Silverwalk Hermitage

Puppy adoration!

An Apple MacBook in an aluminium casing.

I am finally, functionally, learning to put others before myself; not perfectly, you know, of course, but knowing my life is not the end of my purpose.  I have understood this theoretically for a long time, have been more generous with both time and money at various times yet in the past few years had become a bit too insular in thinking and action to consider myself a generous person who puts others first.   Simple, humble examples:

• though I did “kill two birds with one stone,” when I went to St. Louis last Sunday to pick up my new MacBook Pro, I spent most of the evening with my friend hospitalized at Barnes.  I had planned to visit her anyway (she was the gumption getting me to STL) but she called, scared and worried at a planned surgery.  I wore earrings she had made and took her a small ceramic token which said “you are in my prayers.”  She attached it to her watch, wearing the rest of the week.  Her surgeon decided surgery was not her best option at this time and is choosing to treat her medically.  Now, that is some holistic surgeon, whether he would call himself such or not.
• though I was feeling really punk yesterday, I listened to the old but true mantra: “Get up, dress up, show up” and went to work.  Had I not, they would have been in a world of hurt staff wise; I would have thrown away a chance not only for personal discipline and commitment but also one of good will from and for my colleagues.
• I let Leon Redbone go to his new home today.  Leon is a coming 7 month old Redbone Coonhound puppy, very smart but very puppy.  He is going to a home where he will mostly be an outside dog with another, currently smaller puppy named Ruby.  My concern is he will be too much for the children; one member of the family ran 5 miles this morning – how great it would be for him to work up to running with her daily – super exercise for a puppy who is lazy.  I have Justus to work and train; I don’t need to keep another dog.  Each dog deserves her own home.

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the journey with Jesus does have a destination

Dan at Journey with Jesus has done it again.  Though this link is for next Sunday, it addresses very well what I am experiencing in terms of faith, personal struggle and behavior.   Something is going on when not only your true friends but also a co-worker remark on one’s defensiveness.  Oh, dear.  Please read, digest and offer prayer for myself, my friends and colleagues and my life in Christ, to Whom goes all glory!

“I Don’t Know What I’m Doing” Failure-Tolerant Christians

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A friend has entered Heaven.  I am never sure, when one has severe brain damage, when the soul really leaves.  It is more than my meager theology can explain.  I do know bodies can live on.  He leaves us to both grieve and celebrate his life and who he was.  I don’t know his beliefs re: the afterlife or God.  I know on Earth, he was a good person.  I trust God to ensure the rest of his soul.

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Image by Etsy Ketsy via Flickr

Multiple friends are suffering this weekend – and I am suffering with them.  One is severely injured physically, another emotionally and psychologically; both are grieving and their states are being grieved, actively prayed about and they are receiving intervention.

How cold the above paragraph sounds, yet, for compassion and discretion’s sake, I don’t know how to say much more but my heart is in distress and I cry to my God for healing – not for me but for my friends.   I am stunned but I am on the periphery, I am trying to be the supporter – one of many.

What I need to impress on everyone reading tonight or whenever is life can be changed in an instant – whether it is “your” fault or not.  My friends did not seek nor put themselves in harms’ way, so they thought.  The harm, the injury, the pain was brought to them.  Those of us who love them stand by them, doing what we can, making ourselves available to them and to God.

This is the time when there is only one set of footprints where my friends tread – because, whether or not they acknowledge or are aware, they are being carried by Jesus – who knows all about unjust pain.  He has walked this path and now He carries my friends and loved ones.  I weep for them as I write this.  I weep for myself, reminding myself never, ever, to take any day, any moment, any breath, for granted.  I ask any and all who read this to pray for my friends and to thank God for the health, the life, the perceived safety you are in.  Your life can change quickly and dramatically.  Our God is always there.  Always.

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Not many words from me these few days.  Watch, enjoy this video and remember, no one limits you more than you do yourself.  God opens His light and life to us, all of Her creation,  every single day.

We are alive.  I pray for those more affected than we.  For those who lost their lives in these storm systems – over 200 from Wednesday’s storms alone.  We have power….and Power.  I pray those affected remember their Power especially should they not have power.  I rest in gratitude today in the sunshine for the friends who kept us safe yesterday, for the predicted overnight storm which did not materialize, for those with whom I have been in touch who are doing ok.  We are all hindered in different ways but we are alive.   Let us remember those who are not and their families and friends, who, in their grief, are concurrently contending with loss of homes and businesses….God is there, here and everywhere.

For what are you grateful to God today?

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