MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF YOUR LIFE

 

If you have something you are called to you do with your life, something that you haven't yet done, please hear me today!

Get up and go do it!

You have one life and one day you will long for the chance to do the very thing you were meant to do.  Today is the day to say yes!

Don't let this moment pass you by.  You have one life...

Make a big deal out of it!

~*~

A year ago today my Mr. AGP Man and I, along with our adult daughter, Adrienne, were in a terrible car accident that stole away a good portion of our lives.  I didn't know it then, but it would take the better part of a full year to recover and it changed me forever.

After months of painful physical therapy and spinal surgery last March, the pieces of my broken body and life have begun the reassembling process.

It's been hard.

But I'm determined to regain my strength and find new purpose and a fresh calling.

I've discovered that peace doesn't dwell in outward things.

It never did.

It lives within my soul.

~*~

To celebrate surviving one of the most challenging of all my years I'm eating

ice cream

today.

Two scoops.

And...most importantly, I'm thanking God for giving me another chance to complete
the things still left undone.

Blessings.

Rebecca

~THE HANDS OF TIME~

Hands.

It's been almost a month since my surgery and today I'm more thankful than ever for pain-free hands!  I visited my doctor yesterday and I'm continuing to heal while growing stronger every day.  The incisions in my palms are still tender and I have some residual numbness at the tip of my middle finger on my right hand.  But, given the still visible swelling and bruising on my wrists I've been told as the nerve paths heal the numbness should pass.  I'm a slow healer so it's going to take a little more time before I'm 100%.

Trust me when I say I can live with that.  

Hands.

I've learned some interesting things during my month-long hold-up.  None the least being I'm a terrible patient.  My once firm belief I held a high tolerance for pain was thoroughly annihilated by day #3 post-op!  I can assure you BIG HUGS and I'M SORRIES are owed to my Mr. AGPMan.  Amazing man I'm married to~  He has more patience than I and he's kinder, too!  That said, I truly believe he's a happy man now that I'm well on my way to being normal my old self again.

Hands.

Today I have a new found appreciation for them.  I will never look at them the same way again.  I'm serious.  I won't.  Without them I struggled to do the simplest things~

brushing my hair

 turning the page of a book

and opening the lid to a screw-top jar

on my own... 

Thoughts of sewing and painting with ease or doing any other kind of crafting without help caused me to reflect upon every good and common thing in my life.  I missed driving my own car, doing my own housework and running errands.  I found I greatly missed all the things I complained about each and every week...

I'm not trying to be all philosophical here..  I just think it's time I do something about my tendency to WHINE about things that absolutely should be viewed as blessings in my life.

Hands.

Later, when I am buried in the busyness of my days, may I stop and reflect long enough to allow the memories of this experience to influence my frenetic schedule and to redirect my outlook back to the things that matter.  My work can cause me to place more importance on achievements than the everyday gifts I've already been given.

Open hands.  Palms up.

Grateful to God

for healing

and

A husband who loves

and

Friends and family who care

and

Children who call and visit

and

for more chances to share my

thoughts

loves

and

passions

with you.

Love to you...

~THANKFUL FOR HOUSEWORK~

I love this quote by Gladys Taber, from Stillmeadow Seasons...

"But housekeeping is fun, and I think the women who hate it lack imagination. It is one job where you enjoy the results right along as you work. You may work all day washing and ironing, but at night you have the delicious feeling of sunny clean sheets and airy pillows to lie on. If you clean, you sit down at nightfall with the house shining and faintly smelling of wax, all yours to enjoy right then and there. And if you cook–ah, if you cook–that creation you lift from the oven goes right to the table."

After watching the storm coverage on the East Coast this past week I promised myself yesterday as I cleaned and scrubbed my La Chaumière de Briarwood that I would never again complain about housekeeping.  I'm serious.  I'm going to at least TRY to keep my complaints to a minimum!  Seeing the devastation wrought about by SANDY snapped my whiny thoughts right back in line.  What those people wouldn't give just to have a home to sweep and mop...

 We all have so much to be grateful for, don't we?

I hope if you are able you'll consider donating to the RED CROSS or some other worthy charity to help our fellow Americans who are in need.  

Blessings for a lovely Sunday.

Love to you~

~MAYBERRY-I-TIS~

Ever feel like you'd love to escape to Mayberry where Aunt Bea bakes pies and Barney arrests jaywalkers and Sheriff Taylor, after another shuffling day, sits on his porch with Opie's pretty school teacher and strums his guitar?  Every evening the life of Andy and his family comes neatly packaged with a sweet little bow and all seems well in the fictional town I would sometimes love to call home...  No problems come up that can't be fixed within 30 minutes and that includes commercial time...

 While the TV is playing reruns we've been living a real life.  It' been a year full of everyday challenges, everyday imperfections, everyday successes as well as everyday failures.  

"Everyday Life" can be so, well..."EVERY-DAY" sometimes, can't it?  I sometimes find myself complaining about the mundane and all the unexciting hours in my life that blow in and out with the sweeping Oklahoma wind...

 This morning my Mr. AGPMan received good news from a Specialist about a chronic sore throat he's been having for the past eight weeks.  Truthfully I've been worried sick as nothing tried (or prescribed) was making him feel better...  During the day I thought of every horrible thing it could be and by evening's end I was exhausted from concern.

I'm a worrier I'm afraid....a big-time worrier.

People don't get sick in Mayberry, do they?

(Although I have always wondered where Opie's Momma was!)

As I crumbled in thankfulness over the missing "C-Word" in my beloved's diagnosis I was immediately overwhelmed with how incredibly lovely

"EVERYDAY"

can actually be.  I take it so for granted and yet in reality it is what I think I've longed for~

A simple EVERYDAY LIFE with nothing too difficult, too complicated, or too overwhelming to bear... 

My prayer today, for this EVERYDAY TUESDAY, is that I won't be so sidelined with the blessings around me to falsely believe that as long as I keep trusting, expecting and smiling that all will be well, stay well.  I was reminded once again this morning to be grateful and thankful for all things for at any given moment life can change.

Blessings as you continue to celebrate Christmas (and life) with JOY!

Love to you...

 

~LIFE IS GREAT...and Accepting Imperfection~

WHEN IN THE SPIRIT OF GOD'S LOVE
I LOOK AT MY REFLECTION
I ACCEPT MYSELF FOR WHO I AM
WITH ALL MY IMPERFECTION
(Unknown)

Isn't life good?

After seeing Mr. Roger Ebert yesterday on Oprah I realized once again that the things I only THINK are bothersome to me in my life, in fact, are not.

Yes! Life is good!!!

No, wait!

LIFE IS GREAT! Yes...GREAT my friends!

Blessings to you as you continue to live it with passion...