Auntie Stella Memories

She was the aunt that was forever "21" ...
The aunt that always identified herself as "this is your favorite aunt" ... The aunt that new all the family history ...
The aunt that had the cabin in the forest that anyone could borrow ... The aunt that sang in the church choir ...
The aunt that had no children, but always had fun games to play ...
The aunt that knew how to console when a little one's world seemed heavier than it ought be in some area ...
The aunt with the greeting "Everybody into the pool" ...
The aunt with the big dogs ...
The aunt with tropical trees growing in her living room ...
The aunt that welcomed all to her home as though it were their own ...
She was my Auntie Stella ... and I will miss her presence ... and know she made a difference by the way she lived ... and the way she died ... Thank, You, God for having allowed me the blessing of time spent with Auntie Stella ... Thank You, God, Amen ... I pray she is very happy and with You today ...

Buckets

What's in your bucket?

What if each day of your life was captured in and represented by a bucket?

What would you find as you walked along a path lined with the buckets of your life? Full buckets or empty buckets? Would they contain contents you'd happily splash on others or sludge you'd rather others not know?

Would you find yourself often eager and excited to sit on the path and spill a bucket before you, lifting each item high, smiling, and holding it close to your heart?

Would you find yourself peering into buckets then looking about hoping no one else could see what you see in there?

Would you find empty buckets?

Would you find buckets overflowing?

Are your days represented by large buckets or small ones?

Are your buckets filled with people or things?

If someone else stumbled upon this path and only knew you by the contents of your buckets what picture would they draw of you?

What are the colors within the buckets? Are there colors at all, or shades? What's on the outside of the buckets, anything? What do the buckets of your life reflect?

It is true, they are your buckets and, in many ways, not there for the evaluation of others, but it is also true they are open for the consideration of all. It is also true that most paths will have some buckets filled and others spilled with both good and bad, sweet and sour, joy and sorrow, triumph and suffering.

There will be buckets empty, too.

What do you find in your buckets as you walk along the path of your life? Contents to share? Contents to hide? Contents you'd forgotten?

The buckets before you as you bend to rest today's bucket in its place on the path ... what of them?

With what do you hope to fill tomorrow's bucket so that one day when you walk this path again you'll find it and hold it with pleasure? What brings you lasting pleasure and how much of it do you find in these buckets?

The path itself, what does it look like? Neat and trimmed, littered and lonely, winding with hills, well lit or dim?

What's in your buckets and where do you keep them and with whom do you share them?

Is this a path that tells your true story, the story you imagined, the story you planned, a story at all?

What's in your buckets?

Lent Ideas And Challenges

Thanks to my friend, Virginia, for sending along some good and challenging thoughts for Lent ...

 

Fast from judging others; Feast on Christ dwelling in them.

Fast from emphasis on differences; Feast on the unity of all life.

Fast from apparent darkness; Feast on the reality of all light.

Fast from thoughts of illness; Feast on the healing power of God.

Fast from words that pollute; Feast on phrases that purify.

Fast from discontent; Feast on gratitude.

Fast from anger; Feast on patience.

Fast from pessimism; Feast on optimism.

Fast from worry; Feast on God's providence.

Fast from complaining; Feast on appreciation.

Fast from negatives; Feast on affirmatives.

Fast from unrelenting pressures; Feast on unceasing prayer.

Fast from hostility; Feast on non-resistance.

Fast from bitterness; Feast on forgiveness.

Fast from self-concern; Feast on compassion for others.

Fast from personal anxiety; Feast on eternal truth.

Fast from discouragement; Feast on hope.

Fast from facts that depress; Feast on verities that uplift.

Fast from lethargy; Feast on enthusiasm.

Fast from suspicion; Feast on truth.

Fast from thoughts that weaken; Feast on promises that inspire.

Fast from shadows of sorrow; Feast on the sunlight of serenity.

Fast from idle gossip; Feast on purposeful silence.

Fast from problems that overwhelm; Feast on prayer that sustains.

The Young Boy, The Rattlesnake, The Path, The Journey

Once upon a time there was a young boy, a young Native American Indian boy, and in his tribe the custom was to send the young men out into the wilderness at the age of fifteen to fend for themselves. So, the young man, he set off on his journey, and after thirty days all the men in the tribe would come and find him in the wilderness and bring him back and initiate him into the tribe … into full adulthood.

So, he began to wander in the wilderness and for the first few days there were no problems, there was plenty of food. There were no wild animals, and he found comfortable places to sleep … and everything, for the most part, was fine … but about the sixth or the seventh day food became scarce … and on the eighth day, the young man, he found no food at all and he went to bed hungry that night. On the ninth day he found no food, either, … and the tenth, and the eleventh, and the twelfth, … and on the thirteenth day, when he hadn’t eaten for several days he was starving … and he came to a mountain … and he looked up the mountain and he thought to himself, “Perhaps if I wander up that mountain, somewhere on the mountain, I will find some food”.

So, the boy began to wander up the mountain, and as he wandered up the mountain he discovered a path and he began to follow the path to the top of the mountain.

As he got to the top of the mountain he still had found no food. So, he became a little discouraged and right towards the summit of the mountain a rattlesnake came across the path in front of him. The boy saw the rattlesnake and the rattlesnake saw the boy. They stood head to head and stared at each other for a long moment and then the snake said to the boy,

You Can Legislate Morality

The Silliest Argument Ever (Is One You Hear All The Time)
By Kristen Walker -- January 12th, 2012, 5:32 pm

The Ten Commandments: All up in your business since circa 1440 B.C.

Tell me if this has ever happened to you.

It’s lunchtime. You are eating at your desk at work and decide to look at Facebook. It’s as exciting as ever. Your aunt had a burrito for lunch. A girl you haven’t seen since college got a new tattoo. Someone is super happy it’s almost Friday.

Link To Webpage With Inspiring Stories Of Babies - Now Adults - That Survived Abortion

http://liveaction.org/blog/the-faces-of-aborted-children/

In Their Own Words, Planned Parenthood 2010 Annual Report

For those who insist as Planned Parenthood does that abortion is just a small part of the work they do ... from Lila Rose's Facebook post ... "Planned Parenthood's new 2010 annual report shows that they performed 329,445 abortions compared to 31,098 prenatal care services and 841 adoption referrals.  It is pretty clear where their focus is.  Wish it was on life."  Please keep in mind the info comes from their own report ... http://www.lifenews.com/2011/12/30/planned-parenthood-helps-fewer-pregnant-woman-adoptions-drop/(retrieved from Facebook 12/31/11)

Mammograms At Planned Parenthood?

Watch the video ... Planned Parenthood provides mammograms?  That's news to Planned Parenthood employees ...

http://liveaction.org/blog/planned-parenthood-ceos-false-mammogram-claim-exposed/

The 3% Deception of Planned Parenthood

... Planned Parenthood keeps telling us that abortion is only 3% of its services, though we know it’s actually more like 95% and they get that 3% from coding (an abortion has different parts such as office visits, follow ups, pregnancy test, etc., so each part gets coded differently but it’s all part of one abortion). If this low percentage were true then they could stop doing abortions, keep their money and stay profitable.  (Susan Tyrrell, retrieved 11/19/11 from http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/18/13th-texas-planned-parenthood-may-close-after-de-funding/)