Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

As you can tell… I have been catching up with Mark Twain’s witticisms and favorite Twain notable ” quotables!” ! I didn’t realize how much I had missed reading Mark Twain’s works… feels like returning to a comfortable friend for a catch-up conversation.

…Though actually it was a telephone conversation with Mandy yesterday that sprang to light when I wrote today’s title quote. “Give Everyday the Chance to Become the Most Beautiful of Your Life.”

Jake( second grader) is not an early morning kid( understatement of the year) so by the time John and Mandy have put clothes on him , breakfast in him, and teeth brushed… Mandy watches (with a survivor’s relief) as he heads out the door… with hopefully his lunch and homework still in his book bag)

Wednesday evening, she called me, however, and said Jake jumped off the bus step that afternoon declaring loudly that he had just had the ” busiest” ever day of school and also the ” funnest!” He was all smiles!

The Charleston Children’s Museum outreach in-school instructors…had come in his classroom introducing a fun, fascinating program called Engaging Creative Minds.

The activity that thrilled Jake was hypothesizing which matchbox cars could achieve the greatest distance and/ or speed on which particular surface and why? ( had smooth asphalt surfaces, sandpaper surfaces, etc. ( Jake has been collecting matchbox cars since he was a toddler.) *This learning experiment came straight from heaven as far as he was concerned.

For Jake he had experienced the most beautiful day of his life… at least school day life!

*** Was just about to close up the blog post yesterday afternoon when Mandy sent me a picture the teacher had taken of Jake’s pinball creation he made! Creativity… the key to a child’s learning!

So until tomorrow I wish for everyone a day filled with gratitude for life itself… the sheer beauty and adventure of it all!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

In fact… everyday I wake up and watch the sun’s rays filter through the windows… and know I am alive and breathing…well it’s a beautiful day!

PS…. and don’t worry about having to wait eight hundred plus years for another ” special ” February… Sherlock Jackson has been on the case… solved! ” Elementary… my dear ” … conclusion in tomorrow’s post!

Dear Reader:

I am sure most of us have been introduced to hypothetical thinking… in psychology classes or as simple entertainment at a variety of outings. Example: If you could ask any three people, living or dead, to have dinner with you… who would you ask?

Let me tell you one of my selectees… a person … who was one of the greatest storytellers ever…and one of the wittiest people to ever inhabit our world… Mark Twain.

I cannot imagine enjoying a dinner more than getting the story behind the story of the creation of the immortal Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn characters. And then add conversational wit to that … what a dinner for the ages. Wit that holds wisdom in its truth.

” Travel is fatal to prejudice.”

“ If books are not good company, where will I find it?”

” A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”

Mark Twain ( Samuel Clemens) had an interesting entry and departure to this old world. He best explained it in 1909 when he hypothesized… ” I came in with Hailey’s Comet… it is coming again next year. The Almighty has said, no doubt…” Now there are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.” Twain died on April 21 1910 … the day after the famous comet had reappeared in the skies.” ( Haileys Comet reappears about every 75 years–Twain’s age when he passed.)

Now this year scientific statistical consultants have revealed an interesting finding for just this month… February 2023!

Look at the calendar and see if you can see an interesting pattern before it is revealed…

Hint: Examine each day of the week and the number of appearances it makes before the month ends.

So until tomorrow… Doesn’t that make our February feel REALLY SPECIAL? February 2023… an once in a lifetime occurrence! So let’s get out there and spread the love for life and being alive in this heartfelt historical month.

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Happiness is… the first sighting of the first azalea in the side garden. I had gone to pick a pretty camellia to put in the house but I couldn’t quite reach it… as I gazed down, after my unsuccessful attempt… there it was… the first azalea with a little bud right beside it. I then decided to check out the back moon garden and to my surprise… I discovered the second azalea bloom-different color and just as beautiful… so I picked it and brought the beauty inside.

I decided to look up and see what legends or myths I could find on the azalea… most of them were Chinese legends concerning an emperor and a cuckoo bird… but, to be quite honest, many of the myths dealt with azaleas’ poisoning enemies… all with strange ” cuckoo” plots… until… I found this story.

