Encouragement

The Heavens Are Open

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 1 Comment

Winter is drawing to a close. In a little more than two weeks, spring will make its official entry. There’s something about the arrival of March that always makes me run out of patience with the cold. I feel a strange mix inside. I suppose you could say I’m cranky with a dusting of hope.

Spring is teasing us and still, I look at my list of winter “to-dos” and heave a sigh. I was to have organized my upstairs after I’d put away Christmas stuff, sort through and re-organize my kitchen cabinets, update my addresses and contact info, sort and dispose of excess “fluff & stuff” and reward myself by getting some scrapbooking done.

I haven’t made much headway in any of these areas. Now, tax preparation looms. I wish I could feel as though I’ve finished at least some of these categories so that I can stand back, rest my hands on my hips, heave a satisfactory sigh and say, “There now!”

(I just sighed, but it was the wrong kind.)

Now, I have to remind myself that I’ve recently turned in a huge edit for the first book in the “Morgan’s Landing” series and I spend four days a week playing/feeding/changing/snuggling/crafting with Lil’ Snookie and Fruity Pebbles. A frantic portion of this is spent as referee between Fruity Pebbles and Phoebe June. The former considers the latter the most marvelous creature ever to behold and makes every effort to share an embrace. (Not that Phoebe June doesn’t share the opinion as to her marvelousness – she just doesn’t want it embraced.) Somewhere in between the cracks, I manage to cook all our meals from scratch, prepare and coach my weekly Trim Healthy group, organize and help host all our church’s dinners, do the shopping, laundry, cleaning and get a weight-lifting workout in most days.

You know something? I started out feeling like winter had passed and I’d been a failure in even scratching the surface, but now, as I make my true confessions to you, I’m starting to feel pretty good about the whole thing! These last months weren’t perfect, and I doubt the ones ahead will be perfect – but I’ll do what I can with God’s help.

I look around my chaotic office/library/craft room and see that much has been done and much is left to do. I make myself a promise. I won’t strive for perfection, but I will tell myself the same thing I whisper as I climb on those machines at the gym – “I can do better.” Progress, though it be made in baby steps, is far less daunting than perfection.

Golly, how I wish I had a higher gear! Alas, I have only one gear and I’m already running in it.

There are times when I look around and ask myself if any of it matters and for a fleeting moment I hanker for a dumpster.

Paper is my nemesis. But…I am a writer. Ummm…

Then, I remember this. There are two dates on every gravestone and though they may be forgotten, the dash between them is what counts. People will remember you for your dash!

We do leave a legacy in many ways – in the hearts and minds of our children, in what we build in our communities and in the lives of others, and in the stories that connect us to our heritage.

This house holds a lot of heritage.

Once while sorting my office piles, I found a slip of paper upon which I’d written a quote attributed to Joseph Garlington. I hope it puts things into perspective for you as it does for me.

Not Just Human Beings www.midweststoryteller.com

I took this photo several years ago as I drove through the countryside on my way to meet Phoebe June. I pulled over to take photos of a sky such as I’d never seen before.

Under a wide-open Heaven, life is given to me to live each day in this strange place called Earth and I’m determined to thrive down here. I may not be able to make it perfect, but bit by bit, I can make it better, even if it’s something as simple as encouraging a friend or cleaning out files. 

The heavens are open and as we step out of winter and the sunshine and warmth break through, there will be days full of surprises and days filled with mundane things.  I pray the mundane things bring you stability and peace and that all your surprises are good ones.  If last year was a “dud”, don’t lose heart.  Take God’s hand and move forward into new territory and happier days.

You may be grieving the events of these past months.  Take your time and heal.  You may spend a part or all of the year in a waiting mode.  (I hear ‘ya as I await the book release and the progress reports on its screenplay.)  You may go on happily as you have been or you may step into a new adventure as God opens a door and you receive the answer to a prayer that you feel like you’ve spent a lifetime lifting up before the Lord!   

Leave a comment! Are things better – even just a little bit – in your earthly experience? I’d love to hear what you’ve done this winter (I’ll even listen to your fails) and what you plan spring!

Giving Thanks in the Storm

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 5 Comments

I know you may have wondered if the Storyteller had stopped telling stories altogether. Or, perhaps you assumed that I am overwhelmed by the all the last-minute edits and “stuff” that will, at last, get Book 1 of “Morgan’s Landing” into your hands.  The latter is true, but since I last posted, my family has experienced tragedy and loss that has kept my heart and mind elsewhere.

