Tag Archives: Christianity

The Long, Smooth Highway

22 Apr

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Photo by Melodie Hendrix

Photo by Melodie Hendrix

 

One Sunday on the way to church, Bill asked if I had any aspirin. No, but here’s something else if you have a headache. He took it. He was rather sluggish all day, but headaches will do that to you. After lunch he said, I can’t wait to lie down. Though he usually takes a nap it wasn’t’ like him to actually say he was tired.

That night or I should say the next morning at 1:41, he woke me and asked me to take him to the hospital. “I think I’m having a heart attack,: he said.” I got out of bed, went to my closet got warm clothes, but not warm enough as it turned out, got my iPod, we got in the car. I was calm, he was calm. We rode down the smooth newly asphalted highway that runs through town in our comfortable old Merc. We talked about how this might not even be a heart-attack so why get our knickers in a knot. Bill walked into the emergency room while I parked the car. He told them he couldn’t get his breath because of the pain and pressure in his chest, so they didn’t make us wait long. They took me in to him after he got his backless nightie and a nitroglycerin tablet. They gave us blankets from the warmer and they started hooking him up to a beeping machine, drips, tubes and I don’t know what all. We were both praying with faith that was given by God and not of ourselves. An old friend who works in environmental services came in and sat down and talked to us the whole time of her break. It seems like it was a long time and we were happy to have her there, happy for the distraction.

I was thinking our daughter would go to work the next morning and since we didn’t know what to tell her I didn’t call until 6:00 a. m. As soon as she got up and got dressed she came. She had called our son and he came from another town, but didn’t get there until after we’d been moved to a room. Both of them were there when the doctor came to talk to us. It was New Year’s eve Monday so the doctor scheduled a catheterization for Wednesday. The adult children and their support made a tremendous difference. There was no fear, no panic, we all thought it was a small thing and not life-threatening, at any rate we knew everything was going to be fine.

You can imagine our surprise when we saw the video of the catheterization the minute it and the insertion of two stints was over. He could have died, the doctor said. It’s a good thing you came when you did. (He had been saved by medications, especially heparin which thinned the blood and allowed it to pass through the two damaged vessels. ) We left the hospital on Thursday morning. We hadn’t called anyone else, there was nothing anyone else could do. We knew everything was going to be all right. It was especially good to spend the time with our children. At one time a nurse said, “Is your company going to stay all day.” Which meant go away and let him rest, I guess she didn’t know they were the best medicine he could have in addition to the methods and medicaments given to save his life. It was all like a dream, a dream on a cloud where everything ran smoothly just like the car did on the Long Smooth Highway.

Bill is doing great. He has been to all the cardio classes, done the exercise therapy and taken up his other exercises again. If they hadn’t had stints, they would have had to do by-passes. Oh, we are so thankful he didn’t have to go through that. He’s taking good care of himself and has lost twenty-five pounds. We have nothing but praise and thanksgiving to our Lord and to all the wonderful people who took care of him. We’ve seen the veins for ourselves and they are in good shape. We are not worried, should we be? No—it’s not necessary, each day is complete in itself. But I’d say we are all a bit more appreciative of each day we have together and we are hoping for a whole lot more of them, God willin’ and the crick don’t rise.

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BOOTS AND TIPPY

21 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 Judy                                                    

 

 I have always loved animals.  And I had the best of both worlds – we had cats in my house, and my Aunt Jessie and Granny had dogs.  Jessie and Granny lived only about 10 minutes away from our house, so we were over there often, and they were at our house often.  While we didn’t take our cats with us when we visited them, they usually brought the dog(s) with them when they came to visit us.  And the animals got along together surprisingly well.

 Daddy grew up on a farm, one of 13 children, and I suppose there were cats and dogs on that farm, but I’m sure they were “outside” animals.  Consequently, he was rather opposed to our having an inside animal.  But I was just so attached to any stray that I could find – I even remember taking a stray kitten I had found into a church meeting with me!  I think that’s what convinced Mother to convince Daddy to let me get a cat of my own.  Especially since I contracted ring worm from one of the strays I found!

And so, we found ourselves at the home of a church family whose cat had recently had a litter of kittens.  We finally picked one out that we thought would be a good fit for us.  When we got him home, we began the course of naming him.  He was mostly white, with large black spots on him.  But he had black “tips” on the tips of his ears, and so we named him Tippy.

He was a good little cat, and I no longer picked up the strays.  He was not necessarily a full-time indoor cat – he was outside quite a bit.  And so, one day he just didn’t come home.  We were all devastated!  After a few weeks, we went to another house where the cat had recently given birth to a litter, and I was allowed to pick out another kitten.  These kittens were long-haired, and really beautiful.  We picked out one that was part dark tabby on his back and hind quarters, with a large white area in shoulders, chest and paws.  His head and ears were mostly dark, with a white face.  And so, we named him Boots, aka Bootsie.

