Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

*** One other interesting ” note” before we start our story today is that today is Saturday October 22, 2022! Lots and lots of ” two’s” !!

Lucky Two! Two is the smallest even number that means… ” double” ” twinned” and” again” … Two is an important number in Chinese culture because they believe that ” good things come in pairs” … I do too and apparently so did Noah! 😉

Now back to our story… almost all grade school children would recognize the title picture today of Washington crossing the Delaware. But did you know… this famous Christmas surprise attack could have gone all wrong … except for a fatal mistake on the part of the Hessian commander Colonel Johann Rall!

Here’s the story: On a freezing cold Christmas night… Washington and the tattered remnants of his army boarded boats to cross the Delaware River to surprise the Hessian soldiers occupying Trenton, New Jersey. His troops were worn out, ill fed and decimated by previous battles.

The Hessian commander -Commander Johann Rall, was attending a Christmas party and playing cards. One famous statement he made that night in casual conversation about the possibility of an attack from American troops was ” Those Clod-Hoppers will not attack us. ”

Around midnight a local farmer, a British sympathizer, came to the door with a message. A servant took the folded note to Rall, but the colonel didn’t want to interrupt his card game-he stuffed the note in his pocket… unread.

At daybreak Washington’s men attacked…the powder was so wet ( freezing sleet) that they couldn’t fire their weapons-so they charged with bayonets and used their muskets as clubs. The groggy Hessians were completely overwhelmed! Nine hundred Hessians were taken prisoner and Colonel Rall was mortally wounded. As a doctor cut away his clothes to treat his wounds, the note fell from his pocket.

Before Rall died, he had a chance to read the message that could have turned the tables. ” If I had read this” he said mournfully, ” I would not be here.”

On a lighter ” note “… Washington realized his hungry, cold soldiers badly needed a lift… something to raise their spirits and upon climbing in his assigned boat… he found it in his three hundred pound Colonel -Henry Knox -who was already seated. Nudging him with his toe and winking at him-Washington loudly cried out these immortal words… ” Shift that fat arse, Harry! But SLOWLY…or you will swamp the ” damn” boat before we can swamp the Hessians!”

As the first boat roared with laughter … the joke was passed from boat to boat… Colonel Knox, good-naturedly, went along with the fun because he understood that Washington was giving his men the only thing he could… laughter and renewed spirit! ( History should always show the human side of historical figures!)

So until tomorrow… ” Laughter is and will always be the best form of therapy.”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie Pooh

My nephew Lee Barbour has been nominated for Best Male Jazz Guitarist this year-most deserving-the family and Lee would appreciate your vote-the contest ends this Thursday October 27!

A big sports day today for Lachlan, Rutledge ( their last seasonal football 🏈 games) and for the Clemson Tigers! Let’s hope it is all well that ends well … and everyone gives it their all… being the best you can be! Then let the chips fall where they may.

I hope everyone has a beautiful fun-filled Saturday enjoying family and friends! I sure will!

Dear Reader:

Just discovering this new word ( trouvaille) made me happy since I have always been in love, when it comes to learning new words. ( And what a joyful word to add to one’s personal vocabulary!)

*** “A lucky find” – one dictionary defined trouvaille as meaning. Still I could exchange this thought back to a God Wink!

Think back in your own life remembering ” chance encounters” that perhaps changed or turned your life around in a different wonderful direction. Perhaps it was that chance first encounter with your soon to be spouse, an item you had wanted for yourself or another and it miraculously appears when all hope is gone… and it is on sale! Perhaps it was that first-born child you had waited so long for… that adventure you had dreamed about that finally comes true… or that scary move in your career that brought you blissful happiness! Nothing comes closer in life to pure joy when we finally make the wonderful discovery that we are not alone in our journey but instead God is walking beside us and never stops holding our hand. Trouvaille!

This is what I am finding… happily writing my post again today on this beautiful cool autumn day. I am happy!

Janet Bender ( Juice Plus) dropped me a wonderful thought-Inspiring message yesterday. After reading my reoccurring negative dream about saying ” UM” too many times during my mock teaching lesson, she shared a similar experience.

