OK. Everyone has been asking where I have been. Why haven’t I blogged since Feb 14th? No I didn’t get depressed on Valentine’s Day. I was sick for the better part of February and tired as can be. I was unable to blog because I felt like I was in some kind of time warp:  I couldn’t seem to go forward and I wasn’t going backward, but I was just getting a feel for where I was right here and right now.

That said, I had bought tickets to see my son and daughter-in-love in Los Angeles, and I was just hoping to be well enough to make that trip. The time came in early March and off I went on American Airlines! It was a magical trip from beginning to end. The kids picked me up at the airport and then began to give me the visuals to complete my picture of their life together out there. We lunched at Joan’s on Third, a very posh but cottage-y place that was absolutely scrumptious! We drove around looking at all the homes they could never afford but enjoyed  the view  anyway. We had a wonderful dinner in their apartment and got up the next morning to go on a  hike in a canyon with breathtaking views of the city and skyline. We brunched at a neat place called Urth, and ate near the sidewalk enjoying the air and the sun and the people.

In the afternoon we drove to Nora’s parent’s home in beautiful Santa Barbara, and began the makings of an evening meal together. Somewhere around cocktails, my son and his wife disappeared for a moment, only to reappear to three parents, fittingly lined up on the couch facing them, to announce and video our reactions to the news that they were four months pregnant! You can hear my squeals of delight all over the video. What an incredible event, not the least of which was how they had kept it a secret until this moment!

The story goes on with more adventures back to LA and then off to see friends in the South near San Clemente.  I took the most exquisite train ride from LA to their home, tracing the ocean as we quietly rolled along.  Somewhere around San Juan Capistrano (where the swallows come back) I began to film the view from my window, saying softly to myself…. I could live here, I could be happy here. After quickly touring her home, my friend drove me right back for lunch to the place I had been filming….she had planned to take me there all along. Needlesstosay, there were more friends, more food, more sunlight and colors and ocean views to take in, all breathtaking. But somewhere upon awaking to the sound of birds and the breeze that is California’s hum through my window the next morning God whispered in my ear….Are you willing to be totally healed? Are you willing to be totally happy?  I thought for only a second before answering a resounding YES!

From there it will all become history soon. I came home to start packing and selling off everything that I have held tight to in the past years. Furniture and dishes and fabric and books….It is wonderful to know I don’t need them any longer. I am off for the adventure I have always secretly sought, a place where I have found my people and that feels like home! I don’t need anything but whatever fits in my car with my can’t-wait-to-see-California companion, Gypsy, and a brand new beginning on my 65th birthday this June.

God  sometimes asks our permission to make great changes in our lives. He is totally able, but He wants our cooperation in the great things He has in store for us. I have been getting ready for this all year, although I didn’t know it. When it seemed I was losing everything, I was just re-prioritizing what was really important to me. I was pulling out weeds in my heart making the soil ready, with the oil of Gilead, for a new and beautiful garden that He would help me plant. My coming Grandchild is the reason to set the date, but for five years I have known there was a pull toward that place. Now I  am ready to rightfully  claim it for myself.

All I can say is, I am ready to receive what He has been saving for me, and I can’t wait to go where it already feels like home.

When is the last time someone said to you “Do you want the good news first or the bad news?” For me it was two days ago. At the time I didn’t think much of it, but as I was gathering thoughts about our Bible study the other day, it really struck me.

Are you someone who wants the good news first or last? I thought I would say, bad news first, but truly I want the good news first. It is the good news that often provides the cushion for me to be able to receive the bad news. It gives me a framework that already has acknowledged that there is lots of good going on all the time. The bit of bad news can be dealt with in that atmosphere so much more easily than in a negative cloud of doom and gloom.

As we think about reaching out to those that the Lord puts in our path, to express His love and compassion for them, how often do we think about letting them rest in the good news first? Do we make sure that they are totally secure in the feeling that God loves them and more than that, through His love of us, we love them too? Is it palpable and real for them? Only if it is, are we in a position of  making a real and significant difference in someone else’s life.

