Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Take a minute and walk around your Christmas tree. Do you have a heart ornament(s) on it? You should-after all Christmas IS love!

Thanks to my Danish friends ( Kewin and Rikke Hvidt) I have lots of julehjerters ( braided or pleated Christmas hearts) on my tree. They remind me each year of our friendship and love at Christmas!

Yesterday I was reading an article on how dogs ” smell time.” It smells different throughout the day. Morning has a different scent from afternoon which smells different from nighttime. The canine nose is so sensitive that dogs can determine the difference between 5 and 6 PM -the time you get home from work.

What got me thinking about hearts and time was a statement made by an author on a talk show that said:

” The human heart doesn’t know time, it just knows what makes it beat faster … LOVE !”

So true… when it comes to love… time stands still and one wonders if everyone else can hear how loudly his or her heart is pounding!

Now think back to the night Jesus was born… if the human ear was half as sensitive as a dog’s nose … can’t you imagine those shepherds’ hearts were about to beat out of their chests … after hearing the good news from the angels?

Shepherds, by nature of their job, were introverts and now they were being told to spread the good news and find the baby. They didn’t hide out in their solitude but went right to the center of the action.

Aren’t we to leave our personal hang/ups, problems, and idiosyncrasies behind-and instead accept God’s comforting love for us in all its amazing abundance-pure love, pure joy!

So until tomorrow… Let’s get our hearts racing in excitement and joy-Love is about to descend on us once again-It’s time-like the shepherds-who hurried to the center of the action-it is time for us to remember the ” reason for the season ”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Walsh is with Rutledge in Atlanta for the ” Battleground Youth Football All-Stars” game he was selected for from his team. They had their first practice today, another tomorrow, and then the game Saturday. ***Boo wants you to have fun Rutledge , be safe, and make new friends and memories! ❤️

Dear Reader:

Do you sometimes get a little nervous around ” Southern Living” homes -the ones that are so perfectly decorated at Christmas that they look and feel more like a museum than a home? Quiet, sedate Christmas carols play softly in the background and you start checking the time on your mobile phone-hoping to get through with the tour before you accidentally break something?

Think about it… on the first Christmas Day didn’t the heavenly angels sing … loudly…in wonderment and joy? This is the day the Creator of all the cosmos entered history and changed it forever! As Quinn Caldwell comments… ” This calls for tinsel, construction paper tree chains, gobs of glue and tons of glitter, blinking stars and colored lights with water bubbling in them.

Christmas is not a day for restraint. Caldwell reminds us ” When God decided to decorate for Christmas, God hung an enormous star in the heavens, not a string of demure white lights. No doubt the neighbors were appalled, but it sure did draw a crowd.”

So until tomorrow… Celebrate the God Who didn’t hold back anything! Be unrestrained! Put on some music ( preferably loudly) and decorate for a party while praising God’s name!

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

For my door prize at the annual MS luncheon last Friday I won a bag of beautifully carved wooden animals! I was thrilled! It brought back memories of my childhood when mother would ” tolerate ” us kids adding strange play animals to her beautiful manger that daddy had given her on their first Christmas together.

Sometimes late at night if I got up for water or whatever, over the Christmas holidays, I would catch mother staring at the manger from the sofa and hear a small sigh escape her lips-as a child I thought she was frustrated at the interloping bizarre animals joining the manger . Now I know, in reflection, mother was missing daddy and remembering with nostalgia those early years together.

When my younger brother, David, was little, he had a slight lisp and one Christmas he was chosen to-be the wise man carrying the frankincense-mother worked with him every day practicing how to pronounce ” frankincense” orally.

On Christmas Eve when it came time for David to bow down before the ” Betsy Wetsy” Jesus baby doll… he loudly proclaimed …as the third and last wise man-… ” And I bring you Frankenstein !” It brought down the house!

Later that night the doorbell rang and a man from our church appeared with a small package for David. Inside was a toy Frankenstein. David immediately placed the ” monster ” along with the wise men outside the manger.

Even years after David passed at age 21… mother always added Frankenstein to the manger celebration in memory of David! ***Since telling that story I have heard that other little boys thought the same thing.

