UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

I can't remember the name!

Dear bloggy friends, hello! I am sitting in my easy chair, with a giant cup of tea. The day is overcast. We’ve had rain. The temps are in the high 50’s F and the birds are singing and chirping, all is peaceful in my little space right now. Roger has gone out to breakfast with  a pal. Buddy and Lucy are sharing my chair as usual so it’s a tight fit. I hear the cat flap so I know that Zeppe is either coming from or going out into the humongous fenced yard/garden that has a bit of everything that might interest him…trees, bird feeders, bushes, shrubs, you get the picture. I don’t have to worry about him. He is our special needs cat. He has one working ear and eye and a twisted jaw all caused by being run into by a car when he was a kitten, before we adopted him from the shelter. Our miracle cat. To look at him you would never know he had disabilities. 

Buddy on one side

Lucy on the other side of me

Zeppe, living in a secure environment 

I have been unsettled this week. As the weather improves I am thinking about what is ahead of me. I am wondering how I can possibly get the property in Maine ready for going on the market to be sold. As much as I hate to cut my ties to the Island I know in my heart that I cannot hold on to it. The distance and cost of maintaining it being the greatest factors. I just don’t want to travel back and forth anymore. Roger can’t travel due to health issues, the family wouldn’t get much use of it, if any, and so, I, alone would be there.  I am on my own and I feel overwhelmed. I expect I will find the energy to accomplish what has to be done once I am there again but right now I feel a sense of helplessness. The scale of the project is what is the most daunting. I pray mostly for wisdom. To find the necessary resources to accomplish the goal. After all, it is on an island we are talking about. 

I have been getting out and about a little bit. I went shopping for clothes, out to eat with friends after church and have made it to the Wednesday morning Bible study group for retirees 3 weeks in a row now. Yes, I am finding comfort in living my faith, and trying to make sense out of what is going on in Europe. It’s so hard to understand why we are reliving history living in a modern world. Especially, as Americans, we are watching it happen from a place of privilege, really, aren’t we? Something we must not take for granted. And we try our best to reach out and help in some practical way. I said in my last post that all we can do is hope and pray. Well, I am now saying, as a Christian, that prayer should not be considered the least of what we can do. Prayer should be at the top of our priorities not the bottom. Yes, I don’t understand what is happening, as I sit in my easy chair and look on in horror as people are suffering. But. God is in control. It’s not the prayers we say that make the difference-it’s the One we pray to. We have to trust in  God. That, I hope is helping us in our anxieties. I know that it helps me cope as we go on in our daily activities. 

 I guess I told you that while staying with Mom during her last years I used to read to her every evening so that as she was trying to go to sleep she could have something to think about. I started off with Ann of Green Gables. My, she loved that book. I couldn’t find many books after that to hold her interest. So, finally I started reading from the Bible. Sadly for both of us, neither of us had read much of it during our lifetime. She loved the stories…especially in Genesis, she also loved Ruth, but most of all she would ask me to read in Psalms. They gave her hope. She had her favorites. I read Psalm 91 at her burial service.  Of course, we loved the story of King David, who, despite his flaws, was loved by God. And David, running for his life, in Psalm 13, would cry out to God…“how long God?” Just remember, God does have the answers to our prayers.

Well, I guess I will end this and go and do something productive…there are no end of projects I could be working on here at home. While I was walking around the property the other day I felt such joy in the colors, especially the yellow here and there. Our first sign of hope that Winter is behind us now.  Each day will bring new colors, new beginnings. 

There you have it my friends, up front and personal today, take good care of yourselves.

💕

Lucy likes to take things slow. 

Quince buds

Washed out daffodils but pretty nonetheless. I need a new big girl camera.

All the Magnolias are getting ready to wow us!

Happy birthday to youngest granddaughter, Lynsey, today. Here she is at her college gala, taken a couple of weeks ago.

I think It’s time to-redecorate the bay window!

Youngest grandson, Josh 14, with his cat, KitKat. (Taken by his brother and shared by his mother!)