Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

I think it happened about a year ago… Lachlan wanted to know about his birthstone… apparently at school a group of little girls had gathered to ooh and aah over a birthstone ring one of them had gotten for her birthday.

I showed him my ring… and told him my birthstone color was a blue sapphire. Suddenly he jumped up and ran to my clear front door where my gift from his other grandmother ( ” Nana”) Marcia Temple ( Mollie’s mom) hung. It is the ” flying angel holding a sapphire bead for September.

” It doesn’t look the same color blue… Boo Boo.” Smart boy… has anyone looked up birthstone colors lately… no matter the month … whatever used to be the ” special gem color” is open to interpretation for as many shades and different stones imaginable. It appears anything goes.

The thought came to be that Native-Americans used colors and symbolisms to recognize newborn additions to the tribe… to community. Older matriarches helped give the newborn a temporary name ( usually a nickname) until the child grew and based on character traits, unusual experiences and valor in battle… were given their ” forever” names.

I think with birthstones… despite the month of birth… letting a young person pick the gemstone they prefer and sharing the reason for the selection and how it best represents them …on a birthday… would give more meaning and special memory …than the horoscope.

So when I saw this concept of picking an object for a birthstone… I was delighted!

So until tomorrow… one’s birthstone should reflect the person in heart and soul.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

I did it… I actually threw my overnight bag in the car and took off yesterday morning… feeling like a bird flying out of a cage. Nothing short of a miracle getting away. Was thinking it would never happen.

Brooke’s new dining room -She gave her old antique table to her son Riley and family and a friend turned another gorgeous table over to her… no room after a move.

Please keep Ben in your prayers… he is in a lot of pain from the fall… bruised ribs that hurt … just breathing and spinal spasms. Very hard for him to get up and down. Don’t want him falling again! 🙏🏻

Dear Reader:

I think it happened about a year ago… Lachlan wanted to know about his birthstone… apparently at school a group of little girls had gathered to ooh and aah over a birthstone ring one of them had gotten for her birthday.

I showed him my ring… and told him my birthstone color was a blue sapphire. Suddenly he jumped up and ran to my clear front door where my gift from his other grandmother ( ” Nana”) Marcia Temple ( Mollie’s mom) hung. It is the ” flying angel holding a sapphire bead for September.

” It doesn’t look the same color blue… Boo Boo.” Smart boy… has anyone looked up birthstone colors lately… no matter the month … whatever used to be the ” special gem color” is open to interpretation for as many shades and different stones imaginable. It appears anything goes.

The thought came to be that Native-Americans used colors and symbolisms to recognize newborn additions to the tribe… to community. Older matriarches helped give the newborn a temporary name ( usually a nickname) until the child grew and based on character traits, unusual experiences and valor in battle… were given their ” forever” names.

I think with birthstones… despite the month of birth… letting a young person pick the gemstone they prefer and sharing the reason for the selection and how it best represents them …on a birthday… would give more meaning and special memory …than the horoscope.

So when I saw this concept of picking an object for a birthstone… I was delighted!

So until tomorrow… one’s birthstone should reflect the person in heart and soul.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

I did it… I actually threw my overnight bag in the car and took off yesterday morning… feeling like a bird flying out of a cage. Nothing short of a miracle getting away. Was thinking it would never happen.

Brooke’s new dining room -She gave her old antique table to her son Riley and family and a friend turned another gorgeous table over to her… no room after a move.

Please keep Ben in your prayers… he is in a lot of pain from the fall… bruised ribs that hurt … just breathing and spinal spasms. Very hard for him to get up and down. Don’t want him falling again! 🙏🏻

Dear Reader:

I am certainly in love with autumn today … because it feels like autumn today. It is overcast which lends itself to low sixties starting out… with a whisper of a breeze that actually made me shiver down my back… haven’t experienced that sensation in quite awhile.