While on a speech-making educational tour promoting counselor resources… required evaluation sheets were given out after each ” performance” to all participants. It made Janet normally feel so good reading positive comments from her audiences-thanking her for her creative helpful ideas…

Until one day … on lone participant handed in the evaluation assessment sheet with the number of ” UM’s” he/she counted during her talk. Nothing else.

It was all Janet could think about-forgetting the other 99% positive comments. So she was letting me know she could really relate to my negative reoccurring dream.

But she had reached a personal insightful understanding with herself… to simply let it go. She called herself a ” recovering perfectionist.” As she grows older and wiser she come to to realize that if we have given our best, in any situation, the best of our ability- nothing else matters. Like we tell our children and grandchildren… ” Just give it your best sweetheart!”

Here are some daily examples of giving it my best and learning to accept the results of everyone else giving their best too… and congratulating them on that accomplishment… and myself… no matter the final outcome! Stop being so hard on others and ourselves!

Look at this creativity… with a little imagination these homeowners turned their whole house into a Halloween Spooky Character… alive with innovation!

So until tomorrow… May you all experience the joy of Trouvaille!!!!

Today is my favorite day- Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Winnie is helping me write my first post under a new and expanded program … I can’t thank John enough for troubleshooting the problem for me! And now Winnie wants to leave her ” paw” mark on my advanced current post!

Actually yesterday morning was coat weather… not sweater weather! I had a medical appointment at nine in Charleston and when I got in the car it was 39 degrees! BURR!

It is really starting to look like Halloween -here are some fun examples!

More to come later but am having to learn some new procedures with this new program!

I will be honest… when my blog froze… I did too! The thought of not being able to write sent me reeling. It is such an important part of my life!

The old program lasted over a decade with all those pictures so it did quite well for me!!I am thankful and filled with gratitude!

So until tomorrow… happy to be back-!

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

If everything goes crazy with your post you have written over a decade… surely it must be blamed on Halloween with all its tricks.

Even though John was able to get the post sent out yesterday it still wasn’t letting me do anything with it-finally telling me I had run out of space… I had used it all up.

John and I renewed like we do annually at the same time so it is a ” confuzing” state of events. He is in the process of investigating to get it straightened out… so hopefully all will be well but just wanted to give everyone a heads-up and let you know that Boo is loving our new sweater weather-glorious fall -Mollie and I had fun birthday celebration eating out and hitting fun little shops in Summerville Tuesday!

Be back ASAP! Or when leaves 🍁 fall… so soon! Love my readers! BOO

Happy Birthday officially today Bekah!!!🙌

Dear Reader:

The other night when this ridiculous negative memory popped up, once again, for about the 1000th time… I shook my head in frustration and googled… ” Why do we seem to keep recalling and retaining negative memories over positive happy ones? ”

Several articles from ” Psychology Today” immediately popped up. Humans do retain negative memories over positive ones. ( It wasn’t my imagination) Apparently it results from inherent DNA from our earliest ancestors when survival was foremost on their minds. Learning quickly from mistakes was crucial to survival… so our brain was trained over long periods of time to remember our mistakes and not repeat them.

So now today…we have to learn to re-train our brains to store up good memories by concentrating more on the sunny side of life over the stormy.

How many of you who saw Father of the Bride Part Two remember that hilarious scene… when Dianne Keaton snd Steve Martin ( Nina and George) are driving home from a doctor’s visit where they just learned Nina is pregnant. ( Their grown married daughter had just announced she and her husband were expecting.) George and Nina are both in shock.

As they drive home along this beautiful sunny street on a gorgeous day ( while the classic song -The Sunny Side of the Street-plays) Nina ( looking out her window) watches a mother with her adorable little girl skipping beside her stopping to lean up to kiss her mother. George, however, looking out his window, is watching a little boy throwing a temper tantrum, kicking his poor daddy in the shins, throwing a bag of snacks at him, and rushing down the street while the poor beleaguered daddy is screaming at him to stop.

The scene is hilarious but it perfectly illustrates what the article was trying to tell us… if we want happy memories at night-we must maintain a positive attitude and focus all our energies on the ” ups” and not the ” downs” of life. .. on a daily basis!

