It's Been A While . . . .

So, it’s been a while.  I write so often in my heart and head, but seem to struggle with getting the time to put it to keyboard or paper.  I appreciate those of you who encourage me with your comments (mostly on Facebook or in person) to not stray too far from writing.  I am blessed and ministered to by your kind words.  They also spur me on to write. 

Since most of my readers are also friends on Facebook, you know that my recent weeks and months have been taken up with a great deal of change at the office (a move downstairs within the same building, and hiring and training a new Administrative Assistant).  It is absolutely amazing to us how difficult a move could be within the same building, at least when it comes to mail delivery.  We are the only tenant on the first floor, and we continue to use the same locked mailbox as we did when we were on the second floor.  It took multiple weeks and about five trips to the Post Office, by me, Jerry and our Landlord, and a couple trips for the postal supervisor to come see our set up to get our mail flowing again.  Oh yes, the conveniences that automation has brought to our lives!

These are just a few of my favorite people!

There have also been a lot of family connections happening.  I’ve been an airport shuttle driver for several in my sister’s family as they have traveled places near and far.  We have enjoyed (and I mean THOROUGHLY ENJOYED) visits with several of our nieces, got to meet our precious grandniece Valentine, cousins and Jerry’s family in Ohio.  How often I have wished that all my “favorite people” could live in a radius right around me – what delight that would be.  But then I realize by the time you would want to have all those dear to you gathered around you we’d end back up with this world and communities stretched throughout.  So I will cherish the time and opportunities we have to be together.

Last November I wrote about the amazing joy of reconnecting with a young woman who lived with us for a time, and from that reconnection gaining two “daughters of our heart.”  I haven’t written a lot about that  since then because the relationships we are building are so very precious, almost sacred in a way to me.  But trust me when I say that my heart is full of joy as we text, call, facebook and visit together.  I am a blessed woman to have these two young women in my life. 

A photo my Uncle recently uncovered of
my Grandmother and sister and me (I am on the left)

These weeks have also been a season of organization and taking the next steps with more of Mom’s keepsakes, photos and books.  She would often mention the bane of photos being digital because she could not pull them out and look at them anytime she wanted as she could after her film (or as she pronounced it fil-um) was developed.  Now we find ourselves on the other side of the fence wondering what do we do with the hundreds, yes even thousands of photos that are printed and in boxes and albums.  Ah, the challenges among generations doesn’t stop when life on earth does!

Thanks to those of you who voted for my submission entered in a recent writing contest.  I heard from several that the voting was not clear or easy.  I too found the same thing.  Sorry about that, I had no control in that area!  I did not make the final cut.  Earlier in the contest that possibility was sad.  I am totally at peace with it now.  I would like to improve my writing, and I may have gained some expertise in that had I won, but there are other ways to improve; one of which is just to do more.  I am working to make time to do that more regularly again.

In a funny turn of events, about the same time I knew I didn’t win the writing contest I got an email saying I was a winner of a clothing store gift certificate.  At first I thought it was a scam, but then realized I had entered a drawing when shopping online at this merchant.  It was fun to purchase a few new things that weren’t in my budget plans.  I guess the old saying is true, “you win a few, and you loose a few.”

At the risk of loosing the readers I have, I will stop rambling for this evening.  But before I close, here are a few thoughts I’m pondering and hope to write about soon, so please stay tuned! 

• ·      Building community in an age of social media and privacy laws
• ·      Realities of marriage when disability is involved
• ·      What the Bible says about “pondering”
• ·      First World Blessings
•     The addition of a Leap Second