Scatter the flowers

  "A mother is the truest friend we have." ~Washington Irving Do you remember being separated from your mom when you were little - in a store or a public place?  Were you traumatized as you surfed through knee after knee of full-grown humans that weren't your mom?  Or as a young child ever accidentally grab the hand of an adult that wasn't your parents'? Ahhh!  The horror! I distinctly remember as a young mom leaving a child (or two) at church and driving almost all the way home before I realized they weren't in the third row seat of the new car we just bought.  My defense is I wasn't used to looking in a third row.  And while my daughter was very young and still knew enough to go to the safe Sunday School lady, my son (on a separate occasion) was still up in the tree he climbed and didn't even know he was left behind. My husband says he often thought as a preacher's boy when he didn't think anyone was home that the Rapture happened and he was ...

"And I took the one less traveled by..."  from the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost   Road trips.  You either hate them or you love them.  I married into a family that will go anywhere in a car, anytime, any distance.  They don't bat an eye at traveling cross country from Cali to New England to see the leaves change color.  And they always want to take the obscure routes less traveled (thank you Robert Frost).  They love road trips so much they start planning the next one during the current one.  I, on the other hand, have moved road trips on my "Rating Spectrum for Travel" from ' loathe'  to ' heavily avoid' , just a few notches down from going into a public hot tub (but slightly above eating slimy okra).  Car sickness has been a constant travel companion of mine, along with Flaming Hot Cheetos, lattes and those chocolate covered acai things from Costco.  I can't say for sure whether car sickness comes before or after my ...

  "Does someone need a hug?" ~Elf, to a raccoon Have you hugged today or been hugged?  Hugging is or should be a vital part of our existence.  Science says it produces "cuddle" hormones that relieve stress and endorphins that are more powerful than morphine. Apparently there is a 4/8/12 rule according to  Virginia Satir (author & psychotherapist):  We need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs a day for maintenance, and 12 hugs a day for growth. Sounds like hugging has a lot of benefits.   Don't you wish you could just send or receive hugs to people with more impact than an emoji?  Somehow the impact of 🙏 doesn't seem to convey the emotional support we need in times of distress and anguish.   At times, though well-meaning, the phrase "praying for you" can sometimes seem rote and convenient, when we may want to love on them or be loved by them more fully. How can we support and encourage friends and family when they are reaching out in ...

  "Good Friday is a day of hope disguised as sorrow." ~unknown Good Friday always seemed like an erroneous word to me when I first became a Christian.  It seemed like a day filled with whippings, wrongful accusations, hatred, torture, abuse, and crucifixion for our sinless Savior should never be labeled as good.  But then, as Peter was scolded in Matt 16:23 , I see that I was not setting my mind on things of God, but rather looking at things the way Satan would have them.    Christ Carrying the Cross, Luis de Morales 1565, Getty Museum In order for you and I today (as well as countless others in the past, here now, and in the future) to be able to be reconciled to God, Jesus had to fulfill these prophecies and die.  He had to sacrifice His sinless Self for our sin, deny His own comfort and power to overcome their evil, so we could be reconciled back with God and spend eternity in heaven. "So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal lif...

  "Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do." ~ St. Thomas Aquinas,     Thrice.  A magical number.  Research experiments are repeated three times to validate and verify. "Triangulate your evidence" was a phrase I used often in math class. If you recognize something that has bothered you three times, you find a solution for it.  Lionel Richie says you're three times a lady.  Lynyrd Skynyrd only needed three steps towards the door.  Don't forget the three coins in the fountain probably thrown by the three amigos.  And I would be remiss if I did not mention the delicious tres leches dessert.  OK, I'll stop. So what's the big deal about the number three? Well, besides the fact that it represents stability, the three primary colors, and defines the three dimensions we all live in, we put our faith in the Trinity.   Speaking...

  "The world needs strong women.  Women who will lift and build others, who will love and be loved.  Women who live bravely, both tender and fierce. Women of indomitable will." ~unknown "I'm tired and I don't care anymore".  Whaaaat? Those words have never come out of my mouth or floated in my head.  Not as an exhausted mom of 3 young kids; not as an 8th grade math teacher who just can't take it anymore in October, February and May; not as a small business owner attempting to get bookkeeping records to my accountant, every year at this time.  Never.   These words may have been offered up by me (and I'm guessing some of you) as a gesture of just plain giving up, surrendering all care, and admitting defeat in whatever the battle is.  Because I was just too darn exhausted.  Not exactly "indomitable will". Not the best battle tactic.  But how do we fight fatigue and our weak lackadaisical responses? Here we are in Women's History Month ...