Category Archives: life

A week full of sharing and Friendship

life

It was another one of those weeks.

IMG_0323

No, I don’t mean those .  I mean those.  Do you see the difference?

This those 

was lovely and delightful and yummy and full of gift giving and I was wrapped up in it.  Maybe you aren’t supposed to love something as intangible as a week.  Nevertheless, I did.  It was the kind I look forward to for days before it arrives.  Especially if I am required to do some hostessing and food preparing and table setting.  Add to that some balloon ordering and napkin folding and throw in a bit of box wrapping (I prefer boxes, over bags.  Don’t worry if you want to give me a gift that you or someone else has wrapped in a bag because I will accept it, open hands and heart.  With thanks!) and honey, you are looking at one of my very favorite kind of weeks.  

It will be remembered for it’s loveliness.

I hosted two events and the other three (yes it was a five eventer) were arranged, organized and pulled off by others.

Friends!

Not for me!  For other people, but I was included, for which I am thankful.

Aren’t friends great?

I have had a few in the (two 5s side by side) years of my life.  I was just mentioning to one of these precious ones last week, how friendships evolve and change.  Some are strong and so good right from the beginning.  Others disappear  and sometimes reappear and start from where they left off and grow deeper, as the years of our life rocket by.  I have laughed with friends.  Rejoiced at new and wept over lost friendships.

It happens you know.  Starting and ending!  Can’t be avoided no matter how desperately you  wish it.  No matter how hard you work to keep it going.  Some friendships have a life span.  A Best Before date.  But it’s the ones that last, that grow deeper and stronger and can survive through thick and even the thin of life, that are like gold.

The ones that come to a screeching halt or the ones that just fizzle out, still melt into the richness of who we are becoming.  Every  relationship that didn’t make it to friendship, has value.  It has growth in it.  If we are willing.

A while back someone shared truth with me.  I didn’t want it to be.  Truth!  It was and I recognize it more every day.  I have paraphrased it and added to it.  To make it mine.

Here it is!

“You know Pam.  Other people are not responsible for making you happy.  You will be disappointed if you think your joy will be less or more, dependent upon other people’s decisions.  We are only responsible for our lives.  God is the one who can bring real joy and you need to let those around you,  carry on with their lives and you carry on with yours.  Find Joy in the life God gives you every day.  You will be less disappointed and more Abundant Life minded if you keep your eyes on the life God chose for you.  Nothing touches you, whether people or circumstances, without having His stamp of approval to do so.”

Friends come and sometimes they go.  God’s love and faithfulness withstand all the changes that happen in friendship.

Someone shared truth with me.   Friends do that.  Slide out on a very fragile limb that has the potential to break.  My job as a friend is to listen.  Pray.  Ponder.  Evaluate.  Pray.  Sift.  Pray.  God uses people to grow us.  Maybe, sometimes, He uses me to grow someone else.

I had two siblings who were older than me by a ways.  They left (me) when I was still in elementary school and that

makes me not only a youngest child

but

also an only child

and strange as it seems,

a first born.

Those are pretty big shoes to fill.  A bit confusing at times.  Who in the world am I supposed to be anyway?

We moved towns a few times and it seemed  it was my lot in life to make new friends.  To get close, say good bye and move on.  To be the new girl.  Thankfully I  was often up for the task,  challenges included.  God equipped me.  I still remember crying at night because I had to, yet again, make new friends.  The new girl, the tall girl, the skinny girl, the preacher’s girl, standing alone.  Friendly faces, scary faces.  Friends, foes.  friends, bullies.  These are not new.  We become who we are because of encounters with people.  We learn and live and know more about living and friends and joy even so.  Even though.

I haven’t always liked the goings on involved in friendship but the good outweighs the bad. Far and away.

Friendship comes with huge responsibility.  Sometimes liability.  It doesn’t work out well if the giving is all about them and the receiving is all about me, or the other way around.

To speak truth is hard but right.  To go out onto fragile limbs, slippery slopes, rough water.

Gifts that can be held are nice but not best.  Let’s face it, gifts are precious but don’t fill the lonely place that wants love.     God gives us families and friends to encourage us and love us.  That’s People Love.  You don’t know real love until He opens your eyes and you see God Love.

It’s the Best!

The friends I spent much of last week with know about God Love.  He has filled them up with it and keeps filling.  They are so full that it, the God Love, flows all over everybody around them.  No, they aren’t perfect.  Never will be.  They need to be continually filled up and as they get filled and then overflow, they get more filling so they can keep overflowing.  God is the Filler!

Friends are good.  They are a gift.  God gives us people to be friends with.  He wants us to be careful though, not to depend on them and put our faith in them and be so focused on them that we forget where the filling and loving and faithfulness come from.  Really.

