First times are memorable just because they are first. This has certainly been true for me this summer with the selling of our home.
Here is a handout left on our kitchen table next to the plate of cookies just-out-of-the-oven:
This was our first home, purchased 40 years ago this past April.
Our next home is in Glen-Aire, just around the corner.
Here are a few of the things to love about this home:
Location, location, location!
The beautiful hardwood floors.
The family room.
Looking out on the back yard.
The laundry chute.
The kitchen layout, including the pantry, the pull-out shelves, and the 36 inch drawers.
The dimmer switches.
The built-ins (master bedroom, master bathroom, garage).
The lighted closets.
Instant hot water in all locations.
The gas fire place.
The sunrises and sunsets.
The basement shelves.
Did I mention the location and the lot?
If you decide this is to be your next home, you will love it.
This is the first home we have ever sold, and it is also the first home the buyer has ever bought. We are both well past our teenage years but we are property virgins.
The selling and buying of this home will be memorable, as will this morning’s sunrise….
She had given her teenage daughter permission to go with friends to the beach for dune buggy rides but woke up with a knowing she should not allow her to go. Her daughter was upset.
Later that day they both understood.
The friend her daughter was to have been riding with in the dune buggy was killed when his buggy rolled over!
These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? Do you have as story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
This morning as I am so grateful for making time to get my fingers on the keyboard as my “to-do-list” grows longer and my time-table grows shorter. I notice how relevant that is to all those who are in their later years. I have lived 67 years, and in this body probably do not have 67 more. We have our home of 40 years scheduled to go onto the market today and have purchased an 1120 square foot home in a 55 and over park literally right around the corner. The simultaneity of the sacred and the mundane dancing across the moments we call time have my eyes leaking and my heart aching in its perfection….
As we paint, clean, pack, (See Garage Floor!) we witness miracle upon miracle in the journey of John’s brother, Jim, who is journeying through metastatic cancer. From the ease and timing of finding of our new home to a vivid pray without ceasing demonstration the lines blur between now and then, here and there, alive and dead, mortal and immortal.
We are living Harry Chapin’s Circle song. I hope you will take time to listen.
As I have said before, we are living a charmed life. Last evening we said goodbye to an antique china cabinet that had sat in our kitchen for 25 years. It belongs to a friend, Doris. We kept it for her when she went through a divorce and had no place for it. That cabinet had belonged to her grandmother. There is now floor space in my kitchen, and I can feel my mother smiling to see her carnival glass gleaming in the light of our new home.
Yesterday afternoon my yoga teacher and another friend met me at the new house for yoga. We offered gratitude for Ursel, the woman who had made that house her home for 31 years. We reminded ourselves we were on holy ground. After I packed each piece of glassware carefully in washcloths (no need to wash the dishes like you have to if you pack them in newspaper) John brought his guitar and played and sang as they were moved into the built-in china cabinet at the new house. Every action is intimate with thoughts and prayers regarding Jim and the unfolding of our shared destiny. The best way to share this holy thought is to let you read a journal entry by Krista Meyer, Jim’s daughter, posted about 7:00 pm Saturday, the 4th of July, 2017.
Blessings
Sometimes God just surprises you with an unexpected miracle.
After nearly 48 hours of not being able to speak or communicate with anyone, Dad suddenly started talking this afternoon! Kurt and Heather and Sam and Ben were here, along with Uncle Jerry and Aunt Jeanne, Uncle John, and some of our kids. We had an amazing time of talking and laughing and visiting! I’ve attached one of the videos I took of Dad talking to our nephew, Craig, and Hannah and Jonny.
I sent this message to my cousin:
Everyone else left and I was sitting in the room with mom and dad. Mom went over to Dad’s bed and said, “I’m so proud of you! Are you proud of me too?” Dad replied, “Yeah!” Mom asked why he was proud of her and he said, “Because you’re the best wife in the world!”
I can’t get over what a huge miracle this is. Over the past couple of days, my heart was hurting for him because I wondered if he had things he wanted to say to mom, especially, but hadn’t said them before he lost the chance. And mom said this morning when she went home for a bit, she had a meltdown and was telling God she missed hearing Dad’s voice and wished she could hear him talk again. She came back an hour later and he was talking!
