Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

As I went in the bathroom first thing Sunday morning at Brooke’s, to wash up…I recognized ( for the first time) the Faith Angel I gave Brooke many years ago… an artistic creation by Kelly Rae Roberts.

I began reading each entry listed and it struck home immediately… I must have scrubbed my face and eyes enough to really ” see” the angel’s message! No doubt it was a God Wink! The first one kept me reading…

Believe in Healing

Trust the possibilities

Embrace Your Truth

Release Your Fear

Celebrate the Love that exists in your Life

Ask for what you need

Listen to Forgiveness

Be Yourself… Always!

Nurture Your Hope

Hold Onto HOPE!!!!!!!

When I got home… I wrote the ten faith advices down, wrote one message on each of the ten strips I cut, shuffled, and put in a box.

For the next ten days I am going to randomly choose one faith directive and let it be my faith guide for that day! Will keep you updated as it unfolds daily…

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Brooke’s beautiful coral ( no iron) shirt just matches her hibiscus bloom!

Dear Reader:

Don’t you love those first few moments of awakening consciousness daily… when you recollect the day of the week, the agenda for day… and then suddenly remember you are going to lifetime best friend’s house for a weekend of laughs and shared memories?

It truly does feel (for that fragile moment) of remembered happiness that you are in control of creating the life of your dreams…it is a ” jump out of bed exhilarating vision.”

I would like to say that happened again yesterday ( too… after arriving Friday) upon waking up at Brooke’s… instead my contented self was so relaxed and secure yesterday morning…I rolled over snd slept two more hours! ***We Ya’s all comment how much better we sleep when we are at Edisto together… that sense of soothing security knowing you are surrounded by love and friendship.

We decided to hit the farmers market and get fresh tomatoes, fruits, and flowers… then onto a back roads tour of the ” BORO” and its trademark welcome slogans.

The ” Red Rocking Chair” symbolizes the town’s mantra -Walterboro is the ” Front PORCH of the LOWCOUNTRY.”

Those tomatoes from the Farmer’s Market soon became the most delicious BLT’s and Brooke even found my favorite potato chips-WISE POTATO CHIPS. Happiness is…

Our lunch centerpiece was my vase of zinnias I got at the market!

We got the flower lady to take our picture-Brooke was wearing her new red Chico blouse and I wore my older yellow Chico blouse.

Our selected movies 🍿 for Friday Night were Book Club and Book Club -The Next Chapter ( romantic comedy ) Saturday night was Top Gun-Maverick( one more time) and remake of classic-Rebecca.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Surprise Brooke! From all the Ya’s ( and thanks Anne for your artistic additions! )

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I was off to Brookie’s in Walterboro to spend another of our famous movie marathon weekends. I got back Thursday from Mt Pleasant after a harrowing trip to Ben’s neurologist in one of the worst thunderstorms I have driven in for years.

I was still recouping as I re-packed for Brooke’s but was beyond excited to have our catch-up time together this weekend.

And… I was so happy to be able to bring Brooke a ” No iron” Chico’s shirt half-priced from the after Fourth July sale! These shirts last forever and look so good on everybody. Most of the solids were gone so I got Brooke the same color… I got. We won’t go for the ” Bobsie Twin” look… but we each will have a red shirt.

Mandy went with me and I came away with four pairs of pants-priced so incredibly low… we each did a double-take. Apparently my kids are tired of seeing mom ” busting the sag.” All four fit like a glove and stay up on me!

What made the Chico shopping experience so much fun were the clerks who gathered around calling out the right sizes for me and applauded every time I ” modeled” another shirt and pants ensemble. I felt like Queen For a Day… so much more fun than ordering on-line!

And that brings me to an observation that has saddened me lately… more and more human beings are being replaced by automation and technology. I fear that my grandchildren will never get to experience one-on-one conversations face to face with bankers, service people, medical staff including doctors and nurses, real estate agents… and best part of any daily dealing to me is talking with another human being.

Recent case-in-point… a few months ago it was time to renew my house mortgage which I have done in intervals with my friends at my local bank.

But this time… my financial advisors and I have been shaking our heads in frustration because of one change that caused problems. Whereas before… the renewed loan agreement was done in-house- this procedure had switched and was now kept in a central location in another state.

Incorrect notices were sent out and response times were confusing… if it had not been for home bank advisors helping me … not sure that I would have gotten through it all! Instead I have made new financial advisor friends, so when we hear of banks going virtual with no human being to steer and guide us through banking changes … it terrifies me. I am a people person and will always choose humans over technology.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Have you ever thought about this… that once we stop rushing through life, we finally get it… and that is …amazingly… how much more life we now have time for? That is probably the greatest magic of all… finding ” magical ” time!!!

