Moving out of February...

 

Today was a gorgeous tribute to the end of a short but brutal month. The temps hovered around 50 degrees and the sun shone brightly, bidding good-bye to the month of February. All that said, there was just enough wind to make it chilly if you stood in one place too long, reminding us all that spring is not yet here.

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We drove about 35 miles today to visit a Unity church in Collinsville. It was a very small congregation and a small and beautifully simple place. Also just happened to be the Sunday monthly birthdays potluck, so we got lunch. lol  The folks we met were very welcoming and it was a lovely service all about God's love for us and our love for each other. There was a reading by Emmet  Fox and a nice meditation time as well. We attended Unity in North Carolina and always liked the upbeat tone of the services.  Anyway, it was about a 45 minute drive for us, which is a little far.  I think next week I will go check out my neighbors church, which is about 15 minutes max down the road. They attend a United Church of Christ, and I've never been to a service in that denomination.  There was a nice poem on the back of the program for today's service by James Dillet Freeman:

The Church That I Love Best

The church that I love best is small,

It is no grand pretentious hall'

 Set round with works of holy art--

It is the chamber of my heart.

Where else but in this secret place

May I catch glimpses of Truth's face,

And even catch, however dim,

A sense of being one with Him?

 I have no church until I find

Holiness in my own mind;

Once found, wherever I may be

Becomes the house of God for me.

^*^  ^*^  ^*^  ^*^  ^*^  ^*^  ^*^  

Tomorrow I have to go down and help my sister who has broken her wrist and her ankle. Poor thing...she is beside herself and her husband is like a lump and completely unable (or unwilling, according to her) to help her at all.  So, I'll put on my big sister hat and go down and help her in and out of the bathtub and wash her hair and get her straightened away.  I have a feeling part of the problem is that she's taking pain pills and she has a hard time with that.  It scares her and because she has had petit mal seizures in the past, it feels like that to her. So...I'll see what I can sort out and what I cannot.

I have to get to work on clearing out the spare room too (it's full of Xmas decos that I haven't been able to get back to the storage because of the weather. A week from Tuesday, my inlaws will be here, so that room has to be cleaned and ready for them,. They'll only stay one night, but I need to get it cleaned up anyway. And then I'm going to start in on this office. I've started taking things off the walls, so I'll finish that and clean it and get it ready to paint. I'm painting it something bright and cheery, like buttercup yellow, I think.

I'm going to sleep early so I can get a head start on the day tomorrow.  Lots to do, one thing at a time.  Someone to meet at a noon meeting, go to my sisters, pick someone else up who's come back in after a scouting expedition and take her to an evening meeting.  I'm grateful to know it is NOT any better out there.  Think I'll just stay put.  lol

I'm feeling a lot of gratitude tonight...for my husband, who took such good care of me when I was in that industrial accident 9 years ago, and again when I have had my surgery this time.  Over and again, I am shown how much I am loved and cherished by that man...and that is a real gift.  I forget that every woman doesn't get that.   I am grateful for people who trust that they can talk to me when they're having a hard time or are scared or sad. That is a true blessing indeed.   I am especially grateful for my own family, and my friends...all of whom, are there for me any time I need help. All I have to do is pick up a phone. Sometimes not even that--they anticipate my needs and they shower me with love.  Sometimes my world is so saturated with LOVE that I forget that there are lonely people in the world, people who don't have any family, or anyone's dirty socks to pick up from the floor, or breakfasts to cook. And I am most grateful for the gift of Hope...in a world where there are so many without it, and so many who live hopeless lives of desperation, because they can't find any other way to go.  My prayers today are that every one of us get what we need and maybe even some of what we want, if it is for our highest good.  And that we can make a difference in someone's life, no matter how small. 

  I'll end tonight with a part of the quote from Emmet Fox....

..."It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble; How hopeless the outlook; How muddled the tangle; How great the mistake.

A sufficient realization of Love will dissolve it all...If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world..."

Namaste.