Ancient legends tell that once there was an emperor who was victorious in battles and war but not so much with love. He was lonely. One day he received a bouquet of azaleas that brightened his sadness. He became so enchanted by their beauty he began planting them in his garden. Almost immediately he found the woman of his dreams …. the love of his life. They married and lived happily ever after.

Today there are over 10,000 varieties of the azalea from Asia to North America. Different colors have different symbols and meanings.

In our country… the first azaleas in the outdoor were planted in 1830 at a rice plantation in South Carolina. Until then Americans only grew azaleas in greenhouses. John Grimke Drayton , owner of the rice plantation, liked azaleas so much he imported them from Philadelphia’s greenhouses to his private estate garden. In 1871 Drayton opened the Magnolia gardens to the public that is now one of the oldest American public gardens. Thousands of Americans and international tourists come annually to see the azaleas bloom in the spring. ( We are just a few short weeks away from this beautiful pilgrimage again.)

… And don’t forget, as a long, long time resident of Summerville… we, too, are known for our azaleas… especially 16 acres of Azalea Park and our annual azalea festival.

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Every day now I unearth life hidden under dead winter leaves and broken twigs… seeing life return, in whatever form, is sacred, and deserves a moment of silence and gratitude.

There is always new entertainment being offered at Magnolia Plantation and gardens…on February 25….

Dear Reader:

Sunday afternoon the doorbell rang and it was a carrier bringing a battered looking box to the door. He had a note to let me know that somehow my order had taken some crazy detours before arriving… and if it was not in good shape or I didn’t want it after all this time…I could hand it back and there would be no charge. ( It had been ordered before Thanksgiving.)

I honestly couldn’t even remember what it was… so curious I went out on the porch and he slit the top off and there was a wooden decor plank lying at the bottom of the box.

When I held it up we both started laughing… it said… Just Breathe. With much wit the carrier said dryly… ” Glad you weren’t waiting on a manual instruction guide to follow those directions.” We laughed again… me and my signs… I love decorating with them. I was happy to finally get it!

Maybe it was a prelude of what was to come yesterday with lots of ” signs.” Anne and I planned to meet for lunch at Matt’s Burgers on Cedar Street. It was busy during lunchtime so we ended up grabbing a table outside.

Walking down the sidewalk from my parked car…four large window panels ( Compton’s Wellness Center) had been decorated with quotes by individuals… each panel started off with either ” I Hope”….or a positive thought-maybe as signs for the New Year.

I thought it was such a great idea to share these thoughts and hopes with pedestrians, like me, just casually walking by.

Anne is leaving tomorrow to go on a two-week excursion to Mexico with family… sharing a tent with her sister Jane… they will be kayaking and whale watching… to name a few activities. Jane loves playing around with photography using all kinds of creativity with an app called “iColorama.” Look at this fun picture she sent Anne!

As a car was pulling out of a parking place near our sidewalk table… as we were finishing eating…Anne mentioned she liked the decorative plate on the front of the car and got a quick snapshot before it left.

We departed with well wishes for Anne’s adventures… and I had not even reached the end of Cedar street …waiting on the light to change when I noticed this message on the back of the car in front of me.

With a smile on my face… I thought… ” Wow… it’s already been a great day… what now?” I decided to go on to Home Depot to get a few bright indoor and outdoor plants… the sun was out, the weather mild and I felt God’s presence on this beautiful day and a craving to get some dirt on my hands! Just a perfect day…to be alive.

So until tomorrow..I like this thought that alludes to the underlying perception that signs without sight won’t help you… if you are blind to them.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

****Oh… it was my wonderful neighbor across the street (laterally) who had been raking over the weekend… Dan… who found the lost windswept Ukraine flag and his teenage daughter returned it and placed it back on the post! Rainbow Road has the best neighbors on one small street… must be the ” magical” 🌈 in Rainbow Road that makes everyone so congenial!

