Inspire, love, past, recognition, thankful

"Inspire"

God breathes it out and I breathe it in. All I have to do to be creative in the way God designed me is to simply inhale.

The physical therapist I saw a few months ago was teaching me some stretches and emphasizing breathing properly. She said that Americans can't breathe because we're all so concerned about sucking in our gut. To get your lungs full, you have to pull your diaphragm way down and inflate your belly. And then let it out. It sounds so very easy. But to let God all the way in, to get as full of him as I possibly can, I have to not care what I look like on the outside. Sucking in my physical gut is a hindrance to my spiritual health.







"Love"

Portions of this card were originally going to be on the card I gave my brother and his new wife (my new sister!) They got married on October 6th. What a wonderful couple! She makes him better. He makes her happy.





"Past"

There is a page of a Mary Englebreit calendar that I keep in my medicine cabinet to bee seen at the start of each day. It has a girl swinging her suitcase behind her. As she goes, it's contents are dropping all over the road. A signpost stands behind her at the crossroads. The forward-pointing arrow says, "YOUR LIFE." The backward-pointing arrow says, "NO LONGER AN OPTION."

"Recognition"

What mother gets a lot of recognition for what she does? I don't mean the obligatory Mother's Day kind of recognition. I mean the kind that actually affirms something you do well. Maybe even something marketable if you were in the market. Recently someone told me, "You are a really good writer." Hey, that made me feel great! I love to write. It helped me do well in college. I have journals full of poems I used to write back when I felt tortured. I thought for a while I might write children's books.


Most days, now, though, I'd just be grateful for...
"Thanks, Mom. You sure do get the peanut butter on all the way up to the crust and, gosh, it's great to have clean underwear to wear today. "






"Thankful"

This word prompt was posted for October 7th, I think...it was Canadian Thanksgiving. For a lot of people that would have been interesting trivia, but for me it was nostalgic. I grew up on the Canadian border in Minnesota. Many of my great aunts and uncles and my great grandmother still lived in Canada while I was growing up. We had the privilege for many years to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving at my Aunt Julie's home in Fort Frances, Ontario. She was only in her fifties when she died and I miss her. I remember a lot of laughter and a lot of really good cooking! Our family has preserved one particular tradition from Julie...peanut butter clusters. They are these yummy treats that we make at Christmastime...chocolate and butterscotch chips melted together with peanut butter and cocktail peanuts. Not only are they addictively scrumptious, they remind us to be thankful for our heritage. (Our Canadian heritage!)