Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

The longer I live… the more conscious I am of simply not having the answer to so many questions and situations in life… and have finally recognized and accepted that my job is to listen .. and God’s to answer in His own time… the right time.

I remember when Chapel of Hope blog readers chose one word annually that would guide them through the New Year… I always chose listening.

I have come to the conclusion that if we all listened more and were less prone to quickly dispense our opinions as answers to others… many situations would work themselves out naturally… in Divine time… God’s answer to His children.

*** I must admit though it would not work on Jeopardy if the contestants (instead of answering in the form of a question) buzzed in and just listened… afraid the ratings would drop pretty quickly. 😂

When I think back on the best responses and answers I received from others growing up ( friends and family) … the best solutions did come in the form of questions like ” How did that make you feel? Or ” Upon reflection, is there anything YOU could have done or said that might have improved the situation? ”

Answers in the form of thoughtful questions directed at me…were my best learning experiences. I listened and then was left alone to meditate on the thought challenges given me for any role I , unconsciously, might have played in an altercation.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Every time I happen upon a sky filled with just one visible star, I think of my grandmother. She was an ardent star gazer …in every season. I remember lying beside her in the summer, on a bundle of leaves in the fall, wrapped in heavy blankets around our coats in winter… and sweaters in early spring.

We most loved finding an ” empty” sky with the first star emerging… Grandmother called it ” A Solo Night of Faith” … the best night of all!

Have you ever felt, sometimes, that you, and only you, are the only person who still believes in you? Guess what? It is enough!

Grandmother was always teaching me lessons about life that have come back through the years, unveiling her faith in me many times since her passing a long time ago. Star gazing together provided many of her words of wisdom that she imparted in me.

I remember one night there was only one visible star brightly shining in the darkening sky. Grandmother was ecstatic and clapped her chapped rough hands … the hands of a cotton farmer’s wife.

She then pulled me over and pointed to the sky. ” Becky, life is beautiful but it is also hard sometimes. Whenever you feel alone or scared remember this ” Solo Night of Faith.”

” Look closely at the lone star… it just takes one star to pierce a universe of darkness… and You Are Enough! You, can light up the life you have been given for others…and every now and then God , the Creator of our Universe, reminds us we are not alone… behind our light are endless others twinkling stars, too far away to be seen , but like God… providing our own special light. ”

So until tomorrow… Thank you Father for those loving individuals who came before us to guide us along our future personal paths with words of wisdom and preparation for us to never be alone.

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday I dropped off Ben’s Pepsis and snacks on the way home from Mandy’s and he wanted me to see his room where he had put the picture of Rhea ( I gave him and all the other parents/ grandparents) on his wall cross of grace … he said it was his best present-had spent the last two days showing everyone he bumped into his same day birthday granddaughter’s photo-Too sweet!

Dear Reader:

Yesterday was the long awaited day… Pink Day when Julie, Carrie, Mandy , Eva Cate and I were going, going…( can you guess where?) to the movies to see Barbie! ( And then out for an early supper! Girls Do Have Fun!!! Kaitlyn had seen it with friends Sunday but she joined us for supper!

In gathering as many pink accessories as I could find… Julie sent this photo of her pink footwear… pink bows makes the slippers!

I am going for the Barbie cowgirl look with my pink sheriff star… I am the law!

It will be just so much fun being with Julie and Kaitlyn and Carrie… don’t get to see them as much as I would like!

Some pictures popped up Wednesday morning on Summerville history and they had a copy of a breakfast menu that would have been the standard fare for a Pinehurst Inn breakfast experience. It made me so hungry I immediately called Eva’s Restaurant but they weren’t open … very disappointing… on a Wednesday?

When I later rode by… there was a sign on the door that said due to a staff shortage their restaurant -Eva’s -was closed on Wednesday July 26.

Haven’t we all experienced this more lately in many standard restaurants and other service stores? It appears to be a sign of the times.

McDonalds came through… I barely made the cut-off for breakfast but got my sausage biscuit and gravy … my favorite breakfast there.

The old pictures of Pinehurst Inn always make me wish I could go back in time -perhaps for a week and stay at this beautiful dream location…a little slice of heaven…

We all LOVED Barbie! We laughed and cried!

So until tomorrow… isn’t it refreshing to see an adorable movie with a great message for all ages-be true to yourself!

