Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

I liked Gin-g’s idea of getting a note off to each grandchild before school starts again. The Post Office, these days, might be considered ” Snail Mail” … but still …isn’t there something uplifting about seeing an envelope from family or friend with one’s name on it? ( especially as children)

And then while at the bank yesterday … an idea came to me about a special good luck ” token” I could put in the envelope … a two-dollar bill! So I picked up five, came home and started researching the history of it!

Today the general public is still largely unfamiliar with the notes because they are not widely circulated and continue to be hoarded. The common misconception is that the two dollar notes are no longer being reproduced. Wrong. They have been printed since 1862, except for a ten year hiatus between 1966-to 1976.

One particular college came up with a creative idea on how to use these bills… Clemson!

It was the year ( 1977) -when the two dollar bill went back into circulation-it was the same year IPTAY Executive Secretary, George Bennett, came up with the idea of encouraging fans to bring $2 bills to spend in Atlanta as a way of showing Georgia Tech how much of an impact Clemson fans have on the economy. The Georgia Tech administration wanted to cancel the annual rival football game-and this idea was very popular.

… and you know I have to squeeze in a history lesson … my ” note” inside.

This two dollar bill… Brings Good Luck to You

For a great school year… With love from Boo!

” Jefferson’s on the front, His ” Declaration” on the back. Impress your teacher now …with this little fact!”

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Isn’t there something exciting about an unexplained sighting of anything… especially when it is something ordinary being something or somewhere un-ordinary.

As I am writing this post… Monday afternoon… I am hoping the Sunday afternoon phenomenon will repeat itself… think it depends on who is winning in the skies… sun or clouds… they seem to battle it out daily. The sun won Sunday afternoon and that inadvertently produced the strange light.

“A strange light” … suddenly I was back in my classroom the first year I taught in Summerville and Halloween was approaching quickly… by then the students knew my love of stories… so when I asked the classes to write down the most famous ” true” Summerville ghost story-I read the same story title repeatedly… The Story of the Summerville Lights.

A few years ago… Channel Two did a special series on popular ghost stories in the Lowcountry. For Summerville… it was The Summerville Lights.

The main idea behind the original story was the daily ritual of a night conductor’s wife who showed up at midnight at the same spot along the railroad tracks in Summerville waving her lantern- the train would stop and then arm in arm the conductor and wife would walk home waving their lantern.

One night the train never appeared and later the news broke that the train had derailed and the night conductor killed… actually by decapitation… terrible news to break to his wife. Yet she never stopped showing up at midnight waving her lantern until her own death.

As time passed …the legend of the waving light spread and grew-it was told and repeated that if you traveled down the road late at night… the sounds of crickets and frogs -breezes and leaves would stop- if a motorist flashed their car lights… then a small ball of light resembling a lantern would start moving from side to side-if one walked towards it… it would give chase and your car would not start.

Today it is ” Lights Out” for this Summerville legend as new streets, shops and housing developments have swallowed up any remnants of the forests, woods and dirt roads that gave life to the legend many many years ago.

… and , unfortunately, the moving light that spread across my den door window covered by sheers, did not light up my den again. But was so glad I did get the title picture light shining behind my side garden Sunday afternoon… and as I followed its direction I was expecting to see a car with perhaps a side mirror where the sun’s rays were bouncing off it… instead the only thing in the right direction was … a ladder! Mystery… unsolved… the best kind.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day/Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I woke up yesterday thinking I was just in the mood for humor… ( felt like Abraham Lincoln) so I ” traveled” back in time through Chapelofhopestories… picking out some of my favorite one-liners, jokes, and tall tales from years past! Hope you enjoy!

When Rutledge and Eva Cate were little… both their favorite animals were elephants– Eva Cate because this large animal’s name starts with an E- Rutledge because he has an adopted elephant from the Kenya Wildlife Preserve!

Elephant joke:

A teacher asked her class for the name of an animal that starts with an “E”? One little boy answers ” Elephant!” Then the teacher asks for an animal that starts with a “T”? The little boy replies again ” Two elephants!”

As the class laughed, the teacher placed the little boy in the hall outside the classroom for being a ” smart aleck.” She then asked for an animal’s name that started with a ” M.” The boy stuck his head in the classroom and shouted ” MAYBE an elephant?”

Wrong Email Address:

A couple was going on vacation but his wife was still on a business trip, so the husband went on to the vacation destination first-his wife would arrive the next day.

