memories

Can You Hear Life? Can You Feel It? Psalm 8

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One of the photos I saw while sorting my aunt’s HUGE collection of extras still in the bags, came from my wedding and reception and clearly I can recognize this lady – her name is Ann – and she is holding a dollar and in front of the DJ. Ann is about to get the dollar dance from the groom – and I can see her laughing in the photo – and I can hear her laughing in life – even though I was not seeing her that day (I was dancing myself as the bride), I know her and know her laugh – and the photo was a nice memory for me.

I can hear the whirrrrr of my sewing machine too – from this photo – 1989 or 1990 – my friend at my summer work had just given it to me – I brought it to my aunts’ house to see how it worked and got it oiled and 35 years later I am still using it all the time – still oiling it like my aunt taught me – still appreciating it being a durable machine. I can feel that machine in my hands then and now.

But the machine (like a car turning over) is truly a mechanical sound and activity – not life from the Lord – but still an action roaring into “life”. But we can tell the difference can’t we – we can HEAR life and we can FEEL life. Real life. Like a hug – like a laugh – like the petting of an animal – just hold your hand on the animal and feel a tingling of life in the transfer. Life is not artificial nor accidental. And if you ever hold a baby – either hold a baby’s eyes locked on yours – or hold a baby in your arms, you have to recognize the God-given life within them connecting to you.

When I was at the agricultural fair last weekend, I had a moment of marveling – there were tiny guinea pigs – there were massive cows and towering Belgian draft horses – there were fuzzy alpacas (or llamas not sure) and there were such tiny tiny creatures and massive massive creatures – all filled with life. How diverse and yet sharing similarities in an amazing digestive system – circulatory system – and everything else. My friend went to touch a bunny’s fur and the bunny turned around – the bunny knew someone was there. We are filled with life and it IS amazing. And on Friday night, watching the young kids try to roll a big bale of hay – one gentleman motioned to me to watch on the ground – and this little field mouse would jet out to grab some food someone placed there – or a piece of grass – and jot back in – I remember the cute mouse – he must have been scared – and I remember the man’s giggling glee – it was a connection of life to life to life that only God could put in our hearts.

How much MORE amazing is both the life AND the spirit that God puts in us. How much amazing processing we can have – how much LIFE we get out of LIFE… Can you hear life? Can you feel it? It is deeper than the cool breeze that we can feel – it is more alive than an accidental activation. Life is God-given and intensely interesting and completely more complex than our minds can conceive. God works at God level – don’t ever try to pigeon hole God into what WE think of Him… God is infinitely bigger than that.

SO THANK YOU LORD – FOR TODAY – FOR LIFE – FOR THE SIGHTS SOUNDS FEELS AND LOVES.

Thank you also for the cool of this morning to feel the moments when You are reaching us – awakening us – all while holding us close.

May we always FEEL and HEAR and KNOW God.

Amen

PS – and one photo I entered was of the scene of the cross – because I wanted something of faith displayed – and I put this image (from a Vienna museum of the carving) displaying Jesus turned toward one crucified thief who was engaging with him in asking forgiveness – vs the other thief who was turned away in darkness and disgust. I put it in the “Altered Images” category because truly that is what Jesus does for us – Alters Life – gives LIFE eternal and now…

Psalm 8 – NKJV

The Glory of the Lord in Creation

To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David.

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen – Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

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One last grange photo – that mouse we saw

The Art of Living – Helping While You are Hoping

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Had two nice sets of encouragements today – both while sorting old photos – one was a great set from my undergraduate days – when for our spring festivities I was dressed as a clown and my aunt attended with my family and she was the one who took my photo. Yeah I was cute – And, so if I could tell my 19-20 year old self something – it would be to “KEEP SMILING” – keep cheering – keep helping… (and oh yeah – don’t sweat the small stuff – life is too jam packed to be worrying about crumbs when there are whole cake-slices of life to be had….)

The other encouragement was reading a letter written to my aunt in the late 90’s from her Canadian Pen Pal – yes someone she corresponded with for like 50 years I think – and well this letter, mixed in with photos, spoke of encouragement after my grandfather died – at a ripe old age of 90 – it was a major hurt in our family’s life, especially to my aunts who lived with him…  It starts with “This letter may not be understood by you at the moment”…  “You may have to mourn the loss of your dad for a while, but after a time he’d probably get on with the art of living and helping someone special.” 