So until tomorrow… Welcome one and all… including little monsters-especially, perhaps little monsters!

Clearing off Santa’s workshop for Christmas dinners!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Aren’t some people ” gifted” when it comes to Christmas gift giving? I took a photo of this beautiful present Dee and Mike gave me after church Sunday because of the wrapping-so envious of people who turn presents into works of art.

Dee surprised me by confessing that Mike is the ” wrapper” in the family. ( And Dee I confess I didn’t open it yesterday because it looks so pretty under the tree and fills in a gap on the table so beautifully! But before I finish this post I will …since you hinted the present might also include something that involved the grandchildren.)

Gift giving began with the three wise men and modern day readers, for many years, have debated the choices made for the newborn king. Jokingly most young mothers agree Mary needed pampers, more pampers and a gift certificate to Babies R Us. Certainly more practical gifts.

But Quinn Caldwell stands up for the wise men-after all…isn’t it helpful if you know the person you are giving a gift to and a little bit about their background? They are relying on a star and information handed down with few directions or descriptions.

” The poor wise men had no idea who they were going to see. Their only birth announcement was a star in the sky. So they thought they were off to visit a regular king, not a Jesus kind of king. They thought they were shopping for the baby who not only had everything but had servants to bring it to him too. So they brought nice gifts, just not exactly appropriate ones.

If you were shopping for God, would you go to Target or Tiffany’s? Is the baby exalted or humble? Lord of the universe or charity case next door? And what do you get for a God who’s both?

Look what Dee and Mike gave me for the grandchildren? Don’t you love it?

So until tomorrow…God, I know you love any gift from a generous heart… so I can just going to do the best I can! And I will be sure to include a gift receipt! Amen.

But that wasn’t all-Dee and Mike never forget Sammy the Cardinal-next year I will plan a ” Sammy” Christmas party and set a full table filled with Sammies.

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Why is everything done outside in the serenity of rustling leaves, whispering winds and singing birds so more meaningful and heartfelt in worship?

At the outside 9:00 worship service yesterday it was chilly, windy and so melodious that even the wildlife in the woods must have stopped to listen. It is one of my favorite annual services called “Lessons and Carols.” The sermon is composed of scripture readings followed by our talented choir members composing and performing each Christmas song through instrumental numbers, solo’s and orchestras.

I double dare anyone leaving to say that the Christmas ” Spirit ” did not leave with them. It sets the tone every year for me and now since Covid …even more so … for example, being outside with natural greenery surrounding the lighting of the Advent candles each week. ( title photo)

Starting with Covid a couple of years ago…I began realizing that worship can and should take place wherever the Spirit leads us. For me that became my garden where many a morning-Sunday or not-I found myself seeking God on the garden bench listening to the gurgling waters of the fountain and feeling closer to God than ever.

Saturday it was a moment in the courtyard at Charleston Place as we gathered by the ” snow-tipped” trees for photos and refreshments …that I felt a wonderful sense of family , love, and a legacy in the making.

Hope is always interwoven with the Christmas season because, like today, hope is what keeps us going-the thought that just around an unseen bend lies a magnificent new world order unsurpassed by anything we can imagine!

During our service yesterday, sitting in my fold-out beach chair, I felt something brush my face and fall in my lap-a beautiful red leaf! A token of a Christmas gift unparalleled in the beauty of simplicity! Thank you God for my Christmas present!

So until tomorrow… three words keep popping up in my mind right now-my prayer in the moment… “Thank You. Amen.

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh

My neighbor Vickie stopped by the other day… I was slightly embarrassed for her to still see all my pear tree leaves covering half the front yard-but the first thing out of her mouth was … ” You must have known I was coming! Rolling out the red carpet for me!” I started laughing and said that Jeff was coming Friday to clean up the yard and Vickie looked disappointed-when I looked again, from now a different perspective, I had to laugh-she was right! My own beautiful red carpet!

Dear Reader:

As you know by now my technology problems with blog pictures has ” cracked” my patience and driven me ” nuts” so I suppose it was a God Wink that yesterday was our long-awaited girls day to see The Nutcracker performance at the Sotille Theater in downtown Charleston.

