Midweek Thoughts

Dear Ones:

Let me just say, this is way TOO hard! My brother called Mom today, and by the end of the conversation he was crying. He had tried to keyboard a message on his computer, and said he just "couldn't figure out the keys!" Not one of his better days. Of course, this is horribly upsetting to us. Picturing this bright, capable man at his computer, struggling to find the right keys - it's almost more than we can bear! He has said it's too long till we come to visit him in October (during the World Series), and we're beginning to understand what he's trying to convey to us. He confided, "I might be a vegetable by October." So hard!

So now we're contemplating just getting in the car and heading down there, for as long as we need to be there. The hard thing is that his wife is a teacher and has had to go back to her school already to get the classroom set up and ready for her little students (she's teaching kindergarten this year). It's harder for our brother when he's alone all day with his thoughts. He can't do many of the things he used to do to while away the alone time, so it makes for a long and lonely day for him, with nobody there to help or encourage. He was very discouraged and afraid today. We can't stand to think about it! Funny, yesterday I did a lot of thinking about mortality, and now it is being made all to real!

Forgive me for sharing all this heavy stuff, but you are dear friends and I know you are ready to "bear each other's burden's" with us. Talking about it and writing it down is my way of processing "stuff," so please bear with me.

On to the more mundane... You'll be excited to know that the highlight of our day today was a trip to the dump. That's always a fun experience, right? We are cleaning out some of the junk that our son left on our property - just plain junk. And we have more than our share of his dead cars (and boats/trailers), complete with grass growing up around the tires. It makes for a nice white-trash "Dogpatch" look. We'll face the issue of the deceased vehicles later.

Oh, wait - there was one other really exciting thing: I had my haircut and got a perm this morning. But there's sadness connected to that experience, as well. Carol, my haircut gal for the past four years, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last fall, and I learned just this morning that she passed away on July 14. I now am at the mercy of the shears of a sweet SDA girl named Nancy. Just kidding - she does a great job, but I miss my friend, Carol. A hairdresser becomes a friend, and often knows some pretty intimate stuff about you and your family in the process of tending to your hair, am I right? But now, Nancy is becoming my new friend, since she has cut my hair for the past several months.

Something I forgot to include in yesterday's lengthy diatribe: During a brief overnight visit to our little beach house late last week, I locked us out. We were headed to the grocery store half an hour before they closed, and you know that sinking feeling you get when you've just pulled the door shut with that little button pushed in the inside of the doorknob - as you pull the door closed, you know you've just locked yourself out. Through the kitchen window I could see the keys lying on the table (on a ring separate from the car keys). We have that little place secured like Ft. Knox (double locks, sticks in all the windows, etc.), since it sits unattended for long periods of time.

Anyway... I quickly confessed to my husband that I had just locked us out, and he did a superb job of staying calm, even though he was exhausted from the long workday we had just spent. He cranked and jiggled the doorknob (why do we do that when we KNOW it won't help), but of course we were still locked out. In desperation, I tried the house key from home that lives on the ring with the car keys -- nothing! Then I noticed there was another Kwikset key on the ring - my sister's house key. Why not? So I held my breath and tried it, just for fun. I nearly fell over when to my complete amazement, the key turned the knob!! Now, I don't know if by some chance those two keys are really similar, and that's why it worked in that lock (they look NOTHING alike - the "teeth" don't line up AT ALL!). Somehow I prefer to believe I witnessed a little miracle there (not so little, when you're as tired as we were). Either way - THANK YOU, GOD, for caring about the little foxes that want to get in and spoil the vines in my life!

MY TEXT FOR TODAY: Phil. 4:6 (LB)
"Be anxious about nothing. Instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus."