Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

The older I get the more I realize just what an amazing childhood I had! Since my family didn’t take trips much farther than the coast or mountains… and these events were few and sparse …it forced my siblings and myself to create our own stories on a daily basis.

And now after all these years my favorite stories still stem from the ordinary events of an ordinary day that produced extraordinary memories!

Even when my dreams

came to fruition of traveling to exotic islands or Paris or Berlin or Provence -and beautiful Ireland …the strongest memories lie within daily family life and family gatherings!

Archie Rutledge clarified this belief in me when ( still in his teens) he wrote his own personal creed towards life and his responsibilities to others-especially when it came to his writings!

As I read his list I marveled at his maturity and ” education” through observation and love of nature. Nature would always be his favorite teacher!

I believe in God, in immortality, and in a region where eternal spirits dwell

He who loves virtuous beauty is holding fast to the Hand of God

Human wealth, power, and cunning avail not against cosmic justice

Be guided by your admirations, not by your disgusts

To praise another does you more good than him or her

All the laws of nature are on our side

Grief is life’s challenge to us to be great

The heroes and heroines all about us are those who refuse to linger where they have bled

Beauty and truth are the language of God; virtue is the behavior of God; love is the will of God

The laws of nature are the Hand of God on the controls of the universe

To the reader, the writer owes a moral responsibility

Wow! Rutledge had reached that level of maturity and understanding of life at sixteen? For some it takes a life time…if ever…

So until tomorrow… Remember everything we do is important in life-story segments that one day will be pieced together to tell our finished

life story!

Last night I especially enjoyed spending a segment of time with my niece Bekah and her adorable daughter Ady. Bekah invited me to come see their new home. It is perfect! Bekah’s mom, Susan and I went over and had a delicious pizza and salad to commemorate the beautiful new home!

Beauty and Nature is the language of God!

” Today is my favorite day!” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Some stories just make me laugh out loud and this one will probably cause me some embarrassment in church one Christmas Eve as Luke’s Christmas Story is read.

The children’s Christmas pageant or skit with the pre-schoolers and toddlers always steals Christmas in most churches across America annually… but this true story took the prize.

A lesson for all of us that mistakes can bring about the best unforeseen rewards!

The children’s play was going exceptionally well in an old Alabama country church one Christmas Eve! The momentum was building for the Christmas Star to appear!

Four adorable toddlers in their robes and towel hats came out from the side of the auditorium with their backs to the audience -each holding a colorful two-foot placard.

Apparently the adult helper didn’t realize the children had walked on stage in reverse order!

The narrator said dramatically ” Then God sent the world a most beautiful gift from Above.” ( This was the cue for the silver tinsel cardboard STAR to fall down and dangle as the four toddlers turned around displaying the word-STAR!

The narrator yelled out STAR as the placards spelled out RATS-God’s gift to man!

The narrator was clueless as well as the toddlers but the audience exploded in laughter, clapping and even giving a standing ovation!

The preacher was laughing so hard he could barely collect himself and every year after… he delighted in announcing that year’s Children’s Christmas Pageant by saying ” Oh Rats! It’s that time again!” Without saying another word the congregation would start cackling.

The crowd got bigger every year with more donations than ever before!

So until tomorrow… Out of mistakes comes some of our best results!

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

***Don’t forget to say Rabbit Rabbit ” tomorrow-it is the first day of the month-July! A hot one but we also want it to be one worthy of fireworks, freedom, and kindness towards our fellow man!

Dear Reader:

I was thoroughly entertained this past week with a story in GuidePost I just happened to pick up.

Apparently there was this upscale fashion show organized by the women of one church to provide money to local charities. At one table a rather frail-looking but spirited ninety-something year old lady was providing lots of laughter at her table.

She was telling the ladies she had just gotten back from a tour of the Holy Land and what a grand time she had. The ladies shook their heads in amazement! She had traveled that far alone with strangers from around the world on a tour?

One woman asked if she wasn’t afraid of terrorists over there and/or being held hostage. She just laughed and replied ” Not at all!”

” Think about it… one of the benefits of growing old… in a hostage situation, I am most likely to be released first!” The women roared!

The guests were rewarded with door prizes. The little lady broke into laughter when she opened hers…she had won a twenty-year goal planner! She quickly handed it to a much younger woman at her table. ” Honey, I hope to Heaven I won’t be needing this!”

