You blog readers might recall that written in the first "Gospel"of the Bible's New Testament, there is a portion of scripture called the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount section. (See Matthew 5:3-10.)
I read this the other day in my devotion and I think if one could add another "Blessed", it might be this one:
"Blessed are you when you trust when you cannot understand. "
Consider.....
I would imagine tradition dictates that every Baptist woman of my age has a goodly number of Bibles. I have one from my birthing time, one from my baptism, and many for different occasions in my life. I will always hold on to and treasure them all.
In this post, I am speaking of the Bible I read on a daily basis. In fact it's been my most read Bible of the past many years. I don't even have a given by name or date in it, just my name in my own handwriting so I'm guessing I just bought it for myself. And if I guess why I bought it for myself, it would be because it is called an "Open Bible" brand AND more importantly, it has BIG print for my aging eyes to read better.
This Bible is burgundy or deep deep red. It is a Bible that began to show wear and tear, pages on edged are faded, cover is tearing, and the inside cover had to be taped. Is this because I've treated it badly? I can honestly say it is not because of that, it is because I have used it usually daily to read and study. The inside has some things written I want to remember, notes in the margins, yellow highlighted verses, and so on and so forth. This Bible is a treasure to me....a true treasure.
Yep, it's been almost a month with NO new posts. Again. I'm slowing and slowing more and more or so it appears. I don't really have a lot of wise words, just wanted to share another saying that passed by my way. You can see it at the end of this uninteresting post.
Since Covid, I've had my sleep apnea test, seen the ENT who I am pretty sure will join the list of my top three favorite doctors, seen my hip PA and gotten x-rayed as I got my foot caught up in my vacuum cord while vacuuming the kitchen pantry. Lesson number one in this painful event is vacuuming a kitchen pantry is very overrated and lesson two, of course, is to not tangle your foot in the vacuum cord....or any cord. Luckily for this event, I realized my head was headed toward the corner of the desk for a direct hit and I put my right hand out to avoid that. Yes, the right hand still has a bit of swelling on the top above my wrist but it was a great weapon from a head hit. The force from that hand hitting the corner of the desk pushed me back into the vintage padded den chair that fortunately has a home by my desk in the kitchen. Even at that, it was a forceful hit with much soreness and a residual bad pain that I feared might be my non-bionic hip. Happily, the hip in not much worse than the last X-ray a year and a half ago and sadly, the pain is thought to come from my back. I will begin a new relationship this afternoon with physical therapy and it's joys that I am confident will be positive for me. As for the ENT, yes, there's a mechanical problem so I'm not making it all up. The simply remedy is continuing for 23 more days before my sinuses get a CT. Let's just say that I have the cleanest nose in this household. If I'm going to practice what I preach to my elder relatives, I have to follow physician's instructions completely. I'm gonna do it!
So truly all that was just to take up space in this post and is meaningless to you. My mind is just weary of too much thinking. So to share my saying I have heard and will commit to my memory....
The more one knows about the Planner, the more he can trust the Plan.
Mull that one over a bit in your mind and heart. I like it!
Consider....
Just sharing a truth from this morning's devotion:
"Fair weather faith is not faith at all."
My mind processed that and I realized it was truth.
Consider....
Ah, yes, another learning time for me....uh huh, covid abode in my body. I will say that on my day 8, I'm FINALLY feeling more normal. My covid actually came on the heels of my two sinus infections in three months so I think the residual now is the covid symptoms aggravating the faulty sinuses. So, in a nutshell, from my neck up, I feel normal. I have seen an allergist in the past couple of weeks pre-covid and found that I'm allergic to nothing. Nothing. So next stop is an ENT to find out what kind of fault is in my sinuses. Now that covid has come and almost gone, my fine watery left eye is again red and watery. Did I say I had a partially blocked tear duct before the first sinus infection of the past three months? In case I didn't, the opthomologist put his ice pick looking gizmo in the corner of my eye and probed and then washed all that out with a syringe attached to a small tube. Not fun. So here I am again, looking all watery in the left eye and feeling still pretty weak. It was me, my Lysol and my Covid for a few days,
So for lessons....hmmmm...
I got the covid directly from my dad whom I took to the doctor ten days ago because he called me panicked because he was real sick. At doctor's office he tested positive for covid. Uh huh. I actually was around him the day before that as I had to take my mom for labs and that was a very long long stressful day and I was interacting with my dad during part of it. And did I say? My mom came down with it two days later and I came down with it two days and twelve hours later. My parents quarantined in their room at their assisted living home. So I learned what I knew already and you might not know, so I will share. NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.
I quarantined in my small bedroom. No, I don't live in a large house but just big enough. The Good Husband moved my 25+ year old recliner to the bedroom and I spent 4 days there. Sick. Again, I knew this but was reminded.....MANY 25+ YEAR OLD RECLINERS ARE THE MOST COMFORTABLE.
