As you reach the end of a flight and head to the terminal, you see people gathering their belongings and preparing to disembark. Ensuring they leave nothing behind is part of their flight plan; it enables them to start the next part of their journey with one less concern.
December is the end of our flight. We’re on the tarmac, heading for the gate. Now is the time to look back, to assess where we are relative to where we were in January.
Did we throw out the habits that were holding us back? Did we develop new habits that have made us stronger? Did we gain the courage to end destructive relationships, or to take the risk and enter into new ones God led us to?
In January we will look to the future, setting goals and making plans. We will be better prepared to do this if we first set aside even a little time in December to discover where we really are.
I have some awesome grandkids, and I love doing things with them. In fact, when it comes to things like birthdays, I prefer doing things with them to buying things for them. So when Connor’s birthday rolled around, we settled on an old-fashioned scavenger hunt.
Our city has been working on adding public art for the past several years, so we got a list of addresses and a map and took off. Well, we took off after mapping the locations of the art installations we were looking for. This made for a great impromptu lesson in map reading. We don’t think about how much we rely on Siri for directions!
Our initial goal was to track down all of the decorated boxes. We met that goal; the cat box is only one of many we found that day. But they’ve been REALLY art busy in Baytown, so we were far from done. If I were an Instagrammer, I’d have had a ball!
This book sculpture at the Sterling Municipal Library is fabulous!
Umbrella Alley, Texas Avenue, Baytown, TXArt League of Baytown
Connor got REALLY excited when we found this…
Because it meant we’d also found…
…and what felt like a hundred other classic cars. His passion for classic cars, sports cars, etc., is… Wow. According to him, I had officially given him one of the best birthdays ever.
In fact, in the midst of a recent discussion about all of the new decorated boxes that are popping up around town, he said, “It sounds like we need to get back in the van and go hunting!”
Yes. That is what we call success.
If you’re in or near Baytown, you should really check out our public art – this is only the smallest sampling. I’ve lived here most of my life and am only now learning just how much there is to do within just a few miles of my house.
Photo Credit: Memories in Motion Photography (Candace Townsend)
Isn’t it special how the truly exciting things in life often involve our siblings? My sister Clarissa and I, even though we had our times of disliking each other growing up, have always played together. The last two years have been no different. First, after much prayer, we opened a clothing boutique. Coming from an entrepreneurial family, it would seem such a move would be obvious, but we’d never even considered going into business together before. We actually closed the business a couple of weeks ago, but that’s for later.
Then there was the day she dragged me to the gun range. She has a concealed carry license and had been telling me for months that I needed a break and shooting is therapy, so one day I caved and joined her to take my turns shooting both of her handguns (I preferred the .38, if anyone cares). I think I frustrated her when I refused to come out and say I’d had fun, but I did have to confess that it was very satisfying to try something completely new and do so well. In fact, it was a gift.
To understand my satisfaction, you have to know that I was always afraid of failure when I was young. I never learned to skate, for instance, because I feared making a fool of myself. Doing so well my first time at the range was extremely satisfying. Will I ever return to the range? I don’t know. It’s hard to excuse spending so much money on ammo when you’re only doing it for kicks.
Third, we went out of business with a bang. Sounds ridiculous, right? Going out of business is usually a terrible thing, but this was different. We prayed and considered carefully before concluding that it was the right move for us, and then we did something so exciting it still gives me goose bumps. We took all of our clothing and gave it away at a shelter for battered women. ALL of it. Many of these moms had taken their kids and run with only the clothes on their backs and what little they could carry. Seeing their joy at freely choosing several brand new outfits each was AMAZING, and it satisfied a long-held dream of mine.
I’ve always wanted to do something big – like give away a car or something. It wasn’t on my Bucket List, because I’ve always thought a Bucket List was for things that were at least somewhat within reach. If it had been on a list, I’d have called it my Dream Big list.
