Dear Reader:

Wasn’t yesterday the most beautiful day yet? It was a “Zippity do-Dah” day!

I couldn’t stay inside yesterday afternoon, so I just started wandering around the garden, yard, and then neighborhood….for once not worried about watering or planting…just enjoying the day. After all it was Sunday…a day of rest…a day to relish the outcome of the planting, watering, and weeding toils that had taken place all week.

It was while I was strolling that one of my neighbors, Faye, flagged me down and we started talking. She invited me over to see her beautiful plants and floral settings… and especially her impatiens. I discovered that we are a lot alike….we like whimsical and unusual items throughout yards and garden areas. (Enjoy a small piece of the tour like I did.)

Vickie and I love that the lot next to me and across from her has never been sold…it belongs to Faye and we keep telling her how much we appreciate her holding on to that lot….like Vickie said…it adds a sense of “country” to the neighborhood.

As Faye and I were walking back across the vacant lot I commented on the beautiful oak tree that stands in the empty lot like a faithful guardian overlooking its home. Faye said it is one of her favorite places on her property.

I then stopped and looked at my house/yard/garden from the oak tree and got a whole different perspective of my home and land from a different angle.

I experienced another “A-Ha” moment. All I had to do was simply walk over to the empty lot less than a 100 feet away and my house/yard/garden looked completely different…yet nothing had changed except a new angle of perception and perspective.

One of Mark Twain’s most memorable quotes to me is: “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why.”

As far as I know my physical birth day was pretty uneventful…. I never heard mother complaining about how many hours of labor she endured prior to my arrival or anything like that….I simply arrived. So that leaves us with the second most important day….the day you find out why?

Actually that “day” turned out to be the beginning of a process of awareness that took place over time. I wish I could pinpoint the exact date but it didn’t happen like that. It started at the end of May eight years ago, the night before my first breast cancer surgery when I “heard” God’s Presence telling me to “Hold His Hand.”

To me “holding hands” is one of the most pivotal benchmarks in a relationship….there is something so binding, comforting, uplifting and strangely intimate about holding hands. It makes one feel like it is now “us” against the world….just not me “winging” it alone. Holding hands spells security and says “I will be there for you…Everything will be alright.”

And that is exactly what God has done for me…He has never let go…but instead God just has held on tighter when the going got tough and the trail got rocky.The only times He has loosened His grip has been 1) to push me up to the mountains and into St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope and 2) to help me write the blog, (even some days, I feel like He is writing it Himself and I am just along for the ride)… as my fingers scurry over the keys trying to keep up with thoughts that are coming faster than I can type.

So the “Second Most Important Day of my Life” is every day as I sit down in one of Poppy and Dee Dee’s old folding wooden chairs , smile with anticipation, throw a High Five to God, and begin to write.

This is my daily designated time with God…co-authoring the blog.

My blog is never going to win the most popular blog on the block award, or beat any records for a numbers game, but it allows me to share a part of me with all of you. More importantly the blog centers my day and it gives me the reaffirmation, understanding, and self-acceptance of  knowing  my place in this world…“Hand-holder and Co-Author of my life.”  

So until tomorrow…Make a small shift in our life and then watch how miraculously our life changes in the purpose and  direction we are to go live life to the fullest.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Libby, this scripture is just for you today!. As soon as I saw it I knew God had directed me to the right place for the right Word….You are not alone ….we are all praying for you today and tomorrow… throughout all your tests and trials.

John 16:33

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”