Its our memories that drive our purpose – good or bad. Even in a home of dysfunction and pain, there is usually a good memory somewhere that drives us and keeps us going until we can make good memories of our own. My home growing up was not painful but very dysfunctional as at times alcohol would become a beast to be reckoned with. But there were a lot of fun things we did that would cover over the painful times.

My father was into boating so we spent a large part of my childhood on the rivers of Florida and those were awesome memories. My spot for all outings was the bow of the boat with my feet hanging over the edge and the rail holding me in. My siblings were skiers. A skill I never learned but was also preferring the front of the boat instead. During my teen years, a house on the gulf was purchased so the rivers turned into the gulf and pleasure boating turned into fishing. My spot was still on the bow. I remember some of my most favorite things were racing across the gulf heading to buoy #24 and the dolphins would come race with us – almost within an arms reach. Such a fabulous memory. Now that I am in the Midwest and live on the Mississippi, it brings back a lot of those childhood river memories. Below is a shot I took at an outside music part right by the river. Boats with their lights on will glide by the concerts until it gets too dark.

I guess water is a good memory maker for a lot of us, whether is a river, lake, ocean or even a pool. I believe water is a living entity – scripture refers to that many times.

My other strong memory maker from childhood is – Dogs, and then there are the others Dawgs as well but that is an entirely different type of animal – aka college football. Dogs in my life have been a great avenue of love, respect, courage and even peace. I can remember way back to Spot Junior the Third, so name by my brother before I came along. There was no 1st or 2nd Spot, just the one. But you know how loving and creative children can be. After him there have been a succession of 18 different dogs through my many years. Mimi is my current “protective” beast. The dog before her was Dittims, a 185 lb Harlequin Great Dane. I wish I had discovered the dane breed sooner. They really are a wonderful breed of gentle giants. I have learned many things about people by having dogs. Dogs have an uncanny knowledge and keen discernment of people and situations. Its amazing.

Family is another amazing memory. I am sure all families have their issues but there are usually always silver lining those possible dark clouds. Oh boy do I remember the fights my brother and I had. WOW, yet today we care deeply for each other. It’s what families try to do as best they can so that when the world throws you down, family can be there to help pick up the broken pieces.

My career started out in board drafting – didn’t have computers back in the stone age. But by mid-career I did transfer into CAD design. I hand drew the below picture for my dad on one of  his birthdays to reflect a funny memory from each of his 4 children. All siblings though it was cute except my brother. My funniest memory was him trying to sneak out and got his pants caught on the hook for the window screen and daddy had to get him lose. He didn’t appreciate that memory( but really he did, could I not have thought of something different he asked). Not as funny.

Upper Left – oldest sister. Before carpet, she would ride her bike around and around the table saying dads name, jumbled of course. Upper Right – Next sister was a bad sleep walker and was lost one morning only to be found in the linen closet on top of blankets sound asleep.  Lower left – my brother sneaking out. Lower Right – Me as I would jump over daddy’s legs as he read the paper in the evening. My oldest son still has that chair.

Thank you for joining my trip down memory lane. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Drop me a line of your favorites. Memories are especially wonderful when shared.

Those of us who are avid animal lovers and stronger yet the dog lovers of us, absorb that love we receive from our canine partners while we have them. We mourn their loss, vow never to forget them, wait the appropriate time then get another. Because we can not go without having one. They bring out the good in us and we hopefully do the best we can for them – those of us who are truly dog lovers. The others that get dogs and pets for selfish or ulterior motives that treat animals poorly – these are the one that I lean on scripture of “an eye for an eye” punishment but then I become as barbaric as they and therefore must depend on the legal system to do the right thing. But my focus in this particular blog is to remind those of us who are true lovers of dogs to focus on the Rainbow Bridge. If any of you do Pinterest, then you probably know what I am referring to. Pinterest a wonderful place for pictures of loving, happy, tearful pictures of our furry friends with many reference of God taking care of them while they wait for us at the Rainbow Bridge. Is it real, probably not even close – many believe they do not have souls, so they just die. I myself am on the fence with that. I have seen the way my dog looks at me with eyes that penetrate me to the core. I have seen the documentaries of elephants or whales whose love and devotion carry beyond what it should. Scripture tells us of animals being created before man and that man is to care for them and all of creation. Its all cyclical teamwork in my thoughts. They all have the ability to love and that comes from God. They all have emotions such as fear or anger. Again, emotions from God. Revelations tells us of creatures worshiping God in heaven. The lion will lay down with the lamb. I am just not convinced that they will not be there for us to love on, admire or even work with. I am fully convinced God wants us happy and if this really makes us happy to have furry loved ones in heaven, I can not see God not allowing that for us.

With that thought process in mind “Homes of Love” has been written. One day I hope it is published. There are 18 different dog characters compromising various “love team” that assist in various projects and task as they await for their human owners to arrive, while the entire heaven force is preparing for the wedding feast. Total fiction but filled with many scriptural references to possibly entice a reader’s desire to verify the reference and thus learn more about what the bible has to say. The two main characters pictured below.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “notice.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy.

Where would we be if we didn’t have memories…good or bad. There are times we want to forget the bad so lets focus on the good. What compromises our good memories – fun with family, friends, favorite pets, great sporting events or special social events that we have been to.  We always  try to cover these fun events with pictures. We love to go back over the pictures to notice the things we forgot or the things we didn’t see. Since I have been very limited on my movements, I have been reviewing a lot of my memories in preparation for a book I am writing. A book of total fiction but a book full of characters that are very real. A book to also pull in my Christian beliefs of the scriptures with the many books I have read from wonderful author’s beliefs on what they believe heaven will be like. It has been extremely interesting and the book writing has been great fun. I have noticed how I have added various personality traits to the characters which expanded on their own true personalities, making them more human when actually they are all dogs. They are all the dogs I grew up with in my family, my friends dogs and a few imaginary dogs to help the story flow. It’s a fun story line but hopefully insightful to fellow Christians pulling references depending on the situation of the plot line. The writing is done, am in edit mode but thought I would mention the project to see if I got feedback on the concept. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts, positive or negative. It all is helpful in moving forward. Pictured are a few friends from the past.

Faith. What a small word for such a large  impact. There is faith in your abilities, faith in your spouse, faith that my children will not get in my purse and steal the car keys(all 3 did), faith that God will take care of them when they are foolish and learning who they are(Thank you Lord for your infinite care of them). Generally when we speak of faith we are talking about our belief that Jesus as God’s son and that He loves us. I think  sometimes we over think faith; over think Christianity. I love the Bible, God’s word, and fully believe it was God inspired and written by man. Even with all the different versions, if you get a grasp of what it is saying, lay down many different version of the same set of verses, they say the same thing. We should not get hung up on one version or the next but study the one we understand the best, with true desire, and God will open the words up for us. You can take a set of scriptures today and read them again next week and come up with a different concept of who God is and what he needs you to learn today. His word is living and fits whatever situation we may be going through at any given moment. Think about this, would God allow the wrong words to be written when this is our guidebook?

While I have been recuperating, I am going back and rereading some books I have not read in a while and I grabbed Johnny Harts book – I did it His way. Marvelous book. If you are not familiar with Johnny Hart, he wrote the BC comic strip and this book is a compilation his comic strips with a religious message. They are very insightful in making you think. God is not complicated, His word is not complicated, and mostly His love and grace are not complicated. Sometimes we over think God by adding rules that are not listed in his rulebook – the bible. I have several favorites but there is one than simplifies who he is and who we are. You have BC kneeling down to pray and asking God if he is really there and to give him a sign. In the mean time, a lighted sign with flashing lights all around and broken off chains from hanging, is falling from heaven to earth. It says with arrows “I am up here.” Simple but so true. We are here, and He is there but He wants that connection, that relationship. So he gave us Jesus.

When I go on mission trips, I break it down very simple for new people. “Who is Jesus to YOU…and what are YOU going to do with that information”. That is step 1. You have to answer that before you go any further. I heard one of our government officials make a statement last week that is very true. “Christianity is hard”. While that rings true, it doesn’t have to be. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to make it be right. What??? We cant make it right, we can only follow the example given us. Jesus our example and while we are yet sinners and can never match Him step for step, He wants us to try. He wants sincerity in the relationship between us and Him and us and the world. We may not have a long time to bring others under the umbrella of love but we need to do what we can while we can…with love.

He shows us HIS beauty in everyday things, and through the humbling relationships He gives us, to always show us His forever love, devotion and grace.

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Ever had days when your brain jumps from one thought to the next before it really processes the previous thought? I am having a lot of those since I am somewhat immobile due to foot surgery. Why didn’t I dust before I got to where it would be difficult? (probably know the truth to that question). I really should have given Mimi a bath before all of this. She will be ripe by the time I am able to stand in the shower. And that stack of papers that really needs to be organized, filed and probably a large portion of them tossed in the round file. Oh, and the new paint I bought for the sun room that was going to be my 1st project when I retired. (I retired in February.)To all of these things which are on the back burners of our lives that begin to bother us when we procrastinate too long, I salute you in recognition and hope we all will get to you eventually.