 

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We really loved that cat.  And Daddy, who was opposed to the whole idea of an inside pet, found that cat in his lap more often than not, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it!  At least, we found him petting Boots, quite absently.

I don’t remember exactly how long we had Boots when – much to our surprise – Tippy came home!  A bit worse for the wear, but he seemed to want to stay close to home now.  So we went from no cats – to TWO!!  They seemed to get along together quite well, and even romped and chased each other through the house.  As quiet as cats are, they sounded like a herd of elephants sometimes!

 

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And then, one day, we came home to find that Tippy had been hit by a car and killed.  I don’t remember that Boots moped, but that he grew to be just our one and only cat.  He lived to a ripe old age of 13.

 

 

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Mother said that she entered him in a cat show once, but would never do it again.  He won a pretty good prize, but she said that, as she approached his cage and spoke to him, he looked up at her and immediately walked over to his food and water and began eating.  The officials at the show said he had refused to eat or drink before that.  So Mother decided it was just too much to put him through again.

Occasionally, when he was outside, he would stalk birds in the trees in the back yard.  If he caught one, he would wound it, then bring it to the back door of the house and just yowl his head off until one of us came to the door and praise him for being such a good hunter.  Then he would kill and eat the bird.

 

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He also caught the one and only mouse that got into our house.  We really enjoyed him.  We were blessed to have him as long as we did.

 

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Attitude

19 Apr

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

                                                                  ATTITUDE
                                                    We can’t control our future-
                                                     Only our attitude.
                                                     We are faced withy daily choices-
                                                     To act kindly, or be rude.
                                                     Don’t ever pray for patience-
                                                     It isn’t zapped into your head.
                                                     God will put you into situations
                                                     That will tax your spirit instead.
                                                     So don’t complain when life is hard
                                                     And you don’t know what to do-
                                                     Turn to your great Creator,
                                                     He has a plan for you.

 

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Lord Help Us To Fly

18 Apr

From  the Heart

Louise Gibson

                                     The tragedy brought to light this week
                                     Has saddened hearts everywhere.
                                     Solace for the wounded and grieving
                                     Is at the heart of our fervent prayer.
                                     We mourn the loss of our fellow man-
                                     We digest the news as best we can.
                                     The Marathon, like 9-11,
                                     Has raised our voice to God in Heaven.
                                      Tragic things happen,
                                      We try to reason why.
                                      Something good must come from this-
                                      Lord, we need to fly.
                                      We must rise above the chaos,
                                      Negativity and fear-
                                     Lord, we can be overcomers
                                     As long as You are near.

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Our Trip to Italy Part 7

17 Apr

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill

 

Next, we visited the Uffizi Art Gallery, reportedly the oldest and most famous art Museums in the Western World.  A large part of the art in the Uffizi dates back to the periods between the 12th to 17th centuries, with art by great Italian artists such as Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” (Shown below), Giotto, Cimabue, Michelangelo and  Raffaello to name just a few of the most famous.

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Then it was on to the Accademia Gallery and the bigger than life and magnificent “David” by Michelangelo.   Originally commissioned in 1501 as one of a series of statues of the prophets to be positioned along the roofline on the east end of the Florence Cathedral, but instead was placed in the public square, outside the Palazzo della Signoria in 1504.   Because of the nature of the hero that it represented, it soon came to symbolize the defiance of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states at the time.  The original statue was moved inside the Accademia Gallery from the piazza in 1873 and finally replaced with a replica in 1910.

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Among some of the other many extraordinary sculptures and artwork at the Accademia Gallery are contributions by Francesco de Sangallo, Agnolo Bronzino, Benvenuto Cellini, Giorgio Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammannati, Giambologna and Artemisia Gentileschi.       It was taken for granted at the outset that all members of the Accademia would be male, so when the Accademia welcomed the Baroque painter, Artemisia Gentileschi, into its membership in 1620, it was a great honor for the woman painter, and was a great influence for the feminist movement in Italy.

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Then it was on to the Palazzo Pitti, which dates from 1458 AD, and was originally the residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker at the time.  The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 AD, and became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for many years.

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In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a power base by Napoleon, and later served for a brief period as the principal royal palace of the newly united Italy.   Between 1865-1871 it was the residence of King Victor Emmanuel II, when Florence was the capital of Italy.  Today, it houses several minor Italian collections in addition to those of the Medici families.