Because God led Clarissa and me into this particular adventure in the first place, my relatively small investment in our business was turned into something huge. When we calculated what we’d given to the shelter, we’d done the equivalent of giving away a car – a new car. You might think I’d regret investing money and time into a business that would close down after a year and a half, but I don’t; I consider it a huge blessing. Even if this final thing were the only reason we’d launched Cady’s Closet, I would say it was a grand adventure, and I haven’t stop smiling since we set up our pop-up boutique for the last time.
Now I’m looking forward to our next adventure. Sisterhood is an awesome thing.
Sapphires and rubies: They’re two very popular stones, and have been through the ages. I may be mistaken, but as I recall the ruby has consistently been the more valuable of the two.
When people think of sapphires, they generally envision a rich blue, but in reality sapphires come in a wide range of colors. My personal favorite is the pink sapphire—the hotter the better. I’ve never bought one for myself, though, because jewelers generally label them as rubies so they can get higher prices for them. Deceptive, no?
Well, it depends on how you define deception…and which deception you’re talking about. You see, rubies and sapphires are both corundum. They’re the same stone. Red, yellow, blue, or white, the only differences are their color and their perceived value.
The same is true of people. We were all made from dirt and will return to dirt. Yes, there are different colors of dirt, but it’s all dirt. Other than our delightfully variegated cultures, the only differences between the so-called races are color and perceived value. Like a customer who walks into a jewelry store, many have bought into the idea that one color is more valuable than another.
Only a short distance from this bridge, over which I’ve passed numerous times through the years, lies the entrance to New Hope Cemetery. This is an old cemetery with a fascinating collection of aged headstones. This is a rustic cemetery and it holds the earthly remains of some of my nearest and dearest.
Too many times, we’ve followed a hearse over this bridge, taking a loved one to their final resting place. Several times, we’ve crossed the bridge to visit the graves of those we’ve not seen in so very long. The last time I was there–the day I took this picture–we were “visiting” Mother.
You’d think this bridge would represent loss to me, would inspire pain, but it doesn’t. Why?
The answer lies in the cemetery’s name–New Hope. Yes, we’ve laid our loved ones to rest here, but I know that in each and every case they were born again and destined for Heaven. For them, and those of us who expectantly wait to see them again, this place offers hope indeed–hope of that new life, true LIFE that will never end–eternal life in the very presence of God, surrounded by those we love so much…HOME.
So this picture shows a path of hope, a man-made construct that bridges the past and that glorious future as we follow the road home.
On Monday evening, when I was finally recovering from a truly SICK weekend, my rest was interrupted by a girl’s screams and the sound of two dogs fighting. It is amazing what a good shot of adrenaline can do. I was out the back door, over the fence that was lying on the ground, and in the midst of a dog fight in seconds – and one of the dogs was mine.
We have yet to figure out what happened, exactly. The girl was walking her dog (Great Dane), who had never shown any sign of aggression that I know of, when said dog dashed across the yard, dragging her the whole way, and literally took down our fence. (T-post, so not QUITE what you’re thinking, though still!) As I said, no one knows exactly what happened, but when I ran outside I found my passive whippet/beagle mix locked in mortal combat with a horse-sized demon.
And here’s where this post takes a turn you’re probably not expecting.
I was actually able to separate the dogs, with one collar in each hand, and knelt there on the ground between two seemingly calm pooches while the girl went for her aunt. It was over.
Or so it seemed. When I told the whole story to my sister she said, “You know YOU weren’t the one holding those dogs!” Had the event ended right there, I might have disagreed with her, but the instant the aunt took the other dog, and I removed my hand from her collar, she was on my Daisy again as if the battle had never stopped. Needless to say, I let go of Daisy instantly so she could do her best to fight back while the other woman tried to get control of the Great Dane.
We did get control. Daisy did go to the vet and get care for four gaping wounds. (Yes, the dog owner paid and even provided transport for Jack and Daisy since I wasn’t able to take her myself.) Daisy is recovering well and everything is going to be fine.
The more I think, though, about how calmly I knelt on the ground between those two dogs, and how totally at peace they appeared to be while I was there, the more I am blown away. Frankly, though I’m pretty sure I would do it again, it was a pretty stupid move on my part.
You can’t tell me God wasn’t protecting me. You just can’t.
