What a ride! 

We are still having unseasonal weather here in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Many days of the same fierce winds, but almost balmy temperatures & hardly any snow. Most of my friends are enjoying our non-winter weather, but I want my winter! But, as the song goes, with minor revisions, "If you can't have the winter you want, love the winter you (don't!) have", or something like that. 😕

But, celebrations of life MUST go on. (Don't you love the sparkly reflections in the windows?? So pretty!)

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🌹💖🌹💖🌹💖🌹💖 

From my Valentine 😘

Summer dreaming miniature rose bush. I know just where I will plant it.

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The above is a dried rose that I sprayed with craft 'matte' spray to preserve it. Dried roses can be as beautiful as real ones. 

I was under the 'non-winter' weather so was not able to make George Washington his cherry pie for his birthday, but I can dream.

During this month I have been doing some heart housecleaning. Actually, it was the in-heart probing searchlight of the Holy Spirit, gently leading me forward & my resistance by going backward. In time. What started it was my twenty year old grandson taking a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. 😮Over nine hundred miles away. 😟By himself. (You're kidding me, right?

NOT!) 😧In the middle of winter. (Non-winter here but real winter could be encountered over nine hundred miles!) 😬To a place he'd never been & didn't know a single person! 😵I could run out of emoji expressions for all of the different emotions I went through. & said nothing. To him it was cool. To him it was an adventure. To him there was nothing to fear. To me, it was fear itself. Boy! Talk about having to "faith my fear" as in my January post! Always another opportunity to practice what we preach, right?? The week of eternity is over as he is safely back home. Never mind that I have to now buy some anti-aging products for the ten years I aged over a span of one week. Boy! What a ride!

I'm sure he gained a lot in different ways on his journey to manhood & hearing the Lord's voice. But my journey went backwards. To his little boy years. To laying out on mattresses in the back yard, camping, looking at the stars, spying sattelites, going for go-cart rides, going fishing, swimming, playing games of Go Fish, reading "Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel MaryAnn" (about a hundred times!) singing songs, his crazy dancing choreography, "Charlie Brown" books, Dairy Queen hamburgers & french fries, Pizza & a movie on Friday nights, the list is endless. It's not "Where are you going, my little one..." anymore. It's 'where have you gone?' & this isn't the first time that I've sung this song. I sang it with each of my children. Seven times. I've sung it with other grandchildren. It has never been easy. Because each time I say 'goodbye', I'm not just saying it to the time or person, I'm also saying it to myself, as that part of my life is over. It feels like I'm always being left behind as I watch that loved one disappearing around the bend, sometimes being so absorbed in their destiny that they don't even wave goodbye. Not being unkind or thoughtless. Just excited about the future. & that's as it should be.  All mothers know this. Our mother's & grandmother's knew it too.  & though I have felt at times like Peter Pan, THE END is only the precursor to THE NEW BEGINNING.

Precursor definition:

"Something that precedes & indicates something approaching."

Actually "The End" is the harbinger for something new. & when the new is Jesus' plan for our lives, you know that it's going to be great! It's the MERRY-go-round ride that never ends! 

"Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh & flourishing..." Psalm 92:13 & 14

 

I have loved the different chapters of my life.  I have gotten to live the life I love. I have made bad, sinful & selfish choices at times & Jesus let me make them. But He was always there to dry the tears from repentance, to bathe me from the dirt & grime of shame & guilt & to make "all things work together for good". As my kids & grandkids are pursuing the unknowns of their future, Jesus will also let them fall, fail at times. But there will also be victories. I will be there for it all, not to judge or criticize, but to love, to pray, to cheer on, to offer the milk & cookies. It's their journey. I'm sort of the silent & invisible partner, except in prayer (& emoji's!) As for me, well, my journey isn't over. Not until Jesus calls me home. &  on that day of my new beginning, when I hit my homerun, as I slide into Homeplate, & pronounced "Safe!" by the Umpire, I will say, with joy forever, "Boy what a ride!"

 

Raintree Perk of the Day:

For (she) will  not dwell unduly on the days of (her) life, because God keeps (her) busy with the JOY of (her) heart."

Ecclesiastes 5:20

It just doesn't get any better than that!