Journey Out of Pink

When I was growing up, we'd often visit neighborhood playgrounds. The playground equipment provided hours of free fun and entertainment for my siblings and I. The equipment was simple back in the late 50s and early 60s - swings, slides, and merry go rounds. Though nothing fancy, those shiny metal structures brought a lot of joy and a few tears.  Of the three, I'd have to say the swings were my favorite. I loved being able to propel myself higher and higher with a few strong pumps of my little legs. As the wind whipped through my hair, I'd grip the chain links tightly and smile with glee.  The slide was fun, too, except on hot, summer days when my bare legs would stick to the hot surface and burn. What a rush to stand on the top rung of the ladder and prepare for the slippery ride down! But for me, it was over too fast and the process of going back around to climb the ladder again for a few short seconds of fun wasn't worth it.  I also liked the merry go round. My brothe

Almost everyone I know is going through something difficult right now, whether it's health related, facing grief or loss, financial burdens, marriage and family issues, or feelings of depression and loneliness, the heaviness is palpable.  For the past two years, we've all been under a huge amount of mental anguish and none of us have been able to control many facets of our lives. It's been the most challenging event and although we can't yet see an end, we've managed to survive. But how much can we continue to take? All the stress has been detrimental to our health - emotionally and physically. Yet, we have the innate desire to survive.  For those of us who believe in God, we know, even when things are completely out of control, nothing is a surprise to Him. He is Omniscient. That gives me great comfort and a deliberate hope.  Sometimes, I wish I could glimpse what lies ahead but I don't spend much time thinking that. The things of this world are passing away an

We had a lovely snow yesterday. Although we didn't get as much as we expected, it was nice to see the soft, powdery flakes fall. Watching the snow come down was so peaceful. At times it was slow and steady. other times, there was barely any. As I watched it, I was reminded of verses from the Bible that speak about snow. (Those who know me well know I relate everything in life to Scripture. I can't help it. The Bible is my textbook and Jesus is my life.)  A favorite verse about snow is found in the book of Psalms, chapter 51. If you're familiar with that chapter, you know it's about David feeling remorseful for his recent indiscretion with Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite's wife. When David sinned, he knew what he was doing wrong, but did it anyway. After the dastardly deed was done, David, a man after God's own heart, knew He needed to make things right. His relationship with God had been broken so He asked God to purify him. In verse 7 he says, "Purify me with

We knew a storm was coming. The weather forecasts had warned us, so we prepared the fireplace, pulled out the antique oil lamps, and made sure we had plenty of food. In our neck of the woods, you never know if a forecasted storm is going to be a big deal or not until stuff starts happening. Usually, when weathermen make a big deal of it, nothing happens and when they don't, everything goes awry.  As I type this, snow is falling, and the temperatures are dropping. The birds are flitting from tree to tree, doing their best to find food and stay warm. We filled up the feeders yesterday with plenty of sunflower seed. We love our wildlife and try to help take care of them the best we can.  If the snow continues to fall as the day goes on, we'll probably experience some freezing on powerlines and trees. We're praying our power stays on and no trees fall. We've had enough of falling trees from high winds and tornadoes in the past year to last a lifetime. Right now, in fact, th

Our phones have been going off all day with weather alerts. A winter storm is coming and we're expecting some snow and possible ice. When this happens in the South, we take it seriously. People hit the stores early for essentials like toilet paper, milk, and cereal. I've never understood that, though. Why buy milk when there's a good possibility the power will go out? When ice storms hit our area, the power lines freeze up or limbs fall from pine trees taking them out and we have no power. Some have learned over the years to buy back up generators, but those are expensive. Most of us rely on wood burning fireplaces, candles, oil lamps, flashlights, and heavy clothing. In any event, it will be interesting to see what happens. Usually, when the weathermen make a big deal of it, nothing happens conversely, when they don't make a big deal of an approaching storm, we get slammed.  I remember an extreme ice storm we had back in 1973. I was in high school. Our entire neighborh