It is so easy to be in love with life this time of year…mums, pumpkins, butterflies, gords, chilly nights and cool mornings…. ( I think God really loves autumn best too!)

Fall officially arrives next Saturday, September 23, and the best gift of all… on the 29th … here comes that gorgeous full Harvest Moon! The most beautiful full moon of all!

The autumn name for the corn or harvest full moon evolved because farmers could harvest crops late into the day and early evenings …due to the brightness of the moon… sealing final preparations for the winter supply of food needed to last through the long winter months.

There are many spiritual meanings behind the autumn moon… it centers around abundance and balance. ( and you know how this ” Libra” gal likes her balance in life! )

It is a time for reflection and gratitude for all the God-given gifts we are blessed with… We are beginning to turn inward. This is the time of balance towards our spiritual side in a new way.

We feel the coming of the darkness and our spiritual side is reminding us that soon our sunlight and brightness must be commemorated in our memories and celebrated as we wait for the light to return.

So until tomorrow… sooner than later… we must carry the promise of full moons into out ” winter” lives … using the time to renew our faith in dignity, courage, strength, morality, and honesty as the anchors in our families’ lives!

Mollie brought the kids over… yesterday after school … to attend the Summerville football game and see their granddad enter the Summerville Football Hall of Fame ceremony and be recognized at halftime.

Walsh and Tommy played at Miler for the Parkinson’s Fundraiser Benefit tournament …for their dad … green and gold were the colors for Summerville Greenwave.

The boys in the process of getting in the spirit… Lachlan left home in green.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Got the children the bubbles that turn hard ( in seconds after being blown) so you can carry and put the bubbles anywhere… look what Eloise did!

But … still… hard to beat hibiscus big red!

Dear Reader:

The only time I wanted to be an artist ( with all my heart) was the night I put an enlarged photo next to my mother’s coffin and another at the entrance to the door in the funeral home.

Mother had given me one photo taken at the Summerville Presbyterian Church a couple of years before her passing and she said that was the last photo she was having taken… no more.

And I knew at the entry this would be the faced recognized by the congregation who might be attending… but to me the photo wasn’t my mother… she wasn’t smiling and looked rather stern… not the mother I wanted to convey.

If I had my way… everyone’s final photo-portrait would be a picture of them at 5, 6, or 7… snaggle-toothed and grinning from ear to ear… not a care in the world … little boys with freckles and cowlicks… little girls ( perhaps with freckles) and one pig-tail braid in tact and the other pigtail loose and crazy falling free with a ribbon hanging on for dear life. No bother or concern about looks-hair or protruding ” big teeth” knocking out the baby teeth.

To me that is the last stage of development where you are carefree from uniformity and societal expectations… ” you are free to be me.” Eyes are bright with dreams still in fantasy… never is one more alive.!!!!

Aunt Eva had only shown me one picture of her and Lucille( mother was younger by four years-as children- on the back it said Lucille 6- Eva – 10.)

Mother was the baby-carefree but determined to do things her way… a little rebel… you could see the contrast between demure Eva and wild Lucille way back then.

I remember Eva had curly hair but mother’s was dark and straight as a stick… cut in a ” bowl” cut… but mother was smiling as if she owned the world in droopy overalls and bare feet…( never saw the photo again-the only one of their childhood. )

That night when we gathered at the reception room in the funeral parlor… I so badly wished I could draw that wild, carefree little girl who would grow up to be my mother/she would need every bit of her rebellious spirit on not giving up on life -instead choosing to live it through example. In my head the canvas is not blank … because there was nothing boring about mother… she was never ever a blank canvas!

In a book I am reading now… I came across this observation by the author that made me stop and make an entry in my notebook.

” If I had the chance to iron out the creases in my life before it ended, which ones would I choose to smooth over – which parts and pleats would I most want to unfold… so they could no longer dent the picture of the person I wished to be remembered as? “

” Personally I think that some wrinkles and stains on the fabric of our lives are there for a reason . ” ( Alice Feeney)

So until tomorrow… Look what I found when I pulled ” accidental drawings or paintings.” Some of the best pictures of all!

