Reprint from London Telegraph

As promised, here is the first of my two "encouragements" I found in my Texas basement this week. Both are "Meditations" written by Everson T. Sieunarine who I believe is a vicar in the church of England but I'm not 100% sure.

"A legend has the devil putting up his tools for sale, each with an appropriate sale price. Some of the tools were hatred, dishonesty and jealousy. But isolated from them was one well-worn tool marked at an extremely high price.

The name of the tool was discouragement. When asked why it was priced so high, the devil replied, "Because it is more useful to me than all the others. I can pry open a man's heart with that when other tools don't work. Once inside him do whatever I choose. It is badly worn because I use it on everyone, and the price is so high that it cannot be bought from me."

Discouragement afflicts the best and brightest among us. Spiritual growth can be stifled through a discouraging word. Many important projects came to a halt and many talents are wasted because of the devil's favorite toll - discouragement.

There are many incidents in the Bible where God's servants fell into this abyss of discouragement, especially after they achieved some victories over evil. For example, the prophet Elijah boldly denounced idolatry in the kingdom.

When the queen turned her fury on him, he fled to the wilderness and prayed that he might die. Even Moses, when he led his people out of Egyptian slavery and brought them to the wilderness became discouraged when the people began complaining of their deprivations.

Maybe you once began a good work and are now discouraged. You feel trapped in a cage of deceit and pride others have fashioned. You can re-assess your position and you can find new strength and enthusiasm.

The humiliation and discouragement you now experience may not be a reflection of your character at all. This can be a time to test your character so that your faith can be strengthened for greater trials.

In the book of Acts, which describes the beginning of the early Christian church, the apostles re-named on of their helpers, Barnabas, which means "son of encouragement." Just think how much parents and teachers can encourage or discourage by their words of approbation or condemnation. All of us have beautiful memories of some person who gave us a second chance, went with us an extra mile, tolerated a temper outburst, forgave us for something said or done unwittingly.

This kindness encouraged us and made us see a new greatness in them and new possibilities in ourselves. This is (one of) the ministry Jesus extended to the sinful and hopeless of His day.

Sir John Reith, the first director of the BBC used to say, "I do not like crises, but I do like the opportunities they provide." Do you have a word of encouragement in a crisis?"

What I found in this, re-reading it yesterday, was a bit of conviction as well. Doom and gloom are all that are on the newscasts these days. Watching the Dow Jones is like watching the final drop on "Splash Mountain" at Disney World it seems. It would appear at every turn we are bombarded with negativity - recession, joblessness, higher taxes, debt, foreclosure, greed, warnings of DOOM. It consumes talk at work, Starbucks, with friends, on blogs even. How much am I allowing myself to "buy into" this pessimism, while very real challenges in our nation and our personal finances, a cloud of self-imposed depression based on worldly, out of my control, situations does seem to be whirling aroundme? And how much am I reflecting off this negativity to others?

I admit that it IS easy to become discouraged. It has almost become "patriotic" to be a harbinger of doom and wear our "sackcloth and ashes" just to fit in with the mood of society. Never in MY lifetime has being a light been more important. "Bad times" can bring out the best and worst in us and the struggle is to let the best win over the worst. For those of faith, this is just a blip on the radar. Our generation has been incredibly blessed materially - and I have to ask myself if I've become reliant on these "things" rather than the One who made all things and blessed us with them?

Am I going to be Job's wife...or a Job? I do have a choice. Will I abdicate to the winds of discouragement? Or will I make a conscious choice to encourage and BE encouraged? As in the words of the commonly called "Serenity Prayer", God grant me the serenity to change what I can, accept what I can't and wisdom to know the difference.

Buried Treasure (or "You never know what you'll find in the attic")

I cleaned out my "Texas Basement" recently. What is a Texas Basement you ask? Well, if you live in the far south of the state, you find the water table is too high for basements (unless you want bragging rights to an "indoor swimming pool" of dubious water quality). So the typical basement is not found down here. And due to the heat and humidity, an attic isn't the best solution either. The first time we lived in Houston (back in 1979), I found a fabulous 4 wick candle at an after Christmas sale and packed it away in the attic with all the other decorations. The next Christmas, all I found was a box with a candle-shaped void in it with a wick laying on the bottom. Naive young adult that I was, I wondered WHO had stolen my candle but left the wick?

Oh I miss my brain sometimes. I'm convinced that, though I'm an American, my brain is Australian because it "goes on walkabout" sometimes.

Back on the road of "what point are you trying to make about what a Texas basement is"-ville, a Texas basement is a room upstairs (not down below), usually an attic room or an unfinished "bonus room" that you dry-wall, add heating/air-conditioning to, put down flooring, doorway and electrics to make an Uber-attic - not nice enough to be a proper bedroom but not primitive enough to die of heat or freeze to death when working in there. It utilizes space that would not work for living space due to, say, the angle of the ceiling or awkward room layout or location over a noisy garage door - or in our case, room access is through another bedroom, through a closet and then being located over the aforementioned noisy garage...



And mine is a doozey! It not only has deep shelving with tall spaces in the center of the room, it also has lots of space under the eaves and around the periphery so I can stack, store and pile things and STILL have room to walk around those center shelves. And I also was able to put in a desk/table so I can do gift-wrapping, scrap-booking, etc. Which brings me (finally) to why I'm posting.




