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WALLAHALLA's Recent Blog Entries
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Thursday, April 12, 2012
Death Is Not The End
by Robin Lee Sardini
Her name was Bonnie. She was 57 years old the day she died. It was her birthday. She was a hard worker who loved gardening in her sprawling country yard. She was a beloved elementary school teacher and volunteer in her community. She loved her family and her baby grandson.
She was a woman of faith and honor. She was the kind of person you could always count on to be there if you needed anything. I know...she was my neighbor.
As a testament to the impact she had on the lives of those she met, the line at the funeral home wound back and forth in serpentine fashion through the room in which she lay, into the reception area, out the door and down the long parking lot. She was loved by countless many.
The verse on her memorial card was a profound expression of the inextricable mix of her love of the beauty in nature and her faith in the afterlife. May we all find hope and comfort in these exquisite words by Juanita DeLong:
My Hereafter
Do not come when I am dead
To sit beside a low green mound,
Or bring the first gay daffodils
Because I love them so,
For I shall not be there.
You cannot find me there.
I will look at you from the eyes of little children;
I will bend to meet you in the swaying boughs of bud-thrilled trees,
And caress you with the passionate sweep of storm-filled winds;
I will give you strength in your upward tread of everlasting hills;
I will cool your body in the flow of the limpid river;
I will warm your work-glorified hands through the glow of the winter fire;
I will soothe you into forgetfulness to the drop,
drop of the rain on the roof;
I will speak to you out of the rhymes of the Masters;
I will dance with you in the lilt of the violin,
And make your heart leap with the bursting cadence of the organ;
I will flood your soul with the flaming radiance of the sunrise;
And bring you peace in the tender rose and gold of the after-sunset.
All these have made me happy,
They are a part of me;
I shall become a part of them.
by Juanita DeLong
She will live on.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Homecomings
Working in Detroit...Rain, Rain, and more Rain...
I dashed to the rental car drop off, to the shuttle, and to the airport only to find out from an airline ticket representative that my return flight was one hour late.
As I cleared security, the progress of my flight went from one hour, then two hours, then three hours, then four hours late departing. I learned about these delays from the announcements given by a weary airline gate agent.
It became clear that I was going to miss my connecting flight home.
After minute-by-minute travel rearrangements, and knowing that I had to deliver a web-based training the next morning back home, Jim decided to drive the three hours to the hub airport, fetch me, and drive me back.
Jim and I arrived home at 4:30 am. Funny what dreams you have when your Starbucks frequent drinker card gets punched all the way through in 24 hours. I napped a couple of hours, made coffee, logged on to the internet conference site for my training, and waited and waited and waited.
It is lonely at a web-based live meeting training when no one logs in. Do you know why they didn't log in? Because I had actually scheduled the training for the next day, not this day that we had raced home to await. I had a brain freeze and remembered the last weekday I worked with this group and that just stuck.
I worried about telling Jim that he had held off sleep, driven through a storm to raise Noah's ark, and road construction to get me home 24 hours early for a training. But the phone eventually rang as he called from work and it was time to own up.
What do you think he said?
What would you have said?
Would you have scolded? Yelled? Teased? Berated? Would you call all of your friends and let them know? I might say nothing but put the incident in a mental "debit" column, ready to trot out the offense at the next opportune time.
Well, Jim's response to finding out that he had driven almost 400 miles round trip in the rain, construction, and fatigue-time of the night in order to get me home eight hours early was a slight chuckle and this comment, "The important thing is you are home."
...the important thing is your are home...
Today, remind someone how vital it is that they are at home with you. If they live away, tell them how important it is that they have a home in your heart.
by Helen Ramsey
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Don't Quit
When you've eaten too much and you can't write it down,
And you feel like the biggest failure in town.
When you want to give up just because you gave in,
and forget all about being healthy and thin.
So What! You went over your points a bit,
It's your next move that counts...So don't you quit!
It's a moment of truth, it's an attitude change.
It's learning the skills to get back in your range.
It's telling yourself, "You've done great up till now.
You can take on this challenge and beat it somehow."
It's part of your journey toward reaching your goal.
You're still gonna make it, just stay in control.
To stumble and fall is not a disgrace,
If you summon the will to get back in the race.
But, often the struggler's, when losing their grip,
Just throw in the towel and continue to slip.
And learn too late when the damage is done,
that the race wasn't over...they still could have won.
Lifestyle change can be awkward and slow,
but facing each challenge will help you grow.
Success is failure turned inside out,
the silver tint in a cloud of doubt.
When you're pushing to the brink, just refuse to submit,
If you bite it, you write it....But don't you quit!
- Author Unknown
Monday, April 09, 2012
I Would Pick More Daisies
When the late Nadine Stair of Louisville, Kentucky, was 85 years old, she was asked what she would do if she had her life to live over again.
"I'd make more mistakes next time," she said. "I'd relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been on this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.
"You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, and a raincoat. If I had to do it over again, I would travel lighter than I have.
"If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds and I would pick more daisies."
Don Herold (Adapted)
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