For today we will worry about Electricity.What a wonderful concept – electricity. Think of the great inventions of out lifetime and previous – the “where in the world did that idea come from” mentality. Why would you think harvesting electricity from the sky would one day run my computer, especially when the concept of a computer is not even on the horizon of electricity being harvested. Its all very amazing. Too hard for me to think about this day of random thoughts. So I give you my ramblings for today in picture form. Enjoy.

These little plants will grow anywhere. When they over took my violets, I gave them a ‘haircut’ and plug the trimming in the banana tree pot – they are growing there great as well.

I may have created a conundrum for myself when a co-worker asked if I would be interested in a banana tree for inside. How big is it going to get – according to the web…big. Should have rethought that one.

You just really don’t understand how hard it is to function on only 1 foot. Yes, I have a cart to help roll me from bed to couch to bathroom. But what happens if I drop something, not easy picking it up, or worse yet falling over. Did that on Saturday trying to get use to this cart. Then there are the things you don’t think about, like letting the dog in and out(every hour), keeping her water bowl filled,  and the list goes on. This is a strong similarity to the body of Christ and how all of it members need to work together to function properly. When one part is missing, the water bowl doesn’t get filled. When we have situations where we can not function 100% we need to reflect during this time and understand why our feelings are raging and use that though process once we are better to help or assist those who are permanently disabled or handicapped. I can’t help but think of our military men and women who sacrifice their lives and parts of their bodies for our freedom so that we can get upset because we cant fill the water bowl. Sorry I keep throwing that reference in here but it was a daunting task this morning until I figured how to get it done. We have a tendency to take all of our parts for granted and we need not to do that. Not just with our body parts but with every group of parts regardless of what makes the group of members, as in family, church, work, friends and so on. We all need to be equal members if at all possible and remember to  hold those members up who are temporarily unable to hold their end up.

Looking forward to spring when all of this corrective surgery is behind me. Until then, help those who need help with their water bowls.

Linda G. Hill tasks this week on Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, is difficult for those of us with vocabulary issues but she’s offering bonus points, so we will see where we can go with this.

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘-ic or -ical.’ Find a word that uses the suffix ‘-ic’ or ‘-ical.’ Bonus points if you use both. Have fun!”

My maiden name is Tillman – a revision of the old English version of Tilghman. Back in the 1700s, Tilghmans were tillers of the soil, farmers. While I am far from an amazing farmer, I do enjoy planting those specific plants all good southern women in the USA should plant like tomatoes and yellow crook neck squash. This year I tried adding a miniature pumpkin and a small sweet watermelon. The problem with the watermelon is that it has become pragmatical by assuming its own practical point of view and that it should take over the entire garden while it continues to growing on down the hill into the back yard. Reminder for next year if I try to experiment with watermelon is to plant in an area where it can go absolutely nuts if desired.

Gardening for me is a self diagnostic process of stress relief allowing me to dig through my aggravations in a practical way without causing human pain. Or plant pain for that matter. Then seeing the benefits of colorful flowers and tasting the benefits of home grown veggies is well worth the gardening experience. My doctor even told me I needed to add more vegetables to my diet, less red meat and less pasta which is not a problem since I am not a big pasta fan. I am including a few pictures of my efforts this year, enjoy.

And of course the flowers

Trust, that is a big and powerful word. We put trust in people, in systems, in government, in our own choices…I could go on forever dividing it down to minuscule factors. Tomorrow I get to play with a scalpel and of course a doctor to correct a minor bone alignment. Not a big surgery but still I will be trusting my life to a guy(or girl) who has my head in their lap. Not literally of course but you get the drift. Trust can be fickle thing that we have so much faith in that we dismiss the trust as complete or it can be an overwhelming dread that sends us running in fear. I am neither in this case but it does bring to mind a comment said by the doctor that this should be a easy fix but the team is set up for worse case scenario. The fear of the unknown. I think if we allow ourselves to dwell too much on the unknown or the ‘what may happen’ process, we can lose focus of the good results the procedure may bring us. Nothing is 100%, after all they do call doctors a ‘practice’. Hmm, shouldn’t they have it perfected b y now? All kidding aside, the amazing growth of the medical world is just that – amazing. Even just in the last 25 years.  But what we all have to realize is that we have only found the top of a very large and deep ice burg and that doctors are not miracle workers but are training more each day to find the fix for a situation, even if you happen to be the test subject. I pray for each of you who are suffering  from minor ailments to serious diseases. May a treatment help you feel better or a breakthrough come through for you to give you hope. Regardless of your situation, may you feel the love of Christ surround you and bring you peace.  Below are two things I will lean on first. Since I will not be allowed to walk at all for one week and then thrown onto a roll about for 6, maybe I will actually finish the book I am writing.