The letter continues, I paraphrase: “My dad said to me (when I had just come from the kitchen where I had just helped my mom), said: ‘Go and help your mother – go help her again’….” – “So I did and haven’t stopped since. I’m her companion and I do the corny things one takes for granted. When she doesn’t want help, I proceed to do clean up duties. It works perfectly. My mom is 93 and doing fine and I as such. If I’m able to be her companion for the time she has left on this earth. I’m happy.”…

SO YES – great advice in the art of living – be a help – and be helpful to someone while you are hoping for the next new thing – be a companion while you can – and always help someone special (your mother – your father – or whomever is in your life)…

As we know we need each other – and so many have helped us – we can help. AND – we will see that the Lord will send the right people at the right time – sometimes someone is sent to you – and sometimes you are sent to others…  That’s the art of living – being helpful – being hopeful – and keeping being OK to live while you are hoping and helping…

AMEN

(And thanks to my own encouragers this week and always – I have had a few and I truly appreciate them!) 

Picture This Love

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Photos Photos Photos…. So this task, I have chosen for myself, was to bring home and do in “my leisure time” is sort sort sort…  It is a natural part to help with cleaning up that farmhouse, and after scanning letters from family history projects, I’m now on the photos task (that I assigned to myself) and have been sorting and even sending some out to family members – especially thinking of the children who are now 25 years older – and their families – for them to have photos that remind them where they came from and of the love.

You could think it is a little overwhelming, but it is not hard – it is developing a system like I have – and just digging in – right now I am in the 1990’s and sorting into spring valentines, easter, fall and winter holiday scenes, and then group photos – my aunt is most interested in group photos… It’s such a blessing of memories – and even to look at them now it is a surprise to see things that I don’t necessarily remember but there is a photo of me in it. In sorting big bags (still in the envelops) we think these are duplicates – but we want to sort before we toss. [and there are mixtures of papers here too like tax returns and the such – and just now I found the eulogy given at my great uncle’s funeral – sometimes it is too much to keep but that I will send along to his daughter…] And so with all this sorting I end up taking like 25% of photos to save – and that is still PLENTY…  My aunt always had 2 cameras. Usually a one-ten-millimeter – and a small point and shoot for thirty-five millimeter – and that is the width of the negatives – which we would not use for recreating photos – it is easier to take a photo with one’s phone nowadays of those photos and text them to a cousin – but might as well send some – because these days we hardly ever print…. 

And then there are those disposable cameras – we have many from my aunt that are not developed yet from 25 years ago – like 10 or more rolls plus 10 cameras…  Not sure if we will develop them – it is pricey now – and honestly our memories are good too – so nothing in these photos are of trips we have forgotten – just tucked away – like me holding 5 kittens – it is a memory but not an monumental one like a wedding – and even those we keep only some photos… Some photos are also from not our house(s) – but maybe – that is why it is good to ask the makers of the memories before they pass away… And if the photo is not pertaining – like every state fair butter sculture photo from like 20 years – well those are probably OK to toss…

With sorting photos then sending out to family – for them to have photos that remind them of the love, actually it is not costing me anything to send the photos because, well, my aunt had stockpiles of loose stamps too – not the fancy collections but half a strip here – a few there – and so it is easy to give things away from her giving pile. I thought I had a heavy bag of coins recently but it was a bag of rocks, oh well. And besides the stamps, today I came across a christmas card with $30 – wow – well I will bring that back to my aunt…
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The photos are a good reminder of giving of our time into memories – yes keeping family memories alive – and counting blessings of fun times. Remembering this is like a fraction of the time my grandparents and my aunts gave of their time to watch us as rambunctious kids, me, my sibling and my 4 cousins, childhood time when my mom and dad were working, our time spent on the farm. Yes, we went fishing and they put on the worms, we did baking and cooking but they organized it all, we played outside and they watched us like a hawk. We took trips to fun places. They packed the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the cooler. They stocked up the freezer with those ice cream bars “cheerios” and ice cream sandwiches and those orange creamsicles, which I think are disgusting, but my cousins liked. And my Grandma remembered that I hate spaghettios, so I always got raviolis… It is the little things, and I’m so grateful they remembered… even if we were little – the demands were big…