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From there we strolled over to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge which is one of many bridges now spanning the Arno River in Florence.  The Medieval bridge first appears in a Roman document of 996 AD, after which it was destroyed twice by floods, and the stone bridge was finally rebuilt in its current form in 1435.   We took time to check out the many shops that are permanently located on the bridge, which was the custom when the bridge was first built.

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After all that Renaissance art by the so many of the great masters, our heads were buzzing, so we stopped for lunch at McDonald’s.  I, for one, was ready for a burger and fries, and besides that, Marcia informed us that McDonald’s is the only eating establishment in Italy where a woman could be sure to find a sit-down toilet.

 

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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Angels Watching Over Us

15 Apr

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Photo by Melodie Hendrix

Photo by Melodie Hendrix

 

Not long after I became a Christian there was a sort of underground movement to study demonology so people could be delivered and set free of their compulsions. Some of us read books on the subject and even prayed for ourselves and others to be exorcised. That was about the time the movie, “The Exorcist,” came out. I read the book (I was very sorry I did, too because it was scary, and did not, in my estimation carry a true Christian message.) I didn’t see the movie, thank the Lord.

The strangest thing went with the movement, and that was a fear of studying about or even thinking much about angels. The belief  was that if we gave much credence to the existence of angels we might worship them and be led astray. Demons okay, angels no. It sounds weird now.

I had a book on my shelf I was going to read someday if I ever got the nerve. It was called Angels, God’s Secret Agents, and it was written by Billy Graham. Now I don’t care what religion you are or what you believe in, you probably understand that Billy Graham would be one of the last people on earth who would lead you astray. But still, there the book sat.. After about thirty years I decided I was never going to read it and I donated it somewhere.

Eventually the adrenaline rush of demons went away leaving in its stead a returning appreciation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Then one day I had the nerve to pick up a book about angels. It wasn’t very good,  just a bunch of second-hand sightings and ancient stories. I wished for my Billy Graham back, prayed for it back.

A few weeks later I had an urge to stop by my favorite SPCA store where I can get hard cover books for 32 cents and there it was. Oh, not the same copy, I’m sure, but just the book I wanted and had prayed for. I started reading it and I wondered why I was ever afraid. There are three hundred mentions of angels in the Bible and Billy Graham told about them in a calm peaceful way that was barely even exciting. They exist, they are God’s helpers, and that’s about it. No adrenaline rush.

I’ve never seen an angel or a demon, but I came to believe that demons loved attention more than anything and that I didn’t have to play their game. I never even think about them any more and that’s just fine. In some places missionaries might have to think about them, battle them, all that. I don’t.

So one day we were on I-4 barreling along 70 miles an hour in heavy traffic and seemingly from nowhere a large piece of metal came bouncing toward us making sparks as it gouged the highway. We thought it had come from the truck ahead and left of us. As Bill swerved, we felt an impact. Thank the Lord there was no one in the lane right of us. The man behind us to the right had to go to the shoulder, though.

We caught up to the truck and looked it over. We wanted to tell the man he might have something loose, but we were all going too fast to communicate.

When we got home we examined the car and discovered a three-foot long crease at the bottom of the driver’s door. That sharp metal bar missed slashing a tire, missed the radiator, missed the windshield and missed us–by inches. What do you do when something like that happens and you know plenty of other people have had bad accidents that day, some even died in them? I don’t know about you, but all I could do was thank God for having his secret agents on the job. I had to give a thought to all the invisible sources that are out there helping us day after day. Sure terrible things happen all the time, but these angelic encounters do too. I don’t think we deserved it, I don’t know why bad things happen to good people. I don’t have nearly as many answers as I used to. I just know to give thanks in everything, good or bad and keep on keeping on. Ministering angels can help with all that too.

Psalm 91:11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

Luke 4:11 They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

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THE DOLL

14 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

Judy

                                                     

My Aunt Jessie was a “collector” – of things.  She never married, so “things” became her main reason for living.  They were her enjoyment as well as her security blanket, I think.  But she also collected a variety of things that were unusual.  I’ll tell her story another time.

For now, I want to tell you about the doll.  Some of you may be old enough to remember – or have lived in a town large/small enough – that many women usually made or constructed their own clothing.  I was well into my teen years before I had any store-bought dresses.  Blue jeans, well yeah, those were garments we couldn’t sew ourselves.  But other items…..we purchased the fabric and sewed them up just to fit ourselves.

One of my favorite memories is going into the J.C. Penney’s store, and into the fabric department.  Round tables with bolt upon bolt of fabric standing upright, for our selection.  And usually, on top of that round table was a “model” doll – or mannequin –  with a dress or some type of garment made out of a sample of the fabric displayed on the table.  Someone was very crafty with their sewing machine!

don’t know when the J.C. Penney’s decided to discontinue the display on the mannequins, but I do know that Aunt Jessie was at the right place at the right time – and she acquired one of those dolls!  I have a picture of Aunt Jessie in 1950 in her house in San Antonio, Texas, with the mannequin in the background, so she had it a long time.

