A Bible, A Window, and A TV

“When I am resting because my body is weak, I need to remember that I’m not wasting the day doing nothing. I am doing exactly what I need to do. I’m recovering.”

We are fifteen days into 2025 and I don’t know about you, but I am emotionally, physically, mentally weary and fatigued. This is not a complaint, but a fact about the happenings in our state, nation, and world. It’s a fact about my personal health and health of my family. Fact is fact.

I missed writing you last week, because if you remember my Christmas post I had mentioned I was referred to a cardiologist. Everything is fine! But the first medication we tried didn’t work out. And so that consumed last week. Trying to discern if the medicine was making me feel whack or if it was something else. Since it was Lucy, my little girl’s birthday week, this was a bit of challenge to discern, as it is always an emotional week, which tends affects my whole body. Anyways, I’m back. We celebrated Lucy with a Make Way For Ducklings Themed Party and goodies in her little free library, my heart is full of joy.

As I have stated before, news, information, facts bring me peace. I know that this is not the case with every person, and that is totally fine. However, there has been a lot of breaking news in the new year. Just to name a few: California fires, Senate hearings, Israel and Hamas, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Jimmy Carter, and the list goes on. This weekend my parents and I were watching a news channel and the host made a comment to the effect of, “All I need is a window and a tv.” To which my mom added, “And a Bible.” To which my dad and I agreed. There may have been an Amen or Hallelujah. But it did get my mind going down the path of, “what would I grab or think I need in a spit second?”

Running for safety is not a foreign thought for me or my parents. We have ran from a fire that was arson. However, that doesn’t compare to our whole neighborhood on fire. If you have never ran from fire though, it’s not a time to stop and think, like some other emergencies that are just as serious but may give you a little more time. Flooding, I would think be similar to fire.

When we experienced the arson fire we were in a hotel and we didn’t loose any of our personal belongings. Definitely have suffered some mental health challenges, but no loss of physical items. So knowing a small glimpse of what this is like to grab and go not knowing what you will come back to, I started making a list in my phone… My “GO” list…

Bible (and kids Bibles)
Journals
Lucy’s journals and keepsake box and blankets
Everyday Grab and Go backpack (literally has just about everything in it)
Medicine bags
Medical notebook
Laptop
Life binder
Really special pictures
and the list goes on

As I was making this list I was sitting by the large window that the picture today was taking just outside of this week. Out this window is a small patio. We currently have three bird feeders, and always adding more. We have a yellow swing, a picnic table, and some teal deck chairs. FYI we love color! There are also two small statues, one of a little girl and one of a little boy, and a sculpture of a butterfly(my Lucy). This is the “grandchildren garden” area of the backyard. But leave it to us to have a story. When we had a lake house, a huge tree fell and these statues were injured. The little girl got the brunt of the injuries. We found her legs still standing, but took a few minutes to find the rest of her. But these were special because my niece had picked these out for her and her brother. So we brought them home and now she stands in one piece with blue rainbows and he stands with a hat. (These would be really hard to leave behind.) I go into detail because this is the glimpse from MY window. This is also the same place I sit to watch tv. So between the birds, the children, and the tv, I find a balance 😊

For those who are close to my family you all know how hard it was to first move from our home that I grew up in and really desired to stay in forever. Then this past year also sell our family lake home that we had always hoped to keep for our family. These moves have pressed and pulled and stretched me in ways I never knew were possible. And honestly I have been fighting the peace that God has been offering me until very recently. Why is resentment so easy to cling to and so hard to unclench your fists of? And so when I was looking out the window and listening to the news, and making a list of what I would grab, I realized something… God had me unclench my fists. I realized I was clinging to what used to be, although I really loved where I grew up and I really loved having a lake house. I was finally at peace with the fact that those places were not even conceivably possible to take care of anymore. So much so that my watch started alerting me that I was having abnormal heart rate! Y’all! This is a downright, totally not me MIRACLE!!! I love being home, and I LOVE my childhood home and lake home.

Now this doesn’t mean I don’t miss these places. What it does mean is I am grateful for my parents, who owned these homes, listened to God first. Despite their feelings, my feelings, my brother and his family’s feelings, they followed His voice. It gets tight somedays. Somedays we have to go our separate ways. But with my Bible, a window, a tv, and the things around me that remind me of the goodness of a Wonderful and Faithful Heavenly Father, now that’s just fine with me.

Are you clinging to something?

What’s on your “Go” List? (We don’t want to ever have to use this list, but it is important to be prepared because “never happens” do happen.)

I have a new large wall hanging over my desk reminding me, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a SOUND MIND.” 2 Timothy 1:7. This is my prayer for myself and also for you this year.

Link for Canvas wall hanging: (She also has lots of other scripture! I highly recommend!) https://www.etsy.com/listing/1642061060/inspirational-bible-verse-canvas-flag-2?click_key=072111590f58b7c9b63bb129b11170fb510f1a67%3A1642061060&click_sum=cadf33a8&ref=shop_home_active_15&pro=1&frs=1&sts=1

Life Book of the Week: “Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards: The Making of Make Way for Ducklings,” by Emily Bland Smith