” I hope to start a clean slate when I return to the very beginning-the first day of life-” Let there be light… and I will start eternity with sunbeams dancing in my hair.”

So until tomorrow …” No matter which way I’m headed, I’m homeward bound”

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday I watched as Jake and Eva Cate attended Rock Climbing and Zip Lining Camp! As fun as it looked I am glad to be this age and a spectator!

Mandy and I went to Hidden Ponds Nursery and I brought back with me the most beautiful Bougainvillea plant!

Dear Reader:

Just a short post today but a very appreciative one! I had my oncology appointment yesterday and was a little concerned over some chest symptoms and extra fatigue I had been experiencing! Blood work great and vital stats good.

I think Jackson was right on target when she reminded me of the light and mother-she was reassuring me that everything was just the way it should be! Perfect!

How many times since my diagnosis has God been there for me! After leaving the oncology center with a weight off my shoulders I went to Doodle’s where Mandy, family, Carrie Harvey and Doodle were entertaining the kids with Myrtle the Turtle, swimming, baseball-a typical lazy hazy day of summer!

I am ” fixing to close up shop now” to head to Mt Pleasant and how pleasant it will be!

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Haven’t we all been around toddlers ( our own or friends and families) who have started asking … ” But why?”

If it is our firstborn we initially think the increasingly repeated question is ” adorable and so cute” until about the umpteenth time when we are ready to pull our hair out.

Then as older children we get paid back with the first day of school’s teacher’s famous ( expected to be answered in union by the class) ” Now students…Remember there is no such thing as a stupid question… the only stupid question is …What? ( She then waits to hear the class say … ” the one not asked.”)

Apparently the origin to this standard question goes back to Confucius who stated” The man who asks a stupid question is a fool for a minute . The man who does not ask a stupid question is a fool for life.”

* And as many times as I heard some variation of this statement throughout my school years I should have been glad to hear it.

The teachers who didn’t allow ” interrupting questions” were my worst teachers. Any student who forgot in the excitement of something they wanted to know and raised their hand or blurted out a question was met with a withering look and a lecture on proper learning etiquette! Without questions there can be no learning. And there wasn’t.

I believe God understands this more than anyone. With our planet’s population hovering around 8 billion-just think how many questions in prayer God must get daily and nightly!

One author, Ruth Harms Calkin, calculated that her own personal ratio was probably around ten to one between herself and God. She wrote:

” I ask:

Why do You permit this anguish?

How long can I endure it?

What possible purpose does it serve?

Have you forgotten me?

Have I wearied you?

Have I offended you?

Have you cast me off?

Where did I miss your guidance?

When did I lose my way?

Do you see my utter despair?

YOU ask:

Are you trusting me?

So until tomorrow…Prayer is asking for rain. Faith is carrying an umbrella.

” Today is my Favorite Day” Winnie the Pooh

Saturday evening I attended a party-a celebration of life for Ellen Styles… a fabulous teacher, amazing wife and mother and one of the funniest, wittiest people I have ever had the good fortune to know!

She had told her family she wanted a party to celebrate her life when the time came-to invite all their family and friends to remember her with joy… because she felt blessed to have had the life she was given!

After a Covid delay… that is exactly what happened last evening! The thunder clouds parted leaving a perfect, delightfully cool, gorgeous evening. * No one was raining on Ellen’s long-awaited parade! !

Isn’t that the most wondrous way to leave-with smiles and laughing friends and family remembering the priceless time they got to share with you?

Dear Reader:

Back in the 80’s and 90’s decades ( as a teacher) I thought I would start screaming sometimes if I heard one more student say something like ” Cool man… that’s awesome.” I should have kept a daily tally of all the variations and paraphrases that included the word ” Awesome!” It would have been in the hundreds weekly.

But now… with time separating this overused word I find myself looking at a new plant or flower blooming and whispering ” awesome.”

* This was true yesterday when this “awesome” day lily popped up surprisingly-probably from all the recent rain showers. “

What started me thinking about the term again was an interview with a young girl who had graduated from college recently with honors.

She had been raised by her grandfather in a small cabin with no heat and she had to go to a well daily for fresh water-for cooking and cleaning.

Her grandfather self-taught her until high school when she rode her horse to the nearest rural high school in the Appalachian Mountains!

Her grandfather was an avid reader and was always borrowing books from the mobile library and reading to his granddaughter daily.

The book mobile driver told both the grandfather and granddaughter one day she thought they were “awesome!” They immediately fell in love with the word!

