We flew home today after a wonderful week away, on a cruise...we love to take a trip when I am "off" chemo or feeling "Normal". My hair is about 1/2 inch long and fuzzy. I still could not go with out a wig but it feels a little better and not as cold at night. It is amazing how much heat you lose thru your head. I had always heard this but did not really believe it until I did without hair in the winter. This is the third time, but the only time going thru all winter. There was a rough storm and the plane really shook. I was praying all the way from Chattanooga to Nashville. We made it safely!
On the cruise, there was an interdenominational church service on Sunday morning led by the Catholic priest who also did the Catholic service that evening. First time for everything! He led us in a very good church service. He also led the singing.
The first group of islands was Grand Turk..a group of 8 islands. They look very Dutch, and houses painted vivid pastel colors, very much like Bermuda. They belong to England.
I have a friend, Cathy Messecar, who has written a devotional book whose theme is "contentment". I have told about this book, and I took this with me as a nightly devotional. I realized as I read this book how much of my early life was spent on "wants" and what I thought we "needed". Especially when John and I lived away from Nashville for two years, I was lonely. We only had one car, and I was stuck at home with two babies. I needed so many things, I thought. There was such a long time, for about 15 years, that I thought we were seriously deficient in "things we needed". Contentment as does happiness, I learned , comes from within and not from material things. Here we are nearly 50 years later, back to only one car!
We are so blessed to have our time to travel, and God is giving me more years for us to be together. I found out one of the new "greats" will be another girl, giving us four boys and five girls in the "great" generation.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.....I will fear no evil, for you are with me..." Psalm 23: part of verses 1 and 4...my prayer as we fly...and I feel safe!
Change After 30 Years
5 weeks ago
Dear Bev,
ReplyDeleteIt's so good to "hear" from you again. I missed you this past week, but I was thrilled that you were enjoying this wonderful time together. I will not see you tomorrow (well, now it's today) since Alan had his surgery on Friday (25th), and we are still in the 1st to 3rd day post surgery period when being with him every moment is critical for pain meds. I am so thankful that I can nurse him and care for him the same way he cared for me so lovingly through the serious accident and two major surgeries. I appreciate it even more now that I am seeing him in pain.
I so wish I could save my children those years of thinking "things" are needs, but they, like we, will take years of maturing to have that depth of understanding that comes with age and wisdom. We are also back to one car, and for this six weeks that Alan cannot drive, we will depend on others for whatever transportation we have (for your readers I am now visually impaired and no longer drive). Oddly, I'm not feeling deprived (-:
I'm so excited to hear that you were on Grand Turk. My Dad lived on Grand Turk when I was a child, and he was building missile launching pads for the space program. But I never got to go. Lucky you! I loved hearing about it.
Keep spreading the love and peace. You are our guiding light toward Jesus.
Barbara