Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

246 Years Old! ( It actually makes me feel younger instantly! … I am talking about ” My Country Tis’ of Thee!” ) Today , July 4th marks a birthday near and dear to an ole’ history teacher’s heart! The love of my life.

I decided that what I most want today is a prayer for this beautiful country … the country we all owe our deepest gratitude to… to ask God to help us preserve the democratic ideals and principles of freedom.

What should be a happy day has been marred by the extreme polarization, that like a cancer, is slowly destroying the very foundation and fiber of our lovingly blessed citizens for living in a democracy. And the saddest part to me is that ” We the People” have let politics run amuck of ideals like honesty, integrity, morality, kindness, tolerance, and acceptance of all God’s children. And now we are paying the price.

Lately I sometimes feel that life hurts because I feel too much…maybe I care too much or perhaps it is me with all my connectiveness abilities to all things that won’t leave me… even when I turn off the news or try to distract myself pursuing other paths.

And then yesterday I gave myself a strong talking to… if I profess to be a woman of faith… then it is time to walk the talk. I must turn my fears over to God and trust in Him to lead His people back on the right path… the path that puts God first in our lives.

God, our Father, giver of life, we entrust the United States of America to Your loving care. You are the rock on which this nation was founded. You alone are the true source of our cherished rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Reclaim this land for Your glory and dwell among your people.

So until tomorrow… Send Your Spirit to touch the hearts of the leaders among us. Open their minds to the worth of humanity and the responsibilities that gift our human freedom. Remind us all that true happiness is rooted in seeking and doing Your will!

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

Was it just me or did anyone else have trouble finding the small decorative flags for this July 4-went to CVS, Walgreens, two grocery stores, two dollar stores… nada. Still I did decorate a little! Hope everyone has a wonderful fourth and whisper a special birthday wish that our country returns to the democracy it has been as a leader to the rest of the world! Happy Fourth!!!

Dear Reader:

After I finished reading a recent post by Kate Wolfe-Jenson ( MS ” journeyman” who writes about her continuum passage living with MS for decades) I immediately thought of my friend Harriett and her amazing journey with cancer.

So I decided to dedicate this post to you Harriett because Jenson’s observation spoke to me and hopefully will also speak to you… since we share our struggles together!

Kate Jenson makes her kind promise read: By everyone sharing their strengths… we are all better for it…. everyone becomes a receiver and giver simultaneously.

” Even on days when you feel weak and weary… take a moment to feel the strength thrumming within you. It comes not from your muscles and bones, but from your essential being… you don’t have to stretch for it. Just settle into the quiet and realize it is there. ”

” Let each wobbly time be an invitation to gather strength by taking care of yourself. When you are feeling strong enough , celebrate by sharing who you are, what you have, and the creations of your tender heart with the rest of us.”

“The uncertain parts are share worthy too… since understanding enriches everyone’s lives and encourages us all to be brave. Never exhaust yourself -leave room for everyone to find their own answers, chart their own courses, and practice their own beliefs.”

” We are all connected by the human spirit … in every passage of our lives.”

So until tomorrow… ” Strength thrums within you and in us too because, of course, we are not separate. We are iridescent slivers of the same light, complementary fibers of the same muscle. When we shine together, when we flex in concert, our world becomes brighter and stronger.”

I love you Harriett! 🙏🏻😍

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I just returned home late yesterday afternoon after spending the night in Walterboro with Brooke. I called her Tuesday after Mandy called me while babysitting the boys at Mollie’s … that she had tested positive for Covid. Brooke didn’t pause for a second… teasing me that I wasn’t getting out of her invitation that easily… she was ready for me to ” come on… so ” come on.”

We had a ball! Went out to eat at the old country club restaurant that has just recently reopened-went early and we made up one of two tables of people-we had it to ourselves… had a delicious dinner and fun with the staff!

We love watching old movies together… and found time to watch one Wednesday night and one yesterday after lunch as torrential downpours continued throughout intervals of time. It gave me an excuse to stay long enough for one more show.

But before that Brooke had found the ripest juiciest tomatoes ( grown on Wadmalaw Island… I am ruined for the rest of the summer) and served them at lunch… thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Haven’t we all heard people say things like ” Why can’t we make movies more like real life?” I think the more pertinent question is” Why can’t real life be more like the movies?”

