Sidebar

Boy, I wish blogger had a feature that automatically entered a blog into your sidebar if you visit it over and over. It sure would save me a lot of trouble. I am trying again to add links to the sidebar. It is an ongoing process. This is a heartening thing, though, because it just means there are so many wonderful women in the world that I can't sit down and manually type each of you in in one sitting. It does my heart so much good to know that spread out all over this big blue marble, there are women such as I've come to know here in Blogville. Because of the women I've come to know here, I honestly want to know more about the women that I rub physical elbows with here around my town. I find myself a better listener because I understand how much goes unsaid in real life because we chatter on about nothing. Sometimes it only takes a question to bring out the deeper thoughts of another person. Sometimes it just takes shutting up long enough to listen. I look at the women around me differently now. I don't worry so much about how they see me. I worry more about really seeing them. That is thanks to you wonderful women in Blogville.

Yesterday, I attended the funeral of my friend's husband. She was incredible. She was comforting everyone else. I must say that I was relieved to find that it was not entirely shocking for her. He has lived with a heart condition for some time and they always knew this was a possibility. I was so worried about the shock aspect of it. I know she will miss him and I know that the full realization has not come to her yet but I am grateful that she is surrounded by people who love her and loved him.

The meditation given by our pastor was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard from him. (and there have been many, many beautiful sermons and meditations from him) We presently have a stable set up that the congregation must walk through in order to reach the sanctuary. We are adding stuffed animals to it and at the end of the holidays will disperse the animals to foster children in the local area. There are all sorts of animals out there..some who probably would feel very strange in a stable. Pastor Garden pointed out that the animals in the stable are a poor reflection of the animals they represent. He likened them to us as poor reflections of the light we represent. He spoke of my friend's husband as now being a true reflection of that which he represented here on Earth. He is the real deal now. It's as if God went into that stable full of stuffed animals and said "Today you will be the reality of what you represent," and they suddenly became real bears and sheep and puppies. It all reminded me of Narnia, a bit. I mentioned to the pastor how beautiful the sermon was and he thanked me and said that it reminded him of the Velveteen Rabbit. Indeed. I hadn't even thought of that, but it surely fits.

After the funeral, my wonderful friend Elizabeth and I were talking and she needed to stick around to deliver some groceries into the kitchen, but didn't want to do so while the reception for family and out-of-town guests was going on, so we decided to take a walk to the coffee shop down the street. The air was indescribable. You know when you're in a lake and there is cool fresh water and sun-warmed water swirling around your body all at the same time? It was like that. Ok, so it was describable. There was cool air coming up from the damp ground and the warm sun shining down. Yummy. So, we walked and had coffee and chatted up a storm. We walked back, unloaded the groceries and parted company. I came home and napped until choir time. LOL Isn't that terrible? It felt good, though. Elizabeth brought me a Christmas gift to choir. I am not allowed to open it until Christmas. She trusts me, huh? hehe Tim almost opened it..he said she didn't say anything about him opening it. :) Choir rehearsal went well..then we went to a local surf 'n turf (in fact, I guess that's the name ,come to think of it)and I had a beer and some fries and good conversation with good friends. Then home to watch Top Chef with Tim and then to sleep, perchance to dream.

Today is our date day, as we postponed it for the funeral. I need to get on the stick for Christmas. I am starting to feel a bit panicked.

Lots more detail than I intended to offer. lol It's fun to relive a good time though.

Talk to you guys later. Lots of love your way.