Dear Reader:

I had a letter from Honey yesterday (with some pamphlets included) from a wonderful “treasure” she and Tarshie (Honey’s daughter) discovered in Clayton, Georgia.

The family was in Clayton for a reunion with Mike’s side of the family. Honey and Tarshie decided to go to a special festival (one of Mike’s cousins told them about) while Mike played golf one day.

Honey said I would have gone “nuts” looking at all the gardens this church has…like: a sanctuary garden (plants along the pews) a memorial garden, the dry river bed garden, the play ground garden, the butterfly garden, the sunflower garden, the container garden, and the labyrinth garden. Wow!

The container garden, displaying a diversity of plant containers, gave some church members the idea of offering a workshop on making homemade hypertufa bowls and troughs.

This is the same material that contains my impatiens that I got from a vendor a couple of weeks ago at the Summerville Farmers Market. They work fantastic!

Anne, Honey sent the directions (from the workshop) on how to make one…a new project might be looming!

When Honey and Tarshie first walked into the church they saw a frame for a bottle tree….minus the bottles. Instead it was called a Blessing Tree. Tags were hanging down in place of bottles for people to fill out and place back on the “tree.”

I loved the concept….so I decided to integrate both ideas…keep the bottles but add a blessing inside each…on my bottle tree.

Each month I will write out a “thank you” on a strip of paper and place it inside a bottle on the tree with different colored ribbons attached (to each blessing) hanging out of the bottle…to make it easy to remove and pull a blessing out to read.

My first thought was to thank God for giving me life.  According to the dictionary, “blessing” is a favor or a gift from God. God, not only gave me life, but He placed me this amazing country, in this wonderful state, and in this sublime town I call home. I have blessings…Godfold!

* Sandy Fraser responded to today’s blog post with this perfect scripture:

You’ve given me a new idea to celebrate our many blessings. It brings to mind 1 Thes.16-18: Be joyful always;pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances..

I had forgotten about a special poem that I love until I came across it the other day (after the Mother Emanuel AME tragedy.) It struck a chord with me concerning the things we think we want and the blessings God knows we need.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

……..

I asked for health, that I might do greater things

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

…….

I asked for riches, that I might be happy

I was given poverty, that I might be wise. 

…..

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

…..

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

…..

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all people, most richly blessed. 

………………………………..

So until tomorrow… “Remember that God gave us life that we might enjoy all things.” What a gift! Don’t forget to say thank you.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* While sticking my “thank you” message in the “blessing bottle tree” I noticed two beautiful green plants staring back at me from below in the green foliage…it took me a minute to recognize them…poinsettias that I had taken off the porch after Christmas and placed under the bottle tree.

A true miracle…in all this heat….they are, not only surviving, but thriving. Isn’t life mind-boggling?

* And speaking of blessings…guess who just had a little baby boy…AMBIKA!  She promises pictures soon…here is some information:

Hi Becky, please do wish Rutledge from my side as well… By the way, the good news has arrived… God blessed us with a baby boy on 14th June 2015… We have named him Ajay Daniel… Ajay means Victorious….Will post his pics soon… Right now a little busy practicing motherhood … Thank you so much for your prayers… Tc

* I, also, heard from Fran Townsend…the family is in the mountains on vacation and after hearing of the church tragedy back home in Charleston…she and Evans decided to find St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope (not always an easy thing to do)… to seek solace there. I am so envious…wish I could click my fingers and be there too. Because that is the place that gave me solace when I most needed it.