Yesterday was rough. My knee was killing me! All I could hear, as I hobbled about the house, was "You're going to have to have a knee replacement surgery." Those were the words the orthopedic doctor had said to me early last year when I went to see him about my painfully swollen left knee. I didn't want to believe him and made up my mind, come hell or high water, I wasn't going to have one. I'd known too many people who'd had knee replacements done and every single one of them had either gotten bad infections or rejected the implant requiring another surgery. There was no way I was going to go through that.  Staying off of my leg yesterday was hard. I'm not one to sit and do nothing all day, but I knew my poor knee needed rest, so I made myself sit and binge on Netflix. I found a good series by one of my favorite authors and it didn't take long to find myself immersed in the story.  Today, I'm feeling much better. The swelling has gone down, an

Well, well, well - that's a deep subject for a shallow mind, isn't it? Lol. I just had to say that. My grandmother used to say that and I always thought it odd until I grew older and figured it out. Starting this post with a little humor seemed appropriate since I'm going to talk about pain in just a minute.  When I got out of bed this morning, the pain was unbearable. As I stood and tried to make it into the bathroom, it felt as if there was no cushion between my bones and they were grating upon each other. Hobbling along, I finally made it but realized my gallant efforts at painting had come back to haunt me. Getting up and down from the step ladder wreaked havoc on my left knee. I'd already been having issues with that knee for months. It had been swelling and had caused difficulty walking. I did see an orthopedic doc and he'd given me a couple of shots of cortisone, and an off-loading knee brace (a brace that would shift the weight onto my good leg).  I thought

I've been wanting to put a fresh coat of paint on our front door for months, so I texted hubby the other day and asked him to stop by Lowe's and pick up a gallon of exterior paint for me. I'd done my research and had picked out a durable, weatherproof paint. I picked out the color and took a screenshot. I wanted to make sure he got the exact paint I wanted, and he did. He knows, after being married to me for almost 30 years, if there's something I decide to do, I'm going to do it no matter what. And so, this morning, I set out to paint.  There was prep work to be done first. I taped down plastic to keep paint off the floor then gathered all my painting supplies, paint tray, rollers, brushes, stir stick, and of course paint. Then, I dragged the step ladder onto the front porch because I'm short and knew there was no way I'd reach the top of the door without it. I wasn't prepared for the cold weather. It was only 54 degrees outside and actually, this was t

We stood in front of the Little Free Library perusing the books. As we flipped through the selections, we were also busy munching on frozen Dilly Bars. We'd just picked them up prior to stopping at the book box. Although it was a chilly day, the treat sounded too good to pass up, especially since it was dairy free.  A few minutes later, I heard a male voice saying, "Ma'am? Ma'am." Turning to see who was speaking to us, I noticed a black man standing on the sidewalk. His appearance indicated he was either homeless or very down on his luck. A tattered jacket, unkempt hair, and dirty clothing spoke volumes. As he leaned on his walking stick, I offered a greeting. In a soft voice, he said, "I sure am hungry. I could use a chicken dinner or something." At that very moment my heart broke. I hadn't brought my purse with me and didn't have a dime to my name. My daughter had purchased our ice cream and she didn't have any other money on her person eit

Mirror view It's already the 6th day of the New Year and I haven't found a free second to blog until now. One of my resolutions for the year is to spend more time blogging. It's not only cathartic for me, I believe it is beneficial to others (or at least that's what I've been told by some of my online readers...) so we shall see if I manage to keep that resolution.  This morning I had an appointment with the endocrinologist. My thyroid level has been extremely low and the primary care physician has tried his best to manage it but has been unable to keep me in normal range. I don't fault him, really. It must be hard to medicate a person without a thyroid gland and keep the hormone level just so, that's why I decided it would be best for me to remain under the endocrinologist's care.  I'd made the appointment through the online app and was able to get the first appointment of the day. I like those early appointments because the doctor is usually energe