I read once that it takes ten compliments to reverse the hurt of one criticism. I was raised by a dad who had trouble withholding  criticism, and an even harder time expressing his love verbally, even though it was never in doubt. It made it difficult for me to believe that God wasn’t a punisher first, a rewarder later. The fact that He gives you the big reward first, before we have really done anything to deserve it, has always been astounding to me. It has always been easier to accept God’s discipline and conviction,  grounded as it is in the love I know He has for me.

Reward, then punishment. Even then, He is usually gentle and kind when He convicts us in our hearts, and His punishment is never as severe as we might have thought appropriate. Most Christians really get that, particularly if they came to him through the pain of loss, addiction, or infirmity. I believe we are called to love in the way that He loves us, and as far as I can see, the Good News is always offered to us before the bad news. Some of us may have rejected it the first, second, or third time it was offered. Or we may have shot the messenger! Chances are, looking back, we can find many places where He came to us bearing the good before He ever asked us to handle the bad.

It is a challenge every day to offer His good love, instead of condemnation, to those around us. To me that is the cross I pick up every day.

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God must be showing me all kinds of ways we run from His guidance, as the next wonderful Christian friends He let me observe were some that I often go to for good counsel. As I soon realized, we all have our exceptions where we really don’t ask for God’s help, thank you very much.

In a situation where there were incredible ways to save money by choosing materials, free qualified labor offered, and tools that could be borrowed or rented, I was amazed at how quickly this one friend ran to purchase their own new ones. It was almost as if waiting for a single day would cause a rethinking, which would not allow for them to do what they wanted. The rationale was so obvious to others, but clearly sufficed to the person wanting to believe it.

I am now aware of how this same behavior must have looked to my father, when I hurriedly pushed to do something or spend something where there may have been many finer and cheaper alternatives. And by that same reasoning how it must look to God, who promises to provide us with everything we need. That is why I think parents who practice a reserved attitude about purchasing anything set a good example for their children. Their children learn at an early age to practice patience and waiting on God. They also learn that God has amazing ways of providing for our needs, and we never get to see that if we always jump in right away to provide for our own.

To my great dismay, I am very guilty of the same behavior on many occasions. I will override my own decision to wait for something, or to pray to see if it is something that I really need. I think it is only after my recent move, now finding myself surrounded by masses of stuff that has no real value in my life, that I have begun to question what comes in to the house. Truly for everything that comes in, at least four things should go out to someone who needs them, or who at least thinks they do!

Why is it so much easier to spot our bad behaviors when they are being sported by someone else? I guess that is why God wants us in community and fellowship with one another; how else would we ever grow if we only saw ourselves all the time? I got so weary watching that behavior I had to leave, but I wonder when I will get so sick of it in myself that I actually start giving my stuff away? Hopefully very soon. Just thinking about living in a 100 sq ft space this past weekend made me realize how little could go with me. Now, to pare down to that!

When I had some emergency surgery recently, I was told to go home and fill my pain medication prescription, keep the Tylenol and Aleve handy, and most of all to “try and stay ahead of the pain.”

I wasn’t quite sure what the doctor meant by that, but I was grateful to see they had prescribed only about ten pills (I only took two the whole time, and cut even those in half) instead of the full bottle they used to charge you for. Mine mostly went down the toilet, so I usually vacillated between filling a prescription and just keeping it handy in case and until I was actually IN pain.

There was much to be said for this theory, however. Once you experience the pain, every nerve in your body seems to record it, so that it can play it back at the mere hint of it returning.  If, however, one stays ahead of the pain, taking the medication just prior to the previous dose wearing totally off, one never actually experiences the pain.

So this got me thinking. What if, when we saw pain approaching, and by this now I am referring to primarily emotional pain and heartache, we actually embraced it and went with it, instead of stoically trying to push it back? Like my young surfer previously, wouldn’t we be able to ride it out better if we tried to skirt out just ahead of it instead of being caught in the crash and foam and being thrown every which way?

