ANOTHER NEW DAY

This is yet another brand new day. It's a day to say THANK YOU that I am alive and well. Yes, I'm still living here at the nursing home, but I have my plans to move into that apartment complex in Florissant, Missouri. I don't know where the furniture and everything is going to come from, but I'm confident, that with the help of friends I will get it all figured out. With the help of God I will figure it out. Jesus said, "See? I make all things new."

It is good to be alive. The sun is shining outside. I'm sitting here in the lounge at the end of the hall, with my prayer shawl wrapped around me. It was a gift years ago from my best friend of over thirty years, Cindy. I miss her. I've not seen her in a few months. I'm hoping she will be able to come up for a visit in the not to distant future. She is a wonderful person, a loving person who takes such wonderful care of her family, seldom thinking of herself and her needs as she does to theirs.

It is at times like these that I think back to all those years ago when I did not want to have children. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. When you're only twenty-one years old you cannot possibly imagine how you are going to feel at 76. I can't believe I am already 76 years old. I don't know where all those years went to, but I'm grateful to be alive to experience all that I have, to be blessed as I am blessed, to have friends, to have some family I still see. Yesterday my cousin and her husband came and brought me groceries as a birthday gift and a pretty card with money inside.

These little things mean a lot. It's hard to imagine that when you aren't living as I am right now. It's amazing what we take for granted until we don't have those things, those people we loved, those experiences and that lifestyle.

But that is where my faith comes in. I believe strongly in a loving Father who takes care of me. I feel I have a personal relationship with Jesus. I don't say those things to many people because speaking of religion and God these days don't seem to be what people want to hear. I guess they just get so wrapped up in day-to-day living that those important things can be temporarily forgotten. I didn't fully appreciate how wonderful it is to go to church every Sunday until now, when that no longer happens.

Occasionally my friend, Marian, will pick me up and take me to Unity Church of Light. The last time I was there was for the beautiful Good Friday service. Yet, I know that when I am settled in my own new home again, this is change. So many things will change, the ability to eat the foods I want, the opportunity to go outside and walk without anyone telling me I cannot. It's amazing what we take for granted until it's no longer there.

I am much more appreciative, now, of many things I didn't think twice about before. That's a good thing. And there are many good things that will continue to come my way. I'm even planning on traveling again. I don't know how or when or where, but those plans I leave up to my heavenly Father.

Sometimes it seems that Jesus and God have been forgotten in our fast paced world, that we fail to appreciate all the good that we have, that we wake up each morning to a new day, that we have the opportunity to give and receive kindness.

Those things keep the world going: LOVING KINDNESS. Many blogs ago I mentioned the song: "What the world needs now is love, sweet love, not just for some, but for everyone." Truer words were never spoken.

Lately I have watched, on YouTube, some pretty upsetting movies about human trafficking, about sexual abuse, about all the horrors that are going on in the Middle East. We don't realize, because we feel buffered by distance, just how bad it really is. And, then again, we have those very same things going on within our own borders.

Awareness is key. If we're not aware we will never be motivated to do anything, even if that does not involve political action. It means ever so much more if we put our concerns to the Lord in prayer, for He can do all things. We seem to have forgotten that these days. It's important to remember to pray, to meditate, to take the time to appreciate the freedoms we have in this country - and - if we are able to, actively fight to preserve those freedoms.

That's not something I am able to do right now, but months ago I found myself in a protest against the unconscionable behavior of our current president and his administration. It's hard to see the Christ in that man. But Christ is in there somewhere buried beneath hatred, misunderstanding and inability to live morally.

Yet, who of us knows how that man grew up? What abuse he may have been subjected to. Perhaps the same was true of Adolph Hitler. We just don't really know what someone else is going through unless we have walked in their shoes.

So that, my friends, is what we need to do: put ourselves in another's "shoes", even if just for a moment, to appreciate the fact that they have gone through tough times too. Tough times can make tough people. That does not excuse their behaviors, which is why we need to continue to remember them in prayer.

To anyone out there who may be reading this, have a blessed and peaceful day. If the sun is shining, get out and take a walk in God's beautiful world.

Namaste,

Elizabeth