Luggage

I am going to share some thoughts that I shared with some friends in 2009 as I was waiting to get pathology results after having surgery. During that time of waiting, I did some reading in Max Lucado's book entitled "Traveling Light". This book is about releasing the burdens that we were never intended to bear, and is based on Psalm 23.

The author writes about how we grab our luggage when we first get up in the morning, and carry it with us throughout the day...."The suitcase of guilt. A sack of discontent. You drape a duffel bag of weariness on one shoulder and a hanging bag of grief on the other. Add on a backpack of doubt, an overnight bag of loneliness, and a trunk of fear...No wonder you're so tired at the end of the day. Lugging luggage is exhausting.....God is saying to you, 'Set that stuff down! You're carrying burdens you don't need to bear!'

It is no surprise that the verse which comes next is from Matthew 11:28. You guessed it. That's the one with the invitation to come to Him when we are weary and carrying heavy burdens, as He will give us rest. Our loving Father wants to take our "luggage" and lighten our load.

I suspect that each of us has our own unique set of "luggage" which may vary from day to day. What would it be like to turn over those bags to God and to trust Him with the burdens that we were never intended to bear in the first place? I am tired of lugging them around. Okay. I'll give it a try. Aaaaahhhhh..... It is so freeing to remove that cumbersome load from my weary shoulders. I am able to stand straighter and to walk with a lighter step. It feels like I could take flight at any moment.

Next week I will be in a time of waiting again after having the six-month follow-up mammogram. I pray that God will help me to leave the luggage with Him. After all, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

What is weighing you down? Are you ready to lighten your load?

Purses and Verses

In a January posting, I mentioned the bosom purses that my mom makes to sell and to share with friends. Since some of you asked me about the purses, as well as the poem that accompanies them, I will share about that now.

I believe I wrote in the January posting that the bosom purses were made out of silk. They are actually made out of satin, and come in a variety of colors. Measuring about 2 inches by 3 inches, the purses have snap closures and attach to a bra or slip strap. Their purpose is to hold folding money in a concealed place.

As previously mentioned, a poem accompanies the bosom purses. After I wrote these verses at my mom's request (I do not claim to be Helen Steiner Rice :), a friend (I believe it may have been the famous Pat from our Sandra Sister adventure!) named the poem "Got Bosom?" Here goes:

Let me introduce myself

With this little verse;

Just in case you cannot tell,

I am a bosom purse.

I can hold your extra money

While at home or on a trip.

To get the maximum use of me,

Attach me to your bra or slip.

When you're heading out on a busy day,

Remember, before you depart,

To attach me to my special place

So I can stay very close to your heart.

Just as I have a special place,

You have a special place too,

In the heart of the one who crafted me,

And she wishes God's blessings on you.

Joyful Living

Have you ever noticed that there are people who are "dead" before they physically die? Then there are those who live life to the fullest until the very end. Their cup is always overflowing, and they are truly alive as long as there is one breath left in them.

I am thinking about a dear family friend who entered my life on January 14, 1973. I was 17 years-old, and it was Super Bowl Sunday. My mom and I decided to go visit the new family in the neighborhood on that Sunday afternoon. That is the first clue that I did not come from a family of sports fans. Who drops in for a visit on Super Bowl Sunday?? Well...we did.

The new family was from Florida, and they were sports enthusiasts. You may already know that, in 1973, the Miami Dolphins played in the Super Bowl, defeating the Washington Redskins 14 - 7. (Did I mention that the new family was from Florida?!) This game proved to be Miami's 17th straight victory, and the first ever undefeated season in the NFL.

I am surprised that they forgave us for dropping in on that Sunday afternoon. But, the truth is that our families became dear friends.

"Ma M" had a daughter who was also a junior in high school. We became lifelong friends, even though they only lived in NC for one year, then moved back to Florida.

Ma M "adopted" me as a second daughter, and always made me feel welcome in her home. One of my favorite memories centers around the piano as Ma M loved to sing. And, she sang with gusto. I would play the piano as she belted out songs like "This Was a Real Nice Clambake" and "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say No".

Ma M appreciated beauty. She loved to garden, and grew some of the most gorgeous flowers around.

Ma M had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh. On an occasion when I was spending the night in her home, Louise (her daughter) and I came in to find a bed filled with salt, compliments of Ma M. I am sure that she was in her room having a good belly laugh over that. I recently learned that she had put salt in our bed as Louise had told her that she could not go out with us on that night.

There are so many other thoughts about Ma M that come to mind.....how she treated me (and my three sisters) to trips to Disney World when we graduated from high school......how she mailed the state quarters (one from each U.S. mint) to my son over the last few years....how she included me in a family vacation to Washington, D.C. in 1977, just months before I became an active duty Air Force Nurse.....how she recently sent money to help with tire expenses when she knew that finances were tight.

In the last couple of days, I read a quote which spoke to me...."Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." (Oscar Wilde)

Ma M definitely caused happiness wherever she went.

On Jan 28, 2010 I made a trip to Florida to attend Ma M's funeral. It was a joyful celebration of her life. I know that I will see Ma M again. In fact, I will probably find her singing with gusto. Probably not "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say No." But, definitely something joyful.