I think there is a lesson in all that. If we truly trust God to bring us through every circumstance, no matter how potentially hazardous it may appear, isn’t He going to know how to ride the wave and stay ahead of the pain?

He is, and He will also probably be delighted we trusted Him enough to take that ride together!

I am reading a book ( Strong Women, Soft Hearts by Paula Rinehart) right now, and this morning a chapter about how we deal with pain struck me personally. She is a counselor of women, and has a lot of insight into the way our hearts work and particularly how God can mend them when we begin to close them down because of past hurts..

She referred to how we deal with emotional pain as riding a wave through the surf. Having one son who still thrills to the experience, and having often spent hours at the beach watching him take what appeared to me to be a scary ride through a high patch of water rising seemingly out of nowhere, I only now realize that may have provided me a model to deal with things that appeared suddenly threatening in my own life.

He waited, poised and expectant, for whatever might appear, sometimes sitting patiently on his board for what seemed like hours. When the wave appeared, he was ready, and faced the challenge with the security that he would turn this into a thrilling adventure. Indeed, he always came out on the other side with a look of triumph all over his face. Even when the wave got the better of him and toppled his board and threw him off, he looked as though he had learned something about how to tackle the next one.

As I look back on my lifetime of waves from out of nowhere, I am aware that what looks like and feels like overwhelming pain is often just a challenge to take a ride on an unknown vehicle. It appears from nowhere and often disappears into nowhere, but you have an opportunity to be beaten up by it, or to merge with it and see where it takes you. I am grateful for a relationship with my Creator that has helped me chose to ride the wave, rather than turn my back on it and hope I would survive the force of it hitting me square on.  I hope at the end of my life to have the same expression I so often saw on my son’s face at the end of that ride in the surf….Wow! I made it, and that was the most amazing and exhilarating adventure ever!

I am noticing that I have neglected my blog writing for over two weeks now, all due to taking a new full time job and the changes that has made to my daily life. I am again amazed at the people who manage to fit in family and shopping, back-to-school and dinner at home, let alone soccer, gymnastics etc! How I ever raised two boys alone I have yet to figure out, and at this time in my life I would be hard pressed to repeat it, let alone remember!

Anyway, I have confidence that those who are will be given the Grace to accomplish what they need to, as I always have been. Fortunately, His Grace is sufficient, and as I look back, that is all that I see.

Now, with that premise firmly in mind, it is time to tackle the work I have ahead of me. Job aside, I have a book to write and some women, perhaps some men as well, to encourage. I know one thing above and beyond all others. I am here to encourage single parents in their quest to raise their children and provide a safe and comfortable place to call home. Though that seems to have led me in different directions at different times, it is still the heart of my purpose here, and I never cease to feel the stirrings of passion when I see the need to give it voice!

Yesterday I saw a billboard on a local church saying, Single Moms Meeting Sunday 9AM. I was so heartened I screamed out loud “Yes!” How I would have loved to see that sign over the twenty years I was trying to find my way through the maze, within and without the church. Finally, there appears to be some notice of the need.

I also recognize, somewhat less exuberantly, the growing number of single mothers, and how “having a child with a boyfriend” has become such an accepted norm. In renting apartments, I am noticing one out of two families with children have parents who are not married. I am not sure why this is the case, but it does disturb me a bit, since they are obviously together. What has happened to our respect for marriage? Where did the commitment to the importance of that go? I say this having yesterday celebrated the fourth anniversary  of my son and my daughter in law. Their wedding was one of the happiest days of my adult life, with all the hopes and promises a life lived together can hold. As their lives unfold, their commitment to be in it together is a celebration for all their friends and family, and our support for whatever they face is unfailing. It would seem a lot less committed if they were just boyfriend and girlfriend, our support almost tentatively offered, at best.

I am grateful to be able to be whole hearted in my love and support of their commitment to each other and to what lies ahead for them. It will never have to be half-hearted, which takes the stuffing out of it. Sometimes we all need that extra helping of stuffing!

