Finding Myself

The sun is shining, O Happy Day!


"Remember life is not about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself." Those words hit me in the face and woke me up this morning. I jumped out of bed at 5:53 this morning to see if the clouds had disappeared. I am so tired of dark, rainy, dreary weather for the past several days, thanks to Hurricane Ida.


Guess what! The sun is "rising" in the east and the sky is getting bright. Now I can ago about my life as if it has meaning. I have good days, bad days, and days in the middle! I'm glad I have mostly good days.


I was inspired by the following info I read this morning in Life's Lessons by Ron Herring (interim pastor at our old church in Paris, TX):


"Life is like that for all of us...some days we soar, some days we run, and some days we can barely crawl! We have days of great inspiration and activity...followed by days of "nothing"!

The truth is, sometimes we don't feel very "inspired". In fact, sometimes we don't feel anything...however, life goes on. Life doesn't revolve around how well we think or feel. The key to success in life is not in soaring along with days of inspiration (don't get me wrong...those days are great). The key to success in life is in the ability to "keep plugging" when there is no inspiration.

Longfellow said it this way, "The heights of great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight; but they, while others slept, were toiling onward in the night."


For days we were so busy putting together our greenhouse kit that nothing else mattered. Then suddenly it was almost completed when the rains set in and we had to stop.


 I scrambled around looking for things to do that were short term while waiting for the rain to stop, i.e. making banana nut bread for Thanksgiving, cutting out the last big Teddy bear from an old quilt (made each of 5 granddaughters one for their 18 birthday and I'm working on Caroline's now altho she is only 14), designing and printing invitations to a DAR Good Citizen luncheon, and completing the church membership roll audit and directory, etc. Yesterday I went to the country to the Farmers Coop store to buy some cracked pecans to pick out, so I can have them for holiday baking. While there, I went down the hill to the cemetery to visit with James a bit. I didn't have to look for projects to do when he was living. He was a big "project" that took up a lot of my time. I just wish I could have done more for him. He loved the costumes I used to make for him. When I would be busy with some of my "projects" he would often say, "Can you stop and spend some time with me?"


I love working on projects, especially when they turn out well. I looked outside this morning and saw the sparkling white greenhouse which looked like a white ghost. We left the heat lamp on all night to check the temperature this morning. It's very humid and warm inside the greenhouse but in the low 40s outside. I think it might just keep our house plants warm and cozy this winter.


When it gets a little warmer outside today, we will be busy building shelves and moving plants into the warm environment for the next few 3 months. That's how long winter is in South Alabama.