Dear Reader:

We humans learn through connecting prior information and new knowledge with other links …provided by other learners …adding their unique perspectives. Simply put… we are all connected under the sun.

As a student… I was a pretty good mixture of a visual, auditory, and hands/on learner but my one strongest ” attribute ” was the ability to see, hear , and make connections to pretty much everything around me.

When people ask how I can come up with a different idea each day for Chapel of Hope Stories… the answer is quite simple… I hear or see a comment, opinion, joke, anecdote, picture, conversation, show, observation, etc. and I remember something similar that connects the two different scenarios under one unifying motif.

Think about it…. there is a lot of truth about the old adage… ” There’s nothing new under the sun.” Every new invention,throughout the ages, has evolved from taking an established or accepted idea or concept and adding a new perspective to it. Making something new from something old.

Latest example: When Jo stopped by last week with the surprise ” second choice” boxed lunch… I remembered to ask her about my Christmas gift-the historic artifact from the Hunley that she passed on to me since she knew how much I would appreciate the significance behind the relic and attached story ( of Dixon’s gold coin) …no one in her family was an ardent history lover like herself.)

I specifically asked Jo about the personal note from one of the archaeologists present the day the gold coin was discovered by the senior archaeologist, Maria Jacobson. She later passed the ” lucky charm” gold coin around to the other archaeologists to hold so one day ( like in the note) they could proudly say ” I held the gold coin given to Lt Dixon by his fiancée Queenie Bennett ( who both held it) and later held by Maria Jacobson before being passed to him and the other archaeologists present that day. ”

Immediately my mind screamed ” Pink and Say!” ” Pink and Say” is a children’s book about two boy soldiers during the Civil War… the story is based on the re-telling of author, Patricia Polacco’s ( 1994) re-counting of an oral history retold through the generations about a great grandfather’s ( Sheldon Curtis) exploits during the Civil War …as a fifteen year old soldier fighting for the Union.

Sheldon’s nickname is ” Say” … the story begins as he has been injured and left behind on a battlefield in Georgia. He is saved by a former slave, Pinkus, nicknamed ” Pink”… who is also fifteen and fighting in the 48th unit composed of black soldiers.

He manages to carry ” Say” home to his mother who is still living in slave quarters in Georgia. Throughout the ensuing weeks of recovery… Say comes to understand just why the war is being fought and is more determined than ever to win to free all the slaves.

One day, while Pink is reading aloud from the Bible to his mother and Say… Say admits he can’t read… but then smiles proudly and says that he once shook hands with Abraham Lincoln. Pink proudly shakes his friend’s hand.

Then tragedy strikes… Pink’s mother is killed for harboring the enemy and both boys are arrested by confederate soldiers and taken to Andersonville-notoriously the worst prisoner of war camp.

The boys are treated differently… Say survives to be freed a few months later… while Pink is hanged within hours of their entry. But before the two boys are torn apart Pink runs over to Say and cries out… ” Let me touch the hand that touched Mr, Lincoln, Say, just one last time!”

On Tuesday nights I find myself turning the channel to PBS ( Finding Your Roots with Dr Henry Louis Gates) to watch celebrities discover their pasts and find out if they have a “great great ” someone in their past who they would love to shake hands with…

So until tomorrow… ” Allow the past to have a voice… only then will it be stilled.”

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Connecting the clues… I have been sad since returning from Beaufort because a wind storm (that blew through Summerville while I was gone) took my ” Prayers for Ukraine ” flag and sent it swirling to never never land or so I thought… I looked everywhere for it when I returned … to no avail.

I even had walkers and strollers letting me know they missed seeing it and upon hearing my story of its disappearance… agreed to keep an eye out for it.

Then yesterday … out of the blue ( actually gray skies) I started towards my car … and there it was waving merrily at me as if it hadn’t been gone for almost two weeks. But I am on the case… connecting the dots and think I know who the mysterious retriever is… will confirm my ” hypothesis ” when I know for sure!

Dear Reader:

Sometimes February can be a trying month for people struggling with all kinds of personal problems… the most difficult… learning to forgive oneself…” We are imperfect, we are flawed, we are human.”