Picture this love now – on a grander scale than grandparents – picture that God knows EACH of us – and knows every thought and every hair on our heads – I don’t even think that we can wrap our heads around God in this greatness – but we can take photo memories of times we know He was helping us – I can see and can picture the LOVE shared – for each of us was born and taken care of by human care (it takes a village) – and we are STILL here… If we are breathing then we should be believing that God Loves us… He does… 

 I praise the Lord in my past and for my past – I praise the Lord for the present of the present – and I praise the Lord of the future which is already in play – He will gives us ALL THE TIME – Picture His Love – Picture THIS Love…

Amen

What We Do for Christ Will Last, and a family photo album of memories past is a present gift to the present…

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It is the pivotal last day of the month – and I am 2 months behind in putting all my blogs into Word and PDF – but I do plan to do that today and tomorrow because I always promise the Lord that I am not going to be overdue in taking care of His Business with these – not a life and death matter especially because God is forgiving – but I promised myself and promised God that I believe in these writings will outlive me – in some fashion… These are easier to keep (even dust covered) in paper than digital versions that could be deleted so easily (but I have those too)… Paper lasts for a while… and well it and we all will turn to dust one day… but for now – memories of God’s workings in my life that are shared – precious…

And a preacher this morning, in a facebook rabbit hole that I was following, said the exact words that we all need to hear: dust to dust – nothing can you take with you – you will return to dust – but WHAT WE DO FOR CHRIST WILL LAST… And he was not talking in the earthly sense of last – but last heavenly in forwarding the kingdom and serving God’s people…

And so in OTHER will be dust thoughts – I have been “dusting off” some of my family farmhouse dust-covered bags and boxes of photos I have sorted this past week – I found treasures of memories – and decided to simply (with some EXTRAS) glue them down organized – these are but a small fraction of 1980’s and some 1990’s times like ice skating and holiday decorating and farm life – remembering how hard my Grandpa worked – and seeing each other appreciate each other… MEMORIES THAT ARE PRICELESS…

And so, I spent half of the day yesterday doing such – indulged time in this crazy creative idea that came to me at like 5am and I started and worked a few hours (already had all the supplies) – then did regular stuff all day and then finished at night – with watching the evening news (ugh), 2 episodes of 1970’s Barney Miller (talk about throwback and old ugh as the episode was about agent orange and not knowing the effects), and then finished the album off with printing just one photo at 9pm to finish the album – a photo WITH my grandma which was not in this set of extras…  My Grandma died in the early 80’s when I was a teen – she kept her family all together from the 30’s on – I love the older photos of her as a child (that is older family history compiling) – and I love these newer (well 50 year old) photos of ME as a child with my sibling and cousins…  Grandma had an offer by Grandpa to move to a house he built (he built many many houses) but she wanted to stay on that farm – and my mom and aunts and uncle were glad for that too – and I am glad so much – as we had the fun childhood… On Summer break, my aunts who stayed at the farmhouse would watch us like hawks – and we were safe and ever overprotected – but then again that is a Godsend…  We felt the love… We went there during the day – we would stay with them while my mom and dad worked – and we ran through the fields – and we sewed and cooked and ate cookies, sewed embroidery and pretended to be cows in the barn, and watched game shows on TV, had picnic lunch in the tent, caught butterflies and grasshoppers and frogs and and and…. and even got bored – yeah I forget now but we were bored too  as kids (and I thank God for no video games yet) (and boredom creates even more creativity in thinking folks) – and thus cloud watching was a favorite pastime on those summer days – just lay on the ground and watch the clouds… 

(Winter we were outside too – brush off the pond let’s go skating and then have hot cocoa…)

I am grateful – not just in material but in memories – (and in this time to reminisce) – and so this scrapbook may not evoke my memories in everyone – but I can feel them – describe them – love them… (and I will enter the scrapbook to the local agricultural grange fair)…

Likewise – and more so – my writing – which I now will get back to compiling and printing – they are SO TEMPORARY – so much so that I don’t remember what I wrote and yet rereading feels good – and feels in the moment of that time….  Because the ONLY thing that WILL last is God – God is forever – and what we do in Christ for Christ and with Christ will eternally be remembered – and then even so, we will CAST DOWN OUR CROWNS TO HIS FEET – to signify HIS MAJESTY… Yeah – God will last – that is a memory for us now in the future, the past, and well the present… God is with us always from before time – with us now – and will take us Heavenly Home Forever… God bless the thought…  (and will we be bored in Heaven? I doubt it – imagine the memories in advance – wow… and imagine all the great people we will meet – and meet again – but perfected without our earthly worries… Wow that thought in advance is a present…)

The “PRESENT” is a gift that God gives to us. 