Spilt Coffee created the silhouette of this forest!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

While researching a completely different topic yesterday… the fabric of our lives…I suddenly found this title picture popping up depicting a stone hashtag. Dating back to the Stone Age in a cave in South Africa … there was a cross-hatched pattern drawn on a stone… with a red ochre crayon.

It dates back 73,000 years ago and proves that early Homo Sapiens in S. Africa could make graphical designs in various media using a diversity of techniques.

Even more important… this discovery shows just how rich and complex human behavior had already developed during this time.

The Stone Age? I picture hairy creatures with clubs trying to bring down wooly mammoths… not artists coloring on stones and creating color tools to accomplish this. Looks more like the Flintstones version of Stone Age history.

Wow! From the very beginning… early man had a completely different mindset … even despite surviving life and death situations daily and a life expectancy of only 25 to 30 years. Homo Sapiens were already developing a ” culture” that included communication, relationships, and art.

Let’s face it… man is special but along with this Divine gift… shouldn’t we be doing a better job as stewards of this beautiful blue planet we call home?

*** Anne and her sister Jane are seeing this upclose and personal as they snorkeled to see one of the most beautiful under water reefs in the world on their trip outside Honduras… only to be disappointed by how unhealthy the second largest reef in the world looks…due to man’s water pollution.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

I had a God Wink yesterday while reading one of my favorite quotes from Mark Twain

” The two most important days of your life are the day you were born… and the day you found out why. ”

Suddenly I had another Third addition …(a third most important day in our lives) … and the day you realize that the secret to having it all.. is knowing that you already do.”

Amen.

The garden is transitioning nicely into Fall…

Dear Reader:

I love Carole King’s vision of her ” Way Over Yonder” secret place.

” Yonder” is a word derived from the Dutch word-‘ ” ginder ” meaning ” over there” and the English ‘yon.’ ( same meaning-just connected together)

The Deep South and Appalachia adopted the phrase ” Over Yonder” and never gave it up in their daily conversations. ( used for directions)

As a child… I came to dread the words because mother used it … a lot …when looking for something and calling the closest ( unlucky) sibling to come help her.

” Becky, Look for my scissors ” over yonder” nodding her head in the general direction where to look. ” Over yonder” could be anywhere… the desk, the table, drawers… ” I would ask ” Over yonder…where mama… the desk… ? ”

” I don’t know… just look… sure they are over yonder.” I knew I probably had only a 50-50 chance of finding them before mother got frustrated. ( and no one wanted that!)

I could hear my brothers galloping down the steps and the screen door slamming… deserted again? They were hiding out in that vague ” over yonder” neighbors’ yard. Deserters!!!!

Country singers ( John Denver, Johnny Cash. and Willie Nelson -for a few) sing about country roads being their ” Yonder” roads and one does see a lot of country roads and mountains worthy of a song… like ” Country Roads.”

And one can bet if you stop for directions at a mountain country store and you are told … ” Oh yeah… I can git ya there… little lady… It’s just over yonder that next hill, then two bridges and one valley… nuttin’ to it! ”

Even though ” Over Yonder” is probably an accurate description … you can bet that getting there will be a memorable adventure.! Honey and I have gotten ridiculously lost but also experienced the most hilarious fun following ” Over Yonder” directions!!!

The slang expression for this dilemma is ” Get lost in a …wander …looking for yonder.”

In Matthew 17: 22-23 scripture reads: ” If Ye have faith … as a grain of mustard seed… ye shall say to the mountain- Remove here to yonder place and it shall remove… nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

My personal interpretation is that Yonder is a place where we can lay down our burdens ( if we have faith like a mustard seed) and ” nothing shall be impossible unto us.” ( A Heaven in itself)

It was at this point in typing the post that I stopped to listen to Johnny Cash sing When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. He knew where ” Yonder” was! We can find beautiful ” yonder’s” here on earth but that real ” Yonder” still awaits us!

