Mary's Heartbeats

With a great big smile, I opened the door to the UPS man.  Finally, after all these years, a dream of mine was actually going to happen!  All ten boxes were taped, labeled, and ready to go.  I carried the last box out, after the others had been stacked and rolled to his big brown truck.  I walked away with tears of joy and a prayer for the books to safely arrive at their destination.  Mission accomplished!  After my Daddio had died, I decided to take home all of the extra books from his library that were not kept by my brothers.  Dad always told me that his sons would get first pick of his library, but the leftovers were available for me and my husband.  That resulted in many boxes that we brought through the hot desert on the U-Haul truck.  For awhile, my living room and entry hall looked like a cluttered bookstore. There were so much sorting to do!  I never realized the treasure my Dad had in his books.  I just knew even as a ...

Here we are already in the very middle of the first month of the year 2012.  I left last year with peace only to be ushered into unusual heat.  All around, it looks like winter.  Trees stand bare, the grass is patchy brown, and all the roses are pruned to thorny stems.  Yet, the air is warm and at times downright hot.  Only the night time brings a faint reminder of our season with colder winds.  Yep, even nature seems so "topsy turvey".   Throughout these days of sorting out, peace still resides in my heart.  I have once again realized that there will always be things, circumstances, situations, that will challenge me for that peace.  Yes, there are chronic illnesses and conditions, moods and attitudes that often emerge in our lives.  I cannot fix them or make them go away.  I cannot always resolve the situation or the time.  I am recognizing my finiteness.  I am realizing my limits.  I have come to grips wit...