Grammar and Such

I'm a little out of practice, so please forgive me for the couple of grammar mistakes. I honestly must blame it on my IPad !!! HaHa, in the past, my blogging has been done on a laptop and now I am working on this...it, or perhaps, I am, temperamental! More posts to come, hopefully, with less mistakes ! Stay tuned!

50 Something Woman: LIFE as a 50 Something Woman

50 Something Woman: LIFE as a 50 Something Woman

LIFE as a 50 Something Woman

I am so happy to be resuming my 50 Something Woman Blog and I look forward to you joining me on this journey , as together, we encourage each other, our daughters, sisters, girlfriends, granddaughters, nieces, and all the beautifully made women on our lives to be strong and courageous.

Recently, our pastor, Ike Reighard said:  "The day our memories are greater than our dreams is the day we are dead in the water."  I don't want to be dead until the it's time come to be dead, until the sand runs out in the hourglass. So , let's dream and live while there is life!

What are your dreams?  "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."  -Marcel Proust-

TIME FLIES

Okay, here I go again! My last published entry on this blog was January 31, 2010 and I have covered a lot of ground since that day. I am certain that you have, too!
Now it is November 4, 2010...276 days later and I am reminded how quickly the moments, the days, the months fly during this season of my life.
Since my last post, our son made a decision to go to a college far from home and our daughter began her senior year at a university nearby.
That leaves my husband of 28 years and I in an infamous "empty nest". I have been enjoying some substitute teaching in addition to my ministry projects that I take care of as they arise.
What about you??? Has your 2010 flown by, as well?
I trust that as you ponder the details of your year that your heart is content. I continue to be convinced that the three things that matter most are...
FAITH*****FAMILY*****FRIENDS

BE BLESSED!

OUR DAUGHTER

These past few days must be recorded in the memory bank! Our daughter and eleven of her college friends came for a visit with us in the North Georgia Mountains. This group of young people, along with three other 5o something couples, enjoyed a most incredible long stretch of hours. As I sit here in the quiet, my heart is overflowing with happiness and joy over how this time was spent and I am grateful to God for the blessing of life and living!
As I think about our daughter, I recall her saying how much we would like and enjoy these friends she was bringing home. She was right! These students were polite, gracious, helpful, and fun to have around.
As I sit here in this now serene setting, my mind wanders back to various seasons in our daughter's life... a laughing infant in my arms, a two year old running down River Street in Savannah feeding the pigeons, a six year old crying because she did not like the clothes she had to wear to school, an eleven year old tomboy, short hair, biking, climbing trees, loving life, a seventeen year old soccer player who is furious at her parents because we could not let her stay overnight at a party place that we considered undesirable, and presently a strong, beautiful, confident, friendly and smart young adult who brought home 11 friends for the weekend who appear to be on a good path to a truly bright future. Perhaps we are now experiencing some fruit of our labor as we have worked hard to be the kind of parents that I believe we are called to be.


"A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart."

Author Unknown


I love you, Leah, and I thank our God for the gift you are in my life, and you were right, your friends are great people to know!

GRATITUDE AND GRACE

This is my nearly 90 year old Father's hand. With his hands he delivered more than 1,000 babies in his career as an ObGyn Physician. He loved giving complimentary care to all pastor's wives and they swarmed to his office from all over the Atlanta area. Holding his hand today gives me much joy and gratitude in my heart for the gift he has been in my life. He truly is a man of God, a man of Grace.



As a 50 something woman, I have been thinking a lot about gratitude and grace. I'd like to claim that I awaken each morning filled with gratitude, but that would not be honest! I can say that I would like to start each new day with both gratitude and grace, so perhaps this post will inspire you and I to do just that!

Ardath Rodale, an author, wrote in a 2005 article in PREVENTION magazine, that she "likes to think of gratitude and grace as her two hands working together. Grace is the power, beauty, and love of God that is always around us; gratitude gives us the eyes to see it."

As a 50 something woman, I have issues that have weighed on me through the years, as I am sure you do, as well. When I consider the challenges that I have personally faced in my own life, being thankful for them, seems to help me grow more these days.
Helen Keller said, "I thank God for my handicaps for through them I found myself, my work, and my God."

I have come to realize that this journey called life is never completely tranquil and smooth. All of us have experienced difficulties, mountains that are hard to climb. My nearly 90 year old Father told me yesterday as we were walking his mile, that we learn to live with the tragedies life deals us. So, as a 50 something woman, I would like to learn to look at my personal battles as opportunities to grow stronger in character and therefore, I want to learn to be more grateful for them.
Is that asking too much of myself? I think not. Perhaps when we learn to say "thanks", more often, we will open our hearts to daily miracles that happen all around us.
And Henry Beecher said,
"GOD'S GRACE IS THE OIL THAT FILLS THE LAMP OF LOVE."

May your day, your week, and your coming months be filled with both GRATITUDE and GRACE.

EMAIL FROM A FRIEND

The following came to me in an email today from a girlfriend, Lynn, (pictured in blue on the far right)whom I have known since we were six years old.

Though it was a bit far, we could walk to each other's childhood homes.

Our birthdays are 1 day a part, so we have celebrated many times together.

Lynard (as in Skynard) is one of those friends that you can never get enough of, no matter what. We live a couple of hours from each other, in two different states and time zones, but we still manage to get together with our other six FFs (forever friends) several times a year. Usually, the main thing we do when we are together is laugh!

And you know...that laughter is good medicine! (see Proverbs 17:22)

Lynn and I both experienced the death of a parent, her Father and my Mother, within two days of each other, back in October 2006. We've shared plenty of memories and even more tears as we have remembered these loved ones. We've shared "quotes" from these parents who have passed. Two of my favorite come from each one: Lynn's Daddy used to say: "Honey, we have so much love , we can wallow in it!" and my Mama always said about staying up later than we probably should: "We can sleep when we're dead!"

Friends are Forever and I am glad this one was given to me back in September 1964!

And now the email message:

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 &70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.
They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore.
I've even earned the right to be wrong..
So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever,
but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day(if I feel like it).

MAY OUR FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART!

A pertinent message from a great friend!