Singing in the Sunshine

“I believe in the sun even if I cannot see it.

I believe in love even if I cannot feel it.

And, I believe in God even when he is silent.”

woman carrying baby at beach during sunset

True to myself I’m destined to be. I don’t know where I got that but it does reflect what I believe. It was apparently part of a longer piece found written: Unknown (written during WW2, on the wall of a cellar, by a Jew in the Cologne concentration camp)

Maybe it’s a remembrance day—maybe it’s just a day with memory.

A person doesn’t have to grow old for the thoughts and words to slip out, “I remember when.” It does seem to get worse as you grow older.

I remember when I had a son… well, I have more than one son even now, and believe me each one is in my heart, thoughts, and prayers. But this one son would call me every day as he was driving and we would have a nice, long conversation.

It wasn’t anything about anything really, just a pass the time, these are the people in my life, this is where I’m at, this is what I’m doing, and seeing sort of chat.

Memories can be like that. They draw you back in time. Times like before he left to drive “on the road”, and we were the odd couple trying to live in the same world. He with his big feet in “our” garden, and his rough edges and not quite so polished demeanor, and me with my “don’t step on my (volunteer) tomato plant. You have the biggest feet this side of Paul Bunyan.”

He with his honesty, “Why is that dumb tomato plant in the middle of the row?” And me with my own logic, “because it’s a volunteer, and that’s where it volunteered?”

And there is the memory even farther back of the golden-haired little angel with the tiny baby feet, as were all of the soft tiny baby feet. And a person would blow on those tiny feet pretending to gobble them up so that the little person would laugh, I would laugh… it was before Alexa or she would have laughed.

Ah, yes, memories can be like that. I’ve seen it written, the loneliest thing isn’t to be alone, it’s to be forgotten. That is true, but I also believe instead of crying because it’s over we also need to acknowledge how grateful we are that it happened.

Each one of my children has made me into the good and bad I am today. Each one of them has stories with me and I love them all for what we’ve had. The difficult part of being a parent is that when we raise our children correctly we raise them to someday stand on their own—without us.

I think it’s an old Irish proverb that says, “Never move so far from your parents that you cannot see their chimney.” In our modern world—I think I need to quick, build a bigger chimney. Not only have they moved too far away they need new glasses.

I write that with my normal weird sense of humor. Like the old woman who says the wrong thing at the right time, or the right thing at the wrong time, it’s just out of sync. Knowing that even if we lived side by side there isn’t enough time in the day to have long chats over a cup of tea. We have to grab our opportunities as they pass by and then that’s like the bald-headed doll as it whizzes by.

And thankful I am that it happened. I wonder at people who haven’t been as blessed as I am and a God who thought Old Fuzzy and I were worthy for those he gave us. Or did God just foresee it would take all of them to keep up with Old Fuzzy and me? Opportunities—they are what they are.

 Today has been mostly cloudy with an occasional outburst of sun so I’m not sitting or singing in the sunshine constantly. I do have enough to be content.

Isaiah 4:

2) In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

3) And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:

4) When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

5) And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

6) And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

1 Corinthians 16:22  If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! ESV