Today is your favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

As a teacher for over three decades in the classroom… I was always ” preaching ” to my eighth graders the importance of becoming ” lifetime learners.” I am pretty sure, at thirteen, that message fell mainly on deaf ears.

But now that I have more lifetime behind me than what lies ahead… I am having to remind myself daily of the importance of living my own advice.

As today’s title mantra points out… our growth zone is outside our comfort zone … more so for the lucky ” growing older” population. And I do know just how miraculous my aging really is and how appreciative I should be.

Each day should be filled with a mixture of gratitude and justifiable ” comeuppance ” if I don’t continue to live life to the fullest… intimidating challenges and all!

Downtown Charleston is filled with quaint charming facades… unlike so many modern cities.

By coincidence… I came across a cute story that hit home with me since I have spent a lot of time with my hometown banker friends lately refinancing my home. But unlike the woman in the story… all my local banking friends were wonderful… it was computers in another location that kept messing up the information on their end.

An elderly lady wanted to withdraw ten dollars from her checking account. The teller told her they no longer accepted withdrawals less than a hundred dollars and instead use the ATM machine.

The teller handed the customer her bank card back… and the elderly woman shook her head and asked politely again why she couldn’t get a simple ten dollar bill from the teller.

” These are the bank rules and there is a line of other customers waiting behind you” the teller replied more curtly.

” Then help me withdraw all my money out of my account” replied the woman.

When the teller pulled the customer’s account… to her astonishment there was $ 300,000 in it! Respectfully the teller leaned down and whispered ” You have more money in your account than our bank can cover immediately… could you please make an appointment to return back tomorrow?”

The elderly customer asked how much she could withdraw immediately. The teller responded $3000. The woman asked for that amount and placed ten dollars from it in her purse. She then returned the remaining $ 2,990 to the teller for deposit into her account.

Moral of the story… Older citizens have a lifetime of knowledge and aren’t called ” lifetime learners” for nothing! There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” 😂

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

I was so tired Tuesday after happily getting my carload of precious family to Charleston and back unscathed… that around 7:00 I fell asleep and woke up up around 8:30… it was that magical twilight time as the last rays of the setting sun provided just enough darkness for the solar lights to come on… but just enough light for the flash on my mobile phone camera… not to come on-result- pictures of beauty and serenity.

Yesterday… surprise! Only the second hibiscus of the season appeared by that same fence but oh what a magnificent bloom in this hot sun!

Dear Reader:

I see now what my apprehension had clouded earlier … I was overdue for a kick out of my ” comfortable” normal routine. A ” Terrific Trio” birthday celebration held in downtown Charleston proved to be the catalyst that accomplished this!

Actually this quote has been misattributed to Eleanor Roosevelt… what she actually said was,” You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”

So true! Bekah, Ady, Ben, and myself sailed through every potential ” danger zone” ( thanks to Tommy’s and Anne’s directions that just matched each others… and both were right on target. )

With each benchmark direction sign accomplished… my confidence grew and by the time we dropped Ben off… Bekah and I were high-fiving! Great Teamwork!!!

And now I know I can hold my own and follow directions and locate unknown destinations! I had lost faith in myself by digging into my cocoon and forgetting that a beautiful world is right outside!!!!

And to think I would have missed this….

So until tomorrow… Sometimes we just need a gentle nudge… other times we need a swift kick… to get out from under our daily ” normal comfortable ” routines and take a chance….” Oh the Places You Will Go!”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

… And speaking of adventures… Maine is providing lots of them for the Dingles…

Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning when I read this kick-off to the week… I knew it was a God Wink. Today I am having to put on my ” Big Girl” underwear and go where I never thought I would go again… ( in the drivers seat) -downtown Charleston.

The last time I drove back and forth to Charleston I was an Adjunct Professor at the College of Charleston …following retirement. I loved the students and faculty but the drive and parking were heinous… three times I was late for class because of wrecks on the interstate and one evening I got home after dark because of a pile-up on the interstate.

I switched over to teaching at Charleston Southern … much closer and easier coming from Summerville.

The thing about large cities is that they are always under construction so if you aren’t familiar with street closures or one way streets you can easily get tangled up in a mess. Especially when a large amount of time has passed since attempting to drive in it.

