Showing posts with label journeys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journeys. Show all posts

Thursday, June 21, 2007

As the journeys continue . . .

A dear, sweet, precious friend ended her earthly journey last week . . . one of the most beloved of all our nurses left us very unexpectedly. She worked Thursday as usual and was her normal fun-loving self. After the day's work, she sat in her recliner with her Yorkie "children", ate a bowl of ice cream - one of her favorite vices - and . . . went home. Journey ended. She was ready emotionally, having lost her beloved husband about a year previously. More importantly, she was ready spiritually. She truly went home.

She was 74. We are all still in shock. We are grieving at our loss, for we know she has gone to a better place. We will all miss Becky.

The little birdies left the nest last Sunday morning - around 5 or so in the morning I heard much wren music and noise and speculated that the babes were being ousted from the nest. It was fairly late in the evening - like 7 pm or so - before I had a chance to peep into the backpack home to find it empty. Sniff, sniff. But maybe they'll rear their next round of babies in there, too!! I hope, I hope!!

One journey ended, another one begun.

I thought I'd stick in a picture of some handkerchiefs belonging to my grandmother (and maybe great-grandmother) that have lived in a lovely cardboard box (I forget whether it originally held candy or fruitcake or what) as far back as I can remember into the dim reaches of my childhood. Nonnie always had this box on her dresser, a lovely huge walnut thing with a tremendous mirror, and I've treasured it for over 30 years myself. And, BTW - they still live in the same box!


The lighter strip across the top is where something was laid on it for a time...maybe a mirror handle or something....the thing in the frame just barely visible is a note my grandmother wrote on the back of a picture of my uncle in the Marines just after Pearl Harbor in 1941....these are things with no monetary value but with great sentimental value....items from journeys . . .

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Journeying means . . .




LIFE itself is a journey, rather than a destination - we're all somewhere on the journey. There's no such thing as "having arrived" - duh! We're going from being young to being older, we're a bit further down the road toward heaven, etc. Hobbies like quilting are journeys, too - you have an idea or see a pattern, you fondle your fabric and pull out bits and pieces and make some cuts....then you put some of them together and marvel at the wonder colors and patterns produce! You still don't have a quilt, though - you're on the journey to a quilt, and it is wonderful. You pick an embroidery project like the wonderful Crabapple Hill patterns...you transfer the pattern and find the floss....and enjoy the stitching - again, it's the journey you're on and the journey you're enjoying.
I love the commercial for some kind of celebrity cruising where after having folks comment on their special celebrity treatment there is the man, obviously back in his everyday environment at the window saying, "I look on this as a temporary exile." Well, that's exactly what it is!!! We're here on earth temporarily! We don't live here forever - we're pilgrims on a journey. And, O, how sweet it can be! I am so blessed with my family, my church family, the beautiful spot on earth where we live...and on and on!! Yet wonderful as this is, it's nothing to compare with what's ahead! The journey is often wonderful, sometimes very, very difficult....but it is leading to the best of all possible destinations.

Here are a couple of pics . . . I hope . . .