CATCHING UP ON LIFE

Hello! After another email asking about my blogs, I’m sitting down to connect with you. I don’t even have any great catastrophe to use as an excuse (thank you Jesus!). Blaming it on “life” sounds better than “procrastinating.” :)

Blogs are a struggle for me. I can write books all day long but something short is painful, so I’ve been focusing on other things. Day by day, blogging gets lost in the choices.

Living with my mom is taking a bit more of my time now. At 95 she’s slowing down some, but still has her spark of life and humor. She has never once complained about being legally blind and is a good sport about everything, even when she has to mask. I spend more time with her now, sitting on the porch or in the swing, or taking her out to eat and then walking through Kohls. After breakfast devotions I catch her up on family news. Lunch is followed by reading miracle stories to her from the Guideposts books, compiled from “His Mysterious Ways.” Our lives flow along in our peaceable kingdom.

Since my last post I’ve had my third foot surgery but I’m doing great, and PT is helping get past the limp.

I’m enjoying the last of our peonies in a jar on my desk, they’re both my favorite flower and favorite fragrance, and I’m sorry to see them gone until next spring. I know there are other wonderful flowers, but for me, nothing compares with the beauty and smell of a peony. (Pronounced—PEEony, not peOny, lol.)

I’ve been doing something I’ve never done before, and that is to take a couple of online writing courses. I’ve learned a lot of how I work and think, besides being a help with how I write.

Instead of working on a blog I’ve been working to finish my next book—“How I Fell Into the Spiritual Realm & Decided to Stay.” Every time I think it’s ready, something else comes up. The titles and contents wouldn’t work, and once I finally got past that (by copying and pasting everything into a new template), I learned that it’s twice as long as it should be. Now I’ve moved some chapters into a different book and gotten it down to size. All that’s left is to finish editing to make sure it still flows, and that my footnotes are all there. Soon I’ll have a new book for you!

Where is Jesus in all this daily life stuff? Where he always is—right beside me—loving, chatting, going places, holding, encouraging, giving, laughing, and just “being” with me.

One of my favorite times to enjoy him is at night when I turn out my light ready for sleep. He sits on the bed by me leaning against the pillows, and I’ll roll onto my right side and snuggle against his legs as we talk. He is so lovely I find myself smiling. I love to just be together, even without words, just enjoying him. I’ll tell him to “feel my heart” because it is so full of gratitude I don’t have words to express it. Sometimes I’ll pick up my phone and talk into an email to catch my words and heart. How can he be so good????

One night I wrote this:

As I lay in bed tonight and looked at Jesus (not using spiritual eyes, but looking for his presence and being) I felt drunk. Just looking at him made me grin and feel like I was verging on hysterical laughter over nothing.

It’s a rainy day, cozy inside, and I’m listening to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” as I write this. My mom and I have sat on the porch and watched it rain. I tried to take pictures of the bumblebees on the purple-flowered bush, but all I did was get wet, along with some blurry pictures.

Thank you for hanging with me through the silence. I will try to do better. :)