Helping Hands

Over the last year or more I have seen posts on my facebook page for this community function or that where the money is going to help someone in the community that is dealing with a hardship, usually cancer. I have to say that I admire how the community gathers around its people and how others are so willing to assist in the little ways they are able.
Sometimes though I wonder if the money isn't the easiest part to give. I know the need for it is there as there are bills that need to be paid. But I wonder about the emotional needs that are there as well. What about going to the home of the young mother who has found out she is fighting cancer for the 2nd time and asking to have her kids for the afternoon so that the mother can have a rest? What about bringing over a favorite meal for the family to eat so they don't have to worry about cooking that night? How about the mother of three that has two children with disabilities and no help from the children's father because he is a deadbeat? How do we help her out?
I wonder sometimes if people don't offer the spiritual and emotional assistance because they just don't know what they can do to help or if they are worried it will be taken wrong. Sometimes for those of us that grew up on the Island it is a matter of being given the opportunity to gather stregnth just from breathing the salt air of the ocean and feeling the sand between our toes because someone has given us 2 hours alone. Sometimes it is helping that single mother by just sitting and letting her talk or cry or rant.
Many times the prayers of "prayer warriors" is all that can be offered. Sometimes we think that isn't enough for us to give. Trust me when I say that God hears those prayers and is working in His time to make things go according to His plan. It isn't always easy to rest and wait for His timing. It isn't always easy to understand why the sickness isn't healed right away or why He takes someone back unto Heaven when we would rather keep them here. It is easy to rail against the inequity of it all.
I find though that our needs get met in many small ways and sometimes big ones. We as a community need to look for the means and ways to help. And we as the recipients of the "helping hands" need to appreciate the ways people try to help us out and Count our Blessings even when they seem so small.

Learning an old lesson all over again.

God has a way of teaching us life lessons over and over again. Sometimes I think it is because we just didn't learn it right the first time. Thankfully He does it lovingly even if sometimes it takes a hit over the head.
I was taught again the lesson of not saying anything if you can't say something nice. I always have tried over the years to keep this lesson in my mind. How little did I realize that I hadn't been applying it as often as I should have especially somewhere that is should have been obvious to have used it.
It never fails to amaze me how God teaches us either. When we least expect it He is able to use something in our lives to teach us the lesson we need to be taught.
I have not always been as kind as I should have to someone even if they were not aware of my unkindness. God has made me aware of this today. My prayer is that HE helps me to remember this lesson today and in the future so that I can give forth the kindness to everyone that I would want given to me and to those that I love.

pictures in the mind

Today a coworker was talking about an old fashioned style toaster. She forwarded a picture of what she meant to another coworker. He then showed me the picture and it was completely different from what I had pictured in my mind.  The picture she sent was of a rounded sided toaster, standard two slice but more of a toaster from the 50's than what I had in my head. I was picturing the toasters that looked like a triangle that had the heating element in the center and the doors hinged to hold the bread in place then you had to flip the bread to toast the other side of it. The man who got the picture was thinking of a toaster oven. I asked my husband what came into his mind when I said "old fashioned toaster" and he got a picture in his mind similar to what was in mine but his was to be put over a stove for the heating of the bread.
It made me laugh when I thought of all the different pictures that come into mind when words are put together. My mother blogs as well at http://kathleen-thewordsmith.blogspot.com/    A recent blog she had was on the old style typewriters and other old fashioned items.
Her blog made me realize that so many of the kids today won't have ever used anything other than a computer keyboard or a tablet. They won't know about typewriters and carbon paper and phones that had cords attached and rotary dials. They don't know about phonographs and reel style lawn mowers. Many children today don't know about camping in a tent and dealing with the heat because they haven't been exposed to it.
Technology is great but sometimes I wish for the days of yore when things were not as easy and instantaneous.