After the granddaughter started high school she would come home some days frustrated with a homework assignment she didn’t understand or an essay she had to write.

Her grandfather sat her down one day and told her that , not only could she do the assignment, but she needed to convince herself that she might as well ” be awesome ” while she was at it. It became her mantra when she received a full scholarship to college. And then graduated with honors!

So until tomorrow… If we are going to accomplish something ” awesome ” we must rely on faith!

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

My blog actually started with a God Wink in July of 2010 when Honey took me to St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope in Trust , NC.

It was this chapel that “spoke” to me about a new direction I was to follow in my life… my blog… Chapel of Hope Stories. My life has never been the same since…that first official God Wink!

The two painting ” clips” ( above) came from a painting the Ya’s gave me for my birthday in 2017. They commissioned the famous ” Chicken Man” aka. Ernest Lee to do the painting for me -they included in their list of ‘must-have’s’ in the scenes a God Wink and a chapel depicting my very first God Wink for my new life.

And what a journey it has been! My eyes have been opened to so many hundreds of God Winks in my daily life since the blog began but yesterday was one of the sweetest… especially since I had just read a similar example from Dr. Robert Lesslie’s amazing book-Angels in the ER.

*( Sadly you might remember Dr. Lesslie, his wife Barbara and grandchild were shot and killed senselessly in their home several months back ) They both attended Erskine College while I was there and Barbara was from Laurens like me. A terrible tragedy. They were beloved pillars of their community.

In 2018 Robert authored a book titled Angels in the ER. Libby left me a copy to read when she was here last week. The last story sets the stage for my own God Wink yesterday.

He describes a cardiac patient being brought in by his two distraught daughters. The patient is finally stabilized so he calls the patient’s personal doctor to update him about his patient-they were admitting him to the hospital.

The ” personal doctor” was in his 70’s and still actively practicing medicine. He was amazing-a memory that knows each address and phone number of his patients.

Within fifteen minutes the ER doors open and the elderly doctor shuffles in with an overcoat thrown over his striped pj’s. He is wearing bedroom slippers-he studies the chart and heads to the hospital room.

Dr. Lesslie says he finishes his shift as the sun is coming up. Suddenly he is aware of movement to the left of him. It was Dr. Gaines with his pj’s, overcoat and derby hat. He had spent the whole night with his old patient Willie… not leaving his side until he was satisfied that he was stable.

As Robert Lesslie stared after him … a sudden beam of early morning light made its way through the trees and shone directly on this remarkable man …bathing him in a diffusion of light. An angel on earth.

Monday Anne returned mother’s framed picture from the Mother’s Day Exhibit. I started thinking where I could hang it at home.

When Mandy came Wednesday I sought her ideas and she agreed ” Me-Mommy” to her …should be hung in what had been her bedroom at the time and is now one of the guest bedrooms.

So yesterday I took down the earlier pictures and hung mother’s large portrait on the wall by the bed in her bedroom.

I then went outside and hung the tin bottle plant decor behind Big Red after giving it a much needed cut-back.

I went back inside to give mother’s portrait one more glance and that is when I saw it… my God Wink.

A sheath of light had come in the room and like an arrow was pointing to mother’s picture!

Mandy, who roomed with ” Me-mommy” (on the now B&B side) in the second bedroom said it simply ” Me-Mommy is glad to be back home!”

* To add just a little more mystery-since Libby slept there last week -the blinds were still closed and yet the light found its way in!

So until tomorrow… May our eyes always be open so we can be reassured by God and loved ones (who have gone before us) we’re going in the right direction!

Dear Reader:

Grandmother Wilson used to tell me that I could be anybody I wanted to be or do anything I wanted to do … but choose wisely. No one can do everything-so start prioritizing because no one can do it all.

This advice came from a woman with a college education in 1903 in rural South Carolina, taught school, became a farmer’s wife and sent all four of her children ( two boys and two girls) to college during the Great Depression! Not advice to be taken lightly.

She knew better, than anyone, that education was the key to success in life and that was her gift to her children-the key to unlock doors to a better life.

As a little girl I loved maps and geography and loved daydreaming about traveling the world one day! * I mostly daydreamed through math. Still, even back then, I understood time well enough to figure out that most people wouldn’t have enough time to accomplish this feat … especially with families and jobs. A choice had to be made.

My imaginative side wished humans could be created in puzzle pieces so we could send parts of us off to travel the world …leaving the central piece to marry and have a family! It was a good daydream!

