It's been too long...but we're back!

If you're looking to make lemonade from the lemons life hands you, reflect upon the beauty God has blessed us with in our everyday lives, or just grab a mug and enjoy the moment...this is the place to do it! 

It's been almost a year since I told myself I was going to put into words the "Rustic Graces" of my life...starting tonight I will be back refelcting on the gifts of life as "I" see them each and every day...I hope you'll join me in catching up.

Please feel free to share this blog...see you soon!

Such words to try to live by each day...."Just Think"

Just Think

By Roy Lessin

Just think,
you're here not by chance,
but by God's choosing.
His hand formed you
and made you the person you are.
He compares you to no one else.
You are one of a kind.
You lack nothing
that His grace can't give you.
He has allowed you to be here
at this time in history
to fulfill His special purpose
for this generation.

We start to sound like our parents when we question if this generation will ever understand we are here to fulfill a special purpose don't we......

Most of us leave this life without even knowing we did fulfill and make an impression on the next generation, we want to believe it but those words are rarely spoken....

It's when we've read an obituary that we usually step up and say you know.... Mr. and Mrs. So and So was always so nice to feed me on Wednesday nights with their family when my parents worked nights, or Mr and Mrs So and So would pack you into their Volkswagen to take you to church with their family, or my friend So and So who would often disagree with me but always take my side, then gently reminded me why I might be wrong. 

It's the So and So's in our lives that used "his grace" to fulfill his special purpose in our lives.....to "my" personal So and So's  who are mostly gone, I hope you know that I often "just think".....and try to pay it forward, even if others don't always understand that's what I am trying to do....just goes to show, someday I will be in good company when I become someone's So and So.

Until then I will remember "I am not here by chance" and neither are YOU.

The Fork in the Road......

Ever wonder how many forks in the road there are in life as you travel along? 

The one where you decide if you should keep crawling or take that scary first step away from the hand that holds you tight.  The one where you again let go of that same hand and march proudly into school for the first day, even though you don't know everything you think you should know. How about when you go to church camp that first night in the dark, surrounded with all your friends you wish for that same moonbeam that streams through your window at home to shine it's light and keep you safe. Before you know it your are off to middle school where you become a kindergartener all over again, the bottom of the heap and once again your first day you find comfort in coming home to baked cookies and a glass of milk on the table. Then you are soon in high, you get through your freshman year, how many times does one person have to go through kindergarten anyway?  You press on to your sophomore year and find you want to break away from those hands that held you more and more everyday, to find a sense of freedom that you think only you has ever experienced.
 
By now you have so many forks you think you are ready to have your own dinner party as you have enough forks to serve all who will walk along your path.   Instead of reaching for a hand you start to become the outstretched hand and extend it to others.  You have friends with less than you, be it fortune, parents, talent or faith.

 By reaching out your hand you risk being vulnerable, but without taking a risk you might as well take the other fork in the road, put a shell on your back and live like a snail, crawling along at a slow pace, protected from all the elements of the world and never learn how to say.....

Thank you world for accepting me for who I am, for those of you who took me along your on journey until you thought I was strong enough to walk my own journey and showing me which path was the lighted path to travel.  The one on which each step formed respect both self and for others, confidence and the knowledge to know right from wrong.

Each one of us could have been born at the fork in the road where it lead to drugs, alchohol and violence could have faced us at every turn, where the path became darker and darker as we thought things should only go our way, where people never outstretched a hand just before we had a swamp to cross. 

If you know someone on that path, extend your hand, shine a light to allow them to see there are two forks in the road the one they chose and one they can choose...they and you can make a difference, it might not be the easiest thing to do, could become the least rewarding at the moment because it's always easier to take the path we can see the end, but if you're willing to step out of your comfort zone, I'm willing to bet someone will walk the right path with you....and if you see only one set of foot prints at the end of your journey, don't despair, "it was then that I carried you."

Great and Grand moments....

On busy days we rush through life, running errands, attending meetings, making time for online activities, eating, exercising, doing laundry and readying for bed....in all of that we look for "great and grand" moments.

They are there, you know they are yet we seem to rush by them.  It might have been a "great" meeting, you might have exercised to a "grand" old song you acknowledge the moments, yet you think of others....

Moments where "great and grand" were clearly noticable, not rushed through, not just acknowledged but lived. 

