Cartoon

My last post reminded me of this cartoon clipping somebody gave me years ago. I love it because it's so true to kitty nature!

Sun Worshipper

Cats have such a talent for finding random sunbeams and settling down to soak up the sun! Cheeky found this spot by the kitchen door and was veritably smiling with contentment. Sometimes I wish I could be a kitty. :-)

January is Almost Over!

January is okay, but I'm always relieved when it's over because it means spring is that much closer! Around here, the bulbs are starting to poke out their pointy heads. We've had some gorgeous sunshine, which means rosy sunsets and crystal clear mountain peaks.

Thanks for the prayers -- my eyes are much, much better! I wore contacts yesterday, which I was so happy about because my glasses vision isn't very good. But I've got this little annoying lump in my throat which doesn't want to go away. Several people in our church had the same thing and told me the sore throat sticks around for awhile after the eyes heal. O joy. So watch out for people with red eyes!! You don't want to get this stuff.

February will be the month of weddings, with my friend Erika getting married this Saturday, and friends Jeremy and Rachel getting married the following Saturday. Happy occasions, especially as I get to take part. ;-) But remember how Scripture says it's better to go into the house of mourning than the house of joy? Well, I guess the joyous weddings were balanced by two funerals last Saturday! Except I only went to one. My dad was fortunate to go to Aunt Eunice's funeral in NH. Wish I could have been there to see all the relatives! My mom and I went to the funeral for our friend Barbara.

Funerals, for me, are a great time to examine my own life, to question what I'll be remembered for. There were many people at this funeral, and the primary characteristic that people remembered about Barbara was love. Unconditional love. She reached out with acceptance to all sorts of people. And most of all, she loved the Lord and loved to share Him with others. I think what people remember about Aunt Eunice's life was love. I didn't know her well, but I was always glad to see her and fondly remember her loving graciousness.

Whether I die this year or in 60 years, I really hope it can be said of me that the consuming passion of my life was Jesus Christ, and that the most obvious quality to others was genuine love for people. All the accomplishments and talents we may have pale in comparison to the importance of those two attributes. I have a long ways to go, but thank God, He promised to finish the good work He began!

Open my eyes...

Today is a little better than the past few days. Why? Because I can keep my eyes open! Do you realize how much we take our eyes for granted? I do anyway. On Saturday morning I woke up with a red, runny left eye. Despite taking some homeopathic drops Lori recommended, it got worse and worse. I played at a restaurant in the evening, which was such bad timing, because I was wearing glasses, my eye looked horrible, I didn't want to look at anybody, and my vision was often impaired by mucuous stuff floating around in my eye. I finally had to stop and leave because it was so bad. I got home around 9 and my mom took me to a clinic where the doctor there diagnosed it as conjunctivitis (infection) and prescribed some antibiotic drops. He said he wouldn't be surprised if the other eye caught it, too.

Sure enough, during church on Sunday, as I either played the piano or listened to the sermon with my eyes closed, I could feel the other eye getting irritated! So Sunday and yesterday were pretty miserable. Oh, I also have a sore throat, which is sort of related. Yesterday I tried to use my eyes as little as possible, which cuts out a lot of activities! I would lie down with my eyes closed, listening to music, or see how much I could walk around without seeing. That certainly makes you more aware of your other senses! Praise the Lord, my eyes are doing a little better this morning, but my throat feels worse, so I'd appreciate prayers for complete healing.

I read in "Streams in the Desert" last night how God allows times of rest in our lives when we think nothing is happening. But the writer compared it to music -- the rests are crucial to the whole composition, just as much as the notes. Trust the "Composer." That was rather timely for me!

Update

Our friend Barbara passed away on Wednesday night. For real this time. Sounds like some good things are happening relationally as a result of her going. Pray for the family.

Is...is he dead?

If you've read Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, you'll appreciate the title. Well, this week isn't only the week of resurrected cars, but people, too! Sort of. We received a report last night from a trustworthy source that a friend of ours, the grandmother of my friends Natalie and Ruth, had passed away after being taken off life support. She's been in the hospital for almost a week after a stent operation sent artery plaque to her brain, affecting several areas and leaving her in a mostly vegetable state. So we received the sad word that she'd passed away and my mom passed on that news to several people, including our church prayer chain.

Imagine our shock when our same informant called this morning to say the lady's actually still alive! She'd received a false report from the woman's daughter-in-law, and discovered the error this morning. So we've been calling people saying she's still alive! She's still in a vegetative state, though, so they'd appreciate prayers for Barbara and her family. There have been some serious relationship rifts that need healing, and we're praying this is one of God's tools to accomplish that.

