grace beyond grace
Honor * Love * Serve
Keep or Toss – Sorting Memories
Posted on May 1, 2013 by lynnbukowski
Keep or Toss – Sorting Memories.
Category: Rainy Morning LettersTags: Death, Life, Memories, Military Moves
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There is nothing for you to go back and fix, or live over, or feel regret about now. Every part of your life has unfolded just right.
Joy dances on the edge of faith.
Truly. Keep going. I've got this. ~God
A physician once said, "The best medicine for humans is love." Someone asked, "What if it doesn't work?" The physician simply smiled and said, "Increase the dose."
Bring me your tired bones; the riot in your head and heart.
Bring it all.
I am not afraid of the dark.
#LZGrace
#Repost @slb_2gsd ・・・
Just an average Tuesday evening where sunbeam skies turned to fire pit nights. We’ve been putting in 12 hour or more days. Weddings and horses and meetings and people. It’s always about the people. Yes,the animals take the spotlight, but only because they put up less of a fight when it comes to picture taking. If we didn’t have the animals to fuss over what would we talk about? Human problems? Ha. Fat chance for a society that tackles that head on every time for the win. But that’s for a reason - it’s because truth, life-giving, soul-finding truth, like all living things, reveals itself in stages. Over time. Suns don’t set like lights turned down at a switch. Suns don’t rise like that either. The system, the slow emerging brilliance, the gentle receding glow, these are strategic. They remind us that life - truth, growth, newness, problem solving, relational issues ... everything has a process. “God takes a long time to act suddenly” I recall someone saying. I know, I know. Fancy words for a Tuesday night but you’re getting it because the grown men who WERE just sitting at the fire stopped listening as soon as their phones pinged with messages. 😑
In any case, be it a sunset, a slow growing fire or any issue in life, sit with it a while... until it’s average everyday-ness becomes just the answer you need.
#farmlife🚜
#lzgrace
When we first moved to Virginia Beach from North Carolina after Steve passed, our Golden Retriever, Spike, and I walked on the beach every morning. On our way, we had to cross a covered pathway made up of bricks and stones dedicated in memory of a loved one. On either side beautiful flowers and plants grew - and I'm sure to this day are cared for tenderly.
On one particular morning a few days after Mother's Day, we walked gently around flowers taped to Mom stones. I remember how it bruised my heart. That morning, Spike & I stopped so I could remove his leash and as he jaunted away I read the stone we had landed on: “Souls are tended, Hearts are Mended, Right Here"
For a moment I felt like I was standing in another place at a future time and living those words.
Indeed. God plants seeds long before we see the flowers.
#lzgrace
Dear Birth Mother,
I was called by Social Services very early one morning in January 1991 to pick up an infant at the local hospital. As an emergency therapeutic foster parent, I was fully prepared with an infant car seat, a crib and supplies, but I was not prepared for my emotional reaction to Baby Boy Unknown, a premature infant you left at the hospital shortly after you gave birth. His weight was four pounds, two ounces but his vitals had been stable for six hours so the hospital would not keep him. I found him swaddled tightly in a hospital-blue blanket and perfectly still in the middle of the bassinet. He did not cry during the entire check out process, while I placed him in the infant seat or at any time in the car.
His skin was sallow; he had no muscle tone, could not eat and would not sleep. At just over a week old, he died three times in an ambulance on the way back to the hospital. I watched his little eyes open to find me each time he was revived and I knew, right then, my life would never be the same. Through testing and trial we learned he was withdrawing from crack cocaine, his heart was malformed and there were multiple, complicated medical problems. We were sent back home with a heart and apnea monitor and advised that there was very little hope he would live or thrive past six months of life.
Our son is now 28 years old and stands 6’4”. According to medical specialists his ensuing conditions remain terminal, but we’ve heard that story before.
I want you to know that it took me several years and persistent urging by my husband for me to forgive you. But now… each day I get down on my knees and thank God that you gave birth to this tender soul I’ve been entrusted with to love for a time.
On this Mother's Day and every day I celebrate you for giving this young man life.
My daily prayer to live in forgiveness and gratitude is simply this: “Hover over us Lord.” Happy Mother's Day
#swipeleft #mothersday #lovewithyourwholeheart #noticethemiracles
