Last night i got smacked in the face with a woooooooooooooow moment. in 1991, i was blessed to meet who would become my soul sister - the person so much like me, it was like having a blonde twin. She had two kids, I had one, she was married, i was a single mother...and we set out to laugh at the world. We had shopping trips that lasted from 5am to 2am, we got kicked out of Perkins, we were girl scout leaders. Steffie was there when i had kidney stones. Our girls were in first grade together, and she was at my side when i met Tim, and was my maid of honor. Our girls, Ashley Lightner Jenn Aliotta and Talina Walters were in the 1st grade class together with Francine Greene Lutman. The girls grew up with each other until we moved to VA. I went back down to FL when she graduated as a nurse, and we went to Disney with her young son Joshua James Porter (and he kissed a mermaid). She came up with her whole family when i had ben 8 weeks early, a few days after 9/11 and we saw the damage on the Pentagon and mourned as one family and oh, huh, she discovered she was pregnant after leaving our home...we like to believe Zach was a blessing created at our home) They moved to Vermont, on the way there, they stopped by and longer stop was cancelled when she knew in her heart that something was wrong with her young son. She said he changed colors, i didn't see it, but i knew she saw something and they headed up to their new life. A few days later, Zach was diagnosed with Leukemia. At that time, while Jim and Steffie prayed and began the battle of keeping her son alive, i contacted the camping ground where their trailer was at, they waived their fees. I called every church and the support was amazing, including a home rent free. Praise the Lord, Zach is fine. Now, she is in VT, we are here and there have been times when we've been too busy to chat. But last night, they were driving from FL to VT again...and stopped by. And i got to see my best friend as a grandmother. Her daughter had 2 adorable children, and i got to snuggle and love on her son, while my sons got to entertain the very active 3 year old. Seeing Steffie as a grandmother and Ashley as a mom...wow. Time continues to fly. This mom was the little girl that Steffie and i bought Easter dresses for. She looked like a mom, knowing where her active little girl was at all times, smiling at her young son as he fell asleep in my arms...
Time flies....treasure every minute. I love you.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
A staple serves as a reminder.
This morning, during the normal insane moments of the Corner Clan, i was pulling a fundraiser envelope off a calendar and ripped my finger on the staple.
My first thought was "Ouch."
My second thought was "I wonder how many others did that and are thinking of suing the Holocaust Museum for pain and suffering."
Then, while sucking on my finger, i stopped and thought "Well, that put my life in perspective today."
Here i was, sucking on a sore index finger, from a calendar that reminds us one of one the worst times in our history.
A time that highlights the horrors, and the greed of humans. People without a heart made money off of human hair, gold ripped from the mouths of others, from art that was stolen from homes as the owners were thrown into camps and gas chambers. It also highlights the strength in those who lost everything, but fought to survive and go on. People who lost everything, their loved ones, their homes, their everything, but lived on.
Looking around my house, i see furniture and yarn, and pictures of kids who make my life whole. I have plants, i have food in the fridge, i have clean clothes on my back. We don't have the best of everything, but we have enough to get us through the day comfortably.
I think of times i think "I wish i had..." and feel ashamed as i look through the calendar, being reminded of all the indignities suffered by Jews and others in Europe over 75 years ago. I am reminded of a neighbor on Mgr. v/d Wetering Straat, who had a milk pitcher on her window sill, with a picture of lovely woman and her son next to it. The pitcher hadn't been moved since the mother had come over to ask for some milk, then saw the soldiers at her front door, ran out to be with her family, and was never seen again. The couple on the next street over that always wore long sleeves, ashamed even 30 years later, of the numbers tattooed on their arms.
It's so easy to want more. It's so easy to think we deserve more.
Then, with something as simple as a staple, one is reminded of all we have, all we have been given, all we are blessed with.
Matthew 6.26: Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barnds, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they ?
There are times, we may not have enough food to feed our children, but we can reach out to friends, and they can reach out to us, and food is shared among the families. Because it always seems, when you don't have something, a friend is blessed with extra.
When a car breaks down, someone is home for the day and hands you the keys to their car.
When you need long black pants, when you need a lunch box, when you a hug, someone is always there, because He put them there.
God carries us in more ways than we realize. We take so much for granted, we don't think of all the times God put His coat over the puddle so we don't get wet, we don't suffer, we don't lack in what we need.
Life isn't perfect, we have pain, we lack, we feel loss, we suffer hunger in more ways than one...but compared to what others have suffered, we got it okay.
I love you.
My first thought was "Ouch."
My second thought was "I wonder how many others did that and are thinking of suing the Holocaust Museum for pain and suffering."
Then, while sucking on my finger, i stopped and thought "Well, that put my life in perspective today."
Here i was, sucking on a sore index finger, from a calendar that reminds us one of one the worst times in our history.
A time that highlights the horrors, and the greed of humans. People without a heart made money off of human hair, gold ripped from the mouths of others, from art that was stolen from homes as the owners were thrown into camps and gas chambers. It also highlights the strength in those who lost everything, but fought to survive and go on. People who lost everything, their loved ones, their homes, their everything, but lived on.
Looking around my house, i see furniture and yarn, and pictures of kids who make my life whole. I have plants, i have food in the fridge, i have clean clothes on my back. We don't have the best of everything, but we have enough to get us through the day comfortably.
I think of times i think "I wish i had..." and feel ashamed as i look through the calendar, being reminded of all the indignities suffered by Jews and others in Europe over 75 years ago. I am reminded of a neighbor on Mgr. v/d Wetering Straat, who had a milk pitcher on her window sill, with a picture of lovely woman and her son next to it. The pitcher hadn't been moved since the mother had come over to ask for some milk, then saw the soldiers at her front door, ran out to be with her family, and was never seen again. The couple on the next street over that always wore long sleeves, ashamed even 30 years later, of the numbers tattooed on their arms.
It's so easy to want more. It's so easy to think we deserve more.
Then, with something as simple as a staple, one is reminded of all we have, all we have been given, all we are blessed with.
Matthew 6.26: Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barnds, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they ?
There are times, we may not have enough food to feed our children, but we can reach out to friends, and they can reach out to us, and food is shared among the families. Because it always seems, when you don't have something, a friend is blessed with extra.
When a car breaks down, someone is home for the day and hands you the keys to their car.
When you need long black pants, when you need a lunch box, when you a hug, someone is always there, because He put them there.
God carries us in more ways than we realize. We take so much for granted, we don't think of all the times God put His coat over the puddle so we don't get wet, we don't suffer, we don't lack in what we need.
Life isn't perfect, we have pain, we lack, we feel loss, we suffer hunger in more ways than one...but compared to what others have suffered, we got it okay.
I love you.
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