Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

The longer I live the more hindsight I have… these days it consumes the breath and depth of my present life. I openly acknowledge that everything in my life has happened for a reason at the time it was supposed to happen. ( though at the time I couldn’t see it … many times.)

Over the past two days I have spent time with my brother Ben … to see another specialist… then time with Eva Cate and Jake while John and Mandy got out for a much deserved dinner outing… and ending yesterday as I watched Rutledge and Eloise ( Lachlan was at a day basketball camp) … Walsh and Mollie were finishing up work so they can fly out today… to Mollie’s parents in New Hampshire and then on to Maine for their annual summer family vacation!

Enjoying grandchildren ( and Winnie) golf cart rides with family as the sun sinks beneath the creeks and rivers of Hobcaw… all time well spent… heart-felt time. Like the picture I snapped when Winnie put her paw on Eva Cate’s hand as she fell asleep on the sofa… minutes later Winnie, too, fell asleep and I looked down and saw this- heart-felt moment…

So until tomorrow…( I could not believe that the 10th and final ” Faith Directive” was this one! I honestly have been pulling 1 of the 10 directives out daily …after shaking the box and closing my eyes -this was the last one) A true ” GOD WINK” !!! Believe in healing! )

Today IS my FAVORITE DAY! 🤗

And who says books can’t bring fun to children in the summer? Eloise is learning surfing moves due to books!

Dear Reader:

Every time I walk to my car I pass my Ukrainian tree flag… it reminds me how easy it is to push suffering of others on the back burners … while so many unfortunate families and lives have been turned upside down.

And then I came across a sweet Christmas legend synonymous with Ukraine and I thought the story was an endearing way to reflect on how similar we all are as a human race, especially when it comes to the love of our children and Christmas magic.

The Spider and the Christmas Story

There once was a poor widow who lived in a cramped aged hut. She lived there with three small children … outside her home was a tall pine tree that one day dropped a pinecone that soon started to grow from the soil as if by magic… the children tended to it every day and under their loving care it was strong and ready to be cut and brought inside for Christmas.

The happiness at their first Christmas tree was quickly diminished, however, when they realized they had no ornaments to place on the tree and it was Christmas Eve… too late… too late.

It was the spiders hidden in every nook and cranny … who heard the quiet sobbing of the children that special Christmas Eve! Something had to be done to ” save Christmas” and the spiders knew exactly what to do. Immediately they got to work!

They created beautiful webs … decorating them with elegant and beautiful silky patterns. When the children awoke the next morning as the sun began to rise… the magic began.

The spiders had opened all the shutters and even cracked the door… the sun’s rays slid across the floor and then began to climb the tree …turning each spider web into glittering gold and silver reflections.

The mother and children held hands and danced around their dazzling Christmas tree… knowing that this Christmas would always be remembered as the year of the “Christmas Miracle! ”

Today spider webs are as synonymous with an Ukrainian Christmas as pickles with German Christmas trees and woven braided Christmas hearts with Danish trees.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

In the past couple of days …shared conversations… with two of my favorite ” sisters-in-” love” -Doodle and Lassie …have provided me with thoughts about life that have elevated my sense of belonging… my place in this crazy wonderful world we live in…

It all started when Doodle and I were chitchatting on the phone and she offered to make a copy of this “bundle”of medical paperwork I received ( to fill out for Ben) for yet another ” specialist.”

We started reminiscing about growing older, memories of our parents’ journey into caregiving situations and its emotional toll on family. It was so bonding and we realized how much we missed seeing each other more regularly and sharing stories.

Then Doodle called back later…and said her copier was on the ” blink” but Lassie could make a copy of everything for me yesterday.

And soon Lassie and I were having a similar discussion about caregiving and the emotional roller coaster … that kept us on the ride longer than we thought … but also it gave us the opportunity to reminisce on beautiful memories that last a lifetime.

As I climbed back in my car… a sudden ” God Wink” sent a message …that made me slow down at the next light and contemplate it … until a car honking behind me ( as the light turned green) broke my reverie.

We should stop running around searching and asking ourselves ‘ What is the meaning of life?’ Instead the question should be … ” What gives my life meaning?”