And what is this silly memory that still pops up, unexpectedly, decades after its occurrence? It goes back to a required educational class I took my senior year in preparation to teach. Each of the class members had to teach a mock lesson as we were filmed by the professor-then later we had to watch it again while the class critiqued our performance. Foremost was the number of ” UM’s” counted and recorded. So humiliating! Everyone cringed as the stats of mistakes were revealed about their performance. 🙈

Every time it pops up now I make myself think of one special student I was able to help or a thank you note from a student at the end of a school year-these notes were more special than gold. Trade negative thoughts for positive ones.

So until tomorrow… think about all the things in life that make you happy and concentrate on this part of life over earlier mistakes or tragic coincidences.

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh

And speaking of birthdays…It appears that Fall is going to fall hard… just in time for Mollie and Susan’s birthdays today! Warm fuzzy sweater cool!

Dear Reader:

When I came across this line from a book by Kent Nerburn… I decided to use it in today’s post because I was immediately taken back to Flagstaff, Arizona in June of 1991.

I understood this thought because I had experienced it firsthand. On May 10, 1991, I heard my name being called out as Dorchester Two School District Teacher of the Year. All the district teachers, representing their home schools, were gathered at a luncheon in their honor at Oscars Restaurant .

Thinking there was no way ( so many talented teachers) that I would win… I had just shoved a huge piece of some kind of chocolate mousse dessert in my mouth. When I heard my name I was horrified! I felt like I couldn’t swallow and by now everyone was staring… I couldn’t spit chocolate mousse in my cloth napkin… what if my teeth were black and looked decayed for the cameraman (from the local newspaper) who was waiting to take my picture!

I think I purposely blanked the rest of that memory out but I must have thanked everyone and slinked back to my table. I vaguely remember just shaking my head, with my red face, at everyone and shrugging in shock.

If only that had been the closure that day… all would have been well. But no… there was going to be a community teacher recognition in June … after school was out! Big Conflict!

Earlier that year ( for Christmas) Mother and Aunt Eva had approached me about a proposal for a trip that was at the top of their ” bucket list.” They wanted to see the Grand Canyon. Or as Aunt Eva announced ” Before I am laid in my personal hole… I want to see the biggest hole I know… the Grand Canyon.” ( Very un-Aunt Eva-like… must have been that second Christmas toddy.)

They would pay all my expenses… if I would be their personal chauffeur and take care of making plans and renting the car. For months it was all they talked about… We were flying to Phoenix-then onto Flagstaff, Sedona and San Diego before flying back out of Phoenix to Charleston.

As you have probably guessed, it was the same week as the community reception for the selected teachers that year. It took all the nerve I had to inform my principal, superintendent and town council leader, about the conflict. I offered to step down but since it had been planned after school was out… it was just an unfortunate conflict. ( After that year they made sure the reception was scheduled during the school year. )

So on a beautiful day in June 1991… mother, Aunt Eva, and I held hands as we first laid eyes on the Grand Canyon. There were no words spoken… just tears of wonder and joy. We had done it! We three women, intuitively understood, that from that moment on… we were connected forever- not just by blood, but the ” consecration of the moment. ”

So until tomorrow… ” … As I dusted off the frames holding my old teaching recognitions to photo for the post… “I un-joyfully” went to get a glass cleaner for the job… and then laughed. ( sneezed too) That was my ” grand gesture.” The memory of that moment that bonded the two women in my life I adored together forever …would never need dusting. It was ” consecrated forever in my being. ”

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

Ben went with Lee and family out for Bekah’s birthday-and all the grandchildren!

Dear Reader:

For some reason yesterday morning… I woke up early and was wide awake… I checked on my blog post ( just popped up) and then Kaitlyn’s post popped up a few minutes later.

Kaitlyn is a gifted writer… and after reading her entry I knew I wanted to share her unique but also universal “take” on reflecting back on a year that proved more challenging than most before it. Yet Kaitlyn was able to see and understand the lessons learned from the year that was.

…And what better time to reflect than when another birthday is approaching? In the title photo from last year, her good friend and office manager, Holly, had taken her picture just as she was about to make a wish. But now she can’t remember the wish and wonders what it was that she wanted then, what mattered then as compared to now. Gone in the wisp of time.