For our last shared movie… Brooke and I went back to 2003 ( can’t be twenty years?) and put on the romantic comedy ” Something’s Gotta Give” -Jack Nicholson and Dianne Keaton.

Now certainly romantic comedies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea… ( but after hours of watching Rutledge and Lachlan play video games Wednesday … it made me so happy!!!!!)

I truly believe that nothing in our lives is too insignificant… not to be a source of inspiration! Because underneath the laughter of a romantic comedy- love gone humorously array… there exists deeper feelings of love desperate to be returned by someone who has opened his/her heart to another. To love and be loved takes one of the greatest acts of courage we will ever commit.

Movies have always cemented Brooke’s and my friendship… still remember (while at Erskine) we drove to Greenville to watch Love Story… we bawled through the first showing-then hid out in the theater so we could watch it again… we furiously drove back to the college and just barely got back before the final curfew.

Everyday, more and more… I realize that if I pause long enough to reflect back on the day-it has taught me a lesson-bad, good, happy, sad… the perspective changes upon the thoughts attached to it. Still… a lesson is a lesson.

So until tomorrow… ” We do not write to be understood, we write in order to understand.”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Busy Bee… Brooke has planted rows of hibiscus and hydrangeas! Gorgeous!

Dear Reader:

While keeping Rutledge and Lachlan Wednesday I had a ” Velveteen Rabbit” moment.

After watching the boys play a few video games I walked back downstairs and decided to go out on the porch and watch the latest thunderstorm roll in… doesn’t the rain smell so fresh and good during these times?

I had only been outside a few minutes when Lachlan joined me with a big sigh. ” Boo Boo… Rutledge still hasn’t given me a turn yet… he keeps promising but it doesn’t happen.”

” Don’t worry… big brothers are like that… we will get him and he will give you a turn… promise… that is what a Boo Boo is for…But for a few more minutes let’s enjoy watching the storm roll in and the beautiful blooms popping open with the rain falling.”

Lachlan nodded and for a full minute we sat quietly watching and listening to the rain crescendo stronger and louder. Suddenly Lachlan said, ” Boo Boo… don’t you have any eyebrows?”

” No… the medicine I take to fight my cancer has taken all my hair away. ” Lachlan stared at me again… and then responded ” … and you don’t have any eyelashes either?”

” That’s right and I really really miss my eyelashes because they protect our eyes from the sun’s rays… it is why my eyes water so much and I have to wear sunglasses everywhere.”

” Oh gotcha “… Lachlan smiled as if he had just solved a great mystery. By the time I had gotten Lachlan restored to the “player” video position… I had experienced some epiphanies of my own.

I am becoming the Velveteen Rabbit. I have lost parts of me that I won’t get back in this lifetime… but it is okay… they don’t matter anyway… not in the important way…. because I am real.

Skin Horse best explains it: ” It does not happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges or who have to be carefully kept. Generally by the time you are Real most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

So until tomorrow… Don’t we all need a Skin Horse in our lives who reminds us what life’s most important priorities are: ” To love and be loved?”

Lachlan will definitely be the one to find new worlds and seek new possibilities-he is my explorer.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

It is also ” Rabbit Rabbit Day” -the first day of the month ( July) Remember to call it out first thing today for another month full of surprises and possibilities.

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻. … And please call out prayers for my friend Harriett Edwards who is in the hospital fighting hard against ” little c” ( cancer) … daily I thank God for unforgettable moments, shared memories, and friendship. We love you Harriett! 💗💗

Dear Reader:

Do you think we had fun yesterday? Never a dull moment! It was a stormy ( weather-wise) day so I was introduced to a whole new world out there. Video Games… where I found myself drawn into a new world of imagination… the objective-getting points for ridding the world of bad guys before they can go after you. ( Now that I think about it… I guess it was actually pretty realistic in today’s world. )

I do miss my tried and true superheroes in flying capes, double identities, and phone booths. Every time I was about to let Rutledge and Lachlan know about a superhero I loved as a child of the fifties… I stopped myself in the nick of time. ( Don’t do it… kids aren’t interested in your outdated memories… I remembered how I sighed when hearing about famous personalities from the silent film era and how a few pennies could get you in a theater?)