When he got to the hotel he decided to send his wife a quick email. Unfortunately, while typing her address, he mistyped one letter and his note was re-directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife- whose husband had sadly passed the day before.

When the grieving widow read her email-she let out a piercing scream and fainted dead away. At the sound, family members rushed into the room and started reading the monitor.

Dearest Wife,

Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow. P. S. Sure is hot down here!

……………………,…………………………………………….

Copy Cat

Teacher: ” I hope I didn’t see you looking on Fred’s paper, Tommy.”

Tommy: ” I hope you didn’t see me either, sir.”

……………..,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,…………………………,.,,………

One last one….

Enterprising Young Entrepreneurs

A police officer found a perfect hiding place watching for speeding motorists. But to his surprise everyone was driving under the speed limit! He decided to investigate.

A ten-year old boy was standing on the road holding a large hand-painted sign that read ” Radar Trap Ahead.”

A little more investigative exploring lead the officer to the boy’s accomplice. The second boy was about a hundred yards beyond the radar trap with a sign reading TIPS with a bucket at his feet filled with change!

So until tomorrow… I hope I was able to get at least a grin or snort out of everyone! 😂

Today is my favorite day – Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

It’s that time of the year when school age children (from elementary to high school) start coming down with an ” annual medical outbreak ” which seemingly spreads quickly in the form of the dreaded ” knots in the stomach” syndromes!

It normally only lasts a day through a week or two (at the most) but the longevity of the affliction depends solely on the affected student’s attitude towards himself and others. A spoonful of confidence taken daily before boarding transportation to school in the morning should be followed up by another spoonful of openness and acceptance taken at lunch.

Sprinkles of happiness and good humor should be applied to bag lunches or the weekly calendar ” specials ” … if harboring a cafeteria tray.

All ” medications ” may be stopped when you find yourself sprinkling newly swapped foods …between you and your new eating buddy or saving a seat beside you on the bus for your new transportation partner. Your ” knots in the stomach” outbreak is over for another year! Congratulations!

As a middle school teacher for over three decades … one of my most important lessons those first days of school …

was assigning student buddy locker partners -nothing was sadder than watching a frustrated new student running late to each class in tears or trying to carry five classes of textbooks around all day.

One of the most important roles we have as teachers and mentors is to keep an eye out watching to see which students are over the initial ” knots in the stomach outbreak” and which students need more nourishing in their inter-peer relationships. Learning takes a backseat until students feel comfortable and secure in their surroundings! One trusting friend is all that is needed!

So until tomorrow… It isn’t enough to to talk to our children or grandchildren about not selling themselves out … in order to blend in but to model it ourselves .

Today is my favorite day/Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

When I got to participate in the Danish-American Teacher Exchange in the early nineties, I learned first-hand about hygge-an old Norse word ” Hugr” which later became the English derivative-hug.

However in this case… hug meant ” soul, mind, and consciousness ” . It derives from a 16th century term ” hugga” meaning to comfort or to console. ” Hugga is pronounced ” HOO-gah, like an old timey car horn-symbolizing coziness and well-being.

While I was staying at Benedikte Christensen’s home her youngest daughter, Marlana, had a birthday and I never had so much fun… songs, riddles, stories, board games, her favorite meal and homemade cake… the laughter went far into the night… it was coziness and a picture album that brought back memories of family vacations and holiday celebrations from her past year as her grand accumulated gift…a comforting birthday -so much more meaningful than so many American expensive birthday parties given by strangers for profit at some unknown locale.

Time is so precious in our lives that the opportunity to share time with family is increasingly blessed.

Family members come in all shapes and sizes! But finding time to play together is a top priority and to comfort siblings …a lesson in caring.

Rutledge’s team had a rough start in their football tournament and Rutledge needed some encouraging support so Lachlan and Eloise made pictures that I then, took snapshots of us to send Rutledge!

In the past several years Finland, along with Denmark have vived for the title of The Happiest Country in the World, repeatedly.

What they share in common is a cultural commitment to free education, along with healthcare. They seem to understand that there are no inalienable rights or pursuit of happiness without good health. Seriously… how can anyone be happy without affordable health care for all-not just the fortunates with life insurance?

People before profit… a seemingly lost and fading concept in our troubled democracy. The basic differences in happiness countries/atmosphere, presence, “” WE” over ” ME” gratitude and harmony … a way of living that promises warmth, security, and commonality.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Finding a ” God Wink” in the mega-movie Barbie ( you might think) is a ” bit of a stretch” but the connection has brought tears and a smiles to surprised movie-goers.