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

The love of family and friends is the glue that holds your heart together! ❤️ Amen!

Lassie’s plants scream hot July… with ” fire” and ” flame” in all their names! Beautiful!

Dear Reader:

A couple of weeks ago… I mentioned that I had just finished a ” summer read” ( On Fire Island) I enjoyed because the angle or perspective of the main character, Julia Morse, was most unusual in that she had just passed ( at the age of 37.)

Upon her passing Julia discovers she has a choice to make… follow her adorable grandmother ( Nana Hannah) who is perhaps leading her to the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel or ” or spend one last summer near those she loves the most.”

Julia chooses one last summer that ends at the final community baseball championship /one her husband Ben, always played in.

Upon arriving she sees her grandmother ( Nana) waving her over to the bleachers and she realized her time is up… she has one last game to watch.

It is then that her grandmother reveals a secret… why she should not be sad about leaving… ” You’ll be back if you want to.” She touched my cheek and added ,” It’s just like baseball. You have to leave home in order to return to it again.”

The more I thought about that comment… the more I liked and understood the metaphor. In our lifetimes don’t we all leave home to venture out to find our place… and in doing so… don’t we find ourselves on different ” bases -( life experiences) before returning back home… to home base?

***I let myself think of all the bases ( to date) I have circled before hopefully one day sliding back into home plate… the circle of life complete.

Tommy was even the ball boy for the All/Star Championship Win! Mandy and I just looked at each other and sighed-no family summer vacation … again!!!

So these days when I go to Edisto with the girls… it is so nice not to have to plan around baseball games! And speaking of Edisto… there was a wonderful article recently in a travel magazine on one of the Edisto side roads… the Edisto Island National Scenic By-Way.

This two-lane road takes you through some of the most beautiful parts of the Lowcountry… where one can see salt marshes, maritime forests, tidal creeks and Edisto Beach.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Saturday morning… I really had only one objective… to get some zinnias from the ” flower lady” at the local Farmers Market… and that meant getting there early… by around 8:30am or so … the flowers go quickly.

I like the simple arrangements… zinnias ( because they last the longest and a few other summer mixtures.) I got enough for two arrangements -one in a glass jar and another just wrapped-have lots of glass jars!

I felt so happy walking back down the street to my car. I had done it and there was still actually a refreshing breeze floating around me that would ” magically” disappear within another hour-another scorcher day would arrive more quickly than wished.

And then it happened… my peripheral vision caught what I thought, initially, was a sunbeam reflecting off something. But then it happened again, only magnified.

I slowed down, moved my sunglasses to the top of my head… and there was the ” magic” … actually ” kissing my nose.” I squealed and realized what the ” magic” was… bubbles floating out of a dispenser in the shape of an ice cream cone!

Suddenly I was floating through a world of bubbles and knew I needed a picture of this… I ran over to a sidewalk-put my flowers down and caught the magic as it floated by a wooden fence!

What was bewildering to me … none of the crowd of adults walking were even acknowledging this fun phenomenon? Except one little boy… a toddler in a stroller who was squealing ” Bub- bubs” for bubbles and pointing his stubby little fingers at one trying to catch it to pop it.

( I soon realized that the ” ice cream cone” bubble maker had been placed on the sidewalk by the opening to a candy shop on the corner where a customer could buy an ice cream cone… creative marketing on a hot July day! )

Finding magic in life is all about noticing the little things in life and then acknowledging its own special gift to us. The universe is trying to show us, to teach us, if we are willing to look beyond the ordinary. To accomplish this, we must be willing to put on a fresh pair of eyes … the eyes thar see magic in the ordinary!

A last minute decision ( after leaving the Farmers Market) was to go visit Toby ( the sculpture dog in the adjacent park. Since first sharing his introduction to you readers a few months back… I have returned several times… as I have discovered he is a great listener… if I have something on my mind. ( In fact I give him credit for my diminishing 2:30 ” What If” monsters that used to keep me awake… replaced by my 5:30 thank you gratitude reflection meditations.)

Magic is believing in yourself!