It took an hour and half of congested afternoon traffic, in pouring rain, to get home …so thank goodness for frozen dinners. ( A frozen drink would have been nice too… but no time to plan ahead.) 😉

The damper on the day, besides the thunderstorms, which we need in these drought conditions, was when Mandy tested positive for Covid-( thought she had drainage from allergies and because she was going to a primary doctor the next day she took a home test yesterday and boom) It seems like everyone is testing positive these days doesn’t it. Because for most the symptoms mimic summer colds, allergies… most probably will never know they had it.

The timing is bad…. John and Mandy were planning a large July 4 celebration for family… which looks doubtful…but this is a case of letting go and letting God’s chips fall as may. Health is the most important issue!

So until tomorrow… our days are filled with highs and lows, just like a swing, the main goal is to grab the exhilaration of the moment and the scenery of all we love!

Leaving Wakendaw… always another home

Today is my favorite day/Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Every few years I come back across the book Simple Abundance by Sarah Breathnach, written in 1995, and I marvel at the new connections and realizations we share… even after all the years of separation in our writings and feelings.

What we both came to realize is that epiphanies occur every day, the sacred can always be found in the ordinary and the mystical in the most mundane of situations. I admit I never really got the “authentic “life idea for a long time. I was just me… was I missing something? Yes… an awareness that everything in life is connected and we are part of this magical web of throbbing life-a life to be cherished in all its intricate design.

Under the ordinary lies the extraordinary if we are open to it. This I witness daily in my garden meditations, surprises and delights! When we start thinking of everyday life as our prayer… a sense of the mind, body, and soul emerging into one … then ” self” is fully revealed. * As Breathnach explains it…” True Self is the soul made visible.

So until tomorrow…Abundance and lack are parallel realities… only we can make the daily choice which one to inhabit… Margaret young said it best;

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.”

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday I was at Lucy Beckham High school to see all the art ” campers” projects that they just completed after three weeks of selected art entries-Eva Cate chose textiles to concentrate on.

Today I am switching grandkids -watching the boys while Mollie works with children learning English as their second language. Can hardly wait to hear all the Maine adventures.

Home tonight…I will be tired but the good kind of tired!

The largest hibiscus bloom … EVER! ( dwarfed the bush) So proud of another ” Big Red!”

Dear Reader:

This year for Rutledge’s birthday I thought I would give him a compass that came down from his great-grandfather, my father to my mother, when they married two months after Dad being honorably discharged at the end of WWII. Rutledge is my history buff and I think he will appreciate the token and symbolism.

Mother told me that when fighting overseas dad always looked at the compass as pointing back home to my mother, his treasure and their soon-to-be life together. So the compass became a treasure memory of their love.

I decided to order a box to keep it in… it looked like a little trunk … but to my surprise when I opened it-it had a treasure map and fake pirate coins in it… will save those for another play day. with the grandkids.

Sarah Breathnach , in her book, Simple Abundance, talks about taking time to create our own treasure map -a map filled with all our wishes and dreams. Then make a collage treasure map-think fun, like a child, because before we can manifest dreams into reality we must listen to our deepest wishes… which are whispers of our true selves.

Our treasures might involve relationships, professions, a family, children, creative endeavors-travel -whatever our heart desires!

So until tomorrow… ” The greatest secret to living a happy and fulfilled life is the realization that everything is created in our minds before it manifests itself in the outer world. We must believe it before we can see it. You have to know what you’re digging for, before X can mark the spot! “

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Animal crackers, and cocoa to drink,

That is the finest of suppers, I think;

When I’m grown up and can have what I please

I think I shall always insist upon these.

– Christopher Morley

Saturday was my “Shh… There. there” day! By the end of the day I was in my flannel pj’s , my heavy night robe Kaitlyn gave me last Christmas and heavy socks bundled up on the sofa! I had gotten my second Covid booster and was experiencing the same flu-like symptoms as on the prior three earlier Moderna vaccinations.

Pride must come before the fall… because I got my shot a little after 9am at Publix ( and thank goodness had picked up a can of Chicken Noodle soup , yogurt, and bananas) …but until 5pm that afternoon I felt terrific, worked in the garden and ran errands. But when it hit… it hit like a sledge hammer… the same reaction as the other three. ( I comforted myself remembering a doctor say the more reaction one has to the shot… the better the protection… sure hope so! )

Aren’t nursery foods the most beloved recipes from our childhood? They conjure up those happy innocent moments when all was right with the world because we knew our place in it. Those were the times when dressed in flannel pajamas, as we sat down to supper before a story and bed. ( And I had found the story behind the story of Winnie the Pooh Saturday which made me so happy! )

Every time I went to visit Miss Polly growing up… the other sisters brought us a bowl of rice pudding, covered with warm cream and sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg for our tea party… one of my favorite childhood memories .