Right and Wrong

When I was a child, my parents tried to teach me right and wrong when it came to polite behaviors. I think they succeded quite well in teaching me to "Be Nice", and to say "please" and "thank you". I don't see much of that these days in children. I also don't see parents correcting the behavior of their children. I sometimes wish that the adage "it takes a village to raise a child" were taken more to heart. If it were, I might feel that I could make the corrections necessary for these young people to learn right from wrong. As it is, I am afraid of being rebuked by the adult because "who do you think you are correcting MY child" is the attitude of many people these days.
This brings me as well to a message I saw on another blog today. On Facebook, there has been a status copy and paste, over the past few days, that has to do with Mary having a little Lamb. The Lamb referred to is Jesus. The rhyme goes on to say that it is said that children can't pray in school. Someone took it upon themselves to write a message to the blogger, via facebook, and give him a hard time for his beliefs. I don't think that he was advocating forcing religion on anyone. My opinion on the matter is that we have gone so far away from the beliefs this country was founded upon, that of freedom of religion and of choice, that we are in danger of losing all rights entirely.
Perhaps if we were allowed to pray in school, the idea of right and wrong would return to this country. Perhaps morals and politeness would return. Perhaps civility and modesty would also come back. Oh what a radical idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The past and the future

The past year has been an eventful one. There have been losses and gains not just in money but in friends. Family has been touched with sorrow and joy. Each year brings its own hardships. I look forward to the newness of the coming year and welcome it. I know that it will bring its own memories, things to mourn and things to rejoice in.

date night

Tonight is date night. My teenagers got movie passes from their aunts for Christmas so are taking their respective dating partners to a movie tonight. That means actually that I am doing the driving. Since that is happening and the movie theater is about 30 minutes or so from home, my husband and I are going out to dinner while the teens are at the movies. I am looking forward to some time reconnecting with this hardworking man that I married 20 plus years ago.

Thoughts of Christmas

Christmas is a special time of year for so many people. I have been reading posts that others write about visiting and decorating and what the different things mean to them. It made me decide to write a little of it myself. I had a friend ask on Facebook recently about what year you would go back to if you could pick any year to go back for Christmas. It too made me think.

I don't know if I could pick just one Christmas to return to. There are many that stand out in my mind. I remember that year that we woke up as children to find Gabriel our lab/setter puppy. He was black with a white spot on his belly and he sure did love us kids even if he was more my brother's dog than us girls. Or the year I was in Norway and my host family and I were snowed in. We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve because my youngest host sister was born on Christmas and they wanted her day to be special, so the tradition for them was to celebrate Christmas the day before and give her a good birthday.

I remember the year my daughter was two and my son was one. He took his first steps that morning in his great grandparents living room. He walked across the width of the living room from the couch to the chair so he could be with his Great pap. I think I wanted to cry.

The year when my daughter was 5 was a hard one for  us. We had been in Georgia a short time and it was the first year we weren't with extended family. We didn't have much money and didn't know how we were going to give the kids anything. My husband's work helped provide the little we were going to be able to give them. Someone adopted us.... actually several someones adopted us and the kids had a great year.

A few years later we ran into problems again. I think that year really stands out in my mind because the woman that chose to be Special Santa for my children asked if there were only one thing they could have for Christmas what would it be. I asked them and they told me. A real looking doll baby for my daughter and a green power ranger for my son. The day she called to ask if she could bring the presents over will stand out especially. I thought it would be one or two presents for each of them. When she got there with her daughter they carried not one or two presents in but two large black garbage bags full of presents for each of them. I was amazed and kept telling her thank you and that she didn't have to do that. She said she hadn't done it all, that when her daughter found out what she was doing then her daughter wanted to do some too and then a neighbor and another friend wanted to do it as well. Before she left she handed me a gift card and told me to use it to buy Christmas dinner. My daughter got her real looking dolly and my son got his power ranger. That is the same year they got quilts from my grandmother that they both still use.

Not long after that Christmas, my daughter asked me if Santa was real. It almost broke my heart to realize she was growing up. I looked at her and asked what she thought. She said she just didnt' know. I told her that the man in the red suit and white beard didn't really exist anymore but that the spirit of him did, that each time someone helped another person or gave from their heart then that was what Santa wanted. She thanked me and took that to her heart. I explained it to my son the same way a year later.

Christmas isn't really about the presents although being able to give them to others is so nice. It isn't about Santa. It is about Christ and being with family in whatever way it works out. It is seeing the joy in a young child's face, the excitement of being together.