So until tomorrow…

Look what has appeared on the second trellis on the fence – the morning glories are getting ready for their ascent…

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

One of our local weathermen, yesterday, announced that we ( Lowcountry residents) are getting ready to enter the hottest stretch of summer … apexing in the next ” Top Ten Most Torrid Days” of the year… with heat indexes escalating past 100 degrees each day! Whew! ” Baby, it’s hot outside! ”

So I decided yesterday to find out what are the coolest ( and most popular) five national parks one can visit in the summer and not melt into a puddle-because I will have to travel in my imagination … I want ” cool” pictures.

And before we start let me tell you that Theodore Roosevelt was given the nickname ” Long Eyes” by an old tribal chieftain who endorsed Theodore Roosevelt ‘s long term vision to save the beauty of America for future Americans! America the Beautiful!

# 5 Rocky Mountains National Park

# 4 Zion National Park

# 3 Yosemite National Park

# 2 Grand Teton

# 1 Glacier National Park

Hope you enjoyed the stay at home air-conditioned National Parks sojourn! And I had to laugh… a couple of days ago… July 13 was National French Fry Day!

So until tomorrow… Faith Directive # 5 –Ask For What You Need ( And today that is French fries! 😂🤗)

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Pumpkin gone… Hope Still Alive with new life!

Dear Reader:

Come with me…and let’s all go back in time to the first day of first grade. We are all nervous and excited simultaneously.

We can hardly wait to meet our teacher… she walks in and is beautiful in our eyes… young but with eyes that have seen a lot of life-now filled with wisdom- she is smiling and kind… immediately arranging us on the floor around her. Instead of going around the circle to learn our names… she first introduces herself and then makes a puzzling comment.

” My name is Miss Life and guess what you will learn this year… how to be happy!” (We all clap and laugh at the news.” -much relieved! )

” But… she now looks into everyone’s eyes around the circle… there is catch. Before you can be happy… you first must be STRONG!” ( As the boys flexed their muscles… Miss Life shook her head with a sweet smile. ” Not physically strong… she points to her heart and then asks the children to point to their hearts… we must build up Brave Hearts.”

And as the year passed …failures, hurt feelings, and disappointments were recognized as new opportunities to add bravery to our hearts and happiness to our lives.”

And today… isn’t Life still our greatest teacher? And haven’t we learned that we have truly earned all the happiness that dwells within us from the difficult challenges we have bravely met head on-that made us stronger. ( And it makes happiness even more precious in our memories?)

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Oh… almost forgot … the little white pumpkin that bravely lived on hope… it would have survived three years Halloween since Susan Swicegood decorated it for me one fall and it sat in my den window defying all the odds… but after half a can of Lysol when I went to pick it up and it fell apart on me… the farewell was pretty quick… it had gone from white to yellow and then mush! Bye/Bye my extraordinary pumpkin!

Dear Reader:

I have come to realize as we grow older, our sleep habits change. For a few months now… I find my inner alarm clock going off around 5 – 5:30 am. I am wide awake and immediately my thoughts circle around my adult children, spouses, and grandchildren…followed by friends.

(*** Interestingly enough, I am not hung up on problems or worrisome pending situations or circumstances … those are the occasional 2:30 am ” What if” wake up monsters.)

The 5:30 am sleep awakenings are overall calm and peaceful reflections, creating opportunities to visit or do something to help a family member, friend, or neighbor.

So by the time the sun’s first rays lighten the room… I am at peace again… and sleepy. I take time to thank God for another day of life and then I usually fall back asleep and re-awake around 8:00… feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day.

The other morning I was watching a documentary on a man who was wrongly accused of a murder he didn’t commit and given a life sentence… the case was re-opened by a young lawyer writing a dissertation on wrongly accused prisoners and as fate would have it… turned up new evidence and freed the wrongly accused prisoner after serving twenty-something years behind bars.

I found one question quite poignant that the freed man was asked by the program interviewer… ” Did anyone stand by you… the whole time you were in prison.

” Only One… God.”

