Dear Reader:

When I read this observation by Rumi: ” Raise your words, not your voice, it is rain that grows flowers, not thunder”-I immediately understood the metaphor of his amazing thoughts.

Strolling through the garden yesterday morning… I had my Sunday meditation moment to pause and reflect on the week past and my hopes for the week to come. After a week of constant rain the plants were readapting to return facing the sun and higher temperatures.

But the rains had performed their miracles… everything looked so fresh and relaxed… the most beautiful shade of green had settled in the once dried brittle brown patched grass. And the buds were bursting to open displaying a kaleidoscope of bright colors.

I believe when we experience that magical moment in life when we finally recognize the personal gift ( God gave us) to give back to the world… we are never quite the same again. For me it was writing and I know many of you can relate to this… Anne with art, Honey with pottery and sculpting… we never see ourselves again as we once were.

And all of us found our ” calling” after we retired from successful teaching careers. It is never too late to discover the unique gift that has laid dormant inside us screaming to get out while we held down multiple jobs, raised families and prayed we made it financially and emotionally through the daily grind. We had to wait for our ” surcies” to be released in God’s time.

*** And for me… an added time/table called metastatic breast cancer… treatable but not curable. I am still in that ” danger zone” but to date God is allowing me time to write… to fulfill my passion… I am living in God’s time.

I can certainly relate to this message: “Always go with the choice that scares you the most… because that’s the one that will that is going to help you grow.”

And boy was I scared ( petrified actually) when I started Chapelofhopestories. My original idea was to communicate with visitors touring the chapel but that idea stopped after about three shares… heard nothing from anyone at the chapel. What now? With the help of my son-in-law, John, the blog post had launched … I was ” shaking in my boots.” I felt so foolish!

But God sent me hope in the form of an old friend from school in Walgreens-chance meeting -when I told her what I was doing she said ” Perfect! You always were the teacher with a 1000 stories.”

That night I came up with the idea of writing 1002 stories to beat the famed storyteller Scheherazade and 1001 Arabian Nights.” The blog took a different direction but I was determined that the stories would reflect the goodness and essence of fellow cancer patient and creator of St Jude’s Chapel in Trust, North Carolina-Beverly Barutio! I pray everyday she is enjoying the stories from Heaven.

I faced the reality I might lose the contest since my initial surgeon only gave me three years after the first surgery… but again I forgot about it-tuned into God’s time and I beat Scheherazade . And the beat goes on… Scary is the best growth choice .

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day/Winnie the Pooh