What will you find AMAZING today?

It's the weekend, folks.  What will you find amazing?   Another Giants win? Bob doing our grocery shopping?  Saves us $!  What will be your gift that the day brings?   A chat with a friend? A trip to the mountains? The changing of the leaves?  Only 47 shopping days until Christmas if you keep the Sabbath a day of rest?  Spending time with grandchildren..lucky ducks! Whatever you find to do today, I hope you will see a gift in there somewhere. Then pause and thank the Lord for it.  He is the giver of all good gifts!

Blessings on your day until they are dripping off you onto another and another and another, etc.

Hugs all the way around,
Mimi

A Help to Just imagine

Sometimes I like to listen to the Bible on tape—yes, I know there's lots of websites and the CD versions but those are hard to do in the swing under my oak tree!—to make the Scripture fresh and be renewed by hearing the Bible as if for the very first time or as if I was there when the event was happening.  My prayer, care, and share group has been study Mark and Diligence and we've come to the Mount of Transfiguration—WOW! To have been  mouse on that hill or a hermit in a nearby cave!
 Think about it:  Jesus gets shined up, THE prophets of old show up, and God the Father speaks up!  Now if that doesn't get you excited, check your pulse!   Then the show was over and Jesus told the disciples mums the word.
Just a few thoughts from one who will not give up...fight the good fight of faith. parte de I  Timothy 6:12 check the rest out.
Have an awesome day!
Mimi

Saying Hello to the World

I realized the other day that each of us in my family has a distinct event of saying hello to the world—those times and places we walk into alone, knowing no one.
Here's the first of three blogs with the account of mine. Enjoy and God bless.
I rapped on the door and not waiting for a reply I opened it, saying,” Come on, Marlyne Irene. It’s a beautiful day. You can study later. Let’s go toss the football around.” Flipping the nerf football around as Marlyne finished the bookkeeping problem she was working on, I realized that our friendship was my reward for” saying hello to the world—those times and places we walk into alone, knowing no one. If I hadn’t made the decision to D & E College, I would never have met this dear friend from Cleveland who has since lived in Baltimore for the past 35 years..



It was the fall of 1971, I said hello to the world with no fear or trepidation, no thoughts of loneliness for my family, friends, or the familiar and I said “said adios” to Silver City. I knew I did not want to be in Silver City and so I started driving. Not aimlessly, like the flower power children heading to San Francisco, but east to Elkins, West Virginia. This small town in the hills of almost heaven West Virginia is the home of the prestigious Presbyterian affiliated college of Davis and Elkins, my Dad’s alma mater. It had been the first playground for my older brother Michael. I have been told that he wandered the campus and the neighborhood at 3 and 4 years old and my mother would blow a whistle three times as a “Come home, Michael” signal. What a great idea until other neighborhood mothers picked up the practice!

to be continued...
Hugs, Mimi

Hello World: Here we go!

Jumping into my packed to the gills ten year old VW bug and promising on my Girl Scout honor to not pick up hitchhikers, I started driving east, all the way across Texas—one big state. The 2,000 mile trip to Elkins was broken up by short visits with my grandparents in Little Rock, Arkansas, cousins in Kentucky, and my Aunt Soocie’s family in Charleston, WV. The bug was in need of some mechanical work and the college did not allow freshmen to have cars on campus—even those who had driven across the country to get there—so Aunt Soocie and I made the trek to Elkins in her new VW bug. After driving old blue across country, I thought I was arriving in style. On our way up the mountainous road, my aunt demonstrated how to straighten the curves of the country roads.


Dorm life is an animal of its own—sharing a bedroom with a complete stranger, a bathroom down the hall that typically has a waiting line for the showers, and one telephone in the hall for 18 girls. Remember this was 1971—no cell phones, internet, nor laptops. Most of my memories forty years later have little to do with the academics of my freshman year. Finding myself unprepared academically was a shock, as high school hadn’t taken much effort for me to ace. I quickly decided not to pursue a degree in mathematics which had been my original intent

Hello World:wrap up

Elkins hosts an annual Fall Festival, boasting to be the home of the most magnificent viewing of autumn’s artistic touch on the deciduous trees of the surrounding hills. Indeed, it is a breathtaking sight with the hillsides of orange, yellow, red surrounding Elkins and nearby hamlets of Beverly, Mabel, and Kearns. In 1971, the Fall Festival’s special guest was President Nixon who was in office at that time. The secret service men blended into the campus’ population like oil mixes with water. It was exciting that Davis and Elkins had been selected to host President Nixon’s six hour visit but as a student working in the school cafeteria, I never did see him come through the serving line. I did see his distinctive wave as he was welcomed by the Mountaineers.


The green of Davis and Elkins was sloped, expansive and edged with big maple and oak trees. Before fall gave way to winter, those big trees had to let loose of their leaves, creating a sea of browning orange, red, and yellow leaves. It was a new playground for me. Marlyne and I tossed around the nerf football —the only one we knew we could catch— giving us a reason to run through the quilt of autumn’s glory and not look like we were just playing in the leaves.

Fall’s splendor turned into winter’s reality and this ‘roadrunner’ decided that being in the coldest place in the continental USA—as Elkins was several times that year—was not the notoriety that I appreciated. The crystal clear blue skies of the southwest were nowhere to be found; there was no salsa to be had; and the school offered no classes in the field that I had become interested in pursuing—Social Work. I started looking around for a different school and found Trinity University in San Antonio had a BA in Sociology with a social work emphasis. Close enough—close enough to home and blue skies; close enough to excellent salsa at Mi Tierra; Trinity would accept my credit hours from Davis and Elkins and the summer sessions I attended at Western New Mexico University; and the clincher, reduced tuition for Presbyterian p.k.’s, preacher’s kids.



I sincerely believe that we are given life to enjoy and make it more enjoyable for others.

The best way to do this is to get in the middle of it. Henry L. Harrel, Sr.

Quick pick-me-up

Too often, I opt for the Snickers or the latte when what I really need is a sound bite from God’s Word. Open the Bible to Psalm 119 and take a bite, chew on it for awhile and be refreshed. Or how about the book of Proverbs. Some of those will nail you faster than a fly is attracted to a drop of honey left on the countertop.

Be diligent with your honor. Live true to yourself. Pursue your highest ideals and your best dreams. Honor others; treat people with kindness and integrity. Keep your word. Live your life knowing the small things count. Now that is a step toward the abundant life of John 10:10. When you honor yourself by your thoughts, choices, and actions, you honor God as well. Today is the day to live with honor. Why wait? Done 21 days in a row and it becomes first response.

To me the highest thing after God is my honor. Ludwig Van Beethoven.

So for a pick-me-up that lasts
Forego the caffeine blasts;
Go for strength and power,
Sufficient for any hour.

Hugs around,
Mimi