TRAINS, PLANES AND AUTOMOBILES

Travel...yes, I love to travel. It is one of my favorite pastimes. Even the "transportation" which I usefor travel is interesting. Sometimes, I take a car (my least favorite mode of transportation). Cars are okay...but on long trips, and I mean anything over five hours, a car is not my favorite way to get from one place to another. Especially if I must go in Jimmy's Corvette! I hate his car. It is VERY uncomfortable for me to travel in. There have been times when Jimmy and I took his parents motor home. Our children were little and we would take family trips to the beach and stay in the motor home. My idea of "camping" is in a motor home that is air conditioned, with a restroom that has a shower; a kitchen; bedroom (at least one for me) and a table one can eat at and play games at. "Camping" need not be toooooooo outdoorsy! But I do like a motor home. You see, I don't have to do any of the driving. After all, I'm a girl who has never driven a HUGE RV and don't intend to learn how to drive one. I can travel just fine walking around in an RV, getting people food, going to the bathroom when need be, playing games, etc. when we are on our way to wherever our destination is. The only problem with an RV is that you have to pull a car along with it. An RV is hard to park in the middle of big city you are trying to tour. Jimmy likes to drive THROUGH the city and SAY he has been there and seen whatever is in the city. NOT my idea of travel. I'm a touch it, feel it, taste it, experience it kind of traveler. So RVs aren't my favorite mode of travel either.

Planes are good. However, Osama has ruined that for all us good Americans. It has become a hassle to get on a plane anymore. I'm not complaining that we need to keep the security of our air travel safe...it's just that when trying to look nice when I travel, even for a short distance, I have to undress in line in order to go through security. Taking off most of what I wear in order for that security thing not to blow up is kind of tricky. Then, trying to put it all back on in front of everyone after you get on the other side...well, I might as well have done a strip show! By that time, I no longer look as nice as I did when I started out. What's a girl to do? Sometimes I bring socks to put on my feet so when I am expected to take my shoes off, I don't have to walk on that cold marble floor through security. The floor MUST be filthy with all those feet that were in other's shoes. Can we say foot odor, fungus, etc.? YUK! Then I have to put the nasty socks back in my bag when I take them off to put my shoes back on. The list just keeps going on! Have you ever had to sit in a seat on the plane with someone who hasn't bathed in a while? I worked a flight once (when I was a flight attendant) when a couple asked it they could be moved because the man next to them smelled so bad they couldn't think. The fact was...when I walked down the aisle, and he was sitting by the window, I could smell him several rows BEFORE I ever reached him! It was a LONG, LONG flight overseas! Then of course, the bathrooms on planes...well, we just won't go there! Still, a plane is best for long distances.

What a bout a bus? Do I dare go there? Have you really ever ridden a bus? Now that is a trip!!! I have on occasion ridden a bus. Not here in the states that I remember, but I have overseas. The seats are even more uncomfortable than those of a plane. Then you have people getting on and off at different locations. They too, have luggage. There's the sway and stop and go and of course, the dreaded "bathroom"! I'm not going to say anything else about a bus...you will just have to use your imagination...because whatever you think...think 10 times worse!

What about a train? I know, they are slow. But I like trains. You can move around on a train. There are stops with people getting on and off. BUT...think about this...you have assigned seats. There are some seats where there is a table where others can sit across from you. If you are with a group, you can play games. Trains have a dining car. They even have sleepers if you are traveling over night. They travel through cities and through the country. The view ranges from sad to beautiful. You can take your time and see the country. You can walk around. You can sit, sleep and eat. There are even trains who have private (glassed in) seating areas. You can reserve non smoking areas. I've traveled on trains in Europe and I love trains. Fast trains are the best. Yes, here they are longer. But with the right friends and family...they could be some really great times together.

I have an opportunity to take a train in March to Dallas for our Bible Study Retreat. I hope I can find some friends to travel with me by train. I think it would be great. What a way to really get to know people. Train travel here in the states, consists of moving along, slowly and surely, making necessary stops to add people and drop people off, pick up necessary supplies, times for eating meals, times for rest, times for conversation, times to just relax, times to take care of business (by phone or e-mail) and even time for fun. On a train, one can manage all those things that you can do some of on a plane, some of in a car, some of on a bus, but all of on a train.

Isn't that the way it is with our Lord. We all have one final place to go. One place that can only be reached by His help. Only be reached when we "hitch hike" a ride with Him. He is the only one who can take us there. He is the only one who has the "ability" or the right "passage" to take us there. HE is the ONLY WAY. Do you have your thumb out?

So today, I am thankful for transportation. For trains, planes, buses, cars, horses, motorcycles, bicycles and feet. I'm sure there are others....I just haven't tried them. Thankful for transportation that gets me to the places I need to go and the places I like to go. But most of all, I am thankful for my Lord. Because HE is "the way", the only "way" by which I can arrive to my ultimate destination...eternity with Him. HE is the way, the truth and the light.

Anyone need a ride?

ANYONE GOT THE RIGHT TIME?

Well, Graham and Whit finally moved into their new place. Though still in some boxes, furniture is arranged, some pictures hung, dog kennels out and ready for the pups to use and beds ready to collapse in. They still can’t use their kitchen...still waiting on the remodel to be completed and having to eat out and keep dishes, pots and pans and utensils in boxes until the wood floors are in place, cabinets are up, appliances in place and hooked up and painting done. Ahhhhh, the joys of moving!

I talked with Graham last night and asked him to send me pics to see the place so far. He said they weren’t ready to take pics yet. No painting has been done and no drapes bought or put up. I sort of laughed. Their bedroom has a window that is wide open for the neighbors next door to step out on their balcony and see right into their bedroom, looking at them in bed! Oooooops! However...the view out of ALL their windows throughout the apartment is breathtaking. Amazing how we all view the “undone things” with frustration, yet forget to notice the unbelievable beauty right around us.

But back to my point...Graham’s statement that “he wasn’t ready or had the time right then to send pics.” It’s funny that “that statement,” was the same one a sibling of mine said one day when we were talking and I asked him about his relationship with our Lord. His very comment was that he just “didn’t have time for that right now”. Really? Seriously? No time at all? Hmmmm. I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant, but my hunch was that he wasn’t ready to deal with what he thought would cost him something or that he would have to give up...i.e. money, time, conviction, personal standards for living, etc. He wasn’t ready to give up “his” idea of what “he” wanted to do or how “he” wanted to live “his” life. It really saddened me. Because, you see, I knew how much he was really missing out on. How much “more” he would have. Since I’ve truly known my Lord, I’ve known the abundance of life one has when they know the Lord Jesus as Savior. Only those who truly know him understand all one forfeits when they refuse to take time to know Him AND what MORE they have to gain by doing so.

So today, I am thankful for time. God has allowed me to stay at home and not work outside the home. I am thankful for the available time I have to spend with Him in prayer and study. The time I have to serve Him in my church, in BSF with my family and friends. I am thankful for His Words in the scriptures that promise He will make up for those years I have wasted. That my time is not measured the same as His time. That thee will be a “time” when He will draw my sibling to Himself and that my sibling will have such a passion to know Him that “time” will not exist, but only moments with our Lord. But mostly, I am thankful there will be a “time” when he will come again and we who know Him will face Him face to face and “time” will not longer exist.

My prayer is that, especially for my family and friends, ALL will take the “time” to come to know Him as their personal savior. All will have “time”, God’s time, to spend with Him and one day have an intimate relationship with Him.

How much time do I spend with Him daily? Is it like time in a bottle, measured, calculated, no more or no less than what is measured in the bottle? Only a measured amount? Or is it uninterrupted? Passionate? Time I can’t live without?

Hmmm...I better get moving today...Jimmy will be home soon from his errands and will be asking what I did with MY time! (What a slave driver! Ha!)

FOR THE LOVE OF DANCE

Ems twirling in her new "lellow" ballet costume

Our Emery is now taking ballet. Oh, how proud I am of our little angel. To think that I would ever have a little granddaughter that would take ballet...a miracle since I had two sons to a husband of an all male family, and with only two boy cousins. But this little girl just loves to "twirl" as her daddy calls it. She loves to swing her arms to and fro, skip around the room turning as much as she can, jumping and smiling all the way. What a sight to see for a grandmother who took classical ballet from one of the most remarkable ballet teachers known. But after all, Ems is only three. Just the sight of a pink leotard thrills her heart.

I go to her ballet and tap practices as often as possible. It really tickles me to see this doe eyed little girl love something I loved so much. After all, she's such a mommy's girl, I didn't think she even liked me for a while...and now, she's in love with something that was major in a large portion of my life.

It makes me wonder if she will turn out to love dance as much as I did for so long? Will she be a good dancer? Will she be better than I was? More dedicated? Be taught by someone with the standards Miss Judith, my wonderful teacher had? Will she love dance just for dance and not for where it will take her? Will she pursue it as a career? Her eyes sparkle now...but will they sparkle for it in years to come as she sits to watch the Nutcracker at Christmas, or even dances in it for others? Who will she be because of it? Will she learn discipline from it? Will she learn manners and courtesy toward others? Will she learn to love classical ballet instead of some sort of dance that looks as if a pole should be involved? (sorry...just sort of slipped out!) My hopes and prayers for Ems is for the joy it gave me for so many years. Not from what I became because of it...but because of what it is...beautiful, graceful, disciplined, strength, strong, patient, endurance, joyful, self controlled, awesome! This is what I want for Ems. This is the love for dance I want her to experience.

It reminds me of the love we experience from our heavenly Father. We often see it, want it, work to know him and receive it. And when we get it, we experience the joy of His love, not because of what we get out of it, but because of who He is...He is beautiful and the creator of all things beautiful. He is graceful - full of grace and mercy. He is disciplined and organized, strong and almighty. He is patient, and endures all things and He is our joy and hope. He is self control and withholds what we truly deserve but gives us more than we deserve. He is AWESOME! Is this why I love ballet so much? Was this the foreshadowing of what God would show me of himself in later years...but I just didn't know it at the time?

I hope my Ems sees the beauty in ballet and the beauty in our Father. I hope she experiences all the fruits of joy I received from those many years of dancing in studios and on stage, but even more the fruits of the Holy Spirit as she comes to know the beauty of our Lord.

So today, I am thankful for Em's other grandma Kristi, who sent me a wonderful video of a beautiful ballerina and her partner that thrilled my heart as I watched them perform. Thankful for the joy I received in watching them, but also, for the reminder of the unbelievable joy I receive when I think about the love and joy I receive from my Lord. Not because of what He does for me... but because of who He is.

So Ems...can you show me that "twirl" in your new "lellow" costume one more time?