And about my mother-in-law...

Along with my utility bill, the city of Redding sends out a leaflet known as "Redding Connections".  This month the useful seasonal announcements included a history of Claude Caldwell & Caldwell Park, which is located down our street.  Claude Caldwell lived in Redding only 11 years before he died prematurely of cancer in 1960.  The lovely family park bears his name in tribute for his volunteer work on the City of Redding Parks and Recreation Commission.  Claude Caldwell embraced Redding as his home, blooming were he was planted, he left Redding a better place.  It doesn't take a lifetime to enrich the world around you.  It just takes a heart willing to engage, taking risks for convictions.  Claude Caldwell had a vision for Redding's Parks which my family of newcomers enjoys everyday.  We've lived here 6 years.  Now I reflect and question myself, "How am I making Redding a better place?" 

Shirley Nadine Williams was born August 6, 1921.  She lived in Bayside, California for over 60 years.  To properly eulogize her, I'd have to write a book...which may be forth coming!  But for now, as I mourn her passing last month, I see her lasting touch on community and family.  She was a great mother!  She was a great-mother-in-law!  Shirley was a hero in my life.

 In February 2006, we called mom with the request, "May we come and stay with you awhile?"  As my husband struggled to explain, she told him, "Just come, we'll have time to talk when you get here."  Sadly our arrival wasn't joyful. When Shirley saw our devastation, she sensitively welcomed us, housed and fed us, and listened.  We had lost everything.  For three weeks she listened to stories, regrets, broken dreams, and grief.  She comforted us without judgement.  Never once did I hear, "I told you so..."  She never condemned us.  She never blamed us. She truly loved us with her consistent acceptance.  
Our healing began.  She helped us lift our heads to the future with resolution.  "Where do we go from here?" was the only question considered.  She watched and encouraged us in a solid decisive manner.  In our most desperate time, mom stood with us.  She was a rock.  

Tom tried to make up for the time lost, though mom never projected the need for that!  She didn't cry over spilled milk.  You didn't hear Shirley mourn for what "could have been".  Shirley enjoyed the moment!  Which leads me to say what happened to us before February 2006 isn't our focus.  Today is!  


Thinking on the lives of these two people challenges me today.  I want to be solid like mom, an empowering covering to my children and loved ones.  I think today I will try to be the best me!  Lord Jesus, help me.  Holy Spirit, be the voice that whispers in my heart which path to take, creating a positive wake in the waters of life!
Like Claude Caldwell, like Shirley Williams, like Jesus.

"It was just yesterday."

Our family traveled to Missouri for the holidays, where we joyfully reunited with family and old friends.  What a great holiday gift! Early one morning our loving friends welcomed us into their family home for coffee.  After 7 long years, we joined to catch up.  Upon greeting us with warm hugs and kind words, I commented to my friend, "It seems like just yesterday,"  to which he immediately replied, "It was just yesterday, because in God, there is no time.  In the God, it was just yesterday."  Both our families had many ups and downs over the years, but the common thread to our stories was God's faithful love manifested to us.  We worshiped the Lord in our fellowship, honoring God's presence as we honored and celebrated each other.  I know God was smiling as we validate each others journey.  It was a wonderful benchmark moment in my life.  
    These friends who are treasures to me, worship the Lord in a totally different stream.  I witness their heart's true holiness, but decline to judge their means of expression.  Their relationship with God is personally private.  As they share with us their faith's expression, I guard this trust from self-righteous analysis.  I don't want to participate in self-righteous judgements.  I don't really have any righteousness in myself.  My rightness before God was provided to my by Jesus when He died for my sins, and arose from the grave.  John 3:16 starts with, "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son...".  "For God so loved the world" was the motivation for the following action.  God's love is all inclusive.  The love of God changed man's destiny.  If I want to leave any positive impression on this world, then my definitions of love need to align with God's.  
  Diversion of style does not mandate opposition.  Insecurity won't tolerate diversion.  Insecurity misinterprets diversion as perversion.
     Tom, my husband, likes old things.  Old knives, old tools, old trucks are still good and useful!  Sometimes I think as we age, we want our usefulness in this world validated.  We may be old, but we are still good!  In a society that values production, we forget the value of presence.  Anyway, Tom's love for the old knives conflicts with my love for the new ones!  I use the new bread knife, while he uses an old second hand knife I picked up 6 years ago.  Two knives next to the bread board made me smile.  We have conflicting opinions, but because we have learned to respect the right of each to his own opinion, we live happily.  As a young Christian wife, I thought we had to agree on everything for there to be unity!  In time, we learned to make room for each others opinions.  In Gwen's grade school, they called it "respecting each other".  We share our discoveries with each other, and if one of us doesn't understand a discovery, well, that's okay.  We make room for our individuality.