Dear Reader:

If you are feeling that you have seen this title picture somewhere before …you have…you aren’t experiencing deja vu…actually Cindy Ashley (who just gave me the cardinal mask Saturday) sent it to me almost two years ago when I was stuck at home with my foot stuck up in the air…recovering from some foot surgery gone awry…leaving me with a seriously infected wound that took months to heal.

Seeing Cindy again reminded me of this artwork I fell in love with at the time she sent it. My first thought was that the accompanying message is just as timely today as it was in the fall of 2018. Reading, during this pandemic, has become a popular past-time again!

Deja vu, a sometimes eerie phenomenon,  occurs to all of us throughout our lives. The expression is derived from the French, meaning “already seen.”

When it occurs, it seems to spark our memory of a place we have already been, a person we have already seen, or an act we have already done. It is a signal to pay special attention to what is taking place, perhaps to receive a specific lesson in a certain area or complete what is not yet finished.

When this blog post title, appeared in my archives,  at the top of the list, I was curious and opened it. Suddenly memories came flooding back of that challenging time, almost two years ago, when reading became an important part of my life.

When Cindy stopped by Saturday, after us not seeing each other for quite awhile, and then this past blog post popped up out of nowhere two years after written (inspired by the title art message she sent me),the universe seemed to be telling me that I should pause and look again at the connections from past to present.

As I began re-reading the post from two years ago…shivers started running up my spine. I kept saying to myself, “Really?“…this can not be happening. The number of similar incidents occurring in my life two years ago and presently re-occurring certainly did give me ‘food for thought.’ 

The original post was dated November 24, 2018. It started off stating that my brother Ben had come for Thanksgiving…my sweet neighbor, Vickie, had shared Thanksgiving dinner with us… from her house where she was entertaining family. But now everyone had left and things were quiet again.  I was reading in my recliner nursing my painful foot.

As I read on the similarities (or as I call them God Winks) began appearing.

1. In November of  2018 I was anxiously awaiting my latest Louise Penny detective novel…due to arrive three days following Thanksgiving. Right now, as I type, I have just received my latest Louise Penny novel (three days earlier) and am completely absorbed in my own happy world reading it too.

November 2018                      September 2020

2.

After everyone left and went home following Thanksgiving 2018 I made the comment (on the post) that everything was returning to normal. But with my life restricted to a recliner and the restroom that year nothing felt “normal.”

I then made another observation that the IBRANCE daily chemo regime medicine I was on at the time…marketed its advertising slogan…by saying…”IBRANCE….the “New Normal.”

Now then….where have we heard this expression lately…the “New Normal“…everywhere! It originated with a chemo medicine for patients with metastatic breast cancer and ended up becoming the slogan for the “new normal” life style during the forced quarantine resulting from the pandemic. 🙂

3.

I also made this observation in the 2018 blog post:

“Since God has His own time-line I have no doubt He knows when the foot is ready to take me back to my path…yet, there can be no doubt, this “detour” was planned for a specific reason too…to make me pause, reflect, and give thanks for all I have.”

Haven’t we spent several blog posts discussing this very thing as we look for positive things that have come from the quarantine due to the pandemic? It gives us time to “pause, reflect, and give thanks for all we have.”

So until tomorrow… I think I will take my own advice this first Sunday in September…stop and give thanks. I will be more aware of my learning experiences from past to present and incorporate them into my daily life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

The family gathered last night for a combo Labor Day and Mandy ‘final’ birthday celebration….I feel sure Rutledge slept good last night from all his aerobatic tricks!

Walsh and Tommy…I hope y’all put on a lot of muscle relaxer ointment! 🙂 Honey I finally got Poogie’s plaque to Walsh and Mollie…they love it…can hardly wait to find a place to hang it. Thank you again for sharing your artistic talents to do such kind deeds!