By now there have been so many ” spoiler alert” warning articles on the movie Barbie that hopefully my thoughts won’t spoil anything for future movie goers. For me… it just reiterates how connected everything in life continues to be… including reality and fantasy.

My thought observations today didn’t start with the movie but an interesting article on the Apostle Paul’s writings in ( Romans: 5:3-4) and its application in today’s world.

In this particular scripture, Paul talks about how suffering leads to perseverance – perseverance leads to character and character leads to hope. The road to hope is full of grace, but the road is long and winding- not traveled in a day or even a decade. It can take a lifetime, but we have to start somewhere and that is suffering.

The movie BARBIE starts out, predictably, with scenes of blue skies, sunny days, everyday is beach day and everyone is completely happy… until one ” reality” word slips out of the doll Barbie’s mouth and everything changes.

In her quest to get help and return to her continuously happy doll life, she discovers ( instead) more and more reality ( along with suffering) until it gets to a major decision climax.

Barbie wrestles with the decision to become human in the real world and as her creator ( Mattel Ruth Handler-creator of the Barbie doll-) tells her… she, alone, gets to decide who she is and what she wants to do.

Therein follows one of the most powerful quotes in the movie about the most selfless part of motherhood. Handler tells Barbie, that like her real daughter, Barbara, mothers defer their dreams onto their daughters.

So until tomorrow… the most important gift from our Creator continues to be HOPE but it takes us continuing to keep the FAITH and GRACE in HOPE ( despite suffering) to make our lives and others fulfilling!

Today is my favorite day- Winnie the Pooh

However I know where I have gone-to Mt Pleasant to keep Lachlan and Eloise while Mollie takes Rutledge to Charlotte for a football tournament . I spent last night and will spend tonight-Walsh is working nights. Mollie and Rutledge will be home tomorrow-Saturday afternoon….

Lots of rain but it saves me watering when I get back tomorrow!

Dear Reader:

Don’t you wish that upon birth… we each could arrive… holding a magical ” channel changer” ( clicker, switcher, remote control) in our tiny fists?

Our personal magical ” clicker” could preempt any upcoming troubling life situation – just like we switch television channels today! To preempt means to prevent something from happening by taking action first.

But as we all know… life doesn’t work this way. And even if we could… is the action we select …the right one – is it even going to work or could it make the situation worse?

Most of us probably feel the same way … especially when it comes to sleepless nights when one young woman commented ” How I’d like to do something about it, to be able to make this scary situation disappear before it ” preempts” another night of sleep! ” ” But what?”

Robert Frost was definitely on the right ” channel” when he concluded ( near the end of his life) that ” The Only Out is Through.”

As physically, mentally, or emotionally difficult as so many heartbreaking life crises are …we know that the Divine ” Channel Changer” is in control and that one day we will see how His ending had been programmed specifically for us and/ or our loved ones.

So until tomorrow…the greatest gift we were given is Faith… our magical ” channel changer” that never needs preempting but steadfast forever.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

A couple of days ago, I came across this ” parable” called ” The Tale of the Ringless Ring.” * It elevated my consciousness level in a new direction for me.

Once there was a beloved and greatly revered spiritual leader who lived in a small village.

One day a friend and devoted member of the leader’s spiritual community, came to him and announced sadly that his work was sending him far away to live and that their paths would probably never cross again.

He then asked the spiritual leader if he might consider giving him a ring he had admired on the leader’s finger over their long time together… it would be a precious token to remember him by.

Thoughtfully the leader paused, stared at his ring, and then replied,” Why don’t I keep my ring. Then everyday , when you look at your hand and see an empty finger, without my ring, you will think of me.”

This parable describes a perfect example of ” emptiness.” Instead of seeing something, one sees nothing and it is the ” nothing” that is meaningful.

Several responses to the story were interesting but I especially liked one woman, named Leslie’s observation.

When she was about eight, one day she asked her father about the universe and how it began. Her father told her that before there was an universe, there was nothing.

She remembered replying, ” But daddy, there has to be something for there to be nothing.” ( ” Out of the mouths of babes.” )

In other words… nothing is always something. But it was the word ” empty” that got my neurons lighting in memory from a sermon written for my favorite Christmas movie.

The Christmas sermon that David Niven delivers as the Bishop in The Bishop’s Wife is called ” The Empty Stocking” -perhaps it best illustrates the true meaning of when nothing is a big big SOMETHING!

” Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.”