So until tomorrow…

The famous soliloquy between Romeo and Juliette… as the sunlight filers in “yonder” window breaks…” and ,despite all their problems, Romeo is encouraged by the streaming light that their love, like the sun, will light up both their lives forever.

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh

Thanks Mandy for coming over yesterday with everything I needed ( my personal individual blender) and great ideas how to get yummy nutrition in me and hopefully weight before next Tuesday! 💗😘👍

I went to get something out of a closet, found Winnie the Pooh ( the gardener Winnie from Epcot that Stephanie Ballard gave me from one of her Disney trips) and in taking Winnie out …the pumpkin and sign fell on my head… a reminder… fall is rushing in … September 23 and it will be pumpkin time again ! 🤗

+++ My Favorite September song was ” See You in September ” by The Happenings” …always made me cry-so of course I loved it… number 12 on the September Charts

Dear Reader:

While driving in the car yesterday… the radio announcer said. Did you know that the month of September is the most popular month used in songs… titles and lyrics?

I eat trivia news like that up … so as soon as I got home… I started researching and sure enough September is the most popular month for songwriters to use…for a wide diversity of reasons.

Technically three syllable words are easier to work into music plus September represents such a transition of emotions to match the transition of the month itself that it lends itself to an instant popularity of acceptance with rhythm and lyrics.

September is also, a month of transition, warm turns to cool, bright colors like leaves start manifesting their beauty and we find ourselves in reflective and nostalgic moods with many mixed emotions. It is a time of change.

To just give you a partial example… here are the top ten selling songs with September in the title…

1) September-Earth, Wind, and Fire

2) September Skyline- Single File

3) Maybe September – Tony Bennett

4) Pale September- Fiona Apple

5) The September of My years- Frank Sinatra

6) September Morning -Neil Diamond

7) September Gurls- The Bangles

8) Come September – Natalie Imbruglia

9) September When I First Met You -Berry White

10. September Song -Frank Sinatra

…………. …………………………………………………

There are twenty plus songs that use September in titles and many more in the lyrics-Frank Sinatra leads the pack with singing the most… September Songs.

Let’s go back and look at number one again… interesting story… September by Earth, Wind and Fire.

It starts with a question and even today at wedding receptions, reunions, or just neighborhood gatherings … if the event starts out slightly stilted… with people staring at each other… this question is heard over the speakers and suddenly toddlers, small children, adolescents, high schoolers, college youth, young, middle, and older adults are suddenly dancing anywhere and everywhere. The question? Ah… you know it- Do You Remember… the 21st night of September? ….

Three writers tried that opening line with every day of the September month ( 1-30) and made the final decision collectively… 21st sounded best!

It was crowned the Happiest Song from the late 1970’s until….

Yep… you guessed it… until 2014 … Pharrell Williams singing and performing ( with a lot of help from people everywhere 😁) HAPPY!

… Okay I’m back… sorry but Happy-the 24 Hour Video is still available anytime you feel a need or want to listen and watch again… and just dance and get happy… best medicine around!!!

If you can squeeze a few minutes in today… especially remembering yesterday, September 11… allow yourself to be happy…certainly not for the tragedy that shook and changed our sense of security forever… and the lives of many families… but for the response to the nightmare that brought out the best in humanity in its aftermath.

I was watching GMA yesterday when suddenly they switched to the Twin Towers because it was 8:46 am … and all our lives, but especially those inside’s lives would never be the same.

Last week Cindy Ashley sent me an article … she thought I would be interested in.. concerning the meaning behind the Pursuit of Happiness… it was thoroughly researched from many angles but I wrote Cindy back and said that I found the most unique component (about the relationship between suffering and happiness) the most revealing.

