sister on the phone tonight, talking about getting a dog:
"do they even make dalmations anymore?"
let's start out with a goldfish and take it from there.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
little surprises
first of all, it's been a while. i honestly don't even know if this post will make it to the viewing public, because the blogger interface looks so different. i hope i'm doing this right. note to self: blog more so you'll see changes coming and be better equipped to deal.
quite a few things have happened/are happening in our life in hometown. i really have lots to share but today, i want to tell you the story i just lived. it's just a little story, in a little town, that i was blessed to share today, but i think it's pretty awesome.
i help organize our church's involvement in the presbyterian church's casserole kitchen ministry (follow the link if you'd like to get involved!) on the first saturday of every month. there's a lady who comes every time, and her name is ida mae. i think she's something of a local character. i also am the volunteer coordinator of the starkville community market (facebook link here) and saw her there this morning. after the market, and after i'd filled up my car with gas, i'd started on my way home when i saw ida mae walking home with her bag of vegetables and some flowers. she doesn't walk very well. and i heard the Still Small Voice, asking me to do a small thing and offer her a ride home. so i did, and she accepted. but i didn't take her home.
instead, she directed me to her neighbor's house, the one with the yellow truck. she told me he's 89 years old and recovering from pneumonia, and she wanted to go check on him and fix his medicine for him before she went to the casserole kitchen. we pulled in, and i got out with her, determined to follow this little path i'd been led down. she took me through the back gate.
knockout roses. day lilies, in orange and aubergine and pink and yellow. a covered cart of 50-year-old cacti. green plants on tiered tables. manicured grass. a pear tree. and an old man wearing an msu hat eating cereal on the porch. ida mae introduced us, and said she wanted to show me his garden. he commented he'd had to cut off his peppers, because the wind was knocking them down, and that'd he bought 2 trees once for $5, when he really couldn't afford more than 50 cents, and how mad his late wife had been. and then ida ma took my hand and gave me the tour. she showed me all of his plants, all of his flowers, all the different paths in his garden. she told me he still mows his own grass, and probably had that morning, even though his sight isn't very good. then she took me down to the back. tomatoes. peppers. rows of vegetables. ida mae's black and white dog. a grapevine, even. more lilies.
this backyard was the most beautiful thing i'd ever seen. i could see the love and the care and the attention this man had devoted to his bit of earth, and i was amazed. and i'd have never seen it. i'd have driven by his house and overlooked it and never have thought anything like this existed, just like ida mae said. i'd have never known that the lady who comes to get a hot meal, who can't walk very well or even uncurl her fingers, who probably doesn't have a lot in this world, takes care of her old sick neighbor simply because he needs it. i'd have never known this story.
i left ida mae to take care of her neighbor and drove home. i couldn't help thinking how God is exactly like that. He asks us to do small things, things we may think are uncomfortable or inconvenient or unimportant, and then shows us enormous beauty and kindness we never expect. so often we ignore Him, and we miss it. today, i was blessed by two pretty inconspicuous strangers, and i got to share a piece of that story and that beauty. what Love the Father has for His children.
quite a few things have happened/are happening in our life in hometown. i really have lots to share but today, i want to tell you the story i just lived. it's just a little story, in a little town, that i was blessed to share today, but i think it's pretty awesome.
i help organize our church's involvement in the presbyterian church's casserole kitchen ministry (follow the link if you'd like to get involved!) on the first saturday of every month. there's a lady who comes every time, and her name is ida mae. i think she's something of a local character. i also am the volunteer coordinator of the starkville community market (facebook link here) and saw her there this morning. after the market, and after i'd filled up my car with gas, i'd started on my way home when i saw ida mae walking home with her bag of vegetables and some flowers. she doesn't walk very well. and i heard the Still Small Voice, asking me to do a small thing and offer her a ride home. so i did, and she accepted. but i didn't take her home.
instead, she directed me to her neighbor's house, the one with the yellow truck. she told me he's 89 years old and recovering from pneumonia, and she wanted to go check on him and fix his medicine for him before she went to the casserole kitchen. we pulled in, and i got out with her, determined to follow this little path i'd been led down. she took me through the back gate.
knockout roses. day lilies, in orange and aubergine and pink and yellow. a covered cart of 50-year-old cacti. green plants on tiered tables. manicured grass. a pear tree. and an old man wearing an msu hat eating cereal on the porch. ida mae introduced us, and said she wanted to show me his garden. he commented he'd had to cut off his peppers, because the wind was knocking them down, and that'd he bought 2 trees once for $5, when he really couldn't afford more than 50 cents, and how mad his late wife had been. and then ida ma took my hand and gave me the tour. she showed me all of his plants, all of his flowers, all the different paths in his garden. she told me he still mows his own grass, and probably had that morning, even though his sight isn't very good. then she took me down to the back. tomatoes. peppers. rows of vegetables. ida mae's black and white dog. a grapevine, even. more lilies.
this backyard was the most beautiful thing i'd ever seen. i could see the love and the care and the attention this man had devoted to his bit of earth, and i was amazed. and i'd have never seen it. i'd have driven by his house and overlooked it and never have thought anything like this existed, just like ida mae said. i'd have never known that the lady who comes to get a hot meal, who can't walk very well or even uncurl her fingers, who probably doesn't have a lot in this world, takes care of her old sick neighbor simply because he needs it. i'd have never known this story.
i left ida mae to take care of her neighbor and drove home. i couldn't help thinking how God is exactly like that. He asks us to do small things, things we may think are uncomfortable or inconvenient or unimportant, and then shows us enormous beauty and kindness we never expect. so often we ignore Him, and we miss it. today, i was blessed by two pretty inconspicuous strangers, and i got to share a piece of that story and that beauty. what Love the Father has for His children.
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