Magic happens when you create the space within yourself to hold all the endless possibilities… and then believe in them , like a child, as magic!

… And the nice part is…we don’t have to practical magical tricks to bring magic to others… the Magic is right in front of us.

Think about that first time you got to tell someone you loved them and they responded back… ” I love you too.” It was the most memorable magic moment of all.

In fact any time we witness an act of kindness, or love – random or planned… the world responds with more love aka more magic.

Nature has magic built into every piece of the universe… stars twinkling, blooms stretching towards the sun, moonflowers opening by the light of the moon, perennials refusing to give up life after one unforgettable season of magic… but we must open our eyes to what is right in front of us… not taking for granted something too familiar but appreciating the magic with every bud opening… a separate miracle!

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day/Winnie the Pooh

Take a little time today and go down memory lane- with ” The Loving Spoonful-” Do you believe in Magic?” 🎵🎤💗

Dear Reader:

I was about eight or nine when I first saw this horror show ( probably first one I snuck into with Ben without mother knowing) I paid the price for the parent deception… I had nightmares for a week.

For those of you lucky enough to have missed it… some kind of strange carnivorous amoeboidal alien comes back down to earth in a meteorite in a small town in Pennsylvania. And it is hungry… the whole movie was watching all forms of humanity get eaten… a little known blockbuster movie!

Thirty years later it was revised with more ingenious ways to watch humans get digested… I never saw the eighties version because I could still remember how terrifying the first one was…

Today scientists are predicting we have another form of a ” blog” forming that has the growing potential of destroying sea life and the ocean’s food production. It is called SARGASSUM seaweed.

John, Mandy, and family got to experience the Sargassum Seaweed upclose and personal-too personal-it smells like a combination of rotting eggs and manure and is ugly… destroying the beauty of the water.

Last year the Turners went to Jamaica and the ocean was crystal clear but this summer… the ” blob” is attacking the Florida coasts and the Caribbean islands. June and July are the worst months.

Why has this seaweed gotten so worst and who is to blame? Man is to blame-why? We are using more fertilizer, burning biomass, cutting down forests and increasing the amount of waste water from cities… all of which sends ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate down major river systems-dumping into the seas.

Those elevated nutrients then shoot out over the surface of the oceans… acting as fertilizer feeding the Sargassum brown patches.

This serious dilemma was first sighted in 2011 – masses growing so big … they were captured on satellite images. ( more than double the width of the United States. )

But the ramifications go on and on… sea turtles can’t get through it to build their nests on beaches, then baby turtles can’t get through it to the ocean or get entangled once in the water.

A little help for the sea turtles… community clearing the path to the ocean… for baby turtles…

One scientist said he wished the Sargassum Seaweed was the movie ” Blog” … the real life blog is potentially deadlier… could eventually kill off sea animals to the point of affecting global starvation. Man did this… now it is time to own up and start fixing it.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day/ Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I have always taken delight in my Libra approach to life… keeping a balance within myself and others. Overall it has worked well… but every now and then life just seems to get out of sync… and we struggle to get our balance back again.

Case-in-point. In the past few weeks my appetite has dropped and foods I loved so much… turn to mush. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time struggling to figure out what I can eat… and then , again, end up disappointed.

I started out in life as one of those picky eating children who drive parents crazy … and now I have come full circle… I am driving myself crazy… and worst of all… losing my energy in the process. I have always been very energetic so this is driving me even crazier…

I was even worried about going to the family July 4th celebration for fear I would fizzle out… but instead it was exactly ” what the doctor ordered!” It has been quite awhile since the family was all home at the same time… the excitement of being together again was palpable!

And that is when it happened… suddenly my mind was off myself and reveling in the grandchildren’s excitement… it was as if someone had opened my gas gauge and poured renewed energy in! Hallelujah!

Doctors call the human trait of receiving energy from others … empath. Sometimes it can be a negative thing if we are too open to others negative energies but in my case.. it was like my body was craving this positive energy and guess what…craving food too and I found myself eating more while talking and laughing than I have in a long time! A win-win!!!

I learned an important lesson… too much alone time is not good even though we might think we want or even need it… sometimes we need people more. People who need people!

My poor garden is in a slump… from the over-rainy Monsoon” weather that over drenched the plants for several straight days to hot sunny daof mid to upper nineties- …with heat indexes in the triple digits-produces burnt leaves and buds in swamped rotting soil… bad dilemma.

Except… one plant is as happy as it can be – my long-stemmed sunflowers are bursting into bloom-more and more everyday!