All the girls in the family …from me and Susan, Kaitlyn’s mom , to Mandy, Mollie, Kaitlyn and our two granddaughters -Eva Cate and Eloise. were in on the fun’-(Admittedly for me it had been years since last seeing it live) … and I had forgotten a lot of the story but the performance was wonderful and both granddaughters loved it.

We then left and walked over to Charleston Place to see the amazing train, trees and elaborate decorations-even in the courtyard ” snow” is released at 6:00 PM each evening to the delight of Lowcountry children.

As challenging as it was maneuvering around Charleston and parking lots yesterday…we adults realize we are making longtime memories … especially in two little granddaughters’ minds.

And even though this post’s strange behavior of showing up some mornings and then inexplicably becoming a ” no show” other mornings is extremely annoying… help is coming Monday with Izzy-a former student and now computer analyst… I am learning to do what I can and let the rest go. As much as I would love to include photos on the blog today… from this fun girls’ outing-I will -in all good time -God’s time. The most important thing now is to take snapshots in my mind at the moment it is happening and keep them in my personal treasure box of Christmas memories for enjoyment when I need it most.

So until tomorrow… so many of my Christmas memories center around you dear readers and your support through good and crazy computer times-your selfless generosity of patience sustains me more than you will ever know-a first ‘ shout-out Merry Christmas… the first of many to come!!

Today is my favorite day! Winnie

the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Yesterday was my tenth time storytelling at the Summerville MS Chapter Christmas Luncheon! A decade! Hard to believe!

And there to greet me was Andrea Andrews- one of the first chapter promoters in our town. We taught social studies together for several years at Alston Middle School and she was diagnosed with MS about the same time I was with breast cancer. Last year the annual Christmas luncheon was canceled due to Covid so it had been two years since we had seen each other and it was such a happy reunion. We always get our picture made for our third teaching buddy, Roz Vanalstyne who lives in Indiana!

It was Honey and Mike who introduced me to this wonderful group since they, for years prior, made pottery and woodwork crafts to give away each year ( as door prizes) at this special luncheon. I am so glad they did… my adoptive family. Two years ago I ” won” the white board decorated JOY plank as a door prize that fit perfectly under the red poinsettia on the Pine Forest Inn planter Honey left me when they moved permanently to the mountains. Thank you Burrell’s! ***( Title Photo)

So many things are bringing me joy these days… but there is one special time every evening that really ramps up my personal joy o’ meter! Turning off all the lights except for the Christmas tree lights and giving in to memories of the past.

There is something good and holy about the early dark nights near Christmas isn’t there? Caldwell suggests that in honor of this sacred darkness to spend some time with the lights off while praying to be protected and nourished and formed by the God who swept over the face of the waters before there was light.

So until tomorrow… God thank you for light and dark. bright and dim. Whether I am in shining or in shadow … let me sing your tidings of great joy!

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

So sorry! There must be some bad Christmas elves playing tricks this morning because the blog post I wrote and had ready to go this morning seems stuck in cyberspace somewhere.

Will keep trying … in the meantime have a great day!

Dear Reader:

When I recently came across Donna Fargo’s beautiful prayer ” I Prayed for You Today” I re-read the third ( last stanza) and realized that during these troubling times if I changed You to Us … this is an universal appeal for faith and perseverance-a gift much needed to keep …in order to remind us that God is still in charge!

I prayed for us today. I asked that we be prepared for whatever life hands us or whatever we’re going through. I asked that our spirit be strong and lead us and guide us each step of the way down every path we take. I asked the universe to confirm for us that we’re someone very special. I asked the Earth to be good to us, and I asked God to show us His perfect way. I prayed for us today.

So until tomorrow… the next time we feel like running away ( like the Gingerbread Man) as fast as we can from this weary worrisome world… let’s remember to pause instead and seek God’s help-we are never alone when we turn to God in prayer.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

The ” Gifting” has started and look at some of the new ornaments on the tree and Clemson kitchen attire. Thank you Mike and Honey and Sam and Donna!