All of this is leading to the ” adventure ” my niece and I are attempting today. We are celebrating Ben, Vikki, and one year old Rhea’s birthdays a day early at a seafood restaurant on King Street in downtown Charleston. They were all born on July 26! ( Granddad -PaPa Ben) mother Vikki and our precious baby-Rhea-one year old tomorrow.

My niece Bekah doesn’t like driving in downtown Charleston either so I am driving, Bekah is my navigator, and I am praying God will be our co-pilot.. as we pick up Ben at Wellmore on Daniel Island and head towards downtown Charleston. ( Prayers are accepted and appreciated) 😂

We are eating at Leon’s Oyster restaurant-known for its delicious southern seafood cuisine and fried chicken! No doubt once we arrive and find it… it will be fun … birth-daying with three family members… what are the odds that all three have the same birthday????

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

The Dingles are in Maine now… at Kennebunkport… one of my favorite spots in Maine

Dear Reader:

Some of you might have caught this interesting CBS televised story yesterday or heard about it elsewhere… but I found it so fascinating… I started pulling more information as soon as it went off the air.

I had heard the term ” re-wilding” before … coming from real estate communities where buyers can keep their property as natural ( no constant mowing or other standard upkeep) as possible/with fewer restrictions. They are presented as ” natural communities. ”

But in this instance… this all-out ” re-wilding” ended up saving animal and insect species on critical extinction lists! ”

By year 2000 this 3,500 acre farm estate in West Sussex, inherited by ” Baron” ( appearing to be the last one) Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree… was losing money ” hand over fist.” He had inherited it from his grandparents in the 1980’s.

He had tried everything he knew to do… bigger farm machinery, new varieties of crops, milking parlors, and the newest fertilizers and pesticides. Nothing had worked and after seventeen years… he was steeped in debt… something drastic had to change! After much discussion, Charlie and Isabella decided to quit farming as usual and instead ” put nature in the driving seat.”

Sooner than anyone could imagine …nature returned in full force bringing wildlife of every kind with it. Nightingales, turtle doves, and purple crown butterflies ( on extinction list) whose caterpillar stages ate the dreaded thistle-the nemesis of farmers.

The ever-changing pastoral landscape became home to wild herds of Exmoor ponies, Tam Worth pigs, longhorn cattle, Fallow deer and white storks who returned to nest in trees -first to nest in Britain in over 600 years-they taught their young to fly at Knepp.

Soon Charlie and Isabella opened safari rides and lodgings for tourists … bringing in much needed revenues-about a million dollars annually!

The emerging wood pastoral landscape brought back hawks … looking more like the days when Knepp was a medieval hunter forest.

… And then just when I thought I couldn’t be surprised anymore… three years ago Charlie and Isabella reintroduced some farming elements to co-exist beside the natural state.

So until tomorrow …” He Who Lives in harmony with himself, lives in harmony with the universe!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Have you ever stopped and really looked at a dear friend… perhaps a lifelong friend, or a spouse and uttered the words in the title caption above?

Truly… what are the odds of two people, not only existing in the same time-frame, but the same galaxy, planet, continent, country, state, town, and community or neighborhood… perhaps the same workplace?

The odds are so infinitesimally small that in my brain when I googled this question… strange-looking number formats puzzled me even more. It didn’t even attempt comparing two people but responded to… the question ” What are the odds of a human existing ? ”

As numbers display in infographic figures …( extreme numbers beyond your wildest imagination) one understandable conclusion reveals itself ” You are totally Improbable!”

It reminds me of the line spoken humorously numerous times by Captain Jack Sparrow ( Pirates of the Caribbean) whenever rivals thought him dead… he kept reappearing. They would stare at him in disbelief and shake their heads shouting ” IMPOSSIBLE ! ” Always his response would be ” No… IMPROBABLE but never IMPOSSIBLE!”

If it were Impossible for humans to exist… obviously we wouldn’t…. lots of things had to appear on our home planet to provide the necessities for life… that had to have taken place long before we came along… like photosynthesis… relationship between plants and vital oxygen for life.

Miraculously… it all came to pass. And out of the darkness came glorious light … the light of life…from Our Creator.

So until tomorrow… the next time… you look in the mirror …whisper… ” Improbable but NOT impossible …you miracle you.”