However long it lasts, whatever lies ahead, we are thanking God for this amazingly wonderful gift. Trying to remember to carve our blessings in marble and write our trials in sand. ❤️
Once in a while, we witness what has been there all along. The blessings we carve in stone today are of a new home and moments of life spent with those we love. Rabbits hop in my backyard now. May rabbits hop in the yard at the new house, too.
Her professional colleague and friend, Lora, had recently passed.
Lora got my attention in a big way this morning! I had just walked into my office and was standing inside the doorway talking to the person across the hall from me, when I suddenly heard and felt something drop by my feet. I thought I dropped something I was carrying but it turns out that one of the angel figurines I have on a high shelf fell off the shelf and on to the floor in front of me –right by my feet. There was no way for it to fall – no one was close to the shelf.
I knew immediately it was Lora. A message followed:
“Please give this angel to my angel of a sister who was one of those that cared for me so unconditionally. Everyone needs to know that I am an angel that is present and helping all of you. I picked this angel to depict me because of the pink flowers on the apron and in the basket. I am absolutely wonderful in my spiritual state without a body – and I am so grateful for all of you that I shared life with when I was in body. My dad helped me when I died and he said that’s why he had to go first. We both love you all so much.
Pay attention when you see things out of place in your homes – that is me letting you know I’m still around. Pay attention to butterflies when you are outside – that is another way I will let you know that I’m present. Also, tell Jim and Caroline they should get a hummingbird feeder because it will be a reminder of the joy and sweetness of life – something I am helping you find again at a level much deeper than you’ve ever felt before.
Grieve but do it with gratitude and joy. Grieve but know that I am still with you – only my body is gone. Grieve but also be hopeful and excited about the future. Grieve and trust the process – you have all the help you need – including help from me. I am one of your angels and so is my dad.
All is well. God is good. I love you all.”
These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? Do you have as story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
She ordered a new book entitled, Soul Friends, and was told by Amazon that it would be shipped in two weeks.
Three days later she received a package from her terminally ill friend who was giving some of her precious belongings away, and at the very same time also received the copy of Soul Friends from Amazon.
These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? Do you have as story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
Her grandma always had a knack for finding four leaf clovers. It would have been her grandma’s birthday. Out for a walk, her mom found one. She says, “I love those little hello messages.”
These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? Do you have as story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
February 8 she received an email message requesting a session. When would she be back in town? She was not due back until early April.
March 22 she sent a response: “Hi. Wondering if you want to set up your appointment for soon after I get home.”
The reply popped in right away: “You won’t believe this. Oh, yes, YOU will. I was thinking just ten minutes ago about texting you to see when you will be back home! LOL.”
These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? If you have a story to share, send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
She was intending to drive to the UPS store after her doctor’s appointment, but she needed to return directly home to ice packs. Halfway home on her country road, she said out loud, “Sure would be convenient if a UPS truck was in the neighborhood to take my package.”
A UPS truck rounded the corner heading directly toward her!
She waved to him to stop next to her car and handed him her package.
It’s the littlest things that can make the biggest difference. That week her life had gotten very dark, sometimes scary, lonely, and pretty heavy.
She says, “I felt heard. Ask and you will receive.”
It was just what the doctor ordered.
These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? If you have a story to share, send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
Her son was two-and-a-half. Friends had come to swim. Just before dinner, she bathed her son and was bathing her daughters when her husband screamed her name. Her son had been pulled from the pool unconscious!
Water poured from every orifice in his body. She rode in the ambulance, praying.
At the hospital, she stood by helplessly as they were unable to revive him. She was led to a room to wait.
The woman in a pink candy striper uniform came in and told her, “Your son is screaming bloody murder.” They prayed together, and the woman in pink stayed with her until someone came to get her. They needed her help to calm her son so they could run some tests. He was alive!
After the situation calmed down, she wanted to thank the woman who had stayed with her. No one knew anything about a woman in a pink uniform. This hospital did not have candy striper volunteers.
These are sacred stories. What does this all mean to you? Do you have as story to share? Send email to debra@scs-matters.com.
