Children's Sabbath

I was asked by my church to witness the "Children's Sabbath"  and write what I thought.
 

I was wondering "where are the children". We have a small congregation and that is part of what drew me to this particular house of worship. There are few young members and very few children. I am wondering why there is
 

A Garden Party!

Not your typical garden party.
  My yard had become overgrown with weeds. My favorite method of weed control in years past had involved a very large white German Shepard that no longer lives with me.He moved on with his rightful master and is thriving about as well as the weeds he left behind.

I have physical limitations that prevent me from doing the yard work that I so loved to do in the past. It simply broke my heart to see my yard turn into a forest of overgrown weeds and volunteer trees. The vegatables that had long been forgotten and the flowers buried under the brush was a site that I could not bear.So I just left it grow. I know of people that could have helped,and I would mention it in passing conversation,but I never asked for the help.I was raised to be independent, to do for myself, to not ask for help unless it was an matter of life and death.

Complaints from the neighborhood and others started coming in. I felt so helpless that I  could not make my home a beautiful place,like it had been before.

                                                Then  a miracle happened!

As I sat and wondered why I had to suffer and could not do the things I wanted. Even something so simple as pulling a weed was now an impossibility. I said something out loud to a family member.

                                                 I asked for help.

In less than an hour I had many people raking, pruning, trimming,and pulling. I looked out at the work they had done and the workers still going strong. I am truly blessed to have so many people willing to work so hard for me. I can only repay them in hugs and they were all happy to receive payment in full.

I am a poor woman by this worlds standards, but in Love I am the richest woman in the world!

More hugs today as the work continues and the gardener numbers increase!

Be blessed my friends and count the hugs you gave today!

My First Marriage

They are a great couple.
She is in her late forties and he in his mid fifties. When they asked me if I'd preform their wedding I was honored and delighted.They had lived together for years and the world already saw them as united but they wanted to make it "official". They didn't have any specific requests about the ceremony and asked that I just make it short and sweet.


I thought long and hard about the words to say. I thought about the years these two were together and all  they had already been through. I thought about what ,in my mind, makes a great marriage. I remember the troubles that they both dealt with before they met and after they met. I remembered the doctors visits when they were there for each other. and I recalled the special little things they did for each other to show the love they shared.

I read a book once by Steve Harvey called "Act like a lady think like a man". In it he said there were 3 things a man should do: Profess, Protect and Provide. I read about the "Psalms woman" and the list of things a woman should do for her husband. I incorporated these into the vows that I shared at the ceremony.He had done these three things already for her. She had already done these things for him.

I let the people that gathered that day know that these two shared their life in such a way as to make love real.

I am proud to be part of the union of this man and woman.







 

she just "threw up" on me!

Gross,
I know it sounds gross but I don't know how else to explain it.
 It used to be that when I asked someone "How are you" they would respond with a medical complaint. I am not a medical professional and can't really help a persons physical state. I can , however, help with the spiritual and emotional well being of a person. So now I ask " How is your soul ( or spirit) " sometimes I ask "how are you feeling". This almost always results in what I have termed Emotional Vomit.

I say this because people will inevitably spew out the nastiest, most vial emotional pain that they have within them. There are sometimes even "chunks" of the darkest moments in their lives that they had been holding in for  a very long time. I always have to laugh a little inside when they finally get to the "emotional dry-heave". That's when they start to say something and then stop, realizing that they already told the story, or that the perceived problem was really not that big of a thing comparatively.

Strangers in the store or at the pharmacy will often "up-chuck" on me. I was waiting for a prescription once with my sister. A priest is there waiting as well. I asked him " How is your day" and he went Blaaah  and left a big mess of "emotional vomit" all over the place. My sister later asked how I knew him and I told her I had never met him before.
I was at the store and helped a lady who dropped something pick it up and asked "are you okay" and we were there for 30 minutes as she shared everything that had hidden inside her soul since childhood.                

It sort of reminds me of that "Monty Python " skit:
man 1: How are you?
man 2: better.
man 1: better?
man 2: better get a bucket, I'm gonna heave.

I'm not complaining. I will never ask someone how they are feeling or how their spirit is, if I don't have the time to listen. I think most people just want to be heard. They want their pain to be recognized and acknowledged.I feel blessed that I can be there to help make people feel better. Even if it's just to listen.

I want to encourage everyone to stop and listen to each other. When you ask someone "How are you" take a few minutes to hear the response. You may be surprised by the response.

Be there for each other and Be Blessed.

Chaos,Mayhem and Disorder

Someone once said," The devil works with distraction and procrastination", I completely believe this. I haven't posted anything new lately, not because I hadn't thought of anything, Not because I had forgotten. But because I have been distracted.I have been procrastinating.
 My life is filled with chaos. I have many children and friends that depend on me and many obligations that need tending. This distracts me from my writing.
 There has been mayhem in my recent days.Sometimes life throws you curve balls to see if you are paying attention.I must admit that I haven't been paying attention to the important things and had a few unexpected curve balls that I had to chase down.
 Disorder is the way of parenting. Anyone who thinks it's easy to raise a child should have more than one. I love them all deeply even when they go different directions at the same time and I have to stretch my limits of patience to accommodate them.

I will try harder to avoid the distractions and the procrastination from this point going forward. If you have been following my posts, I apologize for the break and will try to do better.

Be Blessed
Cathy A Hayes