Homeschool Conference!!!


Look at all those beautiful little feet two people can create!

Look at all those beautiful little feet two people can create!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Just a brick?

I came across a parable today...
What a great reminder for me...
it's time to slow down a little before life passes me by or I miss the things needing attention in my world....

"The Parable of the Brick and the Jaguar"

A young executive was driving his brand new Jaguar in an area where there were usually several children playing in the street.  He thought he saw something darting out from between parked cars and slowed down.  As his car passed, no children appeared.  Instead a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door!  He slammed on the brakes and spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown.  He jumped out of the car, grabbed some kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting . . . “Just what the heck are you doing? . . . That’s a new car and the damage that brick you threw is going to cost me a lot of money. Why did you do it?”

“Please mister, please.  I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do!" pleaded the youngster. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop . . ." Tears were dripping down the boy’s cheeks as he pointed around the parked car. “It’s my brother," he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, “Would you please help me get him back in his wheelchair?  He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.“

Moved beyond words, the driver lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK.

“Thank you and God bless you,” the grateful child said to him.
The man then watched the little boy push his brother down the street toward their home.
It was a long walk back to his Jaguar; a long, slow walk.
He never did repair the side door.
He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone had to throw a brick at you to get your attention.


God whispers in your soul and speaks to your heart.
Sometimes when you don’t have time to listen, he has to throw a “brick” at you.
 (Author unknown)
 
I not only love the reminder to slow down, pay attention to life and those around you; but also the story of the sweet love that we can have for others...to what measure do we reach out to one another?  How many of us would be willing to throw that "brick" for someone we love?  Do we possess that kind of love?  Do the people in our lives know we'd be willing to throw a brick for them, at any and all costs? 
 
Are bricks being thrown our direction, in a desperate attempt for attention?  How many of us recognize when and where we are needed before a "dent" is made?
 
Guess I'm just at a place where this story hit a few tender places...
Sometimes it just takes a brick to wake me up!
I'm grateful that this little parable "hit" me today;
I plan to:
Slow down a little,
enjoy life a lot,
love others fully & completely & make sure they know of my love for them,
be quick to recognize and act on the needs of those around me...
and smile ~ if we all smiled a little more, just think how bright and happy this world could be!
Here's a smile for YOU!
Have a fabulous week...hoping we can all avoid any flying bricks!
 
 

Friday, May 11, 2012

Beautiful Discovery...

Some have noticed and even commented to me that I've been rather non-existent in my blog world lately...that has also been the case with facebook and email and most outside communication...

I'm finding that when I am in the midst of a really hard time, a trial that feels like it may be the very end of me, that I do one of two things;

1 ~ I do just as I have done this past little bit and spend a lot of time soul searching (quietly), I spend as much time as possible reading and pondering and asking and waiting...
waiting for answers,
waiting for peace,
waiting for resolution,
waiting for the right moment to express myself again...

or 2 ~ I write and I write and I write and I write...

I think both options work for me...

In this instance, #1 is where I felt I would best be able to work through my feelings and emotions.

Well...the good news is that I can see a very important REASON for going through this trial...
It doesn't always happen that we can put these things together, in fact, I think it is rare.
Even though I am still in the midst of working through some hard things, I am finding that there is a blessing that is coming from it.

Do ya wanna know what it is???

It's a good one...in fact, it's not just a "good one", it might be one of the very best blessings I could ever wish to receive!

One that I would say has been worth all the tears and the questions and the self-doubt and, and, and...

Okay, hold on just a minute before I actually tell you what IT is...

I need to back up and tell you a bit of what brought this wonderful little "discovery" to me...

Throughout this trial
(that has seemed to rear it's ugly head off and on for the past many years)
I have felt a little beaten down,
a little unsure that I was okay,
I questioned whether or not I was someone worthy of being loved and cherished...
There has been one particular person in my life,whom is so very dear to me, yet we continue to struggle in a most unhappy sort of way;
because of these hard times I have struggled personally with feelings of not being so "likeable"...
I have had the knowledge that she "loved" me...
but sometimes we can love someone and not really like them all that much...
I felt that was where I "fit in" ~ loved (out of duty or because we are just supposed to love some people)
but I felt that I was very low on the totem pole in all other aspects...
I felt much less than liked.

ANYWAY...
The Beautiful discovery through all of this worrying about her not "liking" the person that I am
was that I have come upon this person that I really do like...
ME...
I'm pretty okay,
I like who I am becoming,
I can look in the mirror and see a person that I can smile back at.
I had to spend a great deal of time seriously searching within,
I was searching for all of the "ugly things" and trying to make sure that I could get rid of them...
while I was doing this, I found that I really don't think I have ugly things within me...
(that doesn't mean that I think I'm perfect...wish I were, but yeah, I've not even come close to arriving at perfection...)
But in saying that, I didn't find the ugly stuff I was afraid might be hiding somewhere in me...

Not sure why I am so blessed, but while searching for the bad, I found the good...I found what I had been waiting for ~ I found peace, I found resolve, I found answers and I found me!

I found that if I were someone else,
I think I'd really like me,
I think I'd like to get to know me,
I think I'd like to be my friend,
...but since I'm me and not someone else looking at me,
the best thing I found is that I like ME and that has been a most beautiful discovery!

I love you all...
Happy Friday to you ~ my wish for you is that if you have not discovered just how amazing you are, that you will seek and find that wonderful person inside of you and that you will be able to also state three simple, yet profoundly powerful words,
"I like ME!"