The above picture is one of those "great and grand" moments.  Silly and scary costumes, sweet and sour candy, squishy and squashy objects, huggie and kissie times with "great grandma Susan and grandma Judy"... those memories of long ago and not so long ago creep in and flood the memory banks from time to time.

Even when you think life is not so "great" and things are not so "grand" they are, don't let the good times rush by, stop, drink a million cups of pretend tea, blow a bazillion bubbles, wipe away tears, hug til your arms hurt and share the "great and grand" times life has to offer....you never know when you'll need those memories......

Mammograms and Tapioca, something comforting about both.....

I know, I know you are thinking has she lost it with these late night ramblings, tapioca and mammograms in the same daily thought? 

Today was my semi annual mammogram.  Just routine, something you do for you, for your family and for the generations after you...I've been called "dense" on more than one occassion, thankfully they have always been referrring to my breasts.  You would think that is a good thing you know, perhaps making you a "D" instead of a "B or C", yet that's not how it works, it actually makes it harder to examine, they feel more like,  you guessed it, lumpy, tapioca pudding... 

Looking back on growing up (if you're 50 or older) do you remember the simmering of tapioca on the stove? Not the kind you pull off the grocery shelf with just a few "fish eggs" in a container of goop, but an actual, yellow, sweet, sticky, "full" of lumpy fish eggs pot of tapioca simmering on grandma's stove...ah, the memories of things that simmered on that stove.

As I am awaiting my results I think back on simplier times, when homes simmered of things like tapioca pudding, people sat on the front porch and chatted with neighbors and  they "wrote" letters to far away family members and dropped them in the mailbox...me, tonight I sit in the recliner, talking to people far and wide via the laptop and pulled the little tin foil lid from the container of no sugar added tapioca "goop"....

My mother had breast cancer, she was one of the lucky ones, she survived it at the time, diabetes and a broken heart also made for a challenging life....(a post for another time)

I know there are comforting times in tapioca and mammograms, they are the past and the future...a good way of measuring time doesn't stand still and we are alive.

*Remember to put your mammogram appointment in the smart phone and add some tapioca to the shopping list, app.......you'll be glad you did.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just what makes  a "heart happy day"...is it the bouquet sitting on a desk , although beautiful and a welcome addition to any winter day it seems if you dig deep it is much more than that.

It's the heart that gave your teenage sons each a silver baby cup with their birthdays inscribed to let them know your family was about to be reborn and starting anew on your wedding day.

It's the heart that gave you a baby calf to bottle feed, pigs to chase, and puppies from the pound.

It's the heart that held you and your sons up as you buried a nephew just starting his life, a heart that picked you up off the floor as you sat helpless at the loss of your best friend, who brushed the tears away as you buried not one, but two mothers and countless family members.

It's the heart that takes you to new heights, roller coasters in Las Vegas, para sailing in Mexico and soaring towers in Chicago.

It's the heart that holds the tiny hands of your children's children in his and calls himself "grandpa", the heart that catches fireflies, holds the back of the bicycle as you learn to ride, takes you to the zoo, sits through sporting events cheering you on or rocks you to sleep.

It's the heart that bakes cookies, keeps meals in the crock pot and fills the swimming pool, changes the oil in your car, washes the windshield and pumps gas on a cold day.  

It's the heart that watches you make mistakes, lives through your mood swings, listens to you grumble and never complains.

So for every beautiful bouquet, box of chocolates and card given the past 25 years I say thank you....but for all the above, I say.... "I Love You", Valentine!

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Here it is my first post with my mug and I in the middle of the day....and I sit here struggling to get the words out of my head and into print.

I am reminding myself the beauty of it all is they don't have to rhyme, make sense to anyone but me or be perfect.........and then suddenly there's a little voice that shouts from the other side of the room "it's perfect"!

Holding up a little circle of crocheted yarn that she and I have been working on that she turned into a collar for Belle our little rat terrier, as lopsided as it was it was perfect in her little mind and so shall the words be that fall upon the pages as my days unfold.......

If you feel so inclined to grab a mug in the morning, at noon or midnight and join me I would feel blessed to share the "rustic graces" that bless each and every one of my days as they come by, from the rusty horse shoe hanging on the garden gate to the wonders of a sunset....it's all that's packed in between that really matters.

Again, it doesn't have to make sense or be perfect, but somewhere along the way it all is....that's how you count your blessings!


Judy~Rustic Graces