It is amazing, but when good things start happening, they can come just as fast and furious as bad things seemed to! I truly believe that as hard as some times seem to be, it is all preparation for the good times and the amount of gratefulness you feel when they start happening.

A little humility and a thankful heart are good things to keep in your toolbox, even when life seems to be throwing lemons at you. Keep making lemonade as fast as you can, with plenty of sugar to keep the bitterness away! I am seeing the positive swing of life to the other side of the pendulum, and while I am always aware it will inevitibly swing back at some point, I am surely enjoying the view from where I am and trying not to let my own actions or attitude interfere with a new direction toward more balance and success.

It would be easy to start complaining about all the things I need to shove around the edges, with new job, new dog, etc. They are all manageable! Much more manageable than life without them, and I think that’s what we have to remember.

OK, I haven’t made as many entries into my notebooks as I would have liked, (and had time for prior to job and dog), but I did review my prayer journal this morning and looking back at late July and August, I was amazed at how things that were just a vague request for resolution were now actually accomplished and ongoing solutions!

Keep your eye on what’s ahead, after cleaning up any messes you have left behind, and I believe you will see amazing progress in your life, if you want it badly enough. As one of my favorite authors(I will look him up to credit him tonight) has said, when the pain of same is worse than the pain of change, you will do something!  Are you ready to get beyond pain? Relief is just beyond what you can see right now, but start taking those baby steps!

It has become very apparent to me lately that we are to process through our negative  feelings to get to the other side. If we take God with us, willing to face the fear that has kept us from removing the band-aid on a wound that never quite healed, He will not only completely heal it but make the scar something beautiful that will always remind you of His love and mercy and grace.You will only feel joy when you remember it afterward and love to tell the story.

I used to envy my family and friends who seemed to have so many occasions for celebrations. Wedding anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, graduations, it seemed like a never ending year full of reasons to have a party. Living by myself, especially after a string of seeming misfortunes, I wondered how I was to commemorate the markers of my life.

No one puts the date of their divorce on their calendar year after year, nor even tries to remember the date of the marriage it disolved. Sometimes I would go to put a date on a check toward the end of February and there would be a vague thought that there was something important about that date….it took longer and longer to remember as years went by. No one will be calling or sending a card any longer, and the link in your mind will begin to fade over time.

The date you bought your first home was a happy one, the date you lost it, not one you ever want to recall.The day you put your dog down, lost a dear friend to cancer, filed for bankruptcy…..nope, not on anyone’s calendar. How does one process through these  emotions when so few people know how to share them with you? Everyone knows how to party, but few really know how to help someone grieve.

I was told by two women in the last two days, one of the cruelest things someone ever said to them was to “just move on” before they were ready. If we have a friend we feel is stuck in a sad or mad emotion, the kindest thing we can do is to step into it with them and help them remember the pain and grieve through it. If we don’t acknowledge it happened, they may be stuck there for a very long time. The saddest part of that is that real joy cannot enter in as it should, because their pain sneaks in and takes up all the space.

Perhaps we should have a funeral once a year, maybe even at a church or house of worship, where we are invited to bring our hurt and painful feelings to a wake and burial service. Emotions can be elusive and pop out when we least expect them sometimes. Make note of them when you find one, so you can dig a bit deeper and try to uproot it’s hold on you. There needs to be a time and a place to ask God into those dark places and to heal our hearts, and sometimes we are afraid to go there alone.

After that we can celebrate the healing, as I have and do for so many things that have happened in my life. I ask you to look for those things that are the markers of your life, treating them not as gravestones, but as jewels, mined from the quarry of your heart, and now adorning your neck or wrist as anniversary gifts from God himself. Those are the pearls that celebrate His infinite love for His cherished ones.

And, as I have learned from my darling daughter-in-law, if no one is throwing a party for you, throw one for yourself! A healing party, now there’s an idea……

Isaiah 41:10  Fear not: for I am with you….

lineage uncertain but great personality!