Only eighteen at the time of the murder… the young man had been deserted by his mother at a young age, was in and out of several foster care situations that didn’t turn out well… got into a gang and on the night of the murder he was betrayed by the gang and left holding all the evidence.

He never had one human visitor until God came to him in a dream and promised to never desert him. He started learning to read so he could read about God… became a model prisoner and counseled other inmates.

Now that he was free the man told the reporter he would spend the rest of his life visiting inmates who never had a visitor ( the “unpeople” of our society ) and telling them about God by sharing his story.

It got me thinking about how limited humans are in helping… don’t we all start out with the best intentions when we hear about someone we know is in a bad situation… but if the situation lingers too long with no ending in sight, other newer situations pop up and help is redirected. Human nature… but never God’s nature.

Since that night God told me to hold His Hand… He has never left my side!

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Just before I finished the post yesterday… while writing it in my recliner… I glanced at my sofa and then smiled… my two pillows on each end of the sofa have Home sewed on them and in the middle… the pillow of Hope. A ” double dose of HOME” secured by HOPE! I love ❤️ my home.

Dear Reader:

It took me awhile of growing and loving, to finally realize we don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward in life, we just have to keep taking that leap of faith.

What makes us unique and different is our strength! In order to grow older, like trees, we have to have weathered the storms along the way by digging deeper roots… now bring on that next storm!

Obviously we don’t do it alone… but as Dame Judy Dench ( with her inbred wit and wisdom) wrote down ( after a young man asked her how it felt to be old) she scripted ” GETTING OLD IS A GIFT.”

Humorously she listed several freedoms that ” being old” provided… if you kept a sense of humor!

Even though the person staring back at her in the mirror these days startles and surprises her… she has become quite fond of her.

Gray hair and a drooping stomach are just fine… no interest in trading them in for a younger version. She doesn’t scold herself for being messy, likes occasionally to overspend on herself with no guilt, and can stare at flowers for hours -time well spent.

She has seen too many dear friends leave the world before enjoying the freedoms that come with age. There’s nobody to tattle on you if you decide to stay on the computer or read all night… and then sleep all day!

She’s not embarrassed to wear a frumpy bathing suit while the bikini girls shake their heads in pity- she knows that time ( if they are lucky) will put them in frumpy swim suits too one day.

On a more serious note… Dame Judy Dench concludes that it is suffering that gives us strength and makes us grow. An unbroken heart is sterile, and will never know the happiness of imperfection. “

And finally… Dench smiles with her final words of wisdom. ” I’m not going to regret what wasn’t, nor worry about what may be. In the time that remains… I will simply love life, the rest I leave to God.”

So until tomorrow

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Waking up yesterday morning to the sound of rain … just starting to hit the ground, was music to my ears! I dashed out and made sure my new milkweed plant ( ” manna from Heaven” for monarch butterflies) was in a good spot to pick up the rain… one of my purchases from the Walterboro Farmers Market.

Monarch butterflies will soon be migrating through South Carolina … as they do each Fall … they prefer the lowcountry’s coast… island hopping at its best!

Monarchs’ wingspans are about the size of a baseball-during their long trek south they practice cruising-flapping only when necessary. They want to conserve energy for the challenging flight-the peak of their migration is from late October to November.

The beaches and islands get to see an amazing number of monarchs as they head across North America to Mexico and the Caribbean islands…stopping along Lowcountry beaches to juice up on nectar.

When the Ya’s reconvene-usually in September or October at Edisto-we certainly get our share of monarch sightings! Sometimes ( if we are really lucky) you can see a milkweed plant covered in orange and black…called a ” communal roosting.”

The Wildlife Center at Cypress Gardens is a designated ” safe haven” for the monarchs, as well as, Brookgreen is a certified monarch waystation-Whispering Monarchs. ( fields of milkweed plants are grown to feed the monarchs on their migration. )

The South Carolina yellow swallowtail is our state butterfly-symbolic of grace and the best of the human soul and spirit.

… and speaking of ” spirit” and ” faith” … I shook my faith box and selected this faith directive for Monday.

So until tomorrow… I can’t think of a better piece of advice to start off a new week than simply showing up for life bringing your self with you! Faith # 1

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh