Monday Afternoon Reflections - September 10, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,
I feel like my whole planet Earth is in harmony with the way my friends and family reached out to touch me for my birthday this past week. Thank each of you for the attention and love you've sent out to me through phonecalls, cards, e-cards, presents, and meals together. I feel graced by God that you are a part of my life. My family will be gathering for fall birthdays the weekend of October 26, so the celebrating will be extended until then for me. Each year becomes more precious to me. Knowing that Ray's 56th year was his last year, I go forth to make the most of every day I have left. My life becomes more meaningful in that way.
Last week, I was telling you the woes of my car troubles. This week, let me tell you that I feel like the Lord moved in my favor. Last Tuesday, the day after the Labor Day holiday, I was on the phone at 7:00 a.m., calling Ramon Capeles, my VW mechanic about what happened to my car on Sunday morning. He told me to have it towed over to his shop so that he could investigate. Minutes later, I called AAA, and within an hour, a tow truck appeared, and I was able to get this situation handled before I had to be up at school to teach my class at 9:00. (See Photo #1) Joan Vallee-Rettke was kind enough to give me a ride over to St. Louis so I didn't have to be hot and sweaty walking over there. I felt like an idiot when I discovered that the reason why I couldn't get my car out of Park was because I didn't have my foot on the brake. Thank God that was all that was. The tow driver was easily able to get it on his truck, and away it went.
After my class, Gayla Abshire was kind enough to alter our original plans for lunch and bring Wendy's salads for us both to eat. While we were sitting down to eat this lunch, the phone rang, and I had good news about my car. The computer was not blanked out like I had feared; there was simply a loose wire going to the fuse box. Maybe I didn't even need a new battery the week before. Maybe that was the problem all along. But anyway, I'm glad to have a new battery and to feel secure again about my car starting when I turn the key. I hope I think about my gratitude to God every time I turn the key from now on. I couldn't help but notice the orchestration that made this whole ordeal so easy and non-interrupting-of-my-life for me.
Tuesday night was the last belly dancing class. We had learned all the basic belly dancing shimmies and shakes, and we had learned to apply them in a dance called "Chiribim" and another slower one danced with veils. The whole experience was a good time. On Tuesday night, our instructor, Anne Monlezun, passed out certificates, and we had to shimmy up to her to pick out own personal navel gem. (See Photo #2) I picked cobalt blue, of course! Afterwards, Anne posed us for a final group graduation shot. (See Photo #3) We're almost all open to going another round of this together, but Anne won't be available again until October. We'll see if the belly dancing continues in my life...
I started a new Bible Study at my church on Wednesday at noon. Dr. T. L. Lewis is taking on the project of exploring the Book of Acts with a group that seems to be growing. I didn't make it the first week, but there were a bunch of us this time who were brand new. I'm sorry I'm going to miss this week's session, but I will be going with Diane Pelzer to The Eye Clinic for an appointment. I look forward to seeing everybody in another week.
Wednesday night a spontaneous birthday celebration erupted with Cissie McLeod and Wendy Dees. (See Photo #4) As you can see, Logan's was the spot we picked for this supper. We had a good time sharing our stories over steak salads. Wendy was kind enough to treat both Cissie and me to dinner in honor of our recent birthdays.
Thursday, the actual day of my birthday, I got the gift of not having to teach school that day. Due to the altered schedule for Labor Day, my class didn't meet. I had the day to just kick back and enjoy the cards and phone calls I received all day and night. I had a hair appointment at 10:30, and Sheila Tradewell, my beautician, posed with me for a picture. (See Photo #5) I was dressed up for the Profit and Loss Luncheon that I shared with Debbie Perry and Karen Dore and her son Jonathan. The guest speaker, James Groves, introduced us to a project of Samaritan's Purse called Operation Christmas Child. Debbie and I looked at each other during the presentation and agreed that this is a good possibility for a mission project for our Women of Spirit Theresian group. We'll tell everybody about it at the retreat next Sunday.
I stopped by St. Louis on my way home from this luncheon to talk to the new counselor, Gisele Puckett, about the senior portfolios she's proposing. We came to the agreement that my seniors need to write essays for this project that they can actually use for their applications to colleges. I presented this to them the next morning, and they're going to do two of them in the next two coming weeks, on top of the other assignments I have planned for them. Class has been going well. It's such a pleasure to have lesson plans turn out even better than I had hoped they would. I can truly say that with every year, teaching has become more and more an art form for me. I plan a class, and then I execute it. With the magic that occurs in this orchestration, I can say I feel like I've completed a piece of art when I'm finished. It's a very good feeling.