There were multiple calls for me from the medical people at my parents' home. Problems to be addressed and managed from home, but I endured. AGING PARENTS ARE REALLY NOT GONNA CHANGE ATTITUDES. IT IS WHAT IT IS, EVEN IF YOU ARE SICK, TOO.
After I got past day 5, I was certain I was on the upward swing. Then on day 7, I felt terrible again. DON'T GET COCKY TOO QUICK. SENIOR ADULTS CAN TAKE LONGER TO RECOVER WHEN THEY REACH SENIOR STATUS...OR AT LEAST SOME CAN.
I am very weak still and will still need a nap or two but I do know that I am grateful for a good husband who has been caring for me and very patient. It's easy to be when you are rooms apart but even lately since I'm back in the "real' part of the house, he sees and pays attention to the fact that I am not my normal looking self. Boy, I must look really scary. GOOD HUSBANDS ARE A BLESSING.
As I didn't get to go to church yesterday as I planned to do....was gonna sit in the back alone, masked....I watched online and heard a wonderful song service and sermon. Normally, we all have our favorite songs and a lot of older people enjoy "In the Garden" and I don't dislike it at all, it's just not one I sing when my heart sings. Yesterday it was led as a congregational song and as I sat in my kitchen recliner with the computer in my lap, watching and listening, something about that song made my already sinus watery eyes water more and fall on my cheeks while my already snotty nose got snottier....and I didn't even mind. It said, "And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am his own. And the joys we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known." Sweet.
The sermon was given by one of our much loved and much humble ex-pastors. I missed seeing him in person but I loved the message with the title of "ALL". He said a lot that I won't go into but he did quote a scripture that I loved that comes from Paul's writings in one of my favorite NT letters, Philippians 4:8 and it goes like this, ".....whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report.....think on these things". That's great advice.
So another week begins. In our house, we are washing hands, covering mouths, and working to a full recovery eventually. You wash and cover and stay away from Covid. It's a booger.
Consider.....
I have not always had my obsession with old spoons. I acquired this obsession a few years back when The Mother-In-Law moved to heaven. As some of her goods were being shared among her children, I found myself looking at a small spoon and couldn't seem to get away from it. It was a simple spoon and had "Kennestone Hospital" etched on the end of the handle. Now since The MIL birthed five babies and had numerous kidney stones with all babies acquired and kidney stones un-acquired at Kennestone Hospital, I was somehow drawn to this spoon. She either came by it honestly....or not so much. Either way, you guessed it! That spoon is now mine. Not only that but when I eat my oatmeal in the mornings, it's one of the two spoons I use. Somehow it just makes me happy. Guess it doesn't take much in this season of life to make me happy.
Now we fast forward several years. The Mother knew of my obsession with old spoons and I found one in her silverware drawer. The Mother and The MIL were a bit different. The Mother had many more spoons than the MIL. The Mother just enjoyed buying things and silverware was not exception. Knowing my "obsession" with spoons, The Mother told me I could have it. I gladly took it and now I interchange it with The MIL's spoon when I eat my oatmeal. It's a tradition for me. Maybe it keeps me in touch with my very loved MIL.
A few months later, The Mother asked me if I would like to have an old box of silverware of her mama's. Of course, I said yes and brought it home to live in my china cabinet drawer. I began to think of those this morning as I ate my oatmeal with the Kennestone Hospital spoon and felt compelled to share.
Here's the goods I have:
I listened to The Son-In-Law's Sunday School lesson he taught last Sunday online today. It was an exceptionally good lesson. There was one quote I felt like was a great one to share on this blog. It goes like this:
"God's delays are not God's denials."
Ponder that one for a bit of time.
A longtime faithful neighbor of mine was sent home from a hospital visit last week on hospice. She has been very sick since the Covid era. I spoke to one of her daughters after she was released to come back home and what the future held for her and their family. Knowing we all have the same promise of tomorrow, it would appear that her move to heaven would be closer than some others. The daughter, who was a mere child who always smelled the cookies baking at my house when The Husband and I married and moved here, told me that the doctors told her mom it was time to "process acceptance".
That really hit me when put that way. Process acceptance. Yes, I can see the necessity of that at The Neighbor's season of life now. As I thought about it, I see that necessity for all of us in various areas. As an adult child of aging, discontented parents, I think my greatest challenge and painful thing is the fact that neither of them accept where they are at this season of their lives. They want to be like they were thirty years ago. Well most of us probably would want that as well, however, when I considered where I was thirty years ago, it was not so pretty.....a wife and mother in her late thirties struggling to live with a newly diagnosed connective tissue disease. I recalled having to have help just getting out of bed and getting dressed in the morning. Yes, I still have that disease but am grateful for remission as well as a desire to learn to live with it and not let that dictate my life. I had to process acceptance of that disease.