The reality, of course, was challenging. But even with a family and raising children as a single parent, my dreams came true… I could have some of my dreams but not everything. I had to choose carefully.

But isn’t that what life is all about… learning to balance dreams with responsibilities, laughter with sorrow, good times with challenging ones, having it all with having enough and then realizing enough is everything?

So until tomorrow… Let’s remember to define everything as something very important to us … as in life and love mean everything to me!

Or as in the beauty of my garden flowers mean everything to me!

My much loved garden!

Dear Reader:

The older I get the harder it is to stay focused on the one objective I really want to accomplish on any particular day. My focus wants to take every detour that pops up.

About the only thing I stay focused on are medical appointments since I am always so relieved when they are over. But everyday chores and initiatives get lost in a maze of mental by-passes!

For example… Earlier in the week it was time for my weekly wash day. I have been using the washer on the B& B side since mine is ” under the weather.” I got it started and then realized it was garbage day so I went back on my side to get my garbage bags tied up snd ready to put in the container on the street.

While on the street I realized my front lawn pear tree had branches that had fallen off so I started picking them up. Then as I glanced down the driveway several more pine tree branches had fallen knocking down some of my flower baskets.

While re-arranging them I realized one branch had fallen in my fountain. While pulling it out I discovered my hydrangeas had been squished by the bird feeder that tilted over so I pushed it back upright.

It was then I heard the garbage truck coming and remembered I had another bag to go out so I chased the truck down the street and got there just in time for them to stop and grab my bag! Whew!

I plopped down in front of the television and decided I wanted to order a book off Amazon an author was describing and saw where something else I had ordered was lost in transit and wanted me to complete a questionnaire.

I think you get the picture of what happened… that night right before I dosed off it hit me… the only thing I wanted to get done-wash clothes-were still sitting in the washer.

Oh well, I thought, as Scarlett O’ Hara would say ” Tomorrow is another day.”

So until tomorrow …put God first in the day and nothing else matters! That is the Main Thing!

“

Yesterday was a favorite day as Mandy and I took the kids to Bee City. A most unusual zoo! Me and my llama mama friends!

The birds loved Mandy!

And as for Eva Cate and Jake-they just liked buzzing and monkeying around!

Dear Reader:

As I get older I realize just how much magic in life I missed, inadvertently, while stuck in daily survival mode-always rushing through each day to get everyone in the family to the right place at the right time…. dressed, breakfast, school, extracurricular activities, medical appointments, meetings, etc. The list was endless.

There is no doubt the magic was embedded in all this craziness but my eyes were blind to it. One of the greatest gifts, at my stage of life now, is time. And not just time… but new perceptions and realizations of the magic found in every day of my life. Let me just share a few with you.

The magic of sunrises and sunsets… I admit I have seen more sunsets in my life than “rises” still the sheer magical beauty and sense of those constant securities is truly magical!

Sitting or lying in silence after awakening-thanking God for another day of life is magical.

Going barefoot in my garden early in the morning and feeling life under my feet while the blades tickle my toes is magical.

Making sure that the smiles in my face reach my eyes-those are the only true magical smiles in life-the ones that should be shared with others!

Communicating and receiving calls from old friends and family-that turn an ordinary day into a magical one! *Jackson did this yesterday with her call-time and absence vanished replaced by the magic of friendship!

Never give up hope! Give that hope to every soul you meet! Hope is contagious… it is magical!

Read a book… magic is always hidden inside-some gold nugget of wisdom… within the pages that are pieces of the author’s heart and soul-now you get to carry it within you… magic!

And finally… when the world’s problems start closing in around you-find your favorite song and play it loudly and joyfully while losing yourself in its magic.

*I did this when I completed my post-my selection was ” The Happening” by Diana Ross and the Supremes!

I double-dog dare you to stop this song right now -pull it off U-Tube and play it! Within seconds after starting it you should be snapping your fingers and singing the lyrics out loud-MAGIC!

So until tomorrow…

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

*Remember when I talked about picking one’s battles-especially when raising kids and how I let Walsh wear his shorts every day in middle school one year-regardless of the weather?

I found this picture of a bus load of 8th graders I took to Jonesboro, TN to the National Story telling Festival. It was October and in the mountains fell down in the 40’s at night.

In the photo you see everyone getting off the bus in jeans and sweatshirts-Except you know who! My son Walsh! 🤣