My apologies for there not being a First Friday Freebie in November.  Those days were filled with tears and prayers.

Now here we are, the day before Thanksgiving, when so many families will gather together for laughter and feasting and joy. I wanted to make a special effort to encourage you to treasure your Thanksgiving celebration and to take a good, hard look around that table and realize that in the blink of an eye any one of those chairs might be found empty.

Seven years ago (it lacked only about twelve hours, in fact, being on the exact same date) we experienced another great loss.  It is difficult enough to say goodbye to a parent or another loved one who has lived a long and full life, but the blunt trauma of having to release those who are young and vibrant into the arms of God is a different and terrible kind of pain.

I saw the quote in the above photo a few years ago and the truth of it really impacted me.  Grief is exactly that.  Every ounce of the love that you had within you for someone is still there and you have no place to pour it out, to lavish it, to say it, to express it with a kiss and a hug.  You can no longer place the bouquet into their arms and tell them that they are special – that they matter.

While Smuffy and I still have each other and Pookie and her family are still intact, we have all had our hearts torn at this loss. We realize that though we have our own grief, our greatest pain is the realization that the mother, siblings, grandparents and small children of the one who has left our family are suffering something that we cannot even imagine.

Yet, it is time to give thanks.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, in her book, “The Long Winter”, tells of her family’s struggle with isolation and near starvation for eight months in a house in which they would have frozen to death if they hadn’t spent their days binding slough grass into “logs” in order to make it burn in the wood stove for more than just a minute or two.  Their only food was a little grain that her mother managed to portion out in hopes that it would last until train tracks were cleared and supplies could be brought into the town.  When Laura complained one day about having nothing else to eat, Ma corrected her by saying, “We mustn’t complain about what we do have, Laura.”

There will be homes all across our country that will have a Thanksgiving with no turkey and all the trimmings.  There will be homes with lavish festivities where laughter abounds.  There will be homes of both types with an empty chair at the table. 

Yet, it is time to give thanks for what we do have.

Set aside all the family squabbles and, for a moment, look around at each family member and imagine them vanishing from their place at the table.  Give thanks to God for each one who is there. You can come back to Him with all your “whys” on a different day.

The book, “The Landing of the Pilgrims” is taken largely from the diaries of William Bradford, so it is a first-hand, on-the-spot account of what the Puritans of Plymouth colony experienced.  My heart was pierced over and over again by how many times he wrote that they considered themselves “a people blessed”.  Though half the colony died of cold, sickness and starvation during their first winter in their new world, they were still able to say, over and over again, that they considered themselves blessed.  They had survived with the hope that they would thrive again.

I appreciate this poem by Ruth Graham  –

I will lay my whys before Your cross and worship, kneeling,
My mind too numb for thought, my heart beyond all feeling,
And worshiping realize that I,
In knowing You, don’t need a why.

This passage from the Scriptures, written by the prophet Habakkuk, challenges me to reaffirm my faith  –

“Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

It is time to give thanks.  Take a precious inventory of what you do have!

May your family experience blessings, grace and safety during the entire holiday season.  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Underused Four-Letter Word

~ Midwest Storyteller ~ 1 Comment

And so it goes on – winter.  The cold and snow can keep you homebound. Gray skies, when they don’t get the memo that enough is enough, can make you gloomy.  Christmas is over and sparkly decorations are put away.  Every other week it seems some new strain of crud is going around and doing its best to cancel events or make you wish they were canceled.

Then, those post-holiday bills arrive to remind us once again that next year the spending limit ought to be reduced.  Boosted by this bit of cheer, you hop online and print out your tax forms. Since you haven’t filled them out yet, you try to bask in a little ray of sunshine with the optimistic thought that perhaps, this time, Uncle Sam may have caught on to the idea that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Around here, Smuffy has always been the one to see the glass as half empty while I typically view it as half-full.  I have to admit, though, that gray days spent with tax forms can take their toll on me.  Sometimes, you just need a reminder or a little jolt to alter your outlook.  I got one last week.

