Dear Reader:

When all is said and done…can there be anything nicer said about a person in an eulogy than they lead a “Life well loved?” (Photo/Pinterest)

Any time I grow sad over the state of affairs today…I cheer myself up with each incident I witness, read, or hear about that involves love. Even when we are at our most broken…feeling visibly cracked beyond repair…love has a way of  filling in the cracks and restoring us to shine once again.

Brooke always makes me laugh when she shares her philosophy about embarrassing medical visits that require the little blue and white checkered medical gown (with the tie in the back) type examination. (Especially when you are told to reverse the gown and have the open area in front leaving it untied…panic!)

Brooke reassures herself with the thought…that the doctor has likely seen better… but has also seen worse.  To this day I giggle to myself when I think about Brooke’s ‘wise words.’

This philosophy also applies to the world in which we live. It has seen better, it has seen worse….and the only scenario in which I couldn’t live in a particular environment….would be a world without love. That is too terrible to contemplate…because that would be a world without God. God is love.

In Magnolia Journal...one column was dedicated to the practice of kintsugi (a noun meaning “golden repair.”) 

“Kintsugi refocuses our attention from what should have been toward creating something infinitely more beautiful with what remains, and perhaps far more honoring of who we were to be all along.

It provides a lens to see an object’s  broken crevices or scars as being a part of its original grand design, and it offers us the opportunity to do the same…to see our lives as rare works of art.

Gold dust and resin  is used to re-attach the broken pieces. Strength and beauty is found in imperfection.”  

So until tomorrow….Everyone has a story to tell…and scars are our badges of honor.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

From out of the storm nature heals us … with visions of beauty that used the storm’s rainfall to bloom.

Monday was my monthly visit with my oncologist and I received good news…my white-cell count, for the first time in months, was “normal,” as well as my liver enzymes looked good and some reduction of my tumor. So relieved….I could breathe again after the rather negative report form the month before. I think we have finally hit the magic number on the amount of dosage needed for the daily oral chemo pills!! 🙂

Pam Stewart and her husband, Kirk, have recently moved and they had some planters’ pots… and unique copper Dutch shoes plant containers with a copper window ledge they wanted to give me. Can hardly wait to get the back deck cleared and clean…to add some new plant ideas. Thanks Pam and Kirk!

While in the waiting room of the Charleston Oncology Center…awaiting my lab work,  I opened August’s Skirt Magazine and did a double -take. There was an article on five women who represent the five senses of Charleston. The first picture captured was Sound...and as I stared at it…I saw Vikki…my nephew Lee’s wife…and showed everybody in the office her picture. Just gorgeous! So proud of you Vikki for the selection! What an honor!

Vikki Matsis: Singer/ Founder/Owner/Ohm radio

*Sis Kinney had her second exploratory surgery, like Ann earlier, and will get the results back within the next few days. Please keep Sis in your prayers until she hears back…it can be very lonely waiting for results. We pray she has the same positive results as Ann Graves. (Ann G. is now waiting to see what procedures her oncologist thinks it best at this stage of the ‘game.’