October

October

Golden Days…

the grand finale

of

summer…

Elysium.

The embroilment of color,

fighting for a chance

to

be noticed first.

Summer…

making its final argument

for continuance.

Being A Caretaker

            God calls us to be all kinds of things.  The important fact is that we must be responsive to His call.  And if we are responsive, He will support us; sometimes it takes a while for us to believe that.  Relying completely on our Lord is so difficult at times.  We tell ourselves that we are trusting with our entire being, yet we find ourselves trying to take over the management of our lives; we are convinced we can handle things. Our human tendencies direct us to try to do things our way.  We read the scripture to say “I can do all things”, and we fail to add the second part:  “through Christ who strengthens me”.  Being a caretaker falls into this category.

            I have chosen to take care of my mother in her waning years.  I love her dearly; yet at times, I feel so restricted and smothered that it feels as if I am on house arrest.  And I feel guilty for feeling that way. I was fortunate to have a great mother.  She gave everything she had to make a better life for me:  her time, her money, her love.  Now it’s time for me to give back. It’s the human part of me that gets tired, impatient, and just plain weary.  It’s only with God’s help and support that I can continue!  And if I ask, He gives me that support.  I renew my physical and emotional body through His help.

Remembering Easter

Thoughts of Easter always make me happy.  When I was a little girl, the day really began on Saturday, because that is when we always had a major egg-dying extravaganza! That was always so much fun!  Layers and layers of newspaper were placed on the kitchen table and hard-cooked eggs were divided between my brother and me.  We had kitchen cups filled with all of the colors or the rainbow. Dipping each egg into the colored liquid, we stretched out the procedure as long as we could, mixing colors and leaving the eggs in the dye much too long.  We usually ended up with multi-colored hands as well as eggs.  My grandmother taught us how to dye with natural things:  dried onion peels, pecan and walnut shells, and cooked wild strawberries – things she had used as a child to dye her eggs.  After patiently letting the eggs dry, we were allowed to place them in a new basket with glistening green “grass”.   We tried to handle them carefully, but it was a rare day when one of the eggs didn’t get cracked. 

As a child, I always got a new dress and shiny shoes.  I didn’t get very many new dresses unless I outgrew mine, but there was always a new one at Easter.  Mom and my grandmother sometimes made it themselves, but occasionally it was “store-bought”.

Daddy and I always went to Sunday school and church.  He always reminded me that Easter was not about new dresses and Easter eggs. The Easter bunny never came to see me when I was a child.  I didn’t know he was supposed to.  But there was always a new Easter basket with a chocolate bunny, some marshmallow chicks, lots of jelly beans and a book.  In fact, I didn’t hear much about the visiting Easter bunny until I had children of my own!  I never knew that the Easter bunny brought gifts!

After church I always had to take off the new dress and put on “play clothes”.   Then we went to Ma’s house.  Easter dinner was always full of good things:  fried chicken, ham, potato salad, all kinds of vegetables, homemade rolls, and always coconut custard pies. I always looked forward to that, because just the minute dinner was eaten, we had the Easter egg hunt.  We always had “real” eggs; when I was a child, there were no plastic ones.  My grandmother loved to hide eggs and took delight in finding spots where they would be hard to find.  She always placed them in tree branches, creeping vines, and flower pots.  She had lots of good places to hide them at her house.  Sometimes she would hide them before we ate lunch; and that always heightened the anticipation, because we weren’t “turned loose” until dinner was over.  She always helped us find them too, delighting and giving hints as to where they just might be.  Once we got up on Easter morning and found the ground covered in snow.  We were so disappointed.  But Ma had a solution.  We just hid eggs all over her house. Weeks later, we found an egg on the top of the kitchen cabinet!

After we moved to the country, we always went to sunrise service at the church.  Most of the time, we had to wear our heavy coats; it was seldom warm on Easter morning.  Those were meaningful times.  No one was dressed in Easter finery, and all came to celebrate the risen Lord- the real meaning of Easter.  We went away with a renewed appreciation for eternal life and for our Lord who gave it to us.  Those thoughts should be uppermost in our minds when Easter is celebrated.    

New Beginnings

Sunrise - the untimate beginning
God's promise of renewal,
Brilliance and beauty
Exuding reverence.

Butterflies, fresh from the cocoon,
The cocoon of safety and confinement
Into a world of space -  and freedom.

Springtime, green and bright
With the hope of harvest;
Smells - peculiar only to Spring.

Easter, heralding the Joy of Rebirth,
God's assurance of Eternal Life;
Hope for tomorrow.

Seeds with life securely encased,
Needing only Nature's touch
To bring forth new beginnings.

And children...
God's reassurance of faith in human-kind,
Faith in His Creation.

New beginnings..
The chance to start over.
No remembering failures,
No holding grudges,
No finding fault.
New beginnings...
The gift of God's love.

Reflection

Would that all of us could
Allow our armor to
Be cast aside and
Become a child again
For just one day.

To experience the joy
Shown in simple things:
A bloom of dandelion,
Or an ant on the path;
A rose wrapped in paper,
Wet with water so that
It stays fresh and green
Until it gets to school.

Would that all of us could
Feel wind on our face and
Laughter in our hearts, and
Become a child again
For just one day.