Now I've got that song "He's Alive!" stuck in my head.

Yikes!

You all have to see this Portland home video of the havoc wrought by the horrible icy roads the past couple days. Go to www.king5.com and at least right now, there's a video clip showing out of control cars on the ice rink roads. Make sure you turn up your sound for extra chilling effect!

Wonder of Wonders...

You may remember last summer or fall when I wrote about my driver's window suddenly not working. So inconvenient when going through a Starbucks drive-thru or the Canadian customs! I had taken the van to a Chevy dealership to get a repair quote. They said it was the motor in the door which controlled the window and the interior lights. The astronomical sum for the part and labor was over $700! I blanched and said I couldn't do it then. So I put it off for months cause there was no way I could come up with that amount of money for that repair, especially after having my brakes worked on.

Well, at some point in the last month, the dealership where my dad got my van called. I'm not sure what they called about, but they talked to my mom. They're very big on service. It's been almost three years since we bought the van there! Anyway, she mentioned something about my window and they said to bring it in there to look at. I hadn't thought about that, but figured I'd do that sometime this month. They called again last week and talked to me, mentioning the problem. They put me in touch with the service manager, who said he could get the part wholesale, it would take about an hour or less of labor (the other place said 3 hours), and the whole thing would be about $220. You better believe I made an appointment right then! I tell ya, it sure pays to just wait and trust when you face a big expense, especially if it has to do with non-emergency car repairs.

So I went in yesterday morning to get the part replaced. I sat in the little waiting room and the mechanic went out to look at the van. After about 5 minutes he came back in with a puzzled expression on his face. He asked, "Does this problem come and go?" or something like that. I said it never worked. Well, the window would go down a little bit, but then I had to restart the car to get it up again. He said that he'd rolled the window down and up with no problem! I picked my jaw up off the floor and said, "You're kidding?!" Nope. Just to be sure, he looked in the door, lubed things up, and pronounced it good. He also showed me where the dome light had gotten turned off. Feeling half amazed and half sheepish, I thanked him profusely (what a mechanic!) and drove off without having paid a cent!! Praise the Lord!! Did God heal my van or was it just a fluke? I'm inclined to believe the former, especially as it was going to severely challenge my bank account for the month to get it fixed. God does provide in mysterious ways!

Baking Queen

I think one of my mom's love languages is baking. Especially baking cakes. She loves any opportunity to whip up something sumptuous, and no one ever complains! The white and orange cake is the famous three-layer orange marmalade cake described so much in Jan Karon's Mitford books. It was wonderful! My mom made it for when our pastor's family (all 11 of them!) came over on New Year's Eve. The decadent chocolate cake is one she made today. The occasion? Lori and Chris are moving! They've been moving little by little to the new house near us, but this evening they'll actually move themselves into it. As soon as my mom knew, she planned what to take over for dinner and promptly made this cake. Isn't she sweet? (No pun intended.) Lori the chocolate-lover should be rather pleased.

The Poem of a Tree

Yes, I did doctor the color on one of these!

What next?

Our weather this winter has been so weird! Snowstorms, windstorms, rainstorms...
We just had another snow storm which didn't yield too many inches of snow, but sure messed up the roads with ice. The worst snow hit during Seattle rush hour last night and snarled up traffic for hours -- the worst some of the newscasters had ever seen.

So that's our excitement. I cancelled my teaching today as I have to drive to my students and many of them live off secluded back roads. Here I stay at home, trying to be productive in other ways, but feeling a little off-track because I'm not doing what I was expecting to do! At least the sun is shining and making everything look beautiful.

In Brokenness You Shine

When life becomes a shattered dream
That's slipping through my trembling hands
I need to know that You are near
To know You see each falling tear
When there is no one else who understands

When I can't find the words to speak
You hear the pain in each heart beat
Before I even call to You
In my deepest hour of need
That's when You come and pour Your mercy on me

Your beauty shines
Your love surroundsd
Where cries of brokenness are found bring hope alive
Help me believe
And trust You one more time
In brokenness You shine
In brokenness You shine

Let comfort be a living thing
A river flowing from my grief
Where thirsty souls can drink their fill
And find in You their heart's release
And through my sorrow show Your freedom and hope

How could I know when others said
A word or two then walked away
That you, the Man of Sorrows
Would come near to stay
You'll always stay

I want to see
Your beauty one more time
In brokenness You shine
In brokenness You shine.

~Steve Green and Doug McKelvey

Yet another song from Steve Green's classicalish album Somewhere Between that has ministered to me during a rough spot in my life.