So until tomorrow... The kitchen’s the coziest place I know; The kettle is singing, the stove’s aglow, And there in the twilight, how jolly to see… The cocoa and animals are waiting for me

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Winnie went with me to water the garden in my new garden hat yesterday and to pick some hydrangeas for the kitchen table ( Stephanie Ballard gave me this garden Winnie from Epoct! )

Dear Reader:

Isn’t life exciting when we learn something new on an ordinary day? And this ” new” just makes your day! This happened to me yesterday.

I was taking a picture of a very popular Winnie the Pooh nursery wallpaper ad to end another post idea I had in mine… when suddenly Google shot out the story of Harry and Winnie… yes… our Winnie the Pooh! ” Harry? What happened to Christopher?” I had to solve the mystery!

White River train station in Ontario… Harry Colebourn will soon be joining fellow Canadians to fight in WWI. But outside the station a little bear cub is being sold-Harry falls immediately in love… he pays twenty dollars for the cub and names it after his hometown-Winnipeg-where he grew up! He then gives the cub a nickname ” Winnie” -after all the cub is a “she.” As the train leaves the station… the cub goes too!

Winnie becomes the mascot for the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade! She is adored by the brigade!

Unfortunately orders come for the brigade to be sent to the front lines of fighting in France. Winnie can not go. However arrangements are made for Winnie to go on loan to the London Zoo until Harry’s tenure is over. Though Harry survives he makes the painful decision after the war to let Winnie stay. She is the most popular attraction at the zoo and loved by all … but especially children.

Because Winnie had been tamed by Harry and his comrades she lets children ride on her back! And… top secret… Winnie doesn’t care much for honey but prefers corn syrup and condensed milk.

As time goes by there are two ( almost daily) frequent visitors to the zoo to see Winnie — Christopher Robin and his father.. AA Milne.

Christopher named his stuffed toy bear after Winnie and later combined it with the name of a friend’s pet swan named Pooh-now called Winnie the Pooh.

By now Christopher’s father had started the first book in the series of Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and ” friends.” ( the friends were the names of other stuffed animals Christopher played with …Tigger” entering the gang in the second childrens’ book.)

So until tomorrow… We never know when an idea will take seed and grow into the most beautiful life surprise of all!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Looking backwards at the trail behind… it hit me how on target and true this title saying is. The first time it happened I was a junior in high school and wanted so badly to try out for basketball cheerleading but there were only four cheerleaders and one alternate cheerleader in basketball season so the chances of making the team weren’t favorable… many of the football cheerleaders tried out and they had volume and experience on their side.

But I practiced and tried out and held my breath as the principal called out the names of girls who had made it… I stared down at my desk averting my eyes… four names were called-no Becky-but then I heard my name as alternate. I had mixed feelings -the alternate had to attend each practice but only performed at games when someone couldn’t cheer.

I had dreamed about cheering in the high school gymnasium for weeks… I could visualize myself cheering in front of my family-so close-so close. Then to my surprise when I went to the first practice… the captain called me over -she had talked to the principal and he agreed that the basketball team could have five cheerleaders. I had done it!

The second time I visualized and believed in something it was a National Impact II teachers conference-two teachers from each state. I had written and been awarded an Impact II grant and was eligible to apply. I didn’t get it and I was disappointed because it was held on top of Snowbird Mountain in Utah. Wow!!! I could just see myself there!

Still I kept the Hope-a week later I went to Columbia for a state teachers meeting and Jeannie Sink , SC’s State Teacher of the Year, came over to me and asked if I would take her place at the conference! It had come true and I met a lifetime friend, Rene Harris, We just hit it off and had a ball!

Rene… a change agent and best friend-we would share many hilarious adventures!

I do believe that when we want something so badly that we take a risk outside our comfort zone to get it…. when we visualize, believe and trust… exponentially our chances greatly increase seeing our dream come true!

So until tomorrow…Before we can really live… we must leave our fears of self-doubt behind. ” Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh