Dear Reader:

I think when it finally dawned on me that all kind of “endings” we experience, while going through life, are really opportunities paving the way for “new beginnings” …my perspective on life changed dramatically.

Especially at this time of the year… as we transition from one calendar year to another…I find myself thanking God for still being here to see another year arrive… holding surprises, some good and bad, new adventures, and opportunities for growth, both earthly and spiritually.

2015 certainly contained its fair share of problems….floods, a friend’s loss of home (Jackson) Betsy’s cancer scare, Libby’s health issues, a sinking porch, my brother’s minor stroke….but then I realized that Jackson is going to end up in a good place with more security and less stress, Libby’s health problems are slowly improving, the same as my brother’s, Betsy made a nothing-less- than miraculous recovery, my sinking porch lead to a total make-over of my home which was long over-due and needed and Brooke now is a grandmother….new birth…new life…new hope as we tell 2015 good-bye and welcome in 2016. (Brooke with her little grandson-Caleb.)

Perhaps my biggest lesson learned from life this past year comes from my garden….last spring I bought two ferns, not realizing they were supposed to be in-house ferns….one was a “rabbit-foot” fern and I don’t remember what type fern I put in the old white wicker chair in the garden…but I do remember pulling the tag off and glancing at it…moaning to myself “Oh no I bought an inside fern.”

But I went on and stuck it in the wicker chair with the sun beaming down from above….today both ferns are thriving…the same ferns who are not supposed to endure temps over a certain gauge of highs and lows…stayed outside all last winter and through the hot summer…and they are perfectly happy!

Life finds a way to live….even ferns whose owner doesn’t read the tags saying “Indoor ferns, idiot.”

Remember the four camellia “bushes” (looked more like sticks with an occasional green leaf) I planted November 12  …well…look what is already happening. Two bushes are loaded with buds and two blooms to date.

Life goes on…the secret, for me, is learning how to stay in it for as long as I can… to keep learning as many of it’s secrets as possible in the time allowed me on this Earth.

So until tomorrow….

The ‘Course in Miracles’ says one day you will realize that death is not the punishment but the reward. And it says that birth is not the beginning of life but a continuation. And physical death is not the end of life but a continuation. – Marianne Williamson

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Happy Birthday to my “baby” Thomas David Dingle, better known as Tommy “Deduction” Dingle. I love you Tommy Dingle and I am so happy God blessed me with you. December 29, 1982…a very good day!

Your birthday “jar” awaits!

Genes and chromosomes are pretty powerful stuff? Eva Cate and Jakie!

*I will be leaving today to spend the night at John and Mandy’s to keep Eva Cate and Jakie while Mandy has surgery on her foot early Wednesday morning…She has been plagued by problems that prevent her from wearing regular shoes and is hoping the surgery will remove all the discomfort she is undergoing now…especially as a teacher who is on her feet all the time. Please keep Mandy in your prayers Wednesday that all goes well with the surgery.

*Please keep Anne Peterson in your prayers, also…her flight got cancelled from Newark (snow storm in Chicago where her plane left Monday night) so she had the option of flying to Charlotte and renting a car or perhaps they could get her out Wednesday or Thursday??????? This is not what you want to hear after a wonderful Christmas with family and you are now ready to get home and in your own bed.

I was supposed to pick her up at 10:00 last night….I feel so badly for her. Please keep Anne in your prayers as she travels back home somehow… someway…hopefully rental car from Charlotte at this point.

• At 8:15 this morning I heard from Anne…she had spent a pretty miserable night at a Super 8 hotel near the Charlotte airport (which was not “super” at all)…a smoking room whose lids on heaters/air conditioning units fell off in your hands. And her luggage, including her toothbrush, is still at the Newark, NJ air terminal.
• 

When Anne showed up first thing this morning to rent her car she was only met with empty long hallways and no human beings. She said she yelled out loudly “Is anybody home?” and listened to it echo and reverberate down the hall.

(She figured the clerks were all hiding behind the counter until the “crazy” woman left.) But finally a human appeared, Anne got the car, and she is heading home this morning…Joy will certainly occur when she pulls up in front of her home by noon. After all…”Joy comes in the morning.”)

*Today marks my 400th blog post since re-starting Chapel of Hope Stories November 23, 2014.