Do you enjoy reading? I suspect you do, since you are reading my blog! I have loved reading as long as I can remember. Reading takes me all over the world, inside other people's minds and stretches my imagination.
Some of my best childhood memories are reading a huge stack of comic books in my tree house. My friends and I all collected comic books and would swap out stacks at a time. I could spend an entire Saturday or summer vacation day in the tree house with these books.
I had a hammock that stretched between two apple trees in my parents' backyard and that was a perfect place for reading paperback books. I think I read every Grace Livingston Hill book she ever printed in that hammock during the Tween years when you want to learn about love, but don't yet want to talk about it.
I'm terrible about getting names and titles mixed up, so I don't dare try to name the books I loved the best, but there was one that was called something like "My Side of the Mountain" about a boy living in the forest for a year and chronicling his experiences. It was so cool! I read that book over and over until it literally just fell apart. I would take the family dog, a German shepherd named Wolf, with me into the woods and pretend I was that boy all the time. We would build shelters and look for berries and chop down paths with my brothers' boy scout machete and all that fun survival stuff. I hope when kids watch the Survivor Guys on TV these days that it will encourage them to get outside and enjoy nature, too! Somehow, being outside with no signs of urban areas just makes you feel close to God and that as long as you have Him, it's going to be alright. I'm so grateful I had the freedom to roam the woods when I was a kid and that I developed a love for books early on.
Right now, I'm "into" Don Miller and am reading "Searching for God Knows What". I'd recommend any of his books and anything by Francine Rivers or Terry Blackstock.
Get outside today and read!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
I'm a Survivor!
Having breast cancer in 2006 changed my life!
I learned some real lessons that year and the years since that I might not have learned any other way.
I'm sure I'll think of some really cool stuff later on when my computer is not available, but for now, here's what's on my mind.
1. God is good! All the time! Whether sick or well, rich or poor, happy or sad, God is still the same. He holds me in the palm of his hand and can make terrible situations turn out for my good, if I will just let Him.
2. Don't pay medical bills with credit. We might be debt free today if I had not panicked about the bills and used credit to pay for them. One bill that I did set up on payments with the hospital was cut in half after paying payments for one year. I wish I had tried harder to settle my accounts instead of taking the easy and quick way out and racking up debt.
3. The best answer I could come up with when people said they question God about "Why?" is "Why not?" We all live in this fallen world together and we are all terminal. Christ learned obedience through his suffering. If He had to suffer, who am I to think my life should always be easy?
4. Let people help you. You've probably helped others in their time of need and now it's your turn to let them serve you in whatever way they are comfortable. My "Pink Ladies", friends and family united to take care of me, were wonderful examples of being the hands and feet of Christ! They did my housework, my laundry, my meals, kept each other informed of my daily treatments and needs, took my daughte to appointments, sat with me, sent me cards and gifts ... just loved me really well. I cannot think of another time in my life that I felt more loved than I did that year.
5. The world will not fall off its axis if you take a break from all your comittments. Turns out there are other folks out there that can do just as well if not better than me at family dinners, church work, volunteer work and God wants me to step back sometimes and let Him shine through others and let them blessed in the doing as I have been blessed.
6. There is life after cancer. It may not be the life you had before, but life is all about change anyway. Even if you didn't have cancer, your life would have changed over the years. I've stopped waiting for my life to return to normal and learned to accept the new normal.
7. Regardless of treatment options, I'm not leaving this earth until God is ready for me. He knows the number of hairs on my head (OK so I had NO hair there for a while, but you know what I mean) and the numbers of days of my life. Until He calls me home, He has good works already planned for me and I want to be doing them.
8. I can choose Joy! Every day, every breath, my attitude is under my control. There may not be much else that I can really control, but I can choose Joy! It's not the same as being happy. It's more about contentment and seeing all the blessings instead of all the challenges.
9. Walking around bald headed is empowering! I would encourage any chemo patient to just try it! You walk in with a bald head and everyone smiles at you and hugs you and lets us skip the line at Hard Rock Cafe! It's great! Of course, if you are a shy one, this might not apply to you, but I love being the center of attention, so it was a cool perk for me.
10. If you have reconstructive surgery, you will look better in your clothes, but don't expect anything else from it. It just never occurred to me how much numbness would last forever. I'd still have the reconstruction surgery, but it would have been nice to know ahead of time.
