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Joyful Halloween

Posted by eph21920 on October 31, 2023 in Children, Family, Fun, Joy, Past

This Halloween morning, my mom was reminiscing about how she celebrated the day when she was a child. She said that her dad always baked some special cookies for the kids who would come to the bakery. But the first memory she had of herself celebrating the holiday was when she was in 8th grade. She went to a Halloween party, but no one dressed up. They played games such as bobbing for apples and circle games. There was also a challenge to see who could jump up and reach a branch on a tree. She tried, but fell and hurt herself. She didn’t like that at all. Also this morning, a memory popped up on social media from last year. I had made some pretty fun Halloween foods. This year, all I could muster was a free donut from the grocery store. But my mom certainly did enjoy it. Later in the afternoon, one of the neighbor ladies brought her granddaughters over for trick or treat. That was fun as there are never any that come in to the relatively closed community. They came in the house and my mom gave them the treats we had ready for them as they made her smile. Later my granddaughter stopped by. She was dressed as Wednesday from the Addams Family and showed her best “non-emotional” face. In all, it was a fun and enjoyable Halloween.

I Found God today in my mom’s joy.

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Faith in Grief

Posted by eph21920 on October 30, 2023 in Death, Faith, Friends, Grateful, Grief, Love, Struggles

I heard from a friend of mine today that her husband passed away. I met them years ago. My mother was participating in the Parkinson’s exercise class and so was my friend’s husband. He was having a very difficult time already back then – particularly with falling. He even fell during the class. My friend did her best to care for him at home until it became too much for her. Then began the search for an appropriate facility which included several moves. He was on Hospice Care for a few years, then off, then back on again. My friend advocated hard for him in the different circumstances and problems that came up. She is a very faithful woman and never turned away from God, despite the struggles and sufferings. When we spoke today, she described the plethora of emotions she felt, which I understood only too well. She was of course sad for the loss of the love of her life. At the same time, she was grateful that he died peacefully and was now freed from the awful disease that slowly took away all that he was. She envisioned him in heaven – vibrant, whole, healed, and reuniting with the loved ones who have gone before him. Her love, faith, and commitment are such an inspiration to me.

I Found God today in a faithful friend.

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Furry Friend and First Snow

Posted by eph21920 on October 29, 2023 in Car, Creation, Family, Weather

Yesterday my son and his girlfriend went out to try a new restaurant. It was pretty far, so he asked if we would watch his dog. Of course we did. It is always nice to spend time with her. She’s a good dog and so fluffy and furry and fun to pet. On their way home, our first snowstorm of the season was just beginning. It took them much longer to get home and they said there were quite a few cars off the road. We were all glad they made it safely. The snow continued during the night and into the morning. I decided not to try to go to church. But, the roads started clearing off later so I was happy to make it to the later Mass. When we chatted on family Zoom in the afternoon, we discovered that both my brother and brother in law were traveling in the weather. Everyone was grateful for safety.

I Found God today in a furry Friend and safe travels.

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Being Renewed

Posted by eph21920 on October 27, 2023 in Answer, Connected, Faith, Family, Home, Prayer

Our parish is having a “Stewardship Renewal” in which parishioners are being asked to prayerfully consider how they can share their gifts and talents with the parish. They sent a mailing that included a lovely magazine type publication that briefly explained the different ministries available to participate in. I had no idea there were so many. When the pastor talked about it during Mass, my mom had a desire to be involved in some way. We decided that since we are pretty faithful pray-ers that we could be part of the parish “Prayer Chain.” We can pray for those people who are requesting specific prayers. Even though we can’t commit to going out and being part of ministry in that way, it feels good to be able to truly make a difference with our prayers.

I Found God today being part of a parish ministry from home.

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Positive Quotes

Posted by eph21920 on October 26, 2023 in Answer, Faith, Friends, Grateful, Hope

I saw several positive quotes today as people are clinging to faith, hope, and love and friends are sharing their wisdom. Here are some of them:

For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women, and men to be loved. Henri Nouwen

One day, you will thank God from saving you from the wrong decision.

When you don’t know what to do, just pray.

If you think you’ve blown God’s plan for your life, rest in this. You, my friend, are not that powerful.

It’s hard to hear God’s voice when you’ve already decided what you want him to say. TobyMac

I Found God today in positive quotes.