It’s God Love that matters and the rest is extra.  It’s blessing!

Friendship is blessing.  Life would be less lovely without it.

There’s a song that goes like this

Every blessing you pour out I’ll turn back to praise.

I am praising tonight.  Not because life is perfect.  Not because I have only happy prospects for the future.  Praising because God has filled me with a lot of Him.  I know God Love and because it is big and strong and filling and flowing, out, I can share it with

friends.

 

 

Grief and guests and what’s it all about

life, , , ,

 I was in that place on the other side of our land where mountains and sky and sea  come together in one beautiful scape.

 I love it there.  

Everywhere you look there is something else to take your breath away.

 I lived there, years ago.  I was not terribly moved in those days by the beauty around me.  They were years of youthful struggles and searching.  It wasn’t about searching for God or meaning or truth.  No, I knew those things were settled.  God is!  Always has been and always will be.  I knew Him then and I know Him today.  He is good and strong and loving and allows tragedy and sadness and pain to touch us.  Not because He wants to hurt us or make us cry.  He allows thorns to wound us because these show us our need for Him.   In them we can see His greatness.  Pain is bad and it is real and  worse  for some  than for others.  Maybe the ‘pain threshold’ is lower for me than for you.  Perhaps you have been asked to carry a load that is heavier than your neighbor’s. Continue reading Grief and guests and what’s it all about →

Kindred spirits in unexpected places

life, , ,

I am sitting in a lovely cafe.

 It’s in the lobby of the Omni Hotel in Nashville Tennessee.    

A week ago right this minute I had no idea I would be here in Honky Tonk town a week later.   God has decided I should live a life full of all kinds of surprises.  Some of them not so welcome and others are beyond my joyful expectations.  I know He holds my life in His hands and as I have told you before, I realize it’s best to let Him do His thing.  Even if I don’t right away recognize the good in it.

Back to the story!  

My relatively new friend and kindred spirit is the woman God hand picked before time began, to give birth to and be the nurturing mother of my son’s soon to be wife..  God is like that.  He not only answers prayers as He sees fit and holds people’s lives in His hands.  He spreads the blessing around.  I received a message from this newish friend as I drove East to meet my littlest one.  “So here’s a random question.  how’d you like an adventure?”  Well she had my attention right there seeing as how I usually  like an adventure.  “want to go to Nashville with me next week?”    The short of it is that she has a conference and decided I might be an eligible Travel Buddy.  I put in a request to my husband and before you could sing  

Blame it all on my roots I showed up in boots And ruined your black tie affair

I had a booking on American Airlines.

 It’s been an action packed fun filled adventuresome five days.  

The first night we wandered one of the Must See streets which is just around the corner.   I had no idea what a Honky tonk was before my visit to this cowboy town.  Now I do!  Not sure it has made my life a whole lot more meaningful but it’s one more thing to add to a growing number of facts in my brain.  

Now, one of the reasons my almost inlaw and I are kindred is that we see much of life through the same lens.  A bit naive, a lot conservative with a smattering of mercy thrown in.  There are certain places we just don’t frequent.  Ever.  If you visit Nashville and take a walk along Broadway you will find the street lined with such places as those.  

We did enjoy some of the music coming through the open doorways.  Even poked our heads inside from time to time.  The view was similar in each.  Dark!  A long Bar along one side!  A raised platform at the front filled with mostly men, in boots, jeans and their hands full of guitars.  Not our scene for sure.  Nevertheless, we were open to the possibility of perhaps finding one establishment where we could maybe step INSIDE the door and sing along.  At one,  my TB was heard to say “nope, this is not our kind of bar”.    Ah yes, the laughs were plenty.  We did find a place where the song being sung was one we both new and we ventured inside, ice cream in one hand, camera in the other.  We stood no more than 5 feet inside along the wall and listened and sang and laughed and ate ice cream.  Thinking I should put a dollar or two in the jar at the edge of the platform, I approached the bar.  Yes I did.  I leaned over and the nice young man leaned in to hear my order.  “I don’t want anything to drink”.  I said.  “Ok, but could I at least get you a glass of water”?  He replied.  “Nope”, I said.  “I just want money”.  He looked at me for a minute and then saw the 20 I was holding, nodded.  I put my few bills in the jar, we sang another song and left, laughing.  Laughter is a good medicine, I have been told.  

Yesterday my TB was in meetings in the morning and I ventured down the street and around the corner.   There were no country musicians playing locally and we had been to the grand ole’ opry the night before, so off I went to get tickets to the symphony. 

A beautiful surprise awaited!  We all know that different experiences bring pleasure to individuals of all kinds.  

