What Is Lonnie's Room?

There is a room in our home to which I navigate more frequently than the others. It makes me feel secure, it is cozy, and it is quiet. From the peak of the room, there is a large rusty metal angel suspended by a very thin wire. It would apear as if the angel is hovering over me, protecting, and always present. The lighting in the room creates a virtual display of dancing shadows around the angel.

Every evening when I am in "MY ROOM", I think of what Luciano de Crescenzo once said, "We are all like one-winged angels. it is only when we help each other that we can fly."

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Humility

This morning as I awoke in "my room", I noticed that once again the seasons are beginning to change and the light images in the room are transforming.    As we approach fall, it appears to most that nature dies away and/or hibernates in preparation of a long winter ahead.  However, if we look closely we notice that new things come to life and the season in itself is very beautiful.  We have very large maple trees that line the back of our property and they just burst with absolute beautiful color in the fall.  The flowers that outline the pond (although I cannot give you a name at this time), transforms to a breathtaking crimson color from the rather boring green it boasts all summer.  Our garden shows signs of orange and green pumpkins, colorful gourds, and orange, brown and green bittersweet vines.  Deer have been seen standing in the garden partaking of the fresh peaches and apples that had fallen from the trees.  There are so many beautiful things about nature that we take for granted.  Once we pay attention to the gifts that have been so freely given to us, our spirits lift and the problems of the week seem to fade into a nonexistence.  Humility is about knowing who we are and what makes us content. Nature has the best example of humility.  Each season has its problems and its ugliness, but each one knows its own gift to life.... its beauty.  Thank you to our greater being for this lesson on knowing who we are and being the best we can be despite our downfalls.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Life's Cookbook

Last week I was scanning the pages of a very old cookbook purchased at an auction.  It was very explicit and detailed about how to cook things, can items, store things, clean things, and even how to set one's dinner table.  The book provided interesting reading for an afternoon, and I thought we needed such explicit instructions for other things,.... such as life itself.

How did we get here without instructions?  We learn as we go by our successes and our failures; by discovering what works and what does not, by seeking assistance and support; and by knowing our choices and making decisions based on the knowledge we have sought to make those choices.

If we were to write our recipes for our life cookbook, what would the titles read?  I imagine that each person's book would be different.  The index of my book would include such things as:  Siblings; God's Place in My Life; First Day of School; Moving; Changing Schools; Death and a New Normal; Difficult Years; First Date; Peer Pressure; Getting Married; Raising a Family; Illnesses; Career Life and Aging Gracefully.  I am sure once one gets started, it would be difficult to find an ending to our needs for guidance as there are so many stages in our lives.  If I were to write my recipe for Aging Gracefully (since that is where I am in life), I would want it to look something like this:

                      Lonnie's  Recipe for Aging Gracefully
Ingredients Needed:  1 kind soul;  a bushel of experience;  1 heart full of love;  a pinch of gray hair; a few endearing wrinkles of moderate size;  1 cup of patience;  3 cups of understanding;  2 arms full of hugs, and smiles to taste.   Gently fold all ingredients together, pour into a designer mold of your choice, and enjoy for a lifetime.

If I can follow this recipe, I will consider myself to be blessed! 

What do your recipes for life look like?

Friday, August 6, 2010

Going Home

In the last week I have heard many comments about "going home".  I have heard the words in songs, in conversations, in newspaper articles......it must be a sign to write a blog about it as well.  My cousin and I had a conversation about driving past our old houses and either being elated that the house was well maintained or disappointed that it was no longer there.  Childhood homes have a great influence on our lives.  The childhood homes had that special memory of where we played under the willow tree, got locked in the barn, cared for our pony, raised sheep, walked beans, saw my first bull snake, learned to ride a bike, read books in the orchard trees, helped make root beer, used an outhouse, and sat next to a wood burning kitchen stove to keep warm. Those were good memories because family members were all alive, and  we worked and played together. It is where we learned ethics, responsibility, manners, and it made us who we are today.   That childhood home is "The House That Built Me".   As we leave our childhood homes and experience life, we sometimes get broken and lose our way..... life happens and interferes.  How many of us try to return to that childhood house to find the old self, recapture the security, or perhaps bury the trauma we experienced.

Miranda Lambert recorded the song, "The House That Built Me".  Her lyrics are an echo of our thoughts today:
"You leave home, you move on and you do the best you can.  I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am.  I thought if I could touch the place or feel it, this brokenness inside me might start healing.  Out here its like I'm someone else; I thought maybe I would find myself; If I could just come in I swear I'll leave... won't take nothing but a memory from the house that built me."

Do you feel you can go home again to the house that built you?  Share your feelings.