“ Once upon a midnight clear , there was a child’s cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men who came with birthday gifts. ”

” We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees,with the sound of a bell, and with gifts. But ESPECIALLY with gifts…no family member is forgotten, adult or child.

All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger- it’s His Birthday we’re celebrating, Don’t let us ever forget that!

Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then , let each put in his share… LOVING KINDNESS, WARM HEARTS, and a STRETCHED OUT HAND of TOLERANCE. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.”

So until tomorrow… There is no nothingness on this planet … unless, we have no faith in the GREATEST SOMETHINGNESS!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I really did need to say ” Rabbit Rabbit” early this morning ( first thing) because July quickly ” snuck out” last night without making a sound and this morning the reality of August and all it represents hit me hard!

Since I was a classroom teacher for decades … August meant school supplies for my own children ( in different stages growing up) It also meant listening to their audible moans and groans whenever the ” Back to School” television commercials came on.

My moans and groans were inaudible but just as painful… for my pocketbook! Every year the lists for required student items per subject grew and grew. Not to mention new clothes… what is it about summer and children’s growth charts… every summer the growth charts seemed to double!

Since I was a mother first, then a teacher… my own classroom requirement list read something along the lines of ” Be on time, Wear a Smile, Bring a writing utensil, a notebook of your choosing and your social studies book when needed for certain lessons only …as informed by your teacher. ”

The nicest thing about storytelling history… it’s not only fun and student motivating, but requires little else but one’s imagination.

August is not only a ” dog days” month but the emergence of ” reality checks” that require leaving the seemingly endless days of ” nothingness” in time and relaxation and trading it in for preparations for the mundane ” busyness ” of life to start returning.

Since my children are grown now with families of their own ( who have to listen to their children groan about school and rising before dawn to get there on time) I am spared school starting… for me it is medical tests and appointments that start back this month… anyway you cut it… August is the ” Back to the Reality of Life Month.”

Of course… once we get back in the ” groove” it is usually not as bad as we dreaded and we start blending back in… with summer soon just a magical memory. *** I read somewhere that as adults we have more memories from summer ( children’s heaven) than any other season including Christmas in December. The carefree days of a summer childhood are powerful indeed!

I read a quote on summer that said ” Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy.” And even today health care givers promote the health benefits of summer ” laziness,” It allows our bodies to recharge physically and mentally/so we can perform to our fullest capacity with all our creative potential intact!

So until tomorrow… ” Rabbit! Rabbit” … let’s start August off today in a good frame of mind… appreciating a few more transition days before reality comes knocking on the door. After all it is our mental health and attitude that frames our lives through all seasons… so ” Carry the weather with you.”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

The nicest thing about growing older… is finally liking ourselves for who we are. This huge benchmark doesn’t appear automatically… it takes lots of detours and dead-end paths to finally become who we always were… an unique human being with a gift to leave behind after our short visit to life here on earth.

What made me re-think my path to self-acceptance was found in an old Junior High yearbook. I was at Horace Sisk Jr High… a new school built over the summer -far outside my more familiar neighborhood schools in Fayetteville North Carolina… it was the sixties and bussing ( as part of the new Civil Rights bill) was now in place.

By junior high… I knew I loved history, reading, and writing. But at twelve… I had no concept of how these subjects were pushing me towards my own individual path into the future.

I didn’t have my braces yet and so I was always lip smiling slightly in all my school pictures. I felt ugly and wanted to be popular like the cute girls with beautiful straight teeth or popular braces. I just had buck teeth.

But then one picture stopped my browsing… it was a picture of the seventh grade chosen superlatives, alongside my favorite teacher, Mrs. McBride. I glanced and then glanced again… there I was with my lip smile and I was holding my plaque that read: Most Likely to Succeed. Me? No way! I was a loser! A reject! That couldn’t be right.

Suddenly, now in hindsight, that shy twelve year old Becky’s eyes were open… what I remembered feeling about myself at that age and what others thought were worlds apart.

By the time we moved a year later to Laurens, new braces and all… a new me showed up my freshman year… a wonderful English teacher, took me under her wings and convinced me that I needed to continue my creative writings into the future.

So I ended up teaching history ( one love) coupled with storytelling creative lesson plans ( my other love) supplemented with my writings ( my last love.)

My path took me where I belonged for over three decades… and then miraculously I overcame a potentially life/threatening cancer … which in turn challenged me to finally share my stories and writings with you… the beautiful universe-come full circle!

I met many ” nay-sayers” along the way but learned the hard way to stay true to myself and look for the “bread crumbs” God leaves behind …for us to follow …down our personal path.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh