Contentment

Contentment Prayer

Lord, help me be grateful for

What I have, remember that

I don’t need most of what I want,

And that joy is found in simplicity

And generosity.               Adam Hamilton

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Simplicity

I have had surgery three times in slightly more than a year.  Every time I am housebound and healing, I learn something new. . .get some new insight into daily living.   Hard to explain, but it is a kind of simplicity in how the day is spent.    I rediscovered a narrow screened in porch off our bedrooms.  The girls used to sleep outside sometimes, but it was basically unused for more than 20 years.   Walking with my walker there last summer, I came to appreciate it all over again and now I spend time there every day in my comfortable chair with books at hand and a cold drink.    In my winter recovery I observed a crystal sun catcher on a side table in the living room catching a ray of light and sending colorful dots dancing all over the room.    I took my tea to the sofa and enjoyed the light show most every day. During my last bout, I felt good but had activity restricted because of my foot.    I set up one end of my bedroom as a "studio" for quilting and thoroughly enjoyed the idea of myself as "artist".    Simple discoveries that have added to my life!

Summer Hiatus

Five weeks of summer company followed by surgery on my foot have created a silence on my blog!
I miss the youthful voices with their thick British accents.   One night I was playing cards with several
grandsons.   Silences in the game were filled with "beat boxing" - mouth sounds that accompany much
contemporary music.   After one strange sound, I said, "What was that?"   My youngest grandson said, "Fought".    I looked blank.   His older brother translated:   "Fart"     The
international language of boys!

At Sea on the USS Lamar. . .World War II

Lt.(jg) George W. Wiegers to his wife, Jo    (my uncle and aunt)

January 1, 1945

"I was looking at the moon tonight.  It is so beautiful.   It doesn't seem possible that 
it is the same moon that shines over you in Missouri, the one that shines over Berlin
and Tokyo.   I sometimes wonder if the enemy looks at the same things we do and 
have the same thoughts we do."

A Thought

. . ."an interior life will never be available in stores."
                  Lauren Shields  "My Year of Modesty"   Salon.com  July 1, 2013

Keep on the Sunny Side

My group of literary friends (called "Inspirtice") recently discussed "a favorite song" as our program topic.

I looked back to my childhood when I heard mostly country music on the radio and thought of "Keep

on the Sunny Side."    I grew up with the Carter family rendition; June Carter Cash made the song famous.

Ada Blenkhorn wrote this hymn in 1899 as her nephew was crippled and wanted his wheelchair pushed on the 

sunny side of the street.    As kids in school, we would hold our noses in order to get the nasal country twang

to sing the familiar chorus.  The message, however, is a basic truth of life - not always easy to follow.

Keep on the sunny side,
always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life;
It will help us ev'ry day, it will brighten all the way
If we keep on the sunny side of life.

There's a dark and a troubled side of life;

There's a bright and a sunny side, too;

Tho' we meet with the darkness and strife,

The sunny side we also may view. (Chorus)

Tho' the storm in its fury break today,

Crushing hopes that we cherished so dear,

Storm and cloud will in time pass away,

The sun again will shine bright and clear. (Chorus)

Let us greet with a song of hope each day,

Tho' the moments be cloudy or fair;

Let us trust in our Savior alway,

Who keepeth everyone in His care (Chorus)