Hope in the Garden

From the top of the hill, where our church sits, I can see it coming, miles away across the Texas Hill Country. The clouds are so dark and heavy. Moving faster and faster as the wind bends the trees and turns those leaves wrong side out.  I can hear the thunder bellowing over and over louder and louder. The lights from heaven send streaks across the dark clouds lighting up the sky momentarily.  The air is heavy. The atmosphere tense and anxious.  The tv warns of tornadoes, the rain comes in buckets beating on the roof. Many run for shelter...in their house, in their basement, under the covers...anywhere to seek protection...trying to calm their fear. The house and the basement and the covers may only offer temporary comfort. There is only One who can give you complete protection. Only one who is the Center, the Calm, who has the power to still your storm. There was once a terrible storm, on a small sea, a world away from mine. Again, some common men were fearful of the raging

The little house we rent is in a small, antique town at the beginning of the Hill Country, in South Texas. The house has two redeeming features that made me want to live there. One, the large floor to ceiling limestone fireplace and two, the added on sunroom. The sunroom is so quiet when the door to the kitchen is closed. There are wide windows, which give a peaceful view of our shaded backyard, and make up the walls on three sides. I have made this quiet place my own. A third of it is a quiet sitting room. A third a computer/treadmill area. And a third my craft area. It is here He is teaching me to slowdown. Rest. Accept what He is doing. What I cannot change. Five have died. Two last year and three more this year. People I have tried to help to heal naturally. People I have tried to urge to run hard while they had the chance. I can feel my soul has 5 new scars on it. The thing about tackling cancer or any other disease, naturally is-- You have to be aggressive! You

I was staring into a solid area of  white. Except for three black dots,  there were no distinguishing colors. One Thousand precision cut pieces, each one had a specific, perfectly, interlocking place where it belonged--where it fit. But besides the two dark eyes and one dark nose, ALL the pieces of this puzzle were white! Somehow, when someone with a lot more skill than I-fit all these pieces together it would form  a picture of a white polar bear with a backdrop of his native environment--snow! I have one daughter who knows very little about, nor has an interest in working puzzles. So she bought this polar bear catastrophe for her sister, thinking she would love it. :/ My other, puzzle-working, daughter and I know the best puzzles are the ones with lots of color, making for more fun than work. Being a lover of puzzles, I have often thought over the course of the last two years how very much like a puzzle our lives are. God fitting each piece of our story together perfectly.

My eyes were dark. Not in color. But in deaths shadow. I have heard it said that our eyes are the light into our soul. My light was burning out. Smothered by the ravages of seven different kinds of chemotherapy. I can see it in the pictures of me from 2012. The darkness trying to snuff out my light. But it did not succeed! Nor will it succeed. The wonderful thing about light is, if there is even a glimmer of it left, darkness can NEVER overtake it. Ten Miles. The approximate length of 146 football fields.  In complete and utter darkness.  You can't see your hand in front of your face.  But if a candle is lit at the end of that ten mile stretch in front of you, your human eye could see that flame.  One because the human eye is an amazing creation of our wonderful God and two because.... Light always pierces the darkness. Light= illuminates, makes visible, gives comfort, shows direction, gives hope, exposes to real, allows us to see with our eyes and with out hearts.

Starting over. Always re-NEW..... each day, each week. Each month that is flipped over on that calendar. Each black-eyed-pea-Happy-New-Year-Day. Thanks giving (eucharisteo) always precedes the miracle and Thanksgiving comes before the miracle of Christmas, the miracle that Jesus came right into our mess, And this Christmas miracle, God with us, comes before the New Year or our messes would have no hope for a new  year, no hope for any thing being made new. ..(.Ann VosKamp) Starting over new. But are we really starting over....renewing? Or are we starting over.... AGAIN!!! Trying to make it different this time but still holding onto all the old baggage.  You can not keep doing the same thing and expect to get different results.   Which is why if you are sick with cancer or a degenerative disease, you HAVE to change the way you eat. Your Grandma's genes didn't give that to you. You inherited her eating habits. Those same habits have been passed down for generations so t