You can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.

Since the landscape people came and dug up my front yard trying to find where the water was coming from that was flooding my basement, the yard still looked torn up. The leak creator was found and hopefully stopped but now the basement is still a wreck. At lease the front yard is trying to look better but now I made the mistake I always make – to many plants for the pots that I have. It’s the same problem I have when buying a Christmas tree. It grows two feet by the time I get it home. I have one more day to get the yard straight before I am doomed to sit on my backside for 6 weeks – foot surgery. A must do as it is effecting my balance. Once that is done and I still have issues I guess I will have to resign to the fact that I am getting old. Some of us grow old gracefully – me I am fighting it tooth and nail. My daughter just shakes her head at me and walks away.

Gardening is a wonderful relaxation for me. Although this year I tried bale gardening to keep from having to dig down in the dirt so much. I have raised gardens in the back but they are perennials that I do not want to move. So I tried 3 bales and only planted a few things but I over fertilized and now they have taken over between the two houses. Fortunately my neighbor doesn’t mind and we share the tomatoes – more than I know what to do with. All of the plants fell off of the bakes and became running plants, it’s the weirdest thing I have ever seen. The one watermelon I plated has taken over the bottom bale, down the hill, over the steps and into the back yard. Absolutely nuts. But it has been fun to watch.

Sounds a little silly doesn’t it…for the love of electricity. But think where we would be if some gentleman many years ago didn’t go play in the rain with a kite…or so the story goes. Think of all the modern things we have today that rely on electricity – even cars. While I am ever grateful as I sit typing on my computer, with the AC on, a ceiling fan turning above my head filling the room with the fragrance of the pot of homemade vegetable soup full of goodness from my garden (wow this a long sentence), that is not what this post is about.  This post is mostly a thank you for the power company in the repair of how would you say sheer confusion…”Hey are you hurt?”  “NO”  “Wait where are you going, do you need help?” No answer as he and his children rush off into the night and I call the police.

OK lets backup a bit so you understand what in the world I am talking about. Two weeks ago, I am sitting in front of the TV watching a favorite show when I hear a loud bang. Since I park out front on the street, my immediate thought was someone hit my car. I rush out side in relief as it was not my car but the telephone pole across the street. On a side note I still find it interesting that we still call them telephone poles when in fact the phone lines are under ground.

Please take note that he drove completely into the yard before hitting the pole on the passengers side of the car. When I ran outside I saw him and his 2 small children running for their lives down the street. I asked if he was hurt as he zoom by me and he said no, then I asked where are you going, do you need help, did you call the police. All of those question went up to the sky as he continued running away from the car. My next thought was its a stolen car, so I called the police. Turns out, it kind of was stolen as well as the kids. Dad, with no license and no right to the kids that lived two blocks down grabbed both but ended up meeting a pole instead. Sometimes the stupidity of people blows my mind. While I really try to not say people are sometimes stupid but not thinking clearly sometimes just doesn’t fit the situation. But that is also not the real reason for this post. Coming from the quality engineering world, I still get fascinated on the processes we use in modern times to create things, monitor things and to repair things. I know this will be boring to most so I added the “how we got here” above to let you shake you head at the amazement of people.

So yesterday morning the power company team shows up with their two trucks to replace the pole and move the wires over onto the new pole and being the geek that I am I went to watch. First off the auger drills a new hole about 10′ deep next to the existing pole. The guy in the bucket is already loosening things on the existing pole for an easy swap when the new pole is secure. Once the pole was in the ground came my immediate curiosity of how do you know the pole is straight. Well they showed me. The rope that comes from the crane that was transporting the pole is dropped from the crane head to dangle next to the pole and gravity does it work in pulling straight on the rope and creating an alignment guide for the pole. So once the pole was set, dirt added back in the hole and tamp down securely, they were ready to move wires. I noticed there was still a good amount of dirt left and said so to my neighbor who was also being entertained by the activities. (Sometimes it doesn’t take much for us retired folks.) My neighbor said it would probably be used to fill in the hole of the old pole once that got it removed. And it was. Everything all neatly tied together and old pole taken to wherever they take broken poles.

Wouldn’t it be great if all our problems were this easy to fix. And I think we sometimes forget due to the ease of how many thing are quickly fixed how marvelous and complex this life really is. Lots of checks and balances and lots of take it for granted decisions. Remember how different it was for our grandparents and now for our grandchildren. How many marvelous things will they take for granted. We must always remember the gift of  wonder in our life, the gift of having the ability to make decisions and to make our decision count for good, not for crazy run away antics.

Have a wonderful day.