Dear Reader:

We continue with the week of the speaking “scarves.” I hope  you are enjoying the messages on each one as I much as I do… while walking past my “wall of scarves” in the kitchen.

I find this particular message today extremely comforting…don’t you? From our own personal schemas and advantages of hindsight, I think we can all admit that we have lived to see many of our personal goals and wishes come to fruition.

They didn’t always come through the front door…as we hoped and expected…many dreams had to be put on the back burner (so to speak) and the “Timing is everything” quote (Grandmother spoke of….I just realized) is not directly aimed at us…but it is God telling us that He knows when it is the right time to make changes in our lives to obtain the goals He wishes to see us achieve.

This doesn’t mean that we get a “free pass” to sit back and do nothing in preparation for our ultimate life-time goals…we must be ready to move on an opportunity when it presents itself. God wants to see us building the blocks necessary to form the foundation for our goals and dreams.

That is the hard part isn’t it? Aren’t there some days when we wake up and realize that God’s gift of “Free Will” comes with a high price…the same as any type of freedom here on Earth?

Perhaps that is why so many people are willing to follow dictators, “Jim Jones” cults and even some choose to remain in prison where decision-making is at a minimum…with three square meals and a bed at night. Freedom is too difficult for some.

There are always the dark, rainy days of life when the child in us wishes we had a “parent” to continue making decisions for us (so we don’t have to) and letting us remain the child hiding under the bed covers.

I remember after the first surgery, the first round of chemo and radiation…coming up for air and looking around thinking…I’m still here…after all this…I’m still here. There must be a reason for it…God must not be through with me yet.

My outward “shell” looked like it had gone through a war zone (and it had) with scars criss-crossing my reddened sunken chest.  But, spiritually, I was more concerned with my “innards” than my “outwards.”

I prayed to God to “open my eyes” so I could see Him, to “open my ears” so I could hear Him and to “open my heart” so I could accept Him in my life. God answered this prayer.

From that prayer on…I began to see God’s signs (winks) where they had not existed previously. I began to hear the rustle of the wind, the chirping of the birds, and the laughter of children at play. I began to feel God’s presence as an extension to my life.

Like Noah and the ark…I knew I needed a sanctuary in my life to go to talk to God…and the garden came into existence with the help of many guardian angels God sent to assist me in this sacred endeavor.

Nowadays, God looks down and smiles upon my garden….my dream of grandchildren playing in it has come to be…and being, I have discovered, is the highest level of living.

So until tomorrow…God open our hearts so we can follow You down the path we need to travel… to do Your work here on Earth.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*The fountain continues to draw the grandchildren to it…and this was true last Sunday…Easter Sunday. Rutledge watched Eva Cate scrounging for pennies at the bottom of the fountain and then throwing them back in with a “wish.”

So Rutledge started yelling “Wish” and plopping a penny in the water with hilarious giggles. When Walsh walked by he asked if Rutledge understood what a “wish” was and I replied “No…but we all have to learn the word first…then comes the definition…the understanding.”

Isn’t that true of our understanding of God….first comes the Word…then follows a lifetime spent in its understanding.

* I got some of the Easter pictures of the babies framed today and my ‘Boo Boo with the grandchildren “classic” photo’… as Walsh predicts.