When we fail at a relationship, a business dealing, an opportunity that doesn’t pan out…a promotion that goes to another, a financial crisis… don’t we sometimes become our own worst critic?

It has taken me a long time to finally understand that before we can get our ” outward” lives in order, we must first prioritize our own inner life.

Two thoughts that might help us through these disappointing times, is 1) ” Remember rejection is God’s redirection” ( God has a purpose for us) and 2) Forgive the moment.

Aren’t some situations clearly and simply just out of our control? We can’t point our finger at any one person or decision to the lay the blame on… life just happens. ( The proverbial rug gets pulled out from under us)

We have all lived long enough to know things just don’t always go as we would like them to go. None of our paths are easy and as much as we want to appear to be in control… we have to admit we simply aren’t… circumstances, beyond our control come into play to turn our world upside down.

Rather than getting mired down in self-pity, or anger or grief* …we can choose to first forgive the situation and secondly …repeat to ourselves ” Grief is just love with nowhere to go.” So give grief a place to go by forgiving and loving yourself again.

So until tomorrow….

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Guess what is just starting to bloom in the backyard? Our state flower… our Yellow Jessamine!

Dear Reader:

Thursday afternoon I was back in the ” blog room” when I heard a knock and the wonderful ” Miss ” Jo” ( Dufford) was coming through the door calling out to me…” Remember now…you were ” Second Choice.”

” You got lucky today!” she laughed and held out a box filled with a huge sandwich, dressing, pasta … Jo continued ” I was taking it to a couple who have both been under the weather but neither was home…. so…..”

” So by default I get this scrumptious looking lunch?” I replied. ” You just happened to be the closest house on my way home.. said Jo… so you won the ” Second Choice prize meal!”

Not only was I honored but also famished… a win-win for me… especially since I needed some more information on an historical keepsake that Jo had given me for Christmas and I wanted to re-tell the story. And here it is!

” The Secret Story Inside the Hunley”

Charleston is known for its historical sites but ever since the Civil War submarine ( The Hunley) was pulled up from its watery grave ( sank in 1864) on August 8, 2000 it has found its home in the Hunley Museum… or Warren Lasch Conservation Center-Cooper river.

( *** Mandy remembers she was one of hundreds of spectators watching the Hunley being raised in her dad’s boat but, unfortunately, the water was choppy with so many boats and she got so seasick she was previously pre-occupied hanging over the railing and missed the historic moment as it broke through the surface. )

Today the love story, however, of the romance between Lt. George Dixon and his fiancée Queenie Bennett, who gave him a $ 20 dollar Double Eagle gold piece to put in his pocket as a lucky charm… captures the tourists’ immediate attention… especially when they hear how it saved his leg and life at the Battle of Shiloh.

A musket ball hit him in the thigh… normally costing him his leg ( and because of the unsanitary amputation procedures) usually one’s life… except he had the gold coin in his pants pocket… the coin was bent but took the brunt of the musket ball.

( Today these bent gold coins are sold as souvenirs along with a short paragraph telling about the romance and the battle of Shiloh… but when Jo went… she lucked up and one of the archaeologist conservationists, who had actually held the coin that was in the vest pocket of Dixon’s remains/ having fallen out… had handwritten these notes. Just amazing!!! Lucky Jo and she gave it to me… my luck continues! ) What a gift Jo!

Though Dixon kept a permanent limp he still understood how fortunate he was but little did he know a greater fate awaited him on February 17, 1864 in the dark waters outside Charleston harbor.

On that night Lt. Dixon commanded the CSS Hunley, the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship in battle. He and seven crew men slipped beneath the water in the hand-cranked submarine-navigating toward the Union warship USS Housatonic.

They deposited the charge and back propelled as quickly as possible so the union vessel could be detonated by a pull cord. The explosion sank the Housatonic in under five minutes but, unfortunately, it also sent Dixon and his crew to the bottom of the Charleston Harbor… becoming their tomb.

