Grace

"How you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain. And, so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one big gigantic test followed by one big gigantic lesson. In the end, it all comes down to one word. Grace. It's how you accept winning and losing, good luck and bad luck, the darkness and the light."

This is printed on the bottle of my favorite body wash "Grace."
I never really stopped to read it.
It just simply smells divine.
Today I noticed it.
Now I share it.
Many I know live their lives with amazing grace.
Today I want to mention several:
Barb, my forever friend.
Rex and Amy, Jake's parents.
Renee...my blog friend.

I have noticed your amazing Grace.
It is just simply divine.

A Mother like no other...

Because she's ours!
She put it in writing...NO PARTY!
Everyone is too busy to travel.
Give to a charity to honor me!
I will leave town if you plan a party...

OOPS!
We didn't listen!
You have been at all of ours...
starting with birth!
Happy 80th Mom!
What a weekend it was!
Thanks for the memories....and May God Grant us many more.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner...

Some Splainin' To Do

About my last post -

Jake was my son Brad's friend.

One of his best.

Jake was a friend to many.

He was the kind of kid that... when you saw his shoes at the front door in the morning, indicating he had spent the night in your basement... you smiled.

You knew your child was keeping good company.

His parents are great people.

No one should experience this kind of loss.

This blog was started as a way to sort out my personal feelings, and the twists and turns of life.

I have met many great people and have posted art work here, but it remains, my personal journal of sorts.

I am not here as often as I want, but that means life in being lived, I guess.

I do miss the friends I have made here.

After a week of witnessing a family go through unimaginable grief with grace, strength and love,

I still can't wrap my mind around it.

Looking for the positive -

A community embraced a family in a way I had not experienced before.

A grief stricken family comforted others when they couldn't possibly have had anything left to give.

Teens comforted each other and helped each other stand tall.

Adults that had bad stuff between them, dropped all that and stood shoulder to shoulder.

Love flowed with tears.

And I watched my son become a man

as he took hold of the casket handles, lifted, carried and did one last, most intimate gesture

for a friend he will never forget.

Loss is inevitable, as my family keeps finding out.

It means that you've had many fine people in your life.

You are blessed.

If you are so inclined, please say a prayer for Jake's family and friends.

Hug the ones you love.

A 19-year-old Waterville man was killed Sunday morning on his way to work after his car struck a tree off Monclova Road in Swanton Township, authorities said.

Mr. Childers was traveling west on Monclova Road, west of State Rt. 295, when his car veered off the right side of the roadway. He steered back onto the road but overcorrected, and his Pontiac Grand Am went off the left side of the roadway and struck a tree. He was not wearing a seat belt.

Jacob M. J. Childers, passed away at 6:24 AM August 23rd 2009.

To my 18 year old Brad,

Life definitely isn't always fair, at least in the short run.
But the Bible taught me not to confuse life with God.
When you are confronted with trouble, you don't ask "Why me? Why Jake? Why NOW?"
You ask:
"God, what do you want me to do in this situation?"
Then listen...
I am so very proud of you.
I love you very much.
Listen.
Live right.
Heal.
Remember Jake always.
Mom

Did you ever....

have a sleepless night because your internal thermostat has gone whacko and even though you have the fan pointed directly on you and the air conditioner on high enough for flannels...you are dripping wet every other hour? You get up at 5:00 am because what's the point, and start to get ready for a 9:00 appt only to find that someone hijacked your body during the night and took it to a 5 star restaurant for a 7 course meal and several desserts. Not even the 'fat clothes" look right! Your hair is stringy, circles under your eyes reach your chin and your neck creeks every time you move. One shoe is missing and you remember vaguely seeing the dog with the other one, but you thought you rescued it. You get in your car, adjust the seat because your son borrowed it last night because he had no gas in his. Now YOU have no gas. You take the short cut on fumes, only to find that there is construction on this path that you were unaware of...
You are late, again.
You walk into the bookstore, flustered, embarassed and oh so depressed. And...there she is. Your "appointment". Your friend Wendy...you've been friends since Kindergarten. A long time. She lights up when she sees you. She hugs you with genuine affection. She doesn't notice the fat clothes...or doesn't say it if she does. You share conversation, pictures and life happenings over coffee and a double chocolate cupcake. You laugh! And laugh again. You buy a book to jump start your creativity which has recently taken a hike. You shop for a jeans skirt to hide the extra padding and discover that the fat pants...are a size smaller than you thought! You buy the skirt anyway. You stop for gas on the way home ... and get a surprise 50 cent savings on each gallon with your discount card!
You smile. Really smile.
Life is good after all.

If this has happened to you, you are probably over 50. :-)
I hope you have a Wendy in your life.
Some things are so important ... and the rest... just doesn't matter!
Happy Wednesday!

Have a Happy Week~

Yesterday I watched a small bird, flying very fast, disappear into the canopy of an oak tree. So dense were its leaves that it was impossible to see what happened next, though I can tell you it remained inside.

I wondered how the little bird found its opening through the leaves at such a speed, and then managed to gently align its fragile body on the branch it chose to land upon, all within a fraction of a second.

Not to mention the impossible to imagine flying maneuvers required: the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilizations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct?

Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown when no two are the same?

That little bird just knew.

It had faith, in spite of not being able to see how things would work out, that if (and only if) it stayed the course the details would be taken care of; that an opening would appear and a twig would be found.

In fact, had she slowed down enough to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have lost her lift and fallen to the ground.

Kind of like reaching for your dreams.

Neither memory, nor calculating, nor instincts are the deciding factors, but faith coupled with action.