Thoughts Along the Journey

I haven't posted on this blog in about 6 months.  No excuses from this blogger, only the fact:  Life. In the past, my times of silence have been due to the busy-ness of life.  You know how it is, right?  Activities, work, appointments, family events...life. This period of quiet as had another source, though.  Grief.  Grief for situations in our personal lives and the lives of those we love.  This has been a year of great loss for our family and extended family.  Loss of dreams, loss of loved ones, and loss of hope in the midst of seemingly insurmountable tragedy. In the past five days, it all seems to have escalated: - a dear family (from our church) lost their home to a fire.  A family of 10, including a newborn, suddenly became homeless; - a family member underwent a scary health situation, which is still not completely resolved; - a man close to our family is undergoing tests to hopefully reveal the cause of physical symptoms that...

Life doesn't always treat us the way we've planned.  Over the past month or so, my life has been turned inside out and upside down in more ways than one.  I've cried a lot of tears and felt a lot of pain. There's this really amazing portion of a psalm (56:8) that has been rolling around in my heart: "You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they  not in Your book?" In ancient times, mourners would collect their tears in a bottle.  The tears would be placed at the tomb of a loved one as a visual reminder of their grief.   From Wikipedia:  " Tear Catchers were commonly used during   Ancient Roman   times, with mourners filling glass bottles with their tears, and placing them in tombs as a symbol of their respect for the deceased. It was also used to show remorse, guilt, love and grief. The women cried during the procession, and the more tears collected in tear bottles meant the deceased was more important. The bottles...

One of my favorite movies of all time is "Eloise at the Plaza."  If you're unfamiliar with the Eloise movies, here is the basic story line:  Eloise is the 6 year old daughter of a world-traveling mom.  Eloise lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York City with her nanny, whose name is...Nanny.  Miss E has many adventures and a contagious smile. In one, very "Eloise-esque" moment, she is trying to discover the meaning of a French phrase.  She follows her tutor, Philip, into the bar at the hotel.  Of course, she is underage, being 6 and all.  She puts on her "little man" disguise and strides right on in.  And, in a way only she can, she wants to know the phrase.  She knows the words, but she wants to know what they MEAN. It's humorous, and I hope you enjoyed the clip.  But, of course, I'm going somewhere with this. The words "Pro Life" and "Pro Choice" are thrown around in our society as catch-phrases that are supposed t...