As is my habit, I watched the Trim Healthy Podcast (affectionately referred to by us THMers as “The Poddy”) on YouTube.  Sometimes it’s full of rock-solid science to boost your health and well-being.  Sometimes, it’s full of rabbit trails that provide the silliness that you may be lacking in your life and sometimes it provides a level of encouragement that will rock your world.

This one, Change Everything In Your Life With A Four Letter Word! [Podcast] Ep. 365 , was just what I needed and I think you’ll benefit by watching it as well!

I love it when there’s science behind encouraging things!  Near the beginning of the podcast, Serene shared that studies have shown that in order to create a synapse in the brain where you know a thing – really know it and you’re not going to forget it – it takes 400 repetitions of the information.  However, if you are laughing and playing while learning it, the process only requires 12 repetitions!  P-L-A-Y is the four-letter word that can change everything.  They went on to share many ways their mom incorporated play and ways they feel like they’ve lost their sense of play and want to get it back again.

Just think of it – how many times did you labor over those multiplication tables until they finally got in your head, but then heard some silly TV theme song around that same age only a handful of times, yet you can still sing it word-for-word today?  Are you maybe just a bit too grown up for your own good?

Why do you consider cleaning house or preparing meals for your family some type of drudgery when, as a child, you had hours and hours of fun with a toy cooking set and thought it was great when you got your own little broom and dustpan for Christmas or birthday.  I think of our Lil’ Snookie and his love affair with all things lawn care.  His excitement over toy mowers, leaf blowers and weed eaters knows no bounds and his mommy and daddy will be delighted if this attitude continues for many more years!

Smuffy and I discussed the podcast and agreed that we needed to tackle all the everyday stuff with an attitude of fun and play.  It takes a little effort at times.  He’s been having his share of issues lately that all seem to revolve around vehicles needing repair and I am in the middle of edits on the first novel in my upcoming series.  We’re trying to remind each other that we’re having fun.

Some days you succeed.  Some days you don’t.  After a mad search through a cupboard the other day that resulted in what sounded like three quarters of the contents landing on the floor, he finally found what he’d been looking for, but looked a bit out of sorts when he came into the room where I sat.  I tried to remind him that not only did he find it, but he had fun looking for it.  He promptly informed me that he did not have fun looking for it.  But we did laugh. 

Famous industrial engineer and efficiency expert, Frank Bunker Gilbreath, always thought of innovative ways to help his twelve children learn.  The family always rented the same big, old lighthouse for summer vacations and no one really cared whether it was kept pristine.  He would write all over the walls in Morse code and tell his children to figure out what the messages said.  He would likely have been a frustrated teacher if he had not written such things as, “The candy bar is in the top left desk drawer.”  In no time at all his children were challenging themselves to learn the code because they never knew what fun or prize might be in store.

Cooking, Lizard Holes and Watering Cans www.midweststoryteller.com

Lil’ Snookie’s presence is a great reminder for us to P-L-A-Y!  You can see in the top photo that he’s excited about putting on the apron over his jammies and fixing food for everybody!  Give him a watering can and he’ll do his best, even if in reality he’s about a thousand cans short.  The middle photo was more of a safari (apologies for quality as I snapped it through the porch screen).  He asked if he could go out in the yard because he wanted to find a big stick and look for a lizard hole, after which he would insert the stick and then bend down over the hole and shout, “Hallooooo!”  Someday, he may consider that to be frustrating or fruitless, especially if the lizard doesn’t answer, but right now, it’s P-L-A-Y!

I’ve learned to approach cooking healthy meals for my family with a sense of learning, adventure and play.  It has made all the difference!  Now, I just need to find out how to play with these tax forms.

If it’s snowy, make snow angels or at least watch someone else doing it.  Put out some cute decorations for winter or Valentine’s Day, or start making homemade Valentines now.  If the day is gloomy, try new soup recipes, play games with the kiddos or watch a funny movie.  Call a friend who’s recovering from the crud and spread some cheer.  Challenge yourself to cranking out those tax forms with some fun reward when it’s all over.

Struggling? Catch that podcast! Change Everything In Your Life With A Four Letter Word! [Podcast] Ep. 365

How do you find fun and play in the ordinary or the necessary?  Leave a comment and share.  It might bless someone’s day.  Go ahead – make us laugh.

Laughter plays a huge part in this, so don’t forget to visit my “Life With Smuffy” page and my “Laugh!” page.  They’re full of adventure and fun.