So until tomorrow… one thing we can always count on-climate change and all… beautiful sunrises and sunsets in the Lowcountry!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Don’t we all get caught up annually with memories and personal feelings of what July 4 means to us … so much so that we forget there are interesting links and correlations between two historical dates ( July 2 and July 4 -one in 1776 and another, later, on July 2 in 1964?

But before we examine the highlights of two important historical events, one thing shared in common has to do with pens and signings. The draft of the Declaration of Independence ( with the final wording in place) was submitted on July 2 and at that time approval by the five man draft committee who finally agreed on all the edits and changes to date. On July 4 the Continental Congress approved the final version and signed…but it was August 2 , 1776 before completion.

Now July 2nd warrants its own historical recognition … Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act passage ( the ” Second Emancipation Proclamation . “) Lincoln freed the slaves but the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of color, race, religion, sex, or national origin in public places. -Provided integration of schools and other public facilities-made employment discrimination illegal.

And now for the pens… Johnson took 72 pens with him for the formal signing … as a gift sake for all who were instrumental in getting the most sweeping civil rights legislation passed since Reconstruction.

It was already a memorable day for several reasons… nine years earlier…to the day-Johnson had suffered a heart attack that nearly ended his life… he felt he had been kept alive for this day when he signed the most far-reaching civil rights bill in our nation’s history.

And earlier that morning the President and Lady Bird had celebrated their daughter, Luci Baines Johnson’s, 17th birthday in the East Room with her favorite birthday cake!

Now the nation listened as Johnson spoke: … Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make this nation whole.”

… The other pens went to the bi-partisan Congressmen who came together to pass this amazing life-altering legislation. President Johnson also gave one pen to Robert Kennedy in honor of his brother John’s initial civil rights endeavor … that he was working on before his assassination and other pens to famous civil rights leaders and activists.

***One pen went on auction and sold for several thousand dollars… wonder if the Founding Fathers…ever thought of selling keepsakes?

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

I think on July 2 1964… bi-lateral congressman came together and what they accomplished that day along with President Johnson and earlier the delegates to sign the Declaration of Independence… answered poet Mary Oliver’s famous question loud and clear…

Be safe and have a wonderful Fourth !

Friends and visitors do a double take when they come to the house… first staring at the red geraniums .. then blinking and asking ” That isn’t a poinsettia, is it? ” They gasp in disbelief! ( I do too … actually! )

Everyone wants to know my ” secret?” No secret… I do nothing … as in nada!” After I took down all the Christmas decorations… I placed three left-over poinsettias on the hearth for as long as they were still attractive… one by one the other two dried up and could not be revived.

I finally took the blooming happy third poinsettia and placed it in a tall planter up against the wall on the porch- it survived frigid cold days , wind storms and other hazards … nothing seemed to bother it… ( frankly I forgot about it except for watering it occasionally. )

The question rises often in conversations… what is it about that front porch that seems to maintain healthy plants ways past normal life expectancies? Since honestly I don’t know… I fall back on my good luck Gullah haint-blue porch ceiling … it keeps the bad spirits out and the good healthy spirits in!

I have told you about my haint blue ceilings, doors, and bottle trees before… but this southern gal would rather be safe than sorry! And Mollie’s mom, Marcia, gave me my good luck hanging door angel holding my blue September sapphire birthstone for extra good measure many years ago!

Gullah tradition also suggests that windows doors and shutters be painted haint blue… I stopped with porch ceilings and my inside den door!

Except… When the YA’s got into bottle trees a few years back… we all got each other bottles and all of us had to have a cobalt blue bottle to ward off evil spirits too!

In colonial times in the south… it was Eliza Lucas ( Pinckney) who first successfully grew indigo ( became SC’s third leading crop export) and from the crushed indigo leaves the indigo color of blue spread quickly throughout southern culture, homesteads, houses, and plantations.

During WWII … on Folly Beach … the older men ( too old to enlist) … took turns protecting the beach while searching for German submarines. It was later discovered espionage ( through top secret written notes) were placed in bottle trees for secrecy and delivery.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of my all-time favorites. Recently it occurred to me it would make a beautiful epitaph. ( He/ She -name-scattered joy!)

I can think of no higher eulogy or adoration. What a great way to spend one’s time on earth-scattering joy! ( A ” Johnny Appleseed” of sorts, planting, growing, and spreading joy instead of apples… ” How do you like ‘dem’ apples?) 😂

We all know people who we can trust to make us feel better leaving than coming.” Goodness happens wherever you’ve been.” These special people just seem to have an internal sunshine around them and we leave comforted by knowing that the world can’t possibly be all bad because this person still lives in it.