Pause for a moment and think about life itself… haven’t we all come into this world upon the suffering of another? Weren’t we given the most precious gift -of all -life- by the person ( our mother) who suffered but also loved us simultaneously during our birth?

Sometimes it is the extreme polarization of unexpected circumstances in life that bring joy and love back into our lives following an unimaginable situation …filled with pure terror.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite Day-Winnie the Pooh

I thought this was the perfect Winnie quote today… didn’t we feel this way after 9/11… looking at the before and after Twin Towers… we all felt lost temporarily too… what had been … no longer was. Today it is back… in a different way… beauty brought back to let the world know hope is still alive and growing! The memorial pool/ fountain remembering those who perished in the tragedy.

Hope grows in my garden too…

Dear Reader:

While attending a teacher’s three day workshop convention, one year in my early teaching career, I listened as the moderator announced the different names of the workshops being offered and when she got to one… I was so excited I wanted to jump up and run out to sign up for it before it filled.

… The name of it was ” Drama” in the Classroom. Finally… a kindred spirit! Drama was defined as turning facts into dialogue to re-tell historical stories from different perspectives. It was ME!

It was at that workshop that I first heard of Gail Godwin and her novel teaching techniques bringing storytelling into the classroom. It re-enforced what we already knew .. isolated historical facts are boring… history, as a story, connects meaning to facts in a riveting way.

So exchange glaring overhead lights for lamps and music to accompany the storytelling and you have a calm quiet audience … unknowingly listening and learning historical facts simultaneously.

In this story of a remembrance of an unforgettable teacher … the student, now grown, wonders and muses about how this special teacher’s life continued, especially because she still vividly remembers the day she was told ( as a 14 year old student) that ” there are two kinds of people-one kind you can tell just by looking at them … at what point they congealed into their final selves. It might be a very nice self but you know you can expect no more surprises from them.”

” Whereas the other kind… keep moving and changing- they are fluid – they keep moving forward and making new trysts with life itself for the joy of simply being alive.” They never stop adventuring! As long as you still yearn for something , you stay in forward motion -You don’t congeal.

…” the motion of it keeps fluid people young. Be constantly on your guard against congealing.”

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Psst: Since Jake decided nine years ago to arrive on Boo’s birthday… I have to reward him for the special honor… found a suitable special ” cod” for him.

Dear Reader:

Have you ever ” thought” about how many different types of thoughts cross your mind every single day?

Well recently the Cleveland Clinic published these ” brain facts” after a long study to discover the number of thoughts crossing our brains daily.

The average person has 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day- 80% negative and 95% of these thoughts were exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before.

We have all probably heard some of the quotes on joy that remind us not to let anyone steal our joy but considering the number of thoughts that cross our minds in a single day… we allow more thoughts to steal our time ( while living on Earth) than we do other people stealing it.

Is it just me … but it appears that a lot of blame we put on others for stealing our joy or causing us discomfort and pain is self-inflicted-Pogo was right… we are our own worst enemies… we do quite a job on self-put-downs but then we turn around and put down others for putting us down.

What is it in human nature that makes us ruminate over negativity and push good memories and positive thoughts into the dusty corner of our minds.

1) We remember traumatic experiences over positive ones

2) We recall insults more than praise

3) React more strongly to negative events and thoughts than to positive events and thoughts

After reading findings like this… we can’t help but wonder if God needs to do a full-blown ” do-over” on us humans. Yet we know God made us in His image so we have a challenge from the day we arrive until the day we leave… to think of others and how we can help them… letting those positive thoughts start stockpiling… pushing the negative thoughts into the dusty corner of our ” attic.”

In other words… we need to learn what ” Bert” learned in the book The Best Worst Day Ever.

So until tomorrow… if we are planning something for someone beside ourselves-someone we really want to help… our thoughts at night and during the day are positive! And that is the lesson God is trying to teach us… we are positive and happy when we put others in front of us and leave our negative self-absorption behind.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

*** Many of you let me know the post didn’t pop up yesterday … and I thought ” No Way!” I wrote and set the Saturday post as usual to appear at 6 am but nada when I checked it.