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Open Adoption

Posted by eph21920 on October 25, 2023 in Baby, Children, Connected, Family, Generosity, Life, Love

Today a friend of mine told me about a family member who adopted a baby several years ago. The family member knew the parents of the child when the mother was pregnant. They all agreed to have an open adoption. The adoptive parents were in the room when the baby was born and brought it home from the hospital. The child is now in 6th grade and has maintained a relationship with the birth parents as well as the grandparents. It is one large supportive family. We talked about what a loving choice it was for everyone involved. Even though it wasn’t an easy decision and hasn’t been without difficulties as any family, all parties have rallied around the child to do the most loving thing. And they have made connections with others that would never have been made otherwise. It was a beautiful story and witness to the meaning of “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

I Found God today in a beautiful adoption story.

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The Village

Posted by eph21920 on October 24, 2023 in Answer, Generosity, Grateful, Home, Struggles

I have learned that it takes a village not only to raise our children, but to care for our elderly. I am grateful for the nurses who come over, those who bathe my mom, those who come spend time with her, and of course family. Today we had a new addition to that list. My mom’s last haircut was a struggle. It was difficult to find a parking place so my mom could easily get in and out and the length of time from start to finish including the drive was just too overwhelming for her. At that appointment, the hairdresser offered to come to the house. I decided to take her up on the offer and she came over today. My mom said she looked very different than she did in the salon. I think mostly because the whole situation was different. My mom was a little uncomfortable with the idea – she doesn’t really like people fussing over her. But it was definitely a much calmer experience. And mom looked beautiful at the end. I was so grateful for the beautiful, caring, generous hairdresser.

I Found God today in a generous, helpful woman.

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Loving Ways

Posted by eph21920 on October 23, 2023 in Family, Home, Love

I was happy to make a trip to the cabin today. We got the hot water heater replaced that had been in the house for 40 years. We decided to take care of it before there were any problems. While I was there, I did some cleaning. As I went from room to room, I thought about how my mom and dad got everything set up there. In particular, I realized how many things my dad put in place for my mom. For example, they bought a keyboard that would fit in the space. However, there wasn’t a music holder. I don’t know if the keyboard didn’t come with one, or if something happened to it. So, my dad made one and got it attached. It may seem small, but there were many of these small things that I noticed. That was all part of how my dad showed my mom how much he loved her.

I Found God today noticing ways my dad showed his love for my mom.

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Do Your Best

Posted by eph21920 on October 22, 2023 in Answer, Faith, Life

This morning at church, a woman form the parish spoke about her faith journey. She had a favorite saying that I really liked, “Do your best and let God do the rest.” How often I think of God as being so tiny that He can’t take care of things. Or how often I give myself too much credit as the one who is supposed to do everything. Neither extreme is true or healthy.

I Found God today in a reminder of His power.

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Family Adventure

Posted by eph21920 on October 21, 2023 in Birthday, Children, Family, Fun, Grateful, Joy, Life

I reserved an overnight stay at a family hotel that had an indoor adventure and water park. My sons and family were planning on staying overnight last night and celebrating their birthdays. However, one of my sons wasn’t well. So, I cancelled the overnight stay, but took my other son, daughter in law, and two grandchildren to the place just for the afternoon. We had so much fun playing mini golf, bowling, rock climbing, and I even did the ropes course. I had never done that before and thought I would give it a try. Once I was harnessed in and at the top, I remembered how old I was. But I thought of a recent show I saw called “Limitless” with Chris Hemsworth. At first I thought the show was going to be about the Thor actor showing off how Thor-like he really is. But it was almost the opposite. In the first episode that I watched, he admitted that he had always struggled with stress and wanted to learn how to deal with it better. He worked with a psychologist who gave him challenges ending with walking on a crane extended from a skyscraper. The idea was that you can put your body through extremely stressful situations and teach it how to handle it. Then every day life stress won’t affect you as much. Anyways, that’s what I thought about as I made my way from one obstacle to another high above the ground. I focused on how to complete one challenge at a time. I was pretty proud of myself for doing it. Then after all that we spent a couple hours in the water park. We were all exhausted by the end of the evening. This morning my other son was feeling better, so we all went to brunch and to race gocarts. Then we came back to the house to share birthday cake with my sister and mom. It didn’t all go exactly as I planned, but we all had a great time and celebrated another year with my sons.

I Found God today having a couple of days of fun with my family.

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