Hemorrhoid Tales

As you probably know, Preparation H has been used for many years as a treatment for hemorrhoids. As a young nurse, I worked for about 18 months in a local hospital on a surgical unit, providing preoperative and postoperative care. When patients were admitted to our unit, we would question them about their medical history, current medications, etc. On a particular day, as I was working with a new patient, I asked her about those things. She responded in a serious tone that she had hemorrhoids, and that she used "Presbyterian H" to treat them. That was the day in my nursing career when I learned that being able to put on a "poker face" was a valuable skill in the nursing profession.

Fast forward about seven years. I was working as an Air Force nurse on a Multi-Service Unit in a small hospital in Arkansas. My husband worked in Law Enforcement on the same Air Force base. One day, as I was driving on the base, I failed to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. I cringed as I saw the blue lights flashing on the vehicle that seemed to come out of nowhere.

One of the flight chiefs (who worked with my husband) got out of the patrol car and swaggered to the window on my side of the car. He reminded me of Barney Fife as he had that cocky grin on his face. The flight chief recognized me and said, "This is too good." After making me uncomfortable as he talked to me about stopping completely at the stop signs, he let me off with just a warning.

Months later this same flight chief was admitted to the Multi-Service Unit where I worked. His diagnosis was hemorrhoids, and he was scheduled to have surgery the following day. To say that I was feeling mischievous when I walked down the hall to do his medical history would be a gross understatement. I swaggered into his room with a big smile on my face. You can guess the first words that came out of my mouth....."This is too good".

Since he had only given me a warning, I didn't torment him too much during his stay at the hospital. :)

It is always a good idea to be kind to nurses, as you may need them later. And, you do not want to give them a reason to swagger into your room and say, "This is too good." :)

Unexpected Deliveries

One of my favorite things about being an academic advisor is that I have the privilege of working with many older, "nontraditional" students. Another favorite of mine is finding unexpected humor in my day. And, when those two events occur in the same day, it is a joyful surprise.

Several years ago, a distraught student came to my office after making a trip to another state just south of us to pick up her mother. As the story unfolded, I learned that this student's mother had dementia and resided in a local nursing home. Let me interject that I do not consider dementia to be a funny thing. Back to the story.....

On a certain day of the week, bread was delivered to the nursing home where the student's mother lived. As it turned out, the lady was wandering around, looking for her purse while the bread man was going in and out of the building with his deliveries. When she saw the open door, she wandered out of the building in search of her purse. Again, I know that wandering is a part of dementia and is not a funny thing. Back to the story....

Still in search of the missing purse, the lady spotted another open door. You may have guessed that this door was in the back of the bread truck. So, she climbed in and sat down among the loaves of bread. Unaware of the passenger in the back of his truck, the bread man shut the door and headed on out to make his last delivery which was in South Carolina. Imagine his surprise when he opened the door and discovered this elderly lady perched in the back of his truck!

I am a very visual person. So, at this point in the story, I could feel the laughter welling up inside of me as I imagined some things about this scenario......the face of the delivery man as he opened that door when he got to his next stop.....the sight of this lady sitting in the back of the bread truck..... But, I dared not laugh while the student was relating this story to me as she was in a breathless, frustrated state. The delivery man knew that the lady must have climbed into his truck at the last stop. And, I am sure that the facility where she lived was in a mad search for her. So, he called to let them know about his passenger, and the facility notified the student of her mother's whereabouts. In the midst of her busy day, the student had made a trip to SC to pick up her mother.

As I mentioned, I did not laugh while the student was in my office. But, after she left, I laughed until I cried. As I worked with other students during the day, I would think of things like the lady "loafing" in the bread truck, or the bread delivery man finding an extra set of "buns" in the back of his truck, and I could hardly contain myself until I was alone again and could let that laughter out. It just bubbled up in me like a fountain at the most unexpected times.

I am thinking of the bread truck as a day. Even though we think we know what the day contains, we may find an unexpected delivery when we open the door. And, hopefully, we can find some joy and laughter in the journey.

Comfort Food

On this morning, when there is still ice and snow on the ground, I am pondering the topic of comfort food. I knew what a comfort food felt like and tasted like to me, but was not sure about the actual definition of that term. So, I looked it up and learned that comfort food is "food that is simply prepared and associated with a sense of home or contentment."

That definition makes complete sense to me. It explains why I woke up yesterday as the temperatures had dipped into the teens, knowing that I was going to make chocolate oatmeal cookies. It did not matter that we did not have the ingredients, and that there was ice and snow on the ground. Somehow, I would make those cookies. By the end of the day, there were 23 chocolate oatmeal cookies on a piece of wax paper on the kitchen counter. You are probably familiar with the no bake variety that need to boil exactly one minute. As it turned out, I must have missed the exact part, as they never did firm up. But, that did not discourage us from eating those soft, mushy cookies with a spoon. I believe that chocolate oatmeal cookies are a comfort food for me as my mom made hundreds of them over the years. It was a real treat to discover those delicious cookies waiting for us when we returned home from school. We never knew when Mama was making them. So, it was a delightful surprise when we found them.

A "comfort meal" for me is a big breakfast. As a young girl, I loved the days when I woke up to the smell of a big breakfast cooking. I would lie there in the warmth of my bed for just a few minutes as the delectable smells wafted into my room. Above the sounds of the sizzling bacon, I could usually hear my mom singing a hymn. Her favorite is still "Amazing Grace", and I heard that song often as she was in the kitchen cooking.

As my son goes off to college later this year, I hope he will carry some memories of home that will bring him comfort in the days to come.

Isaiah 66:13a - "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.."