I learned some real lessons that year and the years since that I might not have learned any other way.
I'm sure I'll think of some really cool stuff later on when my computer is not available, but for now, here's what's on my mind.
1. God is good! All the time! Whether sick or well, rich or poor, happy or sad, God is still the same. He holds me in the palm of his hand and can make terrible situations turn out for my good, if I will just let Him.
2. Don't pay medical bills with credit. We might be debt free today if I had not panicked about the bills and used credit to pay for them. One bill that I did set up on payments with the hospital was cut in half after paying payments for one year. I wish I had tried harder to settle my accounts instead of taking the easy and quick way out and racking up debt.
3. The best answer I could come up with when people said they question God about "Why?" is "Why not?" We all live in this fallen world together and we are all terminal. Christ learned obedience through his suffering. If He had to suffer, who am I to think my life should always be easy?
4. Let people help you. You've probably helped others in their time of need and now it's your turn to let them serve you in whatever way they are comfortable. My "Pink Ladies", friends and family united to take care of me, were wonderful examples of being the hands and feet of Christ! They did my housework, my laundry, my meals, kept each other informed of my daily treatments and needs, took my daughte to appointments, sat with me, sent me cards and gifts ... just loved me really well. I cannot think of another time in my life that I felt more loved than I did that year.
5. The world will not fall off its axis if you take a break from all your comittments. Turns out there are other folks out there that can do just as well if not better than me at family dinners, church work, volunteer work and God wants me to step back sometimes and let Him shine through others and let them blessed in the doing as I have been blessed.
6. There is life after cancer. It may not be the life you had before, but life is all about change anyway. Even if you didn't have cancer, your life would have changed over the years. I've stopped waiting for my life to return to normal and learned to accept the new normal.
7. Regardless of treatment options, I'm not leaving this earth until God is ready for me. He knows the number of hairs on my head (OK so I had NO hair there for a while, but you know what I mean) and the numbers of days of my life. Until He calls me home, He has good works already planned for me and I want to be doing them.
8. I can choose Joy! Every day, every breath, my attitude is under my control. There may not be much else that I can really control, but I can choose Joy! It's not the same as being happy. It's more about contentment and seeing all the blessings instead of all the challenges.
9. Walking around bald headed is empowering! I would encourage any chemo patient to just try it! You walk in with a bald head and everyone smiles at you and hugs you and lets us skip the line at Hard Rock Cafe! It's great! Of course, if you are a shy one, this might not apply to you, but I love being the center of attention, so it was a cool perk for me.
10. If you have reconstructive surgery, you will look better in your clothes, but don't expect anything else from it. It just never occurred to me how much numbness would last forever. I'd still have the reconstruction surgery, but it would have been nice to know ahead of time.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
A Writer Writes
When I was in high school, I felt destined to be a writer. I've always loved books and could spend hours, days, maybe even weeks in my hammock with a good book and a bag of sunflower seeds. It's one of those joys I discovered early on in my life and seem to just keep returning to at different seasons of my life.
Somehow between going to college, getting married, having a career, having a baby and all that other stuff that makes up the days of our life, writing, and sometimes even reading, was put on the back burner.
Now I find myself at an entirely new stage life. Menopause stinks, but being this age presents so many options. I have more "free" time than I've ever had before. No babies to watch, no money to earn, very little housework with only me and the cats here most of the time, very little cooking with Kev gone so much and plenty of time to commune with God and hang out in my hammock.
Encouraged by my friends Dana and Stacie, who blog almost daily, I've decided that if I want to be a writer, then I should write. Sinners sin. Teachers teach. Plumbers plumb. Singers sing. And writers write.
So I write.
Somehow between going to college, getting married, having a career, having a baby and all that other stuff that makes up the days of our life, writing, and sometimes even reading, was put on the back burner.
Now I find myself at an entirely new stage life. Menopause stinks, but being this age presents so many options. I have more "free" time than I've ever had before. No babies to watch, no money to earn, very little housework with only me and the cats here most of the time, very little cooking with Kev gone so much and plenty of time to commune with God and hang out in my hammock.
Encouraged by my friends Dana and Stacie, who blog almost daily, I've decided that if I want to be a writer, then I should write. Sinners sin. Teachers teach. Plumbers plumb. Singers sing. And writers write.
So I write.
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