One of my oldest friends, Barb Klebe Baker, called me on Friday from Daytona Beach, Florida, where she's visiting a friend of her this week. Talking to her always brings home to me how important these connections that I have for the duration of my life are to me. Every week when I send out this letter, I'm reaching out to not just my aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings, but I also send it out to friends from around the globe that I've met over the years and to four special people that I started kindergarten with in Elkhorn, Nebraska, more than fifty years ago. I live in a town where there are lots of people who have connections like this, too, but I also know that in this day and age, staying connected to our pasts to this degree is not heard of so often. I'm very grateful for all of you in my life.
I had a real urge on Friday to go buy myself some birthday presents. I learned while I was living in Galveston, those years of being divorced, that one of the best things I could do for myself on my birthday or some other special occasion was to go out a treat myself to something I really love. In this case, I felt like God was moving me along, and I found a beautiful brown fall outfit at TiCi's, 75% off Nurture brand sandals at Dillard's, and a green and brown necklace and earring set at Talbot's. My birthday was complete this way. I also found another cobalt blue cross at a Touch of Glass. (See Photo #6) I've symbolically placed it in the spot where this plaque used to be at my table. (See Photo #7) Somehow this represents the changes in my since Ray has passed away. I turn more and more in my daily thinking toward God in my life.
I spent all day Saturday at our First Presbyterian Church Choir Retreat. Chris Miller, our choir director, had put a lot of thought and effort into the music he had us sight read that day. A theme that I noticed in his choice of titles was the idea that music is a ministry, music is our way of serving God in our church and in the world. The anthem that we prepared for yesterday's service was called "Instrument of Grace." We ask God to make us instruments of grace, to help us to bring the message of his love to those around us. Although my voice got tired and strained by the end of the day, I was so happy to have a voice that might be shared with others. We had new people and old who came together to share the day. (See Photo #8) It was a happy place to be.
After the retreat, both Ann Knapp and Sarah Harmon asked me if I had some photos that they might use for a Power Point presentation they're putting together for the Session. It made me feel good to know that my penchant for taking photos everywhere I go is coming into good favor. I have to tell all of you who are reading this that I feel like I'm following in my mother's footsteps in being the unofficial photographer for my church since I joined in 2005. My mother used to do the same thing for her church when she was alive. My brother Lee, who inherited all of the photo albums she left behind, can attest to the many, many pages of photos of people from my mother's Lutheran Church in Pasadena, Texas. My mother captioned all of them and would have made a great historian for her church. When my Circle was discussing the historian position for the Presbyterian Women at my church yesterday, I also thought about my mother and how great she would have been for such a position. I like to take the photos, but unfortunately, I don't really know everybody at my church quite yet. I will continue to take photos, though, and hopefully there will be other occasions when they would become useful to somebody.
Sunday at the 11:00 service, the Chancel Choir was commissioned for our ministry in 2007-2008. The sermon was entitled "We Can't Pick Family," and I had fun thinking over the family I have actually picked in my life. One thing I've learned from moving around the world a bit is that everywhere you go, "family" somehow spontaneously happens among people. When I lived in Cairo, the holidays were celebrated in new ways, and the people who gathered became our surrogate sisters and brothers. Even now living in Lake Charles where I don't actually have any blood relatives, I find myself feeling warm and close feelings to the people in my life. So in a way, God does provide us with ways to pick our family. It's just not the usual way of thinking.
The Sunday Circle met yesterday afternoon to kick off the new year. We're studying Jonah and Ruth, which might seem strange to you, but they both were called by God to do some amazing things. I imagine through this experience of studying them, we will also find ourselves realizing that we are each called by God to do useful things in His world. This group was also a mixture of old and new faces. (See Photo #9) It was good to come together again.
Abbakadabra has been cute again this week. She is such a sweet companion to me. (See Photo #10)
My brother Lee got safely back to Houston Sunday morning. He was exhausted when I talked to him, but he thought he was going to try to stay up all day after staying up all night, just to get back in sync with his family. I hope he was able to take today off from work so that he could truly get rested and caught up from such a strenuous and productive trip to Bolivia. They had much success in doing heart surgeries on children. I know the whole team must have a real sense of doing God's work in the world, going down there.
I feel a real sense of it myself. May we all have a good week ahead...
With love and blessings, Linda
"Whatever you do may seem insignificant,
but it is most important that you do it."
--Gandhi