All our photographs and "warm fuzzy" family keepsakes are up there - letters received, letters from the kids pushed under doors late at night when they were children, "atta boy" notes to Mike from his Amoco/Bp days, that sort of thing. And I liked to clip interesting magazine and newspaper articles. I was searching for a poem I knew I'd kept somewhere when I came across two newspaper clippings that caught my attention. They not only caught my eye, but I had to sit down and read them through - twice. And I decided to share them because now, more than ever before, did they seem to really speak to not only me but the US in general.

So my next two posts will NOT be authored by me. They will be "reprints" (re-types?) of these two clippings in the hopes that YOU find them as encouraging as I do.

And we all need a little (LOT???) of encouragement these days, right?

And a Texas basement. Definitely a Texas basement.

Where in the world???

Yup, I've been conspicuously absent. "What's with all the photos and little writing recently?" I hear you say?? Well, if a picture is worth a thousand words, I guess I was trying to slide by on those while I've been otherwise engaged.

You see, I've been up in Keller getting my grandbaby fix. For two-and-a-half-glorious-weeks. Mike was able to "bookend" the stay, driving up to Keller with me before heading on his "around the world in ten days" business trip (literally...the man is EXHAUSTED!). In the meantime, I had "face time" with ALL of my children and ALL of my grandchildren - oh the bliss. So I should be posting more in the next few days with more (oh no! you say...) photographs of super-spectacular-stupendously-stellar visits to the zoo, 80th birthday parties (no, it wasn't mine...how dare you ask!!), Valentine's Day preparations, cousin visits, Valentine parties...there is no moss growing under my feet!

Mike and I are Katy-home now. Mike has returned to "the trenches"...oh, I mean work. The back of the Pilot (which was filled to the max) has been unloaded. The dogs are busy sniffing the premises to make sure all is well and to reassert their authority. I'm unpacking, sorting, doing laundry, paper shuffling (oh, I'm great at the paper shuffling thing - proper paper handling? No...but I could win an Oscar for the shuffling bit), trying to psyche myself into going to the grocery store and cleaners and really just wanting to sit on the couch, drink coffee and watch my shows on TiVo as I sink into a deep grandchild/children withdrawal. I have an office with "TAX PREPARATION TIME" written all over it and I'm shutting that out for the time being.

Because in my mind and my heart I'm replaying the past few weeks of being involved once again in the day-to-day lives of my children and grandchildren, thinking about how I once took these responsible adults to preschool as we drove the grands to school, remembering the funny things they did and said through the antics of their children, enjoying the full circle that being privy to the next generation brings. This new generation mirrors the past of their parents and I delight in the feeling that somehow Mike and I have "passed the bar" successfully in this relay race called Life. And feeling so thankful that while we may not be the principle runners anymore, we are still allowed in the race.

I'm a lucky woman.

But I do miss them all.

Whatever is...

...pure and lovely.

I've always loved this photo taken in England when we lived there. It was taken in the Cotswolds when our son and his (then) fiance came to visit in the spring of 2003. This is some of the most tranquil countryside you'll ever see - the beauty of this land is breathtaking.

Move over, Johnny Depp....

...there's a new pirate in town. This is my son, Timothy, the "funnest" dad and uncle ever. And this is how this year's well-dressed dad attends birthday teas for 4 year olds. It hasn't been in People yet, but you wait - it's definitely trending now. Goes with the whole government and the economy thing. Wall Street/Government chic...

For more photos of adults in the "silly" category (and they are all sober!) go to...

Silly...sweet and silly...

This weeks iHeartFaces theme is "Silly". Luke, my 21 month old grandson is nothing if not entertaining these days. This photo was taken at his great-grandfathers 80th birthday party a little over a week ago. Let's just say the kid knows how to enjoy himself at a party. I just wish you could hear him talking too - he's a hoot!

You can read more about it and see the other entries at www.iheartfaces.com or click on the button below.

"Fix-it Friday"

Okay - this is a bit of a strange post. This new site I'm in love with (www.iHeartFaces.com - yes, therapy may be necessary...) has a project today where you download a photo and then use your photo editing software of choice to "tart it up" a bit.

So here's the original:



and here's my "tarted up" version:



I wanted to make her freckles pop - I like red hair and freckles! Anne Shirley from Green Gables, Sarah Ferguson....

So does she or doesn't she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure...and if you don't have a clue what THAT means, I'm going to feel really, really old...

Out of the mouth of babes...

I was driving to dinner at Chili's tonight with Jennifer and the boys in the car. I came to a four way stop which was quite busy. As is my habit, I started counting - it's a way I keep track of when it's my turn to go through. So I went something like, "You're number one, next number two, they're number three, now I'm number four". Ben asked, "Why are you counting, Gramma?" I replied, "So I'll know when it's my turn to go at the four-way stop."

His reply? "Well, Daddy just says, "Come on people! Just GO!"

I died laughing.

And I agree with his Daddy.

Doggone...

My baby - Izzie (yes, she's named after Izzie Stephens on "Grey's Anatomy"...so sue me, I like that show...). She's a miniature schnauzer, one of two we have. She's a mess. But we love her.

Unless she pees on my Persian carpets...

...then we have issues MUCH greater than thinking we can STILL see Denny...

The eyes have it...

Oh, don't they EVER! This is Lleyton, my #3 grandchild. And you can go swimming in those eyes - just like his big sister before him!

Be sure to see to see the entries for this week - they are inspiring!