After securing the submarine in the museum tank… in 2000, the gold coin was found near the hull where the commander had sat… probably fallen this time from a vest pocket. It bore the initials G. E. D. and inscription ” My Life Preserver.” ( Many historians agree that it might seem like ” the lucky charm” had lost its charm the second time around… but instead, they reason, it allowed Dixon to find his true place in history.)

Now you know there would be no way for ghost stories not to circulate from this tragedy… since ghost stories abound in Charleston. ( Even when the Hunley crew were being interred in Magnolia cemetery… many apparitions appeared in snapshots taken during the funeral.) And since it is February now… here’s a couple of sightings for you.

1) Today, every February 17, if one goes to Charleston Harbor-the water’s edge, you might just see a light in the distance, hovering just above the surface of the water. The Hunley crew were instructed to surface and light a signal lantern, after sinking the Union war ship – Housatonic. Witnesses back then reported seeing a light right after the warship sank.

Other strollers and tourists today, walking by Charleston Harbor in the evenings around February… have reported seeing the ghost submarine surface for a few minutes when the moon is full before returning into the dark waters.

So until tomorrow… now you see why being ” second choice” sometimes can still earn you the gold? ( Thank you Jo for my historical artifact that I will treasure forever.

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I had an ” Eureka” moment yesterday when I came across a term I had never heard before… the ” End of History Illusion.”

It is a phenomenon that explains the unique way humans mistakenly perceive time in general. It explains why most of us won’t be the person we expected to be at the end of our journey.

Daniel Gilbert explains it this way: ” Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting, as temporary, as all the people you’ve ever been… just more experienced because you finally realize the one continuum in life… is change. We never stop changing until we take our last breath.

John Tierney explains how we humans can look back on our past, to our childhood, youth, early adult, middle age and see change in ourselves but for some reason humans expect ourselves to stay the same in the future. We can’t seem to apply past changes to future ones.

I plead guilty to my own personal history illusion. I pictured a sedate sedentary problem-less existence …being a grandmother and reading and hanging with friends… growing gardens… it looked like a scene from a Disney animated movie… sunny blue skies, surrounded by nature’s flowers. I could almost hear Snow White singing in the background.

And honestly… that has been a part of my retirement self-history envision. But just a part… life is also a continuum of problems… they don’t go away just because we retire or grow older… while we live… we will have to constantly contend with medical problems, financial problems, relationship problems, etc. If we don’t have a problem… we are dead.

But on the flip side… we also can’t see future opportunities either… that still arise and happily surprise us at older ages too… changing us inwardly along with surprisingly fresh outlooks not discovered earlier in our lives… perceptions that heighten our spirituality as well.

So until tomorrow… ” We are all just visitors to this time, this place, we are all just passing through. Our purpose is to observe, to grow, to LOVE, and then return home.” -Australian Aboriginal Proverb

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

*****. Thanks to everyone who got back to me yesterday on the blog problems… seems like many of the daily email problems have started self-correcting and popping up again… Jo said the blog pops up on her email alright but it won’t let her comment? Anybody else experiencing that! Always something… problems that is… life! And thank goodness for it… for all of us.

Dear Reader:

How many of us have gotten caught talking to ourselves and been given the ” look” from a friend or stranger… followed by the dreaded question ” Are you talking to yourself?”

Most of my generation grew up with the wives tale that people who talked to themselves were sorta looney. Not so… says modern psychologists… in fact… just the opposite!

One article I read… measured concentration and performance of talking through and reading aloud information … discovering it dramatically improved memory retention .

I think most of us can admit to talking ourselves through mundane problems – solving situations like where we last left those car keys… by talking aloud our memory visualizes the rooms we entered carrying the keys until suddenly we know where they are… on the bed where you were when you got a phone call and placed them right beside you.

I have learned from experience that if I want to remember an amazing line of thought from a book I am reading… I find myself reading the line over and over aloud… that sends it directly to my memory bank.

Haven’t we all heard toddlers walk by a fireplace and say ” No No …hot hot” aloud? We adults are thinking the same thing but now that conversation takes the form of inner self talk… memory talk.