Last year was a tough year for Kaitlyn and Tommy… Holly, unexpectedly, moved to Colorado, their fifth anniversary to Dingle, Ireland…was tainted by both of them coming down with the coronavirus, Khaleesi ( one of their ” fluffy babies” ( Kaitlyn’s little ” girl”) passed, they had to move back in with Butch and Susan, ( Kaitlyn’s parents for weeks) while their home was taken apart to fix an extremely expensive plumbing problem. ***I will just stop there… you get the picture.

And now… here are Kaitlyn’s reflections in her own words.

” When I was wishing, I wonder if I realized how lucky I was for what I already had? … friends and ” fluffy babies” by my side. All within reach. So lucky. I wonder if I would have wished differently if I knew how quickly things could change and be gone. Perhaps I would have relished the present more acutely.”

” But I can do that now. And perhaps my gift this year will be to realize how much of a present the present truly is. “

” And while things can certainly be lost, things can also grow. I cleaned out all the gardens in March of 2021. Adding more to the front and side garden. I almost didn’t believe it and assumed it couldn’t be true. But just as easily and quickly as things can be lost, new things can be found. New life grows.”

” A friend reminded me of something I told her about grief. It leaves little holes in us when someone we love goes away, but the space it leaves behind makes room for something new. And while seams and lines will show where the new has been worn in, it’s those scars that will remind us to tell the story of what we love.”

So until tomorrow… life can be filled with every adjective known to man, good or bad, and it would still be amazingly beautiful! It’s worth the complete ride!

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I plopped down at my kitchen table to eat lunch-after a morning of catch-up errands, and caught a question -answer discussion (about apparently some acronym) referring to thankfulness and gratefulness.

I turned the volume up and the host was asking what an ” I” in the word stood for. ” Intentional ” responded the guest back to the host. He started talking about living an ” intentional life.” It made me stop and think again about the word ” intentional.”

Intentional means deliberate or done on purpose. Today it has sometimes gotten a negative ” rap” because we hear it more often in connection with a deliberate or intentional wrong/doing. But that is not true of the essence behind living an ” intentional ” life.

Didn’t Jesus and his followers, his disciples, live an intentional, purposeful life …spreading the ” good news?” Jesus intentionally chose his words carefully throughout his ministries on earth.

In an interesting site ( Spiral Up) one article talked about the invisible energy forces produced by our thoughts and words. This was followed by the observation that said ” It’s important to be conscious of how we are composing our life scripts with our words.”

Writing a daily post… composing and sharing my thoughts and daily life observations… requires me to live an ” intentional life” -deliberate in transferring the thoughts in my head and heart to paper.

Believe me… many a day I find myself deleting whole paragraphs after re-reading what I just wrote- sometimes it is quite a balancing act between sharing thoughts and ideas about a life journey but not forcing opinions on others. Modern life really is a tightrope act. I don’t always succeed but believe me my ” intentions” are to just share the joys of life , as well as, the challenges, and humor… to laugh together!

So until tomorrow… It becomes clearer and clearer to me that everyone of us ” intentionally” and purposefully should tell our story because … like no two people are alike… no two stories are alike. Sharing new perspectives, passions, dreams, along with personal challenges ( health, financial, vocational, etc.) helps our fellow life travelers find their own place in the sun.

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Before I left for Edisto last week… for the first time… I heard a word ( in the news) I hoped to never here again… Armageddon.

I was Eva Cate’s age (12) the last time I heard it-at Horace Sisk Junior High in Fayetteville North Carolina. America was in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember looking it up after hearing it on the news from President Kennedy. It read: Armageddon will be the last battle fought between good and evil.

I still get shivers reading the definition again and feel just as helpless as I did then. I shake my head at Putin in dismay… more in fear now from an adult perspective because of the reports coming in on his mental state with Russians rebelling against him/I am sure something he would have never foreseen. And if he doesn’t do something… N Korea looms in the distance too.