Gypsy came home today. A dog abandoned because his owner developed medical problems and was no longer able to care for him. Two years old and starting life anew, as we all seem to be this season!

Funny name for a guy. I have a tendency to fall for dogs who are neutered males with the body shape of a female. Slim with sweet faces and a sensitive nature….metro-sexual, my sister says.But at least in a dog, that suits me fine!

Just the right size for the age I am now. We can go for a walk but he won’t be pulling me down the street, like former lovable labs I have known.Gentle, but funny to watch sometimes. Not too needy for attention, he was totally content just to sleep on his bed next to mine last night. It was wonderful to wake up and just notice he was there.

It reminded me of bringing a baby home from the hospital. There was something about our movements that was already in sync. I remember with my sons, having spent nine months nestled close to my heart, how those first days and nights felt easy. They knew my stops and starts, my constant movements didn’t startle them. In fact, probably because they were familiar with them, they knew I would be returning to their spot long before they needed me.  Cries for attention were rarely heard and they were content and happy babies.

This dog is like that. Happy to know that I am here and that if I leave I’ll soon be back. How cool!  God certainly picked out the right companion for me. But then, He would. Who knows me better?

OK, I know what you’re thinking. I’m barely ready for a dog….a guy is way out of the question right now! This is a great practice test though. If and when the time is right, we’ll see.

It can cut you to the quick, or it can provide the most amazing love, inspiration and intimacy you may know in a lifetime. If you love a friend with a vulnerable sharing of your lives, your marriages, your family ups and downs, you put yourself at risk in a way you cannot imagine. There is so much that women have to give and receive from one another, and there is a strength and  quiet courage that they can supply that is beyond measure. It requires a trust that, should it ever be betrayed, can leave one open and bleeding as if they were on the operating table having bypass surgery and the surgeon decided to go play a round of golf before closing them up.

You don’t know if you can survive it, it hurts that badly and for so long. In fact,when he returns, were you conscious, you would ask him to just give you a transplant instead, because you aren’t sure you can ever repair the wound to your heart by yourself.

You can‘t. I have been through that situation. My husband left me for my best friend, some thirty years ago, actually. I share this not because it is painful now, but because it is one of the most joyous stories of my life, and a cornerstone to my relationship with God through His healing.

Building a life with my children with that resentment and bitterness continually opening a wound, I finally came to a place where I told God I was willing to be willing to forgive them. I could not muster the courage to actually say I was willing to forgive. But God in His great and tender mercy, took my baby step and turned it into a new and improved friendship. Still deep and still vulnerable, we met each other after that decision on a kind of bridge that, in my artist’s mind, looked like it was out of  a Monet painting: an oriental type bridge over a water garden filled with brilliant water lilies in the pond below.

Our pond was truly more like a sewer of bad memories and of hurting each other, so we never went near it. We met above it, and admired the water lilies that were flourishing there. My sister recently shared with me, when we were awestruck by the beauty of some water lilies by the side of the road, that they will only grow in mud.

I like to think that even though there was a lot of mudslinging going on for years, that our children still bloomed in the mud and even, with God’s intervention, because of it.

My best friend, Dottie, died of colon cancer five years after God restored our friendship, now made even deeper because of the place God had carved into our hearts. He filled that place with love and a sharing that only two women who have been married to the same man could ever know. I was able to comfort her in ways that only I could, having totally let go of any mean thoughts I had ever had about either of them. Only love remained.

Her only daughter is now my daughter. She and I share loving memories of her Mom and God’s love for all of us on an almost weekly basis. I have been blessed more than I could ever imagine by that baby step I took with God over ten years ago. It freed both our families and so many other people who knew that only God could have performed that intricate surgery.

I share this only to remind you that given the opportunity to have a deep friendship, please take it. It is a blessing you will never regret… unless, of course, you are too proud to take baby steps.

P.S. This picture is the first one I could find, taken at our son’s graduation from college. She was beautiful even with her eyes closed, and this was taken near the same time as our reconciliation.