Dear Reader:

I remember the first time before entering St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope…stopping to read the scripture outside the entrance (one of my favorite verses…and as I recall, Pap, yours too.)

It was the Welcome sign “Everyone Welcome” however, that grabbed my full attention…especially the words under it….stop – rest- reflect. 

And that is exactly what happened inside the chapel and inside me. My life, as I knew it, up to that moment “stopped.” I felt the weariness and burden of  worry over an on-going sickness dissipate…leaving me feeling more “rested” than I had in a long time. Then, after understanding the story and history behind the chapel’s creation…I took time to “reflect” on the miracle behind this mountain chapel in the hills.

It was that very day that I first grasped the idea that, not only were miracles real, they happened on a constant basis in all our daily lives. But in order to “see” them we first have to believe in the Creator behind them.

We have to believe in a power so far beyond the human capacity to comprehend…we have to believe in the greatest power on earth – LOVE. God is Love. We can not separate the two words…they are one and the same. My first epiphany.

The “Presence” I felt that late afternoon… sitting in the little chapel with lengthening shadows streaking the walls within… (like a crystal prism) from the stained glass windows…has never left me. What I felt was LOVE. Unconditional love!

And it is that love that  draws me back year after year to St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope. I need to partake of that nourishment of love…to envelope my body and soul in it…to last me until the next visit.

On most of my return trips lately…one or more of the Ya’s have gone with Honey and me to the chapel. Like myself…they, too, are pulled back to this special place and want to capture the peace and stillness (beyond description) found there. (It is well worth the trip to do so.)

It was on our last return to St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope that something quite special happened. It has taken me a few months to absorb the enormity and uniqueness of a few moments that all of us shared together.

At some point in the last couple of years…someone has left a jug with healing waters from Lourdes in one corner of the room. This time…without any questioning…we shared a blessing while sprinkling the other with the healing water.

Besides the blessing uttered for each of us…there was complete silence. Complete reflection. It was nothing we later talked about…it just was… the power of living in the moment and everything that defines that thought.

For all of us…facing our own demons in the form of  “illnesses” and personal challenges…this bond of united strength, through friendship, was felt…along with pure love…for our fellow man…through Christ.

Enough said. Some happenstances in life don’t require discussion or conversation…they just require a prayer of gratitude for a special moment shared with friends.

It is amazing what can happen when we let go of our human inhibitions and let God lead us to His world of compassion and reassurance that He is in charge and everything is just the way it should be…it is all good.

So until tomorrow….“I will lift up my eyes until the hills from whence cometh my help.”

From the photo below…you can only imagine, especially in the fall, how those words take on a deeper meaning by the beauty that surrounds you…

 “Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE AND MARCIA!!!! Just think…both of you were born on Robert E. Lee’s birthday….no doubt both parents shared the same excitement…Lee, a southern boy, and Marcia…a northern gal! Lee even got his name from the southern general and I have no doubt Marcia’s middle name must be Lee too. Right Marcia?

* With I-26 a parking lot near the Summerville Exit (John and Mandy/children returning from the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia Saturday afternoon pulled in for a much needed bottle for Jake and ear plugs.

Eva Cate and I got to play…there are no such words as Stop-Rest- Reflect in a four year old’s dictionary…so play we did!