) I'm thinking maybe I'll hire Kelley to paint my stairwell & my landing, strip off my kitchen wallpaper & paint that too:) She is so good at it:)

Father's Day cards are out at Hallmark; I've been working on them all week:)

I had my annual physical Tuesday & survived--I whined for days beforehand:(

My good friend Kathy & her fiance Alex have set their wedding date, August 22nd, so I've been pondering some sort of wedding shower:) Kathy & I'll have to talk:) Should we have a Tea Room affair or a larger gathering? I'm so tickled for them both!!
Such a sweet romance:)

Three Three, my grand puppy, was critically ill for almost 3 weeks, has been diagnosed with Addison's disease, & is recovering, thank God:)

Summer is on the horizon. What is in store?
A bike trip along the New River?
A wedding shower in July?
Keith & I will have our 40th wedding anniversary August 3rd.
Skye will be moving into an apartment in Boone mid August.
The Fuller/Worrell wedding will be a highpoint the third week of August:)

Each day brings forth something new....
Stay tuned:)

(The pic is rain on the car window as we drove home from Pa. May 2nd; I thought it was cool:))

Skye's New Adventure

 
Beginning Tuesday, Skye will start her summer job, and the interesting thing is, it's where I work, Lynn's Hallmark!
I don't think of us as being alike at all, but, she wanted to try working in retail for a change. Previously she's been employed at the Cary Y, and last summer volunteered as a counselor at Camp Ridge Haven. She enjoyed the kids, was very good with them, but is ready to try something new.

We won't be on the same schedule at Beaver Creek, and that's a good thing. No one needs their mom around too much when you're 22 years old.
Our Hallmark girls will be helpful and will guide and direct her through every situation:) They'll be a blessing to her, as will our wonderful manager, Yvonne:)

Skye will find this is a job where you concentrate on the customer, listen to their needs, try your best to help, and, overall, leave a genuine friendly impression with everyone:)
She will need patience and grace in all situations, and that's what I pray for her:)

Have a grand summer, Skye!
I'll try not to fuss over you too much, and, it'll be a treat to see what you learn:)

Cousin Ruby

 
Today Cousin Ruby was called HOME.
She finished her Earthly journey.
I will miss her greatly!
And she had missed my mama, her closest friend, her cousin Catherene, greatly...

I am sure she and my mama are now re-united and giggling together:)
When my mama forgot my name, she still remembered her best friend & cousin, Ruby....
When Mama died it was harder to break the new to Ruby than anyone else, even my brother:(
They had been playmates and soul mates from their earliest memories.

I was told my grandma "Chrish", tongue in cheek, asked her sister Sally if she would be willing to let her have her daughter Ruby, since she (Chrish) only had one girl (Catherene)and Aunt Sally had 4 (one being Ruby)! And Ruby spent so much time at her and Catherene's anyway:)

As a child and as an adult I knew Ruby as a short, stout, lady of great wit, always laughing and joking, loving to tell tales of mischief she and my mama had concocted. They had another cousin, Sarah Black, (I wrote about her here two years ago) that fell right in with Catherene and Ruby in whatever scheme was being 'cooked up'!! What a threesome:)
I loved being with Ruby. She always talked to me as a child, and I enjoyed hearing her stories. She spoke what was on her mind, don't get me wrong, yet never hurt feelings.
In the last few years she shared often with Christy (my sister) and me how dear Mama was to her, that no one else could understand her like "Catherene".

Ruby has a son, Ronny (a retired teacher & coach), who cared for her faithfully and lovingly. She had been a widow for many years and Ronny was devoted to her, checking in on her daily and caring for her every need.
I grieve with him and his 2 daughters, Dawn and Chrissie (both teachers) and son Matt, who could not have had a more caring, loving, and proud grandmother:)

Ruby was unique; a lady that carried laughter and joy wherever she went, with a love for my mama like no other:)
She was dear to me for that.
I will weep for her.....

Irena Sendler: Life In A Jar

Hallmark's movie, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, shown last Sunday evening, is the story of Irena, a German woman of faith, humility, and courage, who believed one person should act to save others, and did.

"The Holocaust - the systematic annihilation of six million Jews - is a history of enduring horror and sorrow. The charred skeletons, the diabolic experiments, the death camps, the mass graves, the smoke from the chimneys ... In 1933 nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed by the Nazis. 1.5 million children were murdered. This figure includes more than 1.2 million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy children and thousands of handicapped children.

Yet there were acts of courage and human decency during the Holocaust - stories to bear witness to goodness, love and compassion. This is the story of an incredible woman and her amazing gift to mankind. Irena Sendler. An unfamiliar name to most people, but this remarkable woman defied the Nazis and saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. As a health worker, she sneaked the children out between 1942 and 1943 to safe hiding places and found non-Jewish families to adopt them.

For many years Irena Sendler - white-haired, gentle and courageous - was living a modest existence in her Warsaw apartment. This unsung heroine passed away on Monday May 12th, 2008.

Her achievement went largely unnoticed for many years. Then the story was uncovered by four young students at Uniontown High School, in Kansas, who were the winners of the 2000 Kansas state National History Day competition by writing a play Life in a Jar about the heroic actions of Irena Sendler. The girls - Elizabeth Cambers, Megan Stewart, Sabrina Coons and Janice Underwood - have since gained international recognition, along with their teacher, Norman Conard. The presentation, seen in many venues in the United States and popularized by National Public Radio, C-SPAN and CBS, has brought Irena Sendler's story to a wider public. The students continue their prize-winning dramatic presentation Life in a Jar."

Louis Bülow ©2007-09.

Could we have such courage, such faith?
Irena was God's instrument of mercy in the darkest night.

My dear Kathy

 
One of my dearest friends, Kathy, pictured here, is floating on a cloud. She is in a romance that she thought might never happen:)She's been a widow for 4 years and recently began considering joining a Singles Group. Loneliness can be tough to deal with day in and day out after being with her husband Bruce for 25 years and losing him to cancer.
Kathy has done well since his death; she's grieved--but she's strong and independent, and, within the last year or so, was ready to find someone to with which to share her life again.

About 5 weeks ago, a dear gentleman from our church called to ask about Kathy. His former wife had passed away recently and, knowing the door had closed forever for reconciling with Bethany, he was eager to find that special someone to share his life as well. I knew Alex was a man of great integrity and above reproach (and Skye placed her stamp of approval on him immediately:)), but had no clue how well he and Kathy would mesh??

To make a sweet story sweeter, from their first date they have fallen "head over heels" for one another! They talk about everything, pray about everything, ask for advice from Godly people, and are ecstatic to have discovered each other:)
Our church family is tickled for both of them--we are all smiles every time we think of these two:)!

I must say it makes me weep with Kathy that she has such joy and feels so blessed in this relationship with such a Godly, precious, man:)
It gives joy to the heart to see two people fall in love, especially when one is such a close friend and I know how she's soaking this in like a 'balm of Gilead':)
And to know that God intended this for both of them--a blessing beyond measure in their mid-life; a new beginning far better than either could imagine:)

PS. Will keep you posted on any 'new' developments:)
When you have a romance in your fifties, time is of the essence:)
Go for it, girlfriend!!