Apparently something was off at WordPress-it showed the time for publishing as 9:27 pm for Saturday September 9. ” No way” … who would set such a weird time. But when I went in to hit Publish Now… it wouldn’t let me do that either.

I ended up at Lassie’s and we thought several times it was ready… it even told us it had published the post but it had not… I am probably boring you to death but just want you to know so if something weird happens again tomorrow… you will know we will know that WordPress gremlins are playing havoc … with me at least.

And how about Dem Tigers? All I could think of was Sleeping Beauty being awakened by a 💋… KISS and suddenly everything was normal and beautiful again … the game that was half out… and boy oh boy… half IN for the best ending EVER! Happily Ever After!

Dear Reader:

Chaucer gets credit today for this familiar quote but Sir Walter Scott alluded to it ( also) in several of his writings.

I grew up hearing adults around me use it on occasion and never gave it much thought since I didn’t get to the beach but on rare occasions since it was almost a full day’s drive to leave the Piedmont before the interstate was built and get to the coastal region of the state.

But when Brooke and I graduated from Erskine we were determined to both leave our upper regional rural small towns and find sunshine, oceans, and boys in Charleston! We accomplished all three eventually… forgetting sometimes we did have to stop and squeeze teaching in also!

After we both ” survived” that first teaching year… we were beyond excited! The beach, the ocean, the islands were calling that first summer. *** We put more miles on our old second/hand graduation cars ( daily hitting the beaches) than we had commuting to school each day.

Since neither of us knew anything about oceans, riptides, currents, undertow we chose the most dangerous spot between Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms to lay our blankets and picnic. -Breach Inlet.

Today you see signs like this … and swimming there is illegal …should have been back then too!

The only sign in the early 70’s was ” Swim at Your Own Risk” .. that did not even slow us down …much less deter us. We could swim… but our experience with swimming was public pools, ponds and lakes… not the ocean!

As crazy as we were back then … ( and we were) we successfully picnicked and swam for a couple of weeks at the inlet with no problem …until one day we spotted a sandbar and thought this little ” beach” in the ocean was so ” cute” and would be ideal to swim to and lay out in the sun -our own beach.

Just remembering how utterly ignorant we were that first summer living in Charleston makes me shudder typing this… once again all went well the first few times until we both fell asleep on the sandbar one afternoon and the encroaching ocean woke us up.

It was very puzzling… what had happened to our ” beach” ( mostly underwater) and why did the parking lot and inlet look so far away?

We were about to find out… we were swimming against the tide and getting nowhere… why weren’t we making progress? Talk about Divine Intervention… I finally realized that I could not swim another stroke … but remembered mother had taught me the backstroke and told me to use that stroke in an emergency and this was certainly one! ( Mother, with one hand, could back stroke and just simply float for enormous periods of time. )

I yelled to Brooke to flip on her back and try to rest so we could continue our attempt back to shore… when we flipped over God somehow managed to make us aware that if we swam parallel to the current we would eventually be able to head back towards shore… just farther down the beach.

That was the quietest trip back to West Ashley and our apartment there that afternoon… all I remember is literally falling in my bed (with my wet sandy bathing suit on ) because I did not have the energy to change!

The next morning I think that we said a blessing over soggy cereal thanking God for simply being alive.

So until tomorrow… God is not only the God of help and guidance during troubled times but the God of extreme kindness and patience … helping two ” Legal 21 year olds” stop ” illegally ” acting like idiots! ” Lesson learned!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

But in spite of trying to drown ourselves we did have fun and lots of adventures -the Bahamas for our senior break and fun trips with wonderful neighbors in our apartment complex that first couple of years living in Charleston -great memories!

Those were the days-so glad I had them! So glad I survived them!

The light was shining through my ” Clemson bottles this morning… go Tigers!