It's Monday

Now what?  Another week ahead.  Two doctors apts this week.... Freezing rain predicted for Tues. and Wed.... but who knows?  Could be snow, sleet, freezing rain, or just plain old rain.  Rain is what we usually get around here..... I love the snow and lived 4 years where it did indeed snow!  The first winter we had 3 feet drop in two days.  It was an amazing introduction to living in the snow! 

Those were interesting years.  My husband Rob, worked for a recreation company and he did campground work in the summer and helped run the kitchen at the ski resort in the winter.  It was FUN!  I rode along in the summer and we met so many wonderful people.  Some we are still in contact with.  In the winter we lived in our RV in a park near the ski resort.  So we had utilities in the winter.  Right across the road was all forest and had great walking paths.  Of course one needed to pay attention as there were cougars, bears, deer, and all sorts of other wildlife.  The deer were so pretty and walked right past our trailer daily.  I could sit inside and watch the wildlife, the trees, the snow, and loved it.  We had a cat then and she would sit on my lap or near my head and watch too.. when the deer were really close, she would sit and her tail would swish as she watched.  Rob shoveled snow every AM and PM so if I wanted to go out, I had a path to follow.  It felt like paradise.

The summers were intersting too.  We lived 3 summers in a campground with no utilities except water and that only worked part of the time.  Interesting though, I felt better there than I had in years anywhere else.  Some one asked me once if I had make any connection to my illness with electricity?  Made me wonder.... I have no idea how electricity could be connected. ( Although in the winter the static electricity was so bad that I actually shorted out our phone!) I had the energy to walk and I did.  I often spent hours picking up garbage campers had left in campsites.  It was a wonderful time.  Time where I didn't have to think and could pray, reflect, and simply enjoy my surroundings.  A time to remember and hang onto now that I'm not nearly so "well". 

It reminds me of something my Mom always said to me.  "This too shall pass".  I hang onto those words, knowing that she knew full well what they meant.  My oldest brother (whom I never met) was killed in a swimming accident on our creek the summer before I was born.  She knew the full meaning of suffering.     And even when she fell and hit her head, she was still walking on her own.  She had a brain bleed and because of her CLL, they couldnt stop the bleeding.  They tried and she did so well after her surgery.  It was a hard blow to know that the bleeding wouldnt stop. She and I were very good friends and I miss her still.  It will be 2 years in April since she died.  She was 93.  Rob and I had lived next door to my parents for 23 years and had taken care of them until we went into the campgrounds.  Our daughter and son in law moved in with them and that allowed us to do some new things.  Dad died in 1998.

Suffering takes on different personalities.  But suffer we do.  Some have  physical problems, others have family issues that take my breath away, some are so locked away mentally that they are in a place of their own, some have things in their lives that I can't fathom.   When I look around, I am thankful that I have my kind of suffering.  Thankful!  I can't imagine going through some of what I see around me.  I do what I can to help others and usually it is prayer.  I can "do" so little else.  Prayer is vital and I am thankful both for the prayers said on my behalf and those I say for others.

Perhaps today, as we come together, we can take a moment and think of someone we know who is suffering and offer up a prayer for them.

Blessings to you today,

Elaine