Friends & Neighbors
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and then it was Spring!
Spring. Tulips. Buttercups (what we in the south call daffodils). Color. Pink. Yellow. Green. Orange. Blue. White. Easter. Hope. Promise. Children. Eggs. Laughter. Swings. Slides. Sand boxes. Chalk. What do you think of when you think or hear the word “SPRING?” The first things that come to mind for me, childhood core memories. The two metal swing sets we had in our yard. These were the metal swing sets that if you got to swinging a little too high, you started to feel the whole swing set start lifting out of the ground. Anybody remember these? Pretty much the only place that wouldn’t be blazing hot would be the swing…
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A Continuous Conversation
Happy Thursday! Tomorrow, I think, is one of the most fun holidays! St. Patricks Day, A.K.A. in our house, “Man under the leaf day,” because I couldn’t remember what it was called when I was little, so I re-named it 😊 As we do many things in our family. “Fat butter” = hunk of cheese. “Spagatical” = Sabbatical. Just to name a few… I just love any holiday that gets kids excited. Well come to think of it, I guess I’m a kid at heart because I get as excited as they do! One family that I kept years ago, the leprechauns would visit their house and would leave their…
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We Need You!: A Letter to Our Kids
To the kids of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, The biggest thing I want you to remember is this: I am so glad you are here! You have more value than you will ever know! You are indeed LOVED beyond anything you can comprehend! You are needed and wanted in this world! Another big message I want you to remember: The progression of Technology is not your fault. You were simply born in the technology age. Your parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, were alive to watch the crazy fast progress of the digital and media world, but you were born into the already rapidly growing tech age. You are the…
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Name, Claim, No Room for Shame!
As I watch the coverage of Hurricane Ian, I am struck with all sorts of emotion. I am also remembering the documentaries that I just watched barely two weeks ago, “When the Levees Broke” and then the follow-up “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” which are about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. The devastation, the brokenness, the loss of lives, homes, loss of everything they had ever known. No two stories were the same, but every person, every story was effected by the hurricane. The trauma, the loss, the reactions, no two were the same, yet they all experienced the same horrific storm. Have you ever experienced…
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Where Has All The Clapping Gone?
Only a little while ago we were seeing reports of people opening their windows during the hospital shift changes. Hundreds, millions of people clapping, whistling, making music. All for the work that our healthcare workers, our first responders, our medical researchers were doing. What in the world made us go from celebrating to being severely critical? I am honestly beyond appalled. Do you feel the “I am about to snap” feeling? Well, you would be correct. The past two weeks I have had a few normal doctors appointments, simple routine check-ups. And I have never seen a shortage of staff like there is right now. It’s discouraging to see. Because…
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Celebrate? Now? How?
As I walked back into our house, into complete silence, I wept and couldn’t catch my breath. I just remember thinking, “when will I be able to come back up for air? This hurts so bad!” As I crawled into the bed that I now couldn’t remember her not being beside me in, I wrapped myself in every blanket that was hers and cried and breathed, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!” A deep breath in and breath out, Jesus. Repeated until my heart rate was somewhat normal. Although my head felt as if it was going to explode. I would be lying if I said this was a one time thing. The…
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Truth: “Nevers,” Happen!
“It will never happen to me…” “I never imagined this would happen to me/our city/our family…” We are all human, so we have all thought this at one time, maybe even said it out loud. Nobody wants tragedy to strike, or trauma, or disaster to happen to them or anyone they love. Yet, it does, and we still are repeating these same sentences. Granted we are creatures of habit, so in the midst of panic and chaos, we say and do things that just come to mind that has been stored in our brain for times like these. It’s how we are wired. Let me just ask this: What if…
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It’s About the One in the Bed…
Hospitals. The anxiety, the flashbacks memories, the scary, the bittersweet, the unknown, the peace, the comfort… What comes to mind when you think, hospital? I’ve gone to the ER myself and been admitted. Respiratory, GI, kidney stones, kidney infections, food poison. I do everything possible to avoid going to the hospital. Not because it’s a bad place, it just stirs up past experiences of being really sick, and in the case of food poison, going in and out consciousness. I’ve had the honor of being a part of all four of my grandparents “care plans.” All of which included hospital stays. The fight of a grandchild for a grandparent… let’s…
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Lost Art of Porch Sittin’
If a picture could tell a story… then this picture collage would tell the story of a mommy in waiting, a Swingie in (adoption) waiting, and a little children’s boutique, picking out bow colors for bloomers and a newborn swaddle, sometime in 2013ish. The pink blanket backdrop, came with the bassinet basket that laid waiting for her arrival. The Lucy embroidered blanket, a gift to her from her Swing and Duck just a year before she arrived. Her headband, was made by her great grandmother and worn by her mommy when she was little. It was made from hosiery scraps from local textile mills during the 1980s. And now, a…
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Christ, Children, and Confetti!
I LOVE Easter! It’s good and hard and a time of brokenness and healing… Christ. Spiritually… it’s a time of remembering Jesus, and the fact that facing death is real, so real that his sweat became blood. He was so grieved and stressed, his body reacted as he had so intricately designed. Pause here for a moment. Think about how you sweat, and then think about that turning to blood! Although I cannot identify and say I have ever had this happen, I can say I have had the experience of bleeding non-stop, whether a wound or nose bleed, etc. In these moments, I feel light headed, weak, disoriented. I…
