Laughing at Myself..and Babbling to Myself

I just read my last two posts. I'm laughing (at least on the inside.) I want to be more like Jesus. It seemed to last about a month. Then, I wanted great hair. Am I a typical, shallow, dufus or what??? I suppose it is possible to be more like Jesus AND have pretty hair........isn't it?? Let's take a poll. Vote on whether or not people with pretty hair can be more like Jesus. Let's take another poll. Vote on this: Can people who think it would be fun to take a poll on whether or not you can be more like Jesus and have pretty hair....be more like Jesus? Oh, I really hope so.

Well, anyway.....

If anyone else on the planet is reading this, you need to visit my friend Natascia's blog called "Let's Face It..." and read what she wrote about her daughter swallowing a coin. It is great!! She is so talented. There is a link to her blog here on my site. Natascia, you are growing in your faith and you don't even know it!!!

Tonight my mom turned 74. She is on a walker, but still well enough to go out for Chinese food and have a party with us. I don't know why, but somehow I can be with my mom and look right past her handicap. When I say "look past", I mean that I totally ignore it...until it slaps me in the face like it has done lately. My mom seems to be in a very slow down-hill slide. Her health fails a little more each day. If I had a video of her from 4 years ago, her decline would be very apparent, I fear. If I let myself think too deeply about it, I get very sad. My mom was such a hard worker and always dreamed of traveling when she had the chance. Looks like Providence decided she'd stay close to home. I grieve that for her. However, we are all headed down some path of decline. (I'm just a ball of light and joy tonight, huh.) Really, I don't mind the thought. I am becoming quite comfortable with my own limitations...and I think that I, too, am on a slow, down-hill slide (in more areas than just my health sometimes.) My prayer for myself, and I guess for my mom too, is that we seek God's light of truth to transform the way we see our decline.

There are wonderful lessons in nature that would teach us something about aging and death. The trees in the fall are prettier to me than any time of year...including spring. (Look at the picture of our crabapple tree just two weeks ago and you'll have something to compare to my feelings for fall.) Even the "dead" look of trees in the winter have their own haunting beauty. There are many comparisons to life in the changing of the trees...but the one that is most striking to me is that in order for there to be something beautiful and new, fresh and stunning, full of life and fruit, ....there has to be something changed, cold, and dead. Does anyone ever wonder that spring and summer will not come after a winter? If a tree is still rooted and standing, is it strange that new growth will appear with the warming of the earth? Life will come after death for those of us who are still in the "root" or The Vine...and it will be beautiful, stunning, fresh, full of life, fruitful...and wonderful. Haven't you read about people who have had near death experiences and they speak of the "warm light" that they were drawn toward? There will be warmth, newness, and life after death. In the meantime, may we all be enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit to enjoy the changes that are inevitable in life and find beauty, even in the death of things.

As for my hair,....well.............it grows. (Thank goodness!!!)

It was 37 degrees when we drove home from mother's house tonight. Mom told me that there'd be another freeze and that I shouldn't plant my plants yet (that was about 2 weeks ago.) I thought that surely, since it had been almost 90 degrees off and on for the two weeks prior, no more freezing weather would be in the forecast. When am I going to learn to listen to my mother????????

Last note: (and it really doesn't matter...I'm just writing it for myself to read)... It was 4 years ago yesterday, April 5, 2003, that we moved to Searcy from Magnolia. Time has really flown since then. My children have grown so much. I've grown so much (literally and metaphorically speaking.) ha

Ciao!!...and for you English speaking people: Bye