Dear Reader:

After Memorial Day weekend…I decided to leave my flags up…in several plant containers around the yard…this one blowing in the breeze from the front barrel.

After all June has several historic events in it…Flag Day is approaching on the 14th and then we have the Battle of Sullivan’s Island on the 28th…with our favorite son, Swamp Fox/Francis Marion fighting the British to save our beautiful Charleston, and the Fourth of July/Independence Day  not far behind…a quite patriotic month!

As I took the title photo…my thoughts about this blog were (originally) leaning towards a patriotic story from my teachings on South Carolina and American History.

Then when I entered the photos to my computer desktop I noticed that the red gerber petals were slowly waning in their beauty…slowly being replaced by dark stains penetrating the bloom.

For neighbors passing down the street…I am sure they didn’t pick up on the stains darkening the red bloom…a casual glance at the flag and flower didn’t reveal the growing stains until one gets “upclose and personal.”

Isn’t this true of all our lives? We, too, bear stains from life…from past experiences while living it. Some stains are harder to see than others. We have to look hard and deep into another fellowman’s eyes to see the pain of the stains.

As my brother (still) awaits the results of his final pension settlement …his scars have been harder to see at first glance . But he is the face of millions of veterans who didn’t become homeless or drug addicts…they simply covered their stains (the best they could) and tried to pretend what they experienced as  teenagers in a faraway country (Vietnam) could be erased.

Stains, however, don’t work that way…do they? In fact most stains grow larger without help. The secret to overcoming stains is to cover them with something of beauty and joy…like what happened in the following true story.

Source: Article: ” A Tale about Turning a Stain into a Masterpiece”- The Stonewall Argus& Teulon Times- Dr. Henry a Ozirney

The other evening I heard an a fascinating true story. It was about an incident that occurred over 100 years ago, in a Scottish seaside inn.

A group of fishermen were relaxing after a long day at sea. As a serving maid was walking past with a pot of tea, one of the fishers made a sweeping gesture to describe the size of the fish he claimed to have caught. His hand collided with the teapot and sent it crashing against the whitewashed wall, where its contents left an irregular brown splotch.

Standing nearby, the innkeeper surveyed the damage. “That stain will never come out,” he said. “The whole wall will have to be repainted.”

“Perhaps not.” All eyes turned to the stranger who had just spoken.

“What do you mean?” asked the innkeeper.

“Let me work with the stain,” said the stranger. “If my work meets your approval, you won’t need to repaint the wall.”

The stranger picked up a box and went to the wall. He withdrew pencils, brushes, and some glass jars of linseed oil and pigment. He began to sketch lines around the stain and fill it in here and there with dabs of colour and swashes of shading. The random splashes of tea had been turned into the image of a stag with a magnificent rack of antlers. At the bottom of the picture, the man inscribed his signature.

The innkeeper was stunned when he examined the wall. “Do you know who that man was?” he asked in amazement. ‘The signature reads “E.H. Landseer.”

Indeed, they had been visited by the well-known painter of wildlife, Sir Edwin Landseer.”

……………………………

It is when we turn our stains into something to help others…that they diminish in everyone’s eyes… the secret solution to stain removal.

So until tomorrow…Help us Father acknowledge our stains and then move on towards living a life to help others from the lessons we learned from ours.

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

*Tuesday I witnessed a great act of courage…I was heading towards the interstate from Main Street when I stopped for a red light near Lowes..a car in the left turn lane was smoking badly…it appeared as if the smoke was coming from a tire or under a certain part of the car.

The traffic was bumper to bumper and the smoke was getting heavier…when suddenly a young man (two cars up in my lane) jumped out of his car and raced over with some kind of paper cup/ drink in his hand with ice in it and began throwing it on the tire. He then ran around to other cars begging for any kind of liquid/ice…I grabbed my water and handed him…as well as several other drivers.

After a few minutes a policeman appeared and started re-directing traffic around the vehicle…but I witnessed a true hero in “live footage.”

A shout-out and “kudos” to this unknown hero!

*I don’t know how many of you were caught in the early morning traffic jam (in the rainy weather) yesterday on Lincolnville Road, then Ladson, then Highway 78 and then both interstates. It took me an hour and a half to get to John and Mandy’s…the rest of the day was a breeze but “Rainy Day Wednesdays sure can get you down.”

When the sun came out later, in the afternoon,  Eva Cate took advantage of it by swimming some and modeling her new sun dress and bathing suit I bought for their Disney trip coming up in a few weeks. Another wonderful day!

* Shout Out and Happy Birthday to Ya Libby…who was sick and missed her Ya birthday at the beach but is going out today with Jackson and her sister, Linda…and hopefully her daughter Betsy for her official birthday which was the the third of June…yesterday.

We love ya Libby! Happy Happy Birthday!