” Today is my favorite day” – Winnie the Pooh

In final conclusion, to all these far-reaching theories and ideas … on the vastness of our universe and our place in it… all we really need to be able to feel the human connection to ourselves and all others who share our humanity …is a card like the one I received yesterday from the indubitable Jo Dufford… my mentor and always my friend and supporter.

I can not tell you how very special this card was , is, and will always be to me and the timing was perfect. Isn’t getting a gift from someone on an ordinary day more meaningful than any special day or holiday?

And Jo, teacher and administrator, would have put this piece of advice to good use for her students…

” The difference between try and triumph is a little ” umph!”

Dear Reader:

” So what …if your life’s a little messy? Perfect isn’t the plan. Purpose is life!

I always breathe a sigh of relief when someone or something reminds me that we might all be created in the image of God but while we are on this side of mortal life… our purpose is to figure out our ” God-given” talent, our passion. ” For your passion will lead you right into your purpose.”

And if like me… you might have to wait for retirement to fully delve into your passion- everything I did prior to retirement… was setting the stage for this joyous ” me” time-finally having the time to truly think about thoughts that matter to me and then share them with you!

One reality, however, that never escapes us is the continuous daily search for balance… for me that means ” divvying up” time between my family, friends, and unforeseen opportunities to help others…that come my way. The more adventures I enter into… the more knowledge about the world I live in… expands and influences my passion-my writings. And once again… I am mindful of the connective link among all mortals calling our little blue planet home.

I have discovered that by organizing life around my passion …into my story …and then turning my story into something bigger… miraculously I will have found my ” calling” the long-awaited one that matters.

So until tomorrow… ” The two most important days in life are the day you are born and the day you find out why? Mark Twain

Carol added some more examples of flowers making history… Just think… you might win the final jeopardy question response!

Think of red and white roses from the long enduring War of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster

Than finally after the conclusion the two houses were united by marriage becoming the Tudors – symbolized by pink roses!

And then there is the poppy-symbolic of the terrible Opium Wars in China… and later World War I …

Today is my favorite day – Winnie the Pooh

Walsh, Mollie and the kids flew into Providence Rhode Island and drove to Newport News… there they were greatly impressed with the lacrosse fields… not what they are used to down here.

Today is my favorite day – Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

The other day, my history lover friend and teaching colleague, Carol Poole, shared one of the numerous legends that grew up around Scotland’s national flower-the thistle. Since my father’s side of the family all emigrated from Scotland and make up half my genealogy… I was especially interested in learning more stories from my once Scottish homeland.

Today this flower is associated with a famous historical incident that occurred between ( 1249- 1286) during the reign of King Alexander III. Since that time it has been recognized as Scotland’s national emblem.

No one is really sure of how the thistle came to be Scotland’s first national flower- there are many different versions of the story…but they seem to settle around the same central theme.

This is one of the more popularly accepted versions of the story. It all begins with a battle -the battle of Ayrshire in the 13th century.

A Norse army journeyed to Scotland, intent on conquering the land from them. The legend has it that they left their ships under cover of night… planning to surprise and ambush the Scottish clansmen while they slept.

In order to be as quiet as possible, the Norsemen removed their boots and/ or shoes. However, as they crept across the countryside meadows, one soldier stepped onto a thorny thistle. His cry of pain roused the sleeping Scots – the warriors rose up and defeated the invaders.

Today you see the thistle on everything from patriotic banners, flags, to gold and silver coins and tourist souvenirs , such as jewelry and keychains.

A long time tradition in Scotland has been the custom of pressing a silver or gold coin into the palm of a newborn’s fist… to wish him/her good fortune …in modern times the thistle is seen on the coin.

In case anyone is wondering what our national flower is…it’s the rose!

Apparently George Washington grew roses at Mt Vernon and today the White House Rose Garden has been the site of more historical events than any other… including weddings, birthdays, treaties, speeches and a place of beauty that the President can escape to… while weighing in on so many heavy issues that go with the job.

While I was in Mt Pleasant earlier this week… Jeff cut back my Yellow Jessamine -SC’s state flower- it was starting to grow onto the roof of the garage !!!

So until tomorrow… as Colin Powell warned in his book on leadership-My American Journey-” A leader must be doubly vigilant- Always check the ” small things.”

… like thorny thistles! It could reshape history.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh