Tuesday, June 30, 2009

A BARGAIN AND A BLESSING



Let me just say that I did not take the decision to start blogging lightly. I pondered over and prayed about the idea for almost one year. I woke up on the morning of Friday, June 19, 2009 with it on my mind and it consumed my thoughts all day long. So, I did what I had to do: I went shopping.

At some point during the morning I kind of subconsciously made my decision. It was quick and painless. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve who thinks Christmas Day will never come. I was so excited and knew this kind of excitement could only mean one thing : I had made the right decision. So during my shopping trip I purchased a “how to book”, Blogging for Dummies. OH YES I DID!

Blogging 101: To get started you will need a computer. Now I felt like the kid who wakes up thinking it is Saturday only to have his mother come in his room and tell him to get out of bed and hustle before he misses the bus. I did not have a personal computer. How can I blog without my own computer? I needed to purchase one. So again while out shopping, I priced laptops. Even though the prices have dropped tremendously over the past few years, I still could not figure out how to fit one into our budget short of feeding my family ramen noodles three times a day for the next month and half.

SO HENCE THE BARGAIN:
I told God right there in the electronics’ department that if He wanted me to do this then He was just going to have to provide me with this pricey little techno-tool.

THUS THE BLESSING:
Late that afternoon , my husband called on his way home from his two hour commute from work with the news that he had just been given a raise. And a bonus! He was oblivious at this point as to anything that had been going on in my day. I purchased the laptop before the weekend was over and before lightning had a chance to strike.

THE INTRODUCTION

Here is some of the good, the bad, and not so much ugly (not yet at least, not this early) about me and my family. My name is Lynn. I am fast approaching the big five O. I am not thrilled about it but figure I have only one other choice: to NOT turn the big five O. My husband and I will celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary this year. We have two children. We live in the South. And when I say south, I mean that we consider South Carolina to be in the North. We live in the house we had built 15 years ago. I work part time as a secretary for a church. I am a neat freak and a list maker. My husband, B, works in another state and commutes to work. He is for the most part light-minded, but can be serious when he needs to be. I have come to depend on this. He treats me like a queen. I have come to depend on this also. He has waaay too many hobbies, but he is also waaay too talented. I would love to share pictures of some of his “creations” in the future. Our son, J, is in college and has only a few short months left to be a teenager. He has wonderful work ethics and is compassionate towards others. He has inherited a touch of his mother’s neatness. His future wife will be forever grateful to me. My daughter, K, is twenty something. She is beautiful, smart, and witty. Everyone who knows her, loves her. I love her. She is also the reason I have created this blog. She chose a path to walk down in her life that caught me by surprise and took my breath away. Because of it, God breathed new life into me and I want to share my journey with you.

Monday, June 29, 2009

I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN (NOT EVEN A SINGLE STEM)

The title of my blog, "Among the Flowers", along with the contents of my first journal may lead one to conclude that they have embarked upon gardener’s delight. Please allow me to put to rest any misconstrued notion that you may possibly have in regards to this matter because I would never want to lead anyone down the path of destruction. Sharing my knowledge of the growing and the caring for vegetation of any kind would only cause weeping and gnashing of teeth. If the two urns on my front porch could talk they would say, “Amen and amen again”. They have been the home to more ferns than I care to talk about. My husband so cleverly calls the gully on the side of our house, “fern gully”, because for a little over fifteen years now it has become the final resting place for these dearly departed porch decorations. It could even be that if only a few of those ferns survived the toss and took root somewhere along “fern gully”- there is - possibly - as I speak (or type) - located on the side of my house - a small business venture!

So what DID prompt me to start blogging? First let me tell you that even though I do not watch the Bachelor or Bachelorette, I do know that at the end of each season or at the finale there is somehow a single rose involved. It is presented to the one chosen. (I think) Before I could get this site up and running, I had some ideas for several posts, but they all sounded like introductions. There was the INTRODUCTION to the INTRODUCTION, the INTRODUCTION, a SEQUEL, and then the FINALE (only without the rose). So without further ado, please allow me to introduce you to (well you know) the introduction.

TO BE CONTINUED...



MY NEXT VICTIM!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

THEN and NOW

I have fond and vivid memories of my great grandparents, Mammy and Pappy. They lived in the country on a dirt road and knew everyone who lived on their road (all three or four of them). I remember their black dog, “Blacky“, Mammy’s bonnets and Pappy’s blue jean overalls. I remember them huddled around the space heater in their bedroom in the wintertime. The room was so hot you felt like you were going to suffocate but didn’t dare walk out of it and into another room because you knew the temperature would drop instantly by at least 50 degrees. I remember them huddled under the shade of an old oak tree in the summertime visiting with family, slicing and serving fresh peaches and watermelon. I remember some of their peculiarities, like the way they grocery shopped together: each pushing separate buggies, buying separate food, paying for it with separate money, and then going home and cooking separate meals. I remember the storm pit and the frightening evening we spent in it during Hurricane Camille. (not a fond memory). And I also remember Mammy’s flower garden…

Every spring she planted a flower garden in her front yard. She toiled and sweated preparing this garden: tilling, planting, watering, and fertilizing. Her efforts produced row after row of many different varieties of beautiful and fragrant flowers planted in no particular order. Just as a vegetable garden is prepared with space to walk in between each row for the picking and gathering of the produce, this garden was also prepared for walking through, not for the picking and gathering (heavens no) but for the admiring and smelling of the fruits of her labor. And this was where you would find her on any given summer day as she continued toiling and sweating in her garden protecting it from the overtake of weeds and “critters“.


I remember THEN wondering WHY she went to all this trouble. All this hard work and nothing to show for it in the end, no fresh vegetables canned or frozen to enjoy throughout the winter. There were no eatable flowers in our salad or frozen in our ice cubes. Who was going to see them? The only others who traveled this road were the few that lived on it and some that were very, very lost. These flowers were not allowed to be picked, so there were no fresh bouquets scattered throughout the house, not even on special occasions. No, they were for the garden only. So, again, why, did she do this over and over again every year?

I purchased a greeting card recently with a poem printed on it written by Helen Steiner Rice.

Among the Flowers

Sometimes when faith is running low
And I cannot fathom why things are so.
I walk among the flowers that grow
And learn the answers to all I would know-
For among my flowers I have come to see
Life’s miracles and mystery.

This card has special meaning to me and a story behind it that I will possibly share at some time in the future, but for NOW, many, many years later, Mammy, I possibly know WHY!