Enjoy the PRESENT of this day – it is a gift to know the Gift of God in our lives…

AMEN and thanks for letting me ramble, Lord…  some day I will understand it all…

Amen…

Truth over Trivial Trinkets, in My Calamity of Clutter

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I’m taking just a brief moment to pause my house cleaning, which is five years overdue.  My friends are coming in and we will visit together and then travel together. I’m giving them my room to stay in for 2 nights, so you could imagine I have a lot of de-cluttering and cleaning to do. I DO have (well have had since I have been cleaning for 5 hours) a calamity of clutter, a disaster of a dustbowl that should be ditched in the dustbin, but I want to scrub the stuff even if they are trivial trinkets… (Not don’t even get me started on having too many t shirts – that is not today’s trouble)…

(And I thought the pollen was bad enough for my allergies. This dust and yesterday’s old papers must – whew it’s a sneezing wheezing gust!)

Now there are dishes to discard, charms that can’t compete, even a chik fila cow that I’m moooo-ving out. Donations for someone else’s cleaning of clutter. Just way too much… and then there’s rocks and sea shells, so sweet at the time, trust me, I don’t remember half the rhythm or the rhyme of their collection time. Just wanted a memory, but all I remember is that I must have enjoyed the moment. 

Yes, I’m organized but I do have too much, we do in America – we are the results of depression era moved into collection era and now crushed by it all era. And yet, I love my stuff and so Lord, please don’t take it away, just help me sort to straighten and patiently purge preciously, as my mushy memories are in play.

So within these piles are precious papers, truthful tons of tomes: and special these include my own spiritual special biblical writings AND my many biblical books. And now my recent acquisition of a 1950s set of the “Story of the Bible”, from a friend who saw it in her parents home for years. These are tremendous treasures of tome. (Not my beach reading rags.) These are to be read religiously and absorbed spiritually, and appreciated aptly. Then pass them on, as God’s Word is to be heard and reheard. 

Whew…

And that’s why we enjoy scriptural sentiments and biblical books, because they are matters of this moment, not just of the past, but of the future and of the now… so I will shake off the stuff and save the sustenance of substance. SCRIPTURE IS SAVING FOR SAVORING.

Okay back to dusting, dusting off my memories, my hopes, and my hallelujah’s!!!

AMEN 

God Bless Grandma Love

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Came across this poem for blessing Grandmothers and it brought me to tears remembering both of mine. These past few weeks have been sorting so many items of my one grandma from the farmhouse – from her hope chest to her wedding cake topper to the birthday surprises to the catalogs and bills from Sears, Wards, and Pennies…  

And now including her sketch book as a girl – with these beautiful vintage figures – 1920’s heyday outfits for sure. I took photos and have included some.

My Grandma was wonderful – and my mom said my Grandma could not wait to look after our family. My mom would bring us over while she went to work part time – it was a wonderful time to be on a farm as well as learn baking and sewing and travel and play outside – idyllic now that we look back on it. I even remember laying back and watching clouds go by – ah those were the days. My grandma died while I was still in my teens – it was a tough time for my family – she held so much together. And oh the fun items we have found now in the attic of our cleaning at the farmhouse… I am blessed to be seeing so many of my Grandmother’s letters from her cousins and aunt from the 1920’s to 1950’s as well – and to see this sketchbook. 

And in this 1940’s newspaper, I found this poem – so true…

God bless Grandmas everywhere!!! Then and now and let us be inspired to be Grandma helpers always whether we have kids of not!

AMEN!!!

Poem by Rowena Cheney

“Prayer for Grandmother”

Dear Father, please let Grandma do

Some happy little tasks for you;

Please see that heaven understands

She never sat with folded hands.

She knitted, darned, or sewed a patch

On little trousers – made it match – 

And took the tiniest stitches, so

It was not noticed. Let her know

You need her. If a cherub tears

His rompers on the golden stairs

Please let her mend then Don’t forget

How well she tells a story. Let

Her entertain the seraphim;

And fill her heart right to the brim

With joy that comes to dear grandmothers

Only when they are helping others.