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Month: September 2018

My Three Little Chickens

My Three Little Chickens

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I guess I should be a little embarrassed.

Approximately a year and a half ago I was celebrating National Meatball Day.  I didn’t miss that one.

But this week I apparently  missed National Daughter’s Day.

National Daughter’s Day, how could I have not seen that one?

I blew a perfectly good Dad opportunity.

Because you know, I have three of them.

Daughters that is.

Maybe I should have known, but since I haven’t been paying too much attention to social media lately when I did, I saw all these nice photos with my friends praising their beautiful daughters.

So I felt guilty.

I had no photos…I had no praises.

I do love my daughters…even more than I love meatballs.

Therefore I thought it only fitting to give them some blog space too.

So I had to Google this Daughter’s Day thing.

And apparently National Daughter’s Day is:

 

Celebrated September 25, but some celebrate it on the Fourth Sunday in September. In some countries it is celebrated on October 1, and World Daughters Day is September 28.

 

Okay so after reading that I think I am good.  I don’t really think I messed up at all because it sounds like you can pick any day near the end of September and call it Daughter’s Day.   So in my world, today is Daughter’s Day,  I am going to celebrate it today.

 

 What is the reason this day was created?… In developed countries Daughters Day is a day to celebrate the joy and wonder of having a baby girl and raising a daughter.

 

Though sometimes I wonder lately if I live in a developed country, I have definitely experienced this joy and wonder thing with my daughters.

Like the time I wondered what one of my daughters was thinking trying to go out dressed like she was?

And all the nights I wondered why they weren’t home when they were supposed to be or why they weren’t in the place they were supposed to be?

And sure there were joys too.

Obviously so many joys it’s hard for me to list them here because that would take a book.  And I am sure all my joys are also being celebrated this week by Bank of America and Citibank who recognize the importance of my daughters in our lives and in theirs.

I particularly liked the:

How to celebrate: Dads should consider taking daughters out on a date, whether to a park or for a meal. Moms should share words of encouragement and wisdom. Every parent should make their daughter feel like a princess or the little angel they are! Of course, moms and dads can spent joint family time together with the goal of celebrating what makes daughters so unique and special in a family.

Yes of course, the little angels they are!

Moms sharing words of wisdom and daughters listening? Hello…Is there anybody out there? This is the real world…I don’t think that part of the country has developed yet.

I also liked the idea of dad’s taking their daughters to a park.  Maybe I could relive the experience of trying to teach Alexa how to ride a bicycle on the W & OD trail that ended with me literally throwing the bike into the woods in frustration after multiple attempts of having her peddle while I was pushing her and then as soon as I would let her go she would stop peddling and fall over just like the routine on the show “Laugh In” over and over again.

 

I often have fun writing about my kids and I have said before they are all good sports.

The truth is my daughters have taken their share of lumps in life but they continue to rise up.

They have had some life experiences probably shared by many daughters.

And then they have had some I hope no child ever has to go through.

They have lived through their own marital and relationship traumas and in some cases abuse.

And they have lived through the death of a brother.

Yet they are resilient.

They are women now, some with their own kids (though no daughters thank God).

And they are happy.

And they are princesses.

And I suppose they are angels too, though maybe not so little anymore.

And unlike the rest of the daughters out there, they have to put up with me.

And they do a pretty good job at that too.

So happy National Daughter’s Day to Alexa, Hayley, and Savannah…my three little chickens.

 

I love you more than meatballs.

 

Cloudy

Cloudy

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What are those things?

I am not sure…they look like funny looking glasses…let me google them…it says they are called sunglasses.

Oh…what are they used for?

It says they are supposed to keep the sun out of our eyes.

Oh…why would we need those?

 

From Cloudy, a song written by Simon and Garfunkel:

 

Hey sunshine.

I haven’t seen you for a long time.

Why don’t you show your face and bend my mind?

 

Yes please, bend my mind.  I am ready.

I miss the sun.

I am sick of clouds. I am sick of rain.

And while I complain, clouds of disaster are working their evil in the Carolinas.  A report I heard this morning talked about a river that was considered at flood level when just 3 to 5 feet over normal.  They were expecting the level to reach 62 feet.

