Do I really believe it?

   When I started writing this blog, more than three years ago now, I "named" it Sunshine and Shadows".
   That is because in my mind I've had my fair share of shadows.  BUT I wouldn't have the shadows without the sunshine.
   And where that really all came from was that when I was a senior in high school, the annual staff put these words by my picture - "She meets her trials with a smile and the shadows turn to light".
   That was half a century ago and when I have looked back on those years I can tell you - yep there were shadows.....
   Broken  promises, shattered dreams, issues that gave me major "cause for pause".
   But, as I have often said "the faith that had been instilled in me as a child" kept me ticking.

   Last Thursday I read a blog written by Paula Rhinehart, a speaker and author I enjoy.  As I read "The gentle art of reframing" I thought I do that.  I take lemons and make lemonade. The hook Rhinehart used was that  she wanted to share a bouquet of peonies with a friend and the friend refused them.
   Apparently  peonies draw ants and the beauty of the peonies wasn't worth the trouble.
   I continued to read and was smugly agreeing with her words.
   And then I reached for my recently filled coffee cup.
   The desk, the floor and yes the lap top - suddenly soaked
   Maybe it survived.
   Not a chance.
   Well, the lap top had served me well for more than 6 years.

   The last few days I 've spent much time acquainting myself with a new keyboard and some newer Office Suite programs.  There's still one little glitch with Quicken but eventually I'll get that one straightened out.  And there are really some neat things to appreciate.
   Although I don't really appreciate the fact that I had to spend money that I really didn't believe I had to spend
   So today I re-read that blog.
   Here's a sentence that I liked : "When you are reeling from disappointment and the thing you didn't want to happen has happened, remember that you know (because of all the other times something like this has happened to you) that God is in it." (italics are mine)

Is this a shadow? Well yeah - but the sun is still shining.

I think you might enjoy some of  another Paula's writings:
http://paularinehart.com/category/blog/

It's really about them. . .

Today is my 68th birthday.
Not a real significant birthday except for the fact that any birthday is significant.
But significant to WHOM?
I think significant to the persons who gave one life.
In my case, a boy who was born in St. Nicholas to Ted and Lonnie Huffingham early on a December morning in 1921 - and a girl who was born in Andrews, South Carolina to Ellie and Pauline Nesmith in the Spring of 1923.  This boy (Earl Ray Huffingham) and girl (Iva Louise Nesmith) would meet when he was 8 and she was 6 at the Spring Glen Methodist Church, grow up to become high school sweethearts, marry and have four children - me being their first.
I have often said I wish everyone could have them for parents but I wasn't willing to share them.
That does not mean that I think they were faultless as parents.  I'm a person who understands that none of us are perfect and would be a person who believes what it says in Romans "There is none righteous, no not one".
I do think they did what was right.  When I was growing up there was a little song we knew - "Don't send your kids to Sunday School, get out of bed and take em".  We had heard the Palermo brothers sing that song when we were in Minneapolis, Minnesota at a Gideon convention in 1957.  Even if we never had heard that song, my parents did that anyway.
When my first marriage failed in the early eighties and I was devastated, my parents helped me as I began to realign my life.
As each of my children went to college and married, my parents were supportive as I adjusted to empty nest.
They rejoiced with me when I fell in love with Rich Suhey and wept with me when he died.
And in 2005 when it was time for them to go to "Assisted Living", they accepted my invitation to come and fill my nest.  That gave me the opportunity to share many more memories with them before daddy died in 2009.
And now my mother is 92 plus and last night before I went to bed, I told her thanks for spending so many hours before noon on July 11, 1947 - laboring to birth a 9 lb, 15 oz baby - and more than that for helping me live the life I love!
It may be my birthday - but it's really about them!