We actually have to process acceptance of things on a daily basis totally not related to health. There's all the inflation, finances, crime, bad decisions....the list goes on and on. I will even go as far to say as we have to process acceptance of forgiveness to ourselves and to others.
One of the most memorable prayers of peace I have of my lifetime is this one by St. Francis of Assisi:
"Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, wisdom to change the things I can, and courage to know the difference."
To that, I will say, "Amen and Amen".
Consider....
On Monday of this week, The Poppa and I did our babysitting gig. I might rephrase that, I did my babysitting gig. The Grandbaby arrived for her breakfast of champions--muffin, yogurt, and Oreo O's cereal. I had no idea what this kind of cereal was but after tasting it, it tastes like Oreo cookies in milk. I don't know what a champion winning addition to the breakfast of champions that is, but by golly, The Grandbaby cleaned her breakfast plate.
I received an email which merited that I change my credit card number on an online site so I took care of that.
The Poppa went along with his work while The Grandbaby and I decided we needed a trip to Walmart. The Grandbaby made a list for us on the way so we were well equipped to begin shopping and not linger too long. The list worked well, we got all of the goods (and there were many) and piled them into the small cart that The Grandbaby drove around the store for me. Such a delight is The Grandbaby and as she is growing, such a helper.
We got to the checkout and after all that shopping, decided to use the regular checker-outer-person instead of self-checkout. We worked together to unload the mega goods. The transaction was finished, I reached into my purse to get my case with my credit card, and there was NO case with credit card. Remember paragraph 2 in this post? I knew exactly where it was and it was not in my purse in the store. I told the cashier that I had left my credit card at home but I had a checkbook, I could write a check. But, alas, my ID was in my case with my credit card and I never write a check so I am NOT in the system. I looked down at The Grandbaby and she was taking all this in big time. She said very wisely, "NEEMA, even my mama doesn't leave her credit card at home! And you sure are sweating, Neema!" Gee, thanks! As the cashier put a bag in my cart, she said, "I've done this more than once. Don't feel bad." At that point, I called The Poppa who was able to bring us the card tho not without his male snide remarks, then we had to go to self check to check out the whole bunch of mega goods again as the cashier couldn't suspend my transaction, but had to abhort it. The Grandbaby and I worked together in that self checkout. She is growing so well and is so helpful, did I say that already?
One of the items "we" bought at the store was a pair of canvas sneakers. The Grandbaby had asked to decorate a pair and we had not found any that were suitable. Well, it was a delightful day to find a pair so we bought them. The Grandbaby again wisely said, "I'm glad I could help you remember, Neema. I think my rememberer is better than yours." Duh. The Grandbaby decorated those shoes after lunch and was absolutely thrilled. You would think I had given her the moon.
Lest you think the delights of the day were over, think again. I had learned how to make balloon columns and liked the process so much that I had ordered an electrical balloon inflator. After the shoes were done, I taught her how to make the columns. She has been so thrilled that we may make balloon columns often, just like Pollyanna with the prisms in her movie. We may have balloons everywhere!
So it was a day that began with distractions but became a delightful day. That is until I realized all the delights caused me to be too distracted to remember to put the ribs for supper into the oven so supper was late. Ah well, it's the price one much pay when one is so very artsy and creative, don't you think? Maybe my rememberer is in trouble......
On June 29, 1979, I married my prince....or as you blog readers know him, The Husband. We will celebrate with an early supper at one of our favorite seafood restaurants, In remembering, our most notable celebration was a decorated brownie on an Alaska tour boat in front of a huge glacier. Yeah, that was a memorable one but in the grand scheme of life, they all "look" good and are full of gratitude.
45 years looks like....
2340 weeks
16,425 days
394,200 hours
23,652,000 minutes and..
too many seconds for my calculator to count and too many for my mind to comprehend.
Forty-five years looks like a lot of sickness, a lot of health, a lot of better, and a lot of worse. It looks like joy and sorrow, fear and fearless, happy and sad, and many emotions unnamed. It also looks like a lot of endurance and strength.
Back in 1979, cars were different, groceries were cheaper, and wages less. Yes, we had days of struggle in a lot of areas. We still do. At that beginning season, we were young and foolish--heck, some days we still are foolish but in this season I like to think the both of us are older and wiser. The older is a certainty. We drop something on the floor and look at each other to see who will try to pick it up and if we are smart, one of us will grab the grabber to make it easy. Our hairs are grayer--especially the hair of The Husband, but I'm vastly approaching the gray-er. We are more in tune with what life is holding and concern for one another excels. Retirement has held less time apart which is okay some days....other days, we need to do things alone. We are together most of the time now, with that said, and we really do all right with that. Most days.
Time in between now and then has been filled with blessings of The Girl, The Son-in-Law, and The Grandbaby. They have enhanced our lives to the fullest. Hard times of aging have also come, but the Lord provides.
Then....
now....
and all the joy in between....
In case you wondered, I would make the same choices all over again. Blessed beyond measure.