One of this preacher’s daughters very favorites (Yes I do have a few) is…  

A delicious home made creation fresh from the oven, enjoyed in a beautiful garden.  

IMG_20140528_110205 IMG_20140529_093355Add a fountain of some sort and I have no trouble envisioning what Heaven might be like.  The concerns of life fall away and I find praise falling from my lips.  

Thank you Lord for this little glimpse at your kindness.  Life is not easy.  There is trouble all around.  Sadness, pain, fear, frustration, sickness and yes, even death.  Yet here, right now, in this place, I am resting in you.  I do trust you.  I do know you are the cornerstone of everything.  I do know that you are the beginning and the end.  You are great and greatly to be praised.  You do not owe me anything. Sometimes life isn’t what I want.   I am not entitled to the gifts that leave your hand and touch my heart.  Yet you allow me to know blessing.  Sometimes it is huge.  Miraculous.  Not to be mistaken.  Other times it is a sweet gentle soft whisper that only I can see.  Today is that day and I praise you from a full heart.

That was yesterday’s prayer as I found myself in a small courtyard outside the beautiful Schermerhorn in downtown Nashville Tennessee.  I had happened upon the cafe on the edge of that beautiful building and I opened the door to the wafting smell of baking…something.  As it turns out the something was blueberry scones.  Handmade from scratch and I knew I was about to meet yet another kindred spirit.  It took just a minute to get a glimpse of this woman.  Her name is Meg and she was my friend immediately.  I think I realized it for sure when I asked “what is your soup today?” and she answered with a smile, “I haven’t decided yet.  I need to see what I have back there”.  Yep!  I smiled.  She makes skirts out of vintage fabric.  We chatted and I took my scone and latte to a bench in the courtyard.  It was one delicious offering I tell you.

IMG_20140529_101135 I didn’t know Meg and yet she shared hospitality with me yesterday morning.  I went back and thanked her and gave her a card with the name of this blog on it.  I invited her to read it and asked if I could take her picture.  She said yes and smiled.

 

Meg
Meg

 

 I am sorry it is a bit blurry but you get the idea.  She was kind and gifted in hospitality.  She maybe doesn’t know it.  Perhaps it is just something she does because she enjoys it.  Quite possibly she bakes fresh scones and cookies and makes delicious lattes because it is a job and she needs the money.  It could be that she is an entrepreneur and some other business person gave her this opportunity to share and earn and enjoy.  Whatever the case, God blessed me through her welcoming on a warm day in a cowboy town and I will remember her, maybe for the rest of time.

We are heading for home in just a few minutes.  Life is an adventure and this was one mini in the vast encompassing adventurous journey of my life.  

 

I asked for requests

life

This morning I slept a bit later than usual. I like to do that sometimes. Especially if the sky is grey and I don’t have much that’s urgent on my to do list.
It was sunny at first but was only mid morning when the clouds turned darker and it became evident that the weather man was correct. It seems he has been ‘right on’ too many times in recent days. He warned us to get the umbrellas ready and I for one, did as I was told.
When asked to make a dinner menu recommendation, my husband responded quickly that since he had been given the go ahead he was choosing pineapple chicken with rice, carrots and salad. This is a recipe Nano taught me to make a long time ago. It has evolved over the years but still reminds me of the time long ago when I was chief cook and bottle washer. Back in the day. Junior high and that’s when I really learned to cook. I’ll tell you about it sometime.

So umbrella in hand I closed the door behind me and headed south. A walk to market was a bit of an undertaking but I have done it before. Not one to be thwarted by a bit of drizzle I made my way safely to the destination I have grown to like very much. (I won’t say love because that’s a bit much)
I purchased the ingredients for the requested dishes. Chicken, rice (there is a great little shop there where you can get pretty much any kind of rice, Quinoa, or grains you might want), carrots, pineapple.
Of course I couldn’t resist the cheese man and ended up with four different types of cheese in my bag.
There were a few extras as usual. Blue cheese and figs for the salad. Figs heated in a balsamic reduction are delicious in salad.

Then homeward bound, laden with three bags in each hand. I attempted to walk the distance but gave in about one third of the way and took the subway from there. These biceps may develop if I do that trip a few more times.

Once home I stashed my groceries and did a few chores.

one and half hours before we were scheduled to eat (he said it would be the regular time) I got to work and did what I love to do.
Turned on the stove, turned on the oven, got out my cutting board and knives and made a meal worth eating. It wasn’t hard. Didn’t take a lot of time
but the response was “this is one of my very favorite meals”.
And
“If you had a restaurant this would be on the menu and it would disappear right away”

Yep, that’s why I cook. It brings pleasure and of course, tastes good too.