New York

A few days before actual vacation was to start, Don and I decided to venture up to New York State just to say we had been there.  On June 27 we started out and went from Jamestown, New York, traveled to Dunkirk, New York, where my camera died and so had to rely on cell phone and post cards to remember this place by, and then finally on into Erie, to the same beach where last year we locked our keys in the car and had to call for help.  I should say, I locked the keys in the car, but we redeemed ourselves this time and parked the car with success and walked the beach, talking and dreaming and just enjoying the sounds of the water.   It was a great day and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing new and different things, but especially since we could now both add New York on our list of states we have visited. 

Anniversary

There are many different kinds of anniversaries; the beginning of new job, the anniversary of a death or divorce, and then there is the wedding anniversary.  Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary, our 9th year together and we march on to our 10th anniversary next year. 

I have been divorced, once through childhood and then in adulthood.  Obviously the childhood divorce was when my parents split up and divorced.  That was a painful and chaotic time in our lives.  Then I was divorced as an adult, 15 years ago in September, I believe.  The anniversary date escapes me, I use to know it.  I have been married now 9 years tomorrow, June 29.  While this is a happy and joyous time for me, my sister's divorce is final today.  It gives me pause to think on this.  I remember what it was like when my divorce was final, all the emotions involved, and I am sure this is true for my sister.  While there is relief that it is over, it also feels a little like a death.  You once cared for a person only to not care, how do you turn it off?  There is so much anger and sadness involved and then comes the roller coaster ride, the grief machine.   

God never stops caring.  His love is continuous and final.  No matter what we do, no matter who we are, no matter how bad we feel about ourselves, God loves us and as my husband always says, "God loves you and there's not a doggone thing you can do about it."   This gives me comfort beyond belief.  God loves me no matter what and there is not a thing I can do about it.   Our time here on earth is so short.  There are many life-lessons in the meantime that I am learning.  My trust grows every day.  I have given up worry for Lent, but my Lent continues into the quiet time of summer and will continue to grow into the busy time of Advent.  There are many good things happening in my life right now, I hold onto the good times.  I thank God for giving me what I need.  I needed a job, and now I have it at our church part time.  We need a vacation, a time for renewal of strength and energy, a time for us to be together, and our church has given us 10 days' time.   I have everything I need.  I have food in the refrigerator, I have furniture to sit upon, I have clothes to wear, a car to get us to and fro, enough money for gas, and a husband who loves me.  I have what I need, thank you God for everything. 

Thank you Donald for 9 years of wedded bliss, for 9 years of happiness, for 9 years of loving me, being patient with me, and for wanting to be with me and see the world together.  I love you much my husband.  I could not have asked for a better partner in life.  Thank you God for giving me my husband and thank you for loving me. 
Posted by Anna

Family

Father's Day is coming and it makes me miss my family, except I am sadly estranged from mine.  I come from a family of divorce, and so much time was wasted with anger and selfishness.  You never really know the other person's story until years later.  I wish I had paid more attention growing up.  Why is it that we finally come to some understanding in our older years.  Why is it when we are younger we are self-absorbed and only see our side of things.  Circumstances are never what they seem to be, only what young eyes see and want to hear.  I never appreciated my father as much as I do now.  He is all I have left of my family as my siblings and I are no longer in contact and my mother has Alzheimer's and does not know who I am, so this Father's Day is somehow strangely sad and yet not sad.  I thank God for what I have, and I thank God for my father.  I love you Dad!
Posted by Anna

Pentecost

Acts 2:  When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

What is the work of the Holy Spirit?  Lutherans believe that we come to faith, remain in the faith, and live our lives of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit.  In his explanation in the third article of the Apostles Creed, Martin Luther taught..."the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common true faith."  

Today is Pentecost.  Happy Birthday to all churches, today is a celebration.  Last night we had a Pentecost vigil at our church, a first.  We had a service and then walked around the neighborhood and blessed those businesses.  It was different and I rather enjoyed it.  So today we wear the colors of Pentecost; reds and red oranges.  Don and I decorated the church up for a party with balloons and streamers and candles.  Happy birthday!

End of the World

I do not understand why everyone is so concerned over the world ending.  I have heard and seen written more and more things on this, and it makes me curious as to this fascination to the end.  It is written in the bible that we will not know the day or time.  We do not know when the end of the world will come.  The world is a scary place and we look around us at how we are living as a society, and it too can be a scary place.  All you have to do is turn on the news and you see who beat up who, who killed who, and the list goes on and on.  Have we become so immune to death?  We see it in front of us all the time and it means nothing.  All this anger is what is scary to me.  People are angry and they are acting out on it.  Where is hope?  Where is faith?  Where is love?  Why so much anger? 

For me, I do not dwell on the bad things, there are too many good things that are happening.  I cannot convince people there is a loving God and I am not going to try to.  What I can do is show God's love through my behavior, through my love, but not through words.  Words seem to mean nothing.  People need to be fed, they need to be clothed.  It is hard to talk of God's love when the basics are not even being met.  Our church is going to open a clothing bank.  It is going to be a lot of work and will take a lot of time and effort.  I am looking forward to this because it means as a church we are reaching out to our community and letting them know we care.  There are good things happening, we need to look for them instead of looking always for the bad. 

So I guess my pet peeve right now that I need to write about is this preoccupation with the end of the world.  What does it matter if it ends or when it ends.  What matters is how we live our lives today. 

Posted by Anna

Memorial Day

It was a beautiful day today, very hot and dry.  Don worked on lattice on the porch and finished it up and did some priming so that when we buy some white paint, it will paint on easily. We would like to paint the doors, all doors, green so as to give the house some color.  Then we went out to some parishoners for the day, swam in their pool, laid around, ate and I got to experience swinging on a hammock, what fun that was.  It was a good Memorial Day and our first here in Butler, PA.  We have almost been here a year, ya!  Where has the time gone!

Warmer weather

This is our garden. We have worked very hard on it. This last week, Monday, we had 10 yards of rock delivered to the house, and so Don and I spread it all around. We are building a berm on the side of the house where all the rock is, but that will not be finished until fall some time, and we will plant some bushes next spring. Hopefully next spring will not be as volatile as it is this spring. We have had nothing but rain and to the far south of us, just tornadoes and flooding. We are so happy to be where we are at, though we do keep in prayer those who have lost their homes, their livelihood, and memories in pictures and loved ones.

We have an abdundant amount of shale here, and I do not always know what to do with it, so decided to make a bed just of shale. I also wanted tomatoes and green pepper and I am also trying my hand at cucumbers. Don is going to make me a trellis so the cucumbers can climb up it.

This weekend is Memorial Day. Saturday they are having a parade downtown, so Don and I are thinking of parking at the church and just walking and seeing the parade and try to meet other folks we might know. We are having our Sunday service on the yard, under the shade of trees. It is suppose to get up to 90 degrees this weekend. It happens all at once, doesn't it?

I hope for a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We bought our flag to hang out, so we will be like most folks on our block with the flag. I will take a picture and put it on our blog. Happy Memorial Day to all.