Loving You is the only thing I want to do, but how do I love You when I cannot see You, or touch You? Some say You do not exist, but I know they are wrong. Yet I long to love You so completely that there is not a moment that passes that I do […]
Loving You — Source of Inspiration
I fight
the good fight
At least
I tell myself that
I fall down
and get up
Fall down
get up
I stumble
more often
than I care to admit
I win most of
the arguments
with myself
these days
Other days
I'm just not up
for another skirmish
The war
rages on
Each day
I tell myself that
'today I will do better'
And sometimes
it's true
Copyright (C) 2021 Penny Wilson
I recently saw the movie “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”. A lovely movie about Mr. Rogers and a magazine writer. (if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it) In that movie was a scene where Tom Hanks, who plays Mr. Rogers, is reading a list of names from a book. At the end of the list he says “thank you, God.” The movie is wonderful, but this scene really stuck with me.
The culmination of our experiences is what makes us, us. We’ve all heard this. I’ve heard it so many times that it didn’t make an impact on me any more. That is, until I started thinking back to all of the people that shaped me into who I am today.
There are those in the past that have done us wrong, hurt us. We all have these people in our lives. It hurt and at the time it was an awful thing to go through. But that experience, like all the others in our lives, have shaped us to be who we are.
So the next time you look back at the people in your life, those that hurt you, those that did you wrong, thank them. Thank them and thank God for bringing those people into your life. Because these people had a hand in shaping you into the incredible human being that you are today.
Just a partial list:
Denise, David D., Bruce, Roy, Mom, Lloyd, Bert, Mrs. Carpenter, Mr. Bruin, Carlos, Teresa, Diana, Nancy, Bobby, Norman, David C., John, Johnny, Cara, Gill, Heather, Chad, Sandy, Dave M., Robert, Ron, Bruce W., Frenchy, Diane, Ruby, Geno, Monk, Barbie, Ron, Bret, Tracy, Chuck, Audrey, Janette, Carlos, Bobby…
Thank you, God, for bringing these people into my life.
Copyright (C) 2020 Penny Wilson
I've knocked my head against the wall until I bleed. This is what it took to get my attention. I seemed to take the hard way, the road less traveled. I've started my life over again many, many times. Started from scratch. From nothing. Each time a little further along this Crooked Path. I began as a lump of clay, cast into the mud along with the rest of the muck. I managed to crawl upon the shore and bake myself in the sun until I was cracked and bleeding. This is a process I repeated over and over again. I would then retreat back into the muck seeking the cool mud to soothe, only to realize that I must push myself up and out. At last, finding myself on the path, head up, shoulders back, I trudged forward tentatively, turning left when I should have turned right. Backing up and taking a different turn at times, but always the way that I wanted. Not what was best. But what I wanted. I knew that the outcome would be the same. Finally, one day as I was sitting in the mud once again, I bowed my head. I had prayed many times, but not like this. I prayed, not to be lead to the right path. Not to be helped from the mud. I prayed instead to see; see the hand that had always been there. The arms that had always welcomed me. I prayed for faith. Copyright (C) 2020 Penny Wilson My path to God has been a very long one. I came to Him late in life. This is my expression of that journey. I still struggle, but my prayers have been answered tenfold. A very special Thank You to Chuck, at The Reluctant Poet. He gave me the line, 'The Crooked Path' that inspired this piece. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Penny <3
For many years, I considered myself an agnostic. I had questioned the existence of God. Several events in my life caused me to change that view. Probably the biggest influence in my change of heart, is my BFF, Denise. I’ve written about Denise several times here.
Denise and I have been close for 40+ years now. I wrote sort of a tribute to her that you can see HERE.
When Denise was diagnosed with lung cancer, I wrote about her and her struggle HERE and asked for prayers.
Well, those prayers have been answered! To a point. Denise went to the hospital July 2nd to have a 2nd biopsy done on the spot in her lung. It was supposed to be a day trip, meaning she would be home, tucked into her own bed by that night. 12 days later, she was finally allowed to go home!!
It turns out that the 1st biopsy was a botched job. They collapsed her lung and left her hemorrhaging, bleeding into her own lung. This was unknown until her 2nd biopsy.
Her 2nd biopsy was done at a different hospital, different doctor too. During the 2nd biopsy they discovered the hemorrhage and tried to get a piece of the spot to biopsy. Things didn’t go well. I’ll cut the story short here. It turns out, her lung collapsed 3 times during this visit. Once was a Code Blue. They couldn’t get the hole in her lung to seal up, it kept wanting to collapse. The doctor then decided he needed to just go in and remove the spot in her lung. During this process they also had to remove one of the lobes inside that lung.
It was about 5 more days before her lung closed up enough for them to send her home.
The whole process was horrifyingly scary for her, me and her kids. She thought she was going to die. Her kids thought she was going to die. Everyone thought she was going to die.
When she came out of surgery, she was supposed to be in the ICU for several days. She was there ONE night before they moved her to a regular room. She was up and WALKING that next day as well.
LOTS of prayers were being said for this dear woman. I firmly believe that God has had a hand in her recovery, that prayers were being answered. To all of you that said prayers for my Dear Friend, THANK YOU.
Denise isn’t completely out of the woods yet. They still need to test what they removed from her lung and give her a final determination. Hopefully, they got it all and it’s a done deal. So if you would please continue to keep Denise in your prayers, I would really appreciate it.
A final point that I would like to mention here. Through Denise, I was given the gift of prayer. To behold it’s true power. Even if you are not a “religious” person, (and believe me, I get that) I feel that if you simply put positive thoughts, wishes, feelings out into the universe, those positive things will come back to you in positive ways. If you put negativity out, that’s what you get back.
How can I possibly thank someone that has given me the Gift of Prayer?
Copyright (C) 2020 Penny Wilson
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
— Mother Teresa
-Joan Wester Anderson AUTHOR
Linus Van Pelt:“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not:”
“for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'”[Linus picks up his blanket and walks back towards Charlie Brown] That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
–Charles Schultz
*Merry Christmas, all. Thank you for joining me on this journey. ❤ Penny
REBLOG: Don’t miss Mitch’s Lovely post.
Advent, the season leading up to Christmas, is the root of the word “adventure.” It means to finally arrive after a long journey. It is about Christ’s arrival. And ours. “One of the essential paradoxes of Advent: that while we wait for God, we are with God all along, that while we need to be […]
REBLOG: Don’t miss this moving post by Valerie Cullers! ❤
Image by Gerd Altman Courtesy of Pixabay.
I have a friend who went through a pretty rough decade. She lost a son by suicide, her husband after twenty-five years and her godly father passed. I remember calling her when her father was failing and I asked her how she was doing. She said she was hanging on. Then she said two words that have stuck with me…this 24. She explained to me that she only had to live this 24 hours. She held on to her faith through everything she was going through one day at a time. When she was deep in the valleys, she held on to God’s hand moment by moment, hour by hour and day by day.
I took her advice to heart. When I walked through valleys, I reminded myself of her words…this 24. I then tried to push back the angst about tomorrow and…
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"She believed she could, so she did." 🌙
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