Abraham Lincoln, who left more joy behind his administrative legacies, for more people, especially those enslaved with no hope of prior freedom or ownership, was plagued by melancholy his entire life… yet he could bring a smile or laughter to a situation or crowd gathered better than any other President. Laughter was literally his saving grace for his own personal fight against severe depression.

When historians look back on Lincoln’s life-altering achievements … improving peoples’ lives… their quality of life, restoring the American dream to a democracy … other Presidents fall far short in comparison… yet what a sacrifice this President made… his own life… to continue scattering joy .. while death threats filled his briefcase. And one, tragically, was carried out by a misguided man whose sought out scapegoats to blame for his personal misfortunes… his own selfish status in life.

You can always tell when I have been watching re-runs of the National Treasure movies starring Nicholas Cage because I becomes obsessed with some new historical tidbit I didn’t know or recognize before… This weekend all his National Treasure movies are running back to back … and I am just as enthralled as the first time I watched.

It made me sad that the concept of a ” National Treasure television ” series didn’t make it without Nicholas Cage starring and to date no third movie starring Nicholas Cage ( who is rumored to have stopped acting) has come to fruition.

The real shame, as a history teacher, was watching adolescents get involved and excited about history through the first two movies ( To a history teacher that is scattering joy.)

My most ” joyful ” moment in National Treasure was when Nicholas Cage says” Lincoln’s greatest accomplishment was turning a plural verb into a singular one… changing the direction and future of a ” We the People” government into a truer democracy.

Before the Civil War the United States was referred to as ” The United States ARE…” After the Civil War the term United States was followed by a singular verb… IS. The United States IS! What an amazing accomplishment!

So until tomorrow… Our goal as ” We the People” is to fight to maintain the IS because we are all ONE together and that is what makes our country great… all our inalienable rights must shared by all… not a few with big pockets …in order to maintain a democracy! Separate we are weak-together we are strong!

I stopped to take this photo yesterday when I passed this beautiful old Summerville home… a treasure in our town. If those walls could talk -they would share tales of courage and perseverance … surviving tropical storms, hurricanes, good and devastating economic times but yet here it stands in all its glory… dressed to celebrate our patriotic anniversary!

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

When I reflect upon the lessons that the ocean has taught me throughout my life… I look at it now with new respect and awe. It has taken me a lifetime to recognize it… but the ocean has been patient… knowing one day ” I would get it.”

I think my earliest memories involved anxiously waiting until after our afternoon naps were over…to go to the beach because the ocean would have gifted the little children with tidal pools left behind ( or we called them wading pools)

By adolescence… nap times had disappeared -shovels and buckets replaced with rafts and surfboards … now the bigger the waves… the better! We craved the ” danger zone!”

In the first months after my initial cancer diagnosis… it was Ebb Tide… that drew me to the beach. Ebb Tide describes the outgoing tide-the period between high tide and low.

Symbolically ebb tide is that place where we are caught in a decline… trying to decide whether to go forwards or sideways- it is difficult to find resolution … we’re stuck. We don’t know which way to turn… we realize we aren’t in control of the pending situation and ” AHA” … we realize we never were! It is in this ” wave length” that we must remember … the tide will rise again to take us safely back to shore. ( And it did! )

The day I learned the most important life lesson from the ocean was when I read Tuesdays with Morrie… that was the day ( title picture) as I looked out at the horizon at Edisto Beach with my Ya’s. I suddenly remembered that one little side story in the book…that instant epiphany ( that surpasses all understanding) I was not isolated in my fight against ” little c” … rather I was part of something so much bigger than just me!

Once there was a little wave bobbing along in the ocean.. having a grand old time! He was enjoying the wind and fresh air… until he noticed the other waves in front of him , crashing against the shore. ” My God ! This is terrible” the wave shouted ” Look what is going to happen to me!”

Then alongside him another wave appeared, calm and cool but curious as to why his new wave friend looked so distressed. He asked ” Why do you look so sad?”

The first wave replied” You don’t understand! Look! See for yourself ” “We’re all going to CRASH! Soon we will all be NOTHING! Isn’t it TERRIBLE? “

The second wave replied ” NO! Don’t you understand? You’re NOT A WAVE… you are part of the OCEAN!”

So until tomorrow… Never forget that we are all parts of something bigger than ourselves… the greater WHOLE… the UNIVERSE… God’s entire CREATION!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday was the boy’s last day of camp and Mollie said they told her stories all the way home… still so excited!!!!

… And don’t forget! Today is July 1! Say Rabbit! Rabbit! And may July be good to you!