Love

Still the Same

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I’ve been reading some of my first posts in 2014.  All these years and they are still true.  Some issues remain unresolved.  Some issues have simply been deleted rather than resolved. I am still busy, but have more space between activities.

One thing I can say about myself.  I am persistent.  I perceive myself as being a quitter.  But, after reviewing my earliest posts, I seem to be steadily seeking a similar scenario.  I do have the same ambitions as I have always had.  To paint, to write, to dance.

I still love time with my family.  My family has certainly expanded! The duchesses have helped me filter through things I have been holding on to.  Just this past week, our daughter and her husband bought their first house.  That is helping me filter through things, too, somehow. Of course, several items here in this house have been saved for when she had a home to call her own. 

I continue to work on building deeper friendships.  I have been trying to be more open and vulnerable with three ladies I adore.  One is getting ready for her son’s wedding; one is mourning the loss of her mother this very day; and one is missed terribly.  She and I worked together for years and only have occasional visits. 

I have some pieces of writing done.  I have one in progress.  It has begun with the death of a young woman.  I don’t even know if she fell or was pushed.  The story is still so new.  I started it in the middle of my daily journal scribbles and it needs to be transcribed on to the computer so I can continue to work on it. 

There is a table and chairs I rescued a few years ago.  They needed refinishing, but not badly enough for me to do it for myself.  That new house of our daughter’s needs a dining table. I am refinishing the table and chairs!

The holidays are nearly upon us.  Thanksgiving feasts, Christmas decorating and baking, a few gifts to do up with paper, ribbon and bows.  Some family and friends I want to see. And one fella I am very fond of is turning 60.  I look forward to celebrating his birthday.  Nearly lost him two years ago.  How precious are family ties. 

Yes, many things are still the same after all these years of writing Raining Orchids.  And the second one I wrote spoke of how much I love Rock and how much I depend on him for strength and courage and protection. 

From January 2014:

He is just over there on the tractor, clearing some brush. He is close enough to see and if I suddenly need to touch him, I can walk over to him. He was gone fishing with his tournament partner Saturday and Sunday. Sure was a long couple of days.
I am grateful I feel this way about him. We met and fell in love thirty-one years ago this month. We’ve been through some fires and some storms. We’ve been through some miracles and some magical places. Our connection, our marriage, our love has taken on a lovely patina. I cherish him and I cherish us. I am thankful.

Some things have only grown richer and more lovely. 

Duchesses

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Two weekends in a row.  One duchess last weekend and the other one this weekend.  I took the younger one home today.  She was here three nights.  One night isn’t enough. Three nights is pushing it for my energy.  Two nights is usually just right.  We will see both of them next Saturday, Lord willing.

I have had one of them for ten or twelve nights last year. I don’t recall just how many.  We did well only because I didn’t push to try to do all the fun things in two days.  I have so many ideas and so much ambition to make their time with me as fun as possible, I try to cram too much in too little time. 

One of the funny things about the girls:  One has recently gotten an Alexa in the house.  It was a bonus gift with a large purchase her folks had made.  She loves to tell it to play songs for her to dance and sing.  This weekend with the other one, we had washed and dried her hair and I put it up in a looping pony before bed.  She asked me to take a picture with my phone so she could see how it looked.

They are children of their time in the world.  Just as I was when it was my time and their parents were in their time.  What us older folks worry about as being too modern, too fancy, too whatever, they will cherish as the good old days someday.    

They will manage their world in a way we can’t because it is what they know.  What wonderful lives they will live! Just as we have in a world so different from our grandparents’ world. 

Faith, not fear.  Love and hope and dreams and Jesus.  That is what I want to help them see. This Raining Orchids has become my “picture” for them to some day look and see how much they are loved and how important they are.  And for my friends, family and my Rock to know how precious they are to me, too.  The Lord already knows.