 

In spite of our seemingly never-ending clouds and showers, we had an awesome weekend.

We rode our bikes, we hiked at Great Falls.

Great Falls National Park has a startling reminder of disasters from the past that puts flooding in perspective.  A tall post with signs from years past marking the water levels of previous floods that have lifted the Potomac River to unimaginable heights in that area.  Hard to imagine as you look down at the rapids below from the overlooks, that the water level could be six or so more feet above where you are standing.

 

Our sermon this morning at church was a continuation of a series called The Wilderness, Growing in Faith When Life is Hard.

The Wilderness, a metaphor for difficult times, and how hard it is sometimes to find your way out.  And this morning’s message specifically… isn’t it amazing how God brings people into our lives at such times to help us through.

Isn’t that the truth, I could write a book about that, or maybe more accurately my wife and I live that every day.  I might already be writing that book.

And the scripture this morning was from Numbers with Moses and his party three days into the wilderness and “the cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp.”

The “cloud of the Lord.”

I have never thought of God in the clouds.

Maybe I am being too hard on the clouds.

Maybe God is in my clouds too.

 

I have written before of my friend Joe who passed away earlier this year and that he had a box full of vegetable seeds which were divided up amongst friends to keep the Veggie Joe legacy alive.

My first attempt earlier in the season didn’t go well but the later seeds did take and finally, I have some tomatoes.

But they are green tomatoes.

And without the sun I am afraid they may never see red.

 

The forecast is for a couple more days of rain from the remnants of what was Hurricane Florence finally reaching our area.

 

So God,  forgive me for always assuming evil in the clouds.

And I pray you put people in the lives of those affected by hurricanes, rain, flooding, and other wilderness situations just as you did in the lives of Kim and me.

I pray that you show your face and bend my mind.

And please if you would, turn Joe’s tomatoes red.

Amen

Jesus…We Are Busy!

Jesus…We Are Busy!

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This past week one of my Florida grandsons in the first weeks of his new Hollywood Hills United Methodist Church preschool (he is three),  video called me to share his project from preschool that included a working set of “lungs” (on a poster board) complete with baggies for lungs, straws for bronchi and a trachea.  It was awesome.  He is three!

Having had a background in Respiratory Therapy and pulmonary medicine it made me proud, and a little sad I had given that up that work some years ago.

It’s Labor Day.

And it is about work.

Though I had an awesome week, it was one deserving of a three day break in my opinion.

I work at a church.

Some people might think that working at a church isn’t really working.

Kind of like the Dire Straits song:

“That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Get your money for nothin’ get your chicks for free”

Well I certainly don’t know anything about getting “chicks” anymore and don’t want to and to the best of my knowledge working at a church doesn’t make for chick magnets anyway.

But I get work.

I like to work.

And let me tell you something, after finishing one of my busier weeks working at my church… working for Jesus is tough.

Jesus is busy!

And though sometimes I think my “to do” list is out of control, Jesus has to have a “to do” list beyond belief.

I have a hard time getting to all the things on my “to do” list, sometimes it takes me weeks, maybe an occasional month even to get to some things.

So I get it.

Two years ago today, I wrote on my Musings of an Aging Nobody, My Prayer for Hayley.

Hayley is one of my daughters.

At the end of My Prayer for Hayley I wrote, “And so my prayer for Hayley is that God answers my prayer for Hayley the same way he answered my prayer for myself some years ago.

And may she never look back.”

 

This week my prayer for Hayley was answered.  It took two years.

So Jesus, c’mon man, I know I am busy…

But it’s okay.

Because I know you are busier!

And I understand that it might take two years to get to my prayer.

I do get it.

I just hope that those that I work with are as patient with me getting to those things on my “to do” list.

This week I feel particularly blessed.

I am blessed to have a grandson in a pre-med pre-school, another starting to talk and walk, and another down the hall right now pushing his Mimi’s buttons and having a great time doing it.

And Jesus thank you for keeping me so busy.

But especially thank you for answering my prayer for Hayley.

And just like the analogy I like to use for my life…just like Secretariat winning the Belmont by 31 lengths, and never looking back,

“may she never look back.”

Again.

Christian’s lung project!