My Empty Nest: April 2008

Sisters are Forever

I grew up in a family which included three girls and then the OC and I raised a family of four girls. After enjoying another lovely long conversation with one of my geographically distant sisters this afternoon, I was reminded of one of the homemade posters I'd had on the wall when our girls were young and going through their turbulent teen years.

Friends come and go, but

SISTERS ARE FOREVER!

My prayer is that, throughout all their lives, they'll continue to remember what took me years, nay, decades to realize.

Stepping out of my comfort zone

I don't mind helping to organize events but I really, really, really mind being in charge of organizing...anything. But somehow I ended up being the primary organizer for a 24 hour prayer vigil at our church. It's now over. Every hour had 2-10 participants, many people were greatly blessed, and, with God's help...I seem to have actually survived. Whew!

So now I wonder; why did I worry and stress so and lose so much sleep over inspiring people to participate when our Beloved Father, who wants nothing more than to have His precious children slow down long enough to talk with Him, was perfectly capable of getting people (even out of their beds!) to come together and join in the conversations with Him!

I have to send you to this blog

Sunny is one of my favorite people. She doesn't post often on this particular blog, but what she does say there is definitely worth reading!

Thanks, Sunny, for pointing out the value of winter

Thanks Sunny for sharing these quotes:

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

Anne Bradstreet

"A RICH PERSON IS NOT THE ONE WHO HAS THE MOST, BUT THE ONE WHO NEEDS THE LEAST"

anonymous

"Character is, for the most part, simply habit become fixed."

C.H. Parkhurst

A pictureless bird story

While driving Gram from church back to her assisted living center, I found myself open-mouthed at the sight of a beautiful male turkey desperately beating against a chain-link fence trying to get inside. That silly fellow didn't realize he was already free. I've occasionally seen wild turkeys roaming about fields and beside roadways, but this was the first time I've seen a domesticated turkey loose in the (not so) wild.

Unfortunately, there was too much traffic in that busy commercial area to allow me to slow down enough to grab my camera and take a picture.

I wonder what happened to him. And I wonder how much energy I waste needlessly bashing against all sorts of "walls" because of not opening my eyes to something larger than my own familiar little world.