We are all realizing that our world has grown so small that we can’t pretend anymore that this is a problem ” over there.” Ukraine’s situation is our situation, whether we like it or not… ” First they came for the Ukrainians, … and then they came for us. ”

After the butterflies literally followed my car through Ravenel… I started reading about butterfly gardens. I discovered that butterflies and their caterpillars can’t eat just any plant-( picky eaters) They need to eat whatever plants evolved along with them in their neighborhoods. ( Over 45,000 species of butterflies-each evolving eating the flowering plants that grew around them.)

Over tens of millions of years butterflies and their favorite plants lived happily together. But then man entered the picture and mixed up the plants, bringing new plants from other parts of the world-they planted them as crops, gardens, roads or landscaping.

Many new plants choked out native plants-others got bulldozed to build shopping malls and housing. The butterfly population began to dwindle and has drastically decreased in modern times- a sampling of what they once were. Today we can help by adding native plants to our gardens.

And… for many species of adult butterflies-they feed on the nectar of milkweed flowers. But only monarch caterpillars can eat the milkweed plant itself. Gardeners must also remember to never cut down the flowers when they look dead-they will turn into seeds or berries to feed native birds.

( Anne gave me milkweed pod seeds for my birthday and is going to show me the procedure to plant them -how and when for a butterfly garden )

So until tomorrow…A butterfly garden helps butterflies, plants, and birds continue to live in harmony with each other. Don’t we wish we could send magical milkweed pod seeds to those trying to destroy the earth’s harmony and instead let the butterflies bring about freedom and world peace to a battered planet who needs it desperately? No longer living in fear of Armageddon… just enjoying watching butterfly gardens?

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Look what I found in my garden yesterday? A yellow butterfly who was feeding off my camellias that bloomed while I was gone!

The camellias and morning glories surprised me with their abundance … expanding while I was gone.

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I left the Ya’s to come home-unpack and head over to Daniel Island to check on Ben at Wellmore. So much had happened in such a small amount of time I knew he would be confused… and he was.

When I first arrived Ben was asking me why everyone was asking him what happened-he shrugged and said ” What happened?”

So we talked through it ( like a time-line of events) and suddenly Ben remembered. Some of the medical staff had been in and everything with the heart and chest looked good so they left Monday afternoon…but minutes later he suddenly was dizzy and weak… his left arm was hurting. He barely made it back to the medic station-they took one look at him and called the ambulance . They knew this was a neurological ( brain) stroke and everyone hoped for a TIA ( small stroke) that wouldn’t set Ben back with speech or motor skills. The wish came true for all of us praying the same thing.

Quick decisions and immediate care definitely played a major role in his imminent recovery… for which we are so thankful. Thank you Wellmore!

Lee was able to check his dad out late Tuesday afternoon and from MUSC Ben went to Lee and Vikki’s house for supper with his grandchildren -Rhodes and little Rhea… ( Ben, Vikki and now Rhea will always share the same birthday -July 26)

So yesterday morning I started home from Edisto with great Ya memories intact. I always use the Ravenel ” shortcut” to go and come-connects Summerville to Savannah highway that leads to Edisto.

For years this cut/through was just dirt roads , fields, and some farm and ranch houses mixed in sparsely along the route. But as the years have gone by more and more construction has multiplied until today rural subdivisions are found behind gated entrances.

Now almost all the dirt roads have been paved and that is what brought about this magical phenomenon I experienced yesterday. Suddenly yellow butterflies were coming at the car ( from every direction)

It was crazy… surrounded by fields and meadows …the yellow butterflies seemed to purposefully swoon around the front windshield. I thought initially some would smash into the windshield but at the last second they seem to be lifted up in the air over the hood of the car.

When I got home and looked it up I found my answer. If this had been a scientific experiment… it could not have played out more perfectly. Every variable was accounted for… warmer day, sun out, rising temperatures and black asphalt.

This butterfly phenomenon happens when roads have been paved and the sun and rising temperature both create a heated airflow… as light as the butterflies are swooning towards a moving vehicle the rising temperature of the sun’s rays produce a rising heated airflow that lifts the swooning butterflies up and over the car. Magic! God’s magic !

What I encountered yesterday can’t just be explained as a natural phenomenon, however, because only God can time having all the ” variables” present at the exact moment needed to produce the ” magic!”

So until tomorrow… think about these words of wisdom.” If nothing ever changed … there’s be no butterflies.”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh