Blessings on Your Next Trip Around the Sun

Dear Reader:

I mentioned the other day (on one of the earlier blog posts) that a friend (Ginga Cuthbert Wilder) had wished me a Happy Birthday greeting on Facebook and added this line:

“Blessings on Your Next Trip Around the Sun”

This birthday greeting really caught my imagination…I could picture myself floating in space staring down at our blue planet from every angle… as I encircled it day by day for 365 days… until my next natal day arrived…another year of life.

However…I wasn’t alone in space …off in the distance other world citizens, who share my same birthday, were following my same orbit at the same pace…we were all ages, races, and nationalities.

There was something else, too, circling the sun with all of us “same day birthday humans” on our unique orbit…blessings! The blessings appeared as “memory grams”…individually delivered to the exact person who had experienced a special episode in their life..which in turn … morphed into a blessing memory.

The “memory grams” were highly selected benchmark memories filled with blessings we received on the last trip around the sun…even on some of the saddest days we had experienced in the past year. It was only now, as we started our new trip around the sun,  that we could finally recognize different events that happened to us…as blessings and not misfortunes.

If we are growing, each year, elevating ourselves to a higher level of understanding between ourselves and our Creator…then we must recognize the connection between events, causes, and blessings.

The major change-agent, in our developing perceptions of events in our lives, centers around the newly acquired ability to “pivot” or alter our orbit (just a little) each year…just enough to change our recognition of once ordinary events into extraordinary.

It is similar to a basketball player who pivots  just enough to elude his guard and get a better glimpse at his goal…the basket. In life it is our “pivots” that direct us in the right direction too…so we can meet the goal of being the person God intended us to be.

So this year we should all start our new 365-day journey around the sun…(following our birthday) with the acquisition of the birthday “gifts” we take with us from the generations who came before us…the passed down “pivots” of stories and experiences that help us recognize the difficult days ahead as blessings that humble us into restoring our trust and faith in God.

So until tomorrow….

At the end of one’s journey we should be thankful we found the courage to realize that blessings are always bigger than problems… if we just “pivot” enough to find that clear space guiding us to our life’s purpose.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Go Clemson! Once again I am having to use my ears to listen to the game…since it is being only carried by the ACC Network and not a national station….very disappointing to all of us fans who don’t have this network. We ‘po but proud’ “Basic Cable” Clemson fans want to watch too? Will just have to wait and watch highlights today…still GO TIGERS! Did you hear me? 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”
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2 Responses to Blessings on Your Next Trip Around the Sun

  1. Anne Peterson says:

    Al’s mother, age 96, received one of those Story Works projects for Christmas last year. She was excited to begin and eagerly anticipated her first question – the first of 52! The question asked her to write about a memory of her mother. She spent the next SEVEN MONTHS filling page after page of memories of her mother! Talk about a blessing! Shirley said she didn’t answer any additional questions but that first question had more than served it’s purpose…

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