Over

2013...the year that left me cold.

Elf on the Shelf!

Okay, so whom ever invented Elf on the Shelf I'm happy for you!  Your uber rich because umpteen million of these little devils have been sold to add late night havoc to every mother's day!  Now at the end of my day, usually around 11pm or later I jump up in panic because I didn't do something amazing with the Elf!

My daughter laments to me how her Elf doesn't move from his perch...EVER!  I hear all the tales from school (the other place where kids learn how inadequate you are without actually saying that) as they fill you in with all the amazing details of other kids lives and at this time of year it is Elf!

Last year I managed to pull off a few tricks...nothing major for this craft/elf challenged mother!  I peeled open a chocolate bar and took a bite and set it on Elfs lap, I moved him inside the Playmobile advent calendar drawer, and I think I recall sticking him inside my daughter's Barbie house.

However, this year I really had to up my game.  She is ten this year and I realize that this is probably her last Christmas believing in all things magical and wonderful like Santa, tooth fairies and elves!  So I googled Elf on the Shelf, I poured through Pintrest (thank goodness for Pintrest) and I came up with a doozy that to my delight blew her away this morning!

Ella has a wicked sense of humour so I think I will stick to naughty elf pranks (when I remember or can muster up the enthusiasm) and hopefully build some lasting memories of this Christmas season.

Image of God - Christa Wellls and Nicole Witt

Christa Wells - Weightless

Isn't this great!

“What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?…I avow my faith that we are marching towards better days. Humanity will not be cast down.  We are going on swinging bravely forward along the grand high road and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun.” 

Winston S. Churchill (Dundee, Scotland, on 10 October 1908)

Change

You can feel it, feel it moving closer, you try to run ahead, duck, hide, but change is coming and you can't stop it.  It is like a train gathering speed.  I'm afraid.

Choosing to be Thankful!

There are so many things this past year that have been both sad and tragic.  But, with Thanksgiving this weekend and feeling conflicted on even acknowledging the holiday, I realized that I have so much to be thankful for and appreciative.  It is the hard times, the sorrow, that builds our muscles so to speak; to find joy in this life even when inside you're weeping.  It make us appreciate people and the little things of life that make us happy.

Hindsight

Hindsight is one of those things that can spur change and crush your spirit all at the same time.  If we only knew how precious time is, how choices and decisions we make reach into the future to either soothe us or wound us.  Would we do it differently, would we prioritize people and relationships over others?  All we can do is make the best choices we can with what we know; and do our best.  Sometimes as the saying goes, "your best just isn't good enough" but often it is all we have in the moment and on this crazy journey of life.

Have you seen this Child?? The answer is YES!

Have you seen this child...they are everywhere in your local community...often coming from homes with poverty, parents with addictions, abuse, mental health issues, single parents, the list goes on.

What you have to ask yourself is why we can ignore them??  Why we can justify the latest cool gadget or latte and yet we can't find time or money to support local charities or churches who try to help these children.  

Sorry if I sound cranky today...but I'm tired of hearing from well meaning people that they can't deal with looking at these poor little ones...they would have trouble sleeping...maybe what they really mean is that they don't want to feel bad.  Ignorance is bliss. 

“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”

ABC's

This is what age must learn about:
The ABC of dying.
The going, yet not going,
The loving and leaving,
And the unbearable knowing and knowing” 
― E.B. White

Seeing through a Glass Darkly

We walk through this life making choices every day, hoping that the choices you make, the direction you are going is the right one.  You wake up each day believing you have enough time in your day to be with the ones you love and care about and if you don't there is always tomorrow or the weekend.  Why do we presume this?

In an instant all the choices you have made, the time you invested into things or people that you believed were important come up short when faced with the reality of how fragile our time is here on this earth.  You realize that we can only see what is in front of us today yet we live our lives as if the future is wide open, ours to manage and fill.  We can't presume anything about the future.  You can hope for the future, you can live your life believing in a future, yet acknowledging how limited our view into the future is.

If we knew how much time each of us have would we live differrently?  How would we choose to live?  As a mother whose children have grown in what seems like an instant, I feel time passing me by and I realize as these children grow up that I lose control of their life.  It was our job to keep our children safe, to keep them healthy and happy.  Now I see how limited our control really was.  Life happens, and when reality hits it will take your breath away.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.  1 Cor. 13:12 KJV

Fragile

As days speed up, you realize that time stands still for no one.  We have no control over those we love, no control over those we love from a far, nor those we think we will one day reconnect with.  Time is fleeting, life is fragile.

Shane

Magee, Shane - Death

MAGEE, SHANE - June 25, 2013, in Canada, beloved only son of Bill and Joan Magee, 14 Ganiamore Avenue, Portrush. Will always be lovingly remembered and so sadly missed by his family and many friends here and in Canada. A Service to remember Shane's life will be held in Portstewart Baptist Church on Tuesday 2nd July at 7.00 p.m. Donations, if desired, can be given to Foyle Search and Rescue (Suicide Prevention), c/o Miss Alison Wade, 3 Upper Abbey Street, Coleraine, BT52 1BF. In Heaven God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. Rev. 21 v. 4.

•  Added: 01/07/2013

"Entre Nous"

We are secrets to each other
Each one's life a novel
No one else has read
Even joined in bonds of love
We're linked to one another
By such slender threads

We are planets to each other
Drifting in our orbits
To a brief eclipse
Each of us a world apart
Alone and yet together
Like two passing ships

[Chorus:]
Just between us
I think it's time for us to recognize
The differences we sometimes fear to show
Just between us
I think it's time for us to realize
The spaces in between
Leave room for you and I to grow

We are strangers to each other
Full of sliding panels
An illusion show
Acting well rehearsed routines
Or playing from the heart?
It's hard for one to know

[Chorus]

We are islands to each other
Building hopeful bridges
On a troubled sea
Some are burned or swept away
Some we would not choose
But we're not always free

Rush

You know, I will never be that person whom someone would identify as a"good Christian".  I so often feel my  failings, regret my quick opinions, my anger that sits under the surface ready to rise up when I encounter everything from slow drivers, slow check out lines to blatant injustice, power plays or fake individuals.  I wear my failings quite well.

I continually have to keep handing over my angst to God and ask him to forgive me my negative thoughts and words.  I need to put my head down and concentrate on where God has placed me in the present.  I am blessed and strengthened by great people around me, a church that though not perfect has a huge heart and a caring, strong pastor.  I need to love my wonderful husband and kids more, my family, my close friends who stick by me, and the amazing people I meet almost daily through my volunteer work.  They are my inspirations...be it people that I am blessed to serve or those who work along side me to those who come up and stuff money into my hand to help buy food.

I was feeling strangled lately by my inability to lay down my heartache for the kids in our area who live in situations that would leave you breathless.  I have washed and fed little ones that you know are going home to situations that would break your heart.  But, through prayers of faithful friends and sharing my sadness with those close to me, I was reminded by Jesus that I need to lay it down and trust him.  I can only do what I can do.  I can't fix the situations but I can love these people and do the best I can.

I always silently pray to myself that I...this woefully inadequate, cracked, flawed individual somehow shows through serving others the amazing love that Jesus Christ has for them.  So many people believe they are unworthy of forgiveness or love from God...I hope that I can somehow express to them that God loves them exactly where they are at...He did that for me.