And think about athletes… haven’t we all witnessed professional tennis players talking to themselves … thus boosting their self-confidence by self-encouragement.

Research has shown that the mind doesn’t differentiate between talking to yourself out loud or in your head. You should engage in whichever form of self-talk is most comfortable for you.

I remember mother would some times tell us ( as children if we did something intentionally wrong) that we needed to ” give ourselves a good talking to” because we were raised to know better than that.” She was right. We were!

So until tomorrow… inner talk helps us organize our thoughts, plan actions or steps, and consolidate memory… talking out loud improves one’s control over a task! So all you readers… talk away to yourselves…you’re just getting smarter ! Stare down those strange looks at the grocery store!

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

***Libby said to thank everyone for their prayers yesterday… she will have to wait on test results but just so relieved to be able to X out Feb 1 on her calendar… and thankful to the ” rabbits” too!

*****

Just a short update… several of you have mentioned that recently the blog post is no longer showing up daily on your email… it can be googled and it is there everyday but no longer automatically being posted to your personal email account.

Trying to get to the bottom of this quirk… so if anyone has any helpful advice for those readers who are experiencing these email annoyances… please share your expertise since we have many talented blog writers, themselves, who also read Chapelofhopestories. Thank you!

Dear Reader:

A thought occurred to me yesterday … in my lifetime I have probably distractedly overlooked dozens ( if not hundreds) of small acts of kindness. Why? While teaching and raising children … I moved through a lot of life in ” tunnel vision.”

But now it is my peripheral vision, finally in the driver’s seat, that has a tendency to soar and recognize little acts of kindness that had always been going on around me… for the first time.

Example: Yesterday I was pulling out of a neighbor’s driveway -when I edged back in to make sure a truck ( coming around the curve) had plenty of room. By the time I pulled back out… the truck was at the end of the street… the driver had gotten out and was doing something around the stop sign. But by the time I got to the end of the street the truck had pulled off … just as I was about to do the same …my peripheral vision picked up something blue straddling the stop sign.

It was a child’s stuffed animal… looking appropriately ” raggedy ” loved… the best kind of a child’s love. We can all picture many scenarios, as to what happened, a toddler threw it out of a carriage or wagon unknowingly to the ‘puller or pusher.’ Siblings were fighting in the backseat and one tossed the stuffed animal out the window. We could spend hours trying to guess or conceptualize how the stuffed animal ended up in the street.

But that is not the focus … it is the person who saw and placed it on top of the stop sign who deserves our attention and gratitude. A small act of kindness that hopefully will reunite a little blue bear with its owner.

In my own yard… it is my camellia bushes that were all shown acts of kindness by neighbors who came before me and friends who helped plant more bushes for me and gave me birthday camellias… thanks Anne and Brooke!

A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions and the roots spring up and make new trees ( Amelia Earhart)

So until tomorrow…” Just as the sun melts ice, kindness causes misunderstandings, mistrusts, and hostilities to evaporate. “

Braces off for Jake-retainer on… yesterday it was Eva Cate’s day to get her braces on… the orthodontist put them on in record time and look whose picture was hanging in the hall right behind where Eva Cate was getting her braces. Jake! ( bottom)

Viola… when Eva Cate got home… a party dress had been delivered-perfect timing for Eva and her new braces! Beautiful!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

We have come a long way baby… since I got my braces… took hours to put on… along with rubber bands that popped out when you laughed and smacked people in the face… I had to wear them almost four years!

And we can’t forget… It is the FIRST of FEBRUARY… remember to say ” RABBIT RABBIT” first thing this morning!!!

Yesterday was Jo and Gin-g’s birthdays… Wishing both of you love and joy-since you give it back to one and all so generously! Happy Birthday Girls!

…And the Ya’s are asking for special prayers and lots of ” rabbits” for Libby today… she will be in the Augusta Medical Center undergoing some procedures and tests for medical complications she has lived with for years but lately worsened. We are there with you in spirit Libby… and you know you won’t be alone!