 

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Eventually, she gave me that mannequin, and I was still young enough to play with it – dress it in the many different “outfits” that we had for her.

After Fred and I married and moved away, I left the mannequin with Mother.  At one point in time she owned and operated a cosmetic studio, and used the mannequin in her display window.  Very effective!

 

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I still have that mannequin.  I’m hoping that one of my granddaughters will eventually like to have it.  It’s a unique piece of American history, and a very fond memory for me.

 

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The Roses

13 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Onisha

Some of you might think the idea of allowing a legally blind man who also has early Alzheimer’s to give you driving directions might be a bad idea, and you would be right but last Thursday it turned out to be a wonderful.

My aunt had to have surgery and we were staying with my uncle Paul who is my mother’s brother. The day after her surgery, Paul insisted that on the way to the hospital we stop at the town florist to get a nice bouquet of flowers.  This sounds simple but we had no idea where the florist was located. “Can you tell us how to get there?” we asked.  “Sure I can” he replied, so taking him at his word we set out.

We knew how to get to the hospital but once we turned off the main highway we had no idea where we were. Sitting in the back seat I sent up a quick prayer. “Lord, we are taking directions from an almost blind man whose mind isn’t always clear. This doesn’t seem real smart but he really wants to do this so I am trusting you.”

As my husband drove I searched the sides of the street for florist signs. Every time I saw one, I asked, “is that it uncle Paul? “I was so sure he wouldn’t be able to see it but every time he said no, that’s not it. Finally he spied the florist and gave my husband directions how to get to it. Uncle Paul was very tired and out of breath that morning and it was quite an ordeal for him to get out of the car and into the store. As we slowly walked in, a sweet sales lady approached us and mouthed, “Is that Mr H?”  “It is “I replied. She gave me an understanding smile and explained to my uncle that she was a friend of his son. When my uncle explained that he wanted some nice flowers for his wife who was in the hospital, she led him to the cooler and told him if he didn’t see anything he liked she would make something for him right then. Uncle couldn’t really see the flowers so he chose roses.

Making it to the florist and being treated with such kindness would have made it a great morning but God is into abundance. Leaving the florist parking lot uncle Paul instructed my husband to not go back the way we came but to go on through town. Well, Lord, I thought we made it to the florist, I guess we will make it to the hospital. We hadn’t gone a mile when uncle Paul told Mike to turn and Mike missed it. We began looking for a place to turn around then uncle Paul said just keep going straight, we can make this work. We were driving through the countryside when he casually pointed to the right and said that is one of the places papa farmed. Swiveling my head to look, I asked “did he farm it when you lived at home?” Yes, he said, “all we young’uns worked the farm.”

My parents were raised in North Carolina but I was raised in Florida. When I was a child they had driven me around the small farming community where my mother grew up, but being a child I just didn’t pay that much attention. Since she died, I had a hungering in my heart to revisit those places. The farms were mostly gone, replaced with housing developments but my imagination could picture her there, running through fields barefoot and up to mischief.

We made it to the hospital with no problem and my uncle proudly carried the vase of roses on his lap and we wheeled him into the hospital room. He had no idea; God had used him to deliver one of my heart’s desires.

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I HAVE TO BE ME

12 Apr

         From the Heart

       Louise Gibson

                         I am fighting the battle of resistance.
                         I have to be me, in spite of insistence.
                         The world is doing its best night and day
                         to alter my thinking, to follow its way.
                        Commercials tell me what I should buy,
                        Etiquette dictates the “how” and the “why”.
                        Experience has proven to be my friend.
                        My values I no longer have to defend.
                        Don’t try to make me an image of you.
                        It is so refreshing to have one’s own view.
                        No longer young, my spirit tells me.
                        In spite of man’s thinking, I have to be Me!

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Our Trip to Italy~Part 6

10 Apr

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

 

 

 

After leaving Verona, we drove over to Vicenza where we saw the Olympic Theater, which was designed by the famous Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and constructed between 1580-1585.  The theatre was inaugurated on March 3, 1585, with a production of Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King.”

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Then we toured the Monticello shaped residence, “Villa Capra La Rotonda” which was also designed by Andrea Palladio.  President George Washington selected the site for the future “President’s House” in 1791.  And then, interestingly, Thomas Jefferson anonymously submitted a design as part of the 1792 competition for the project, that was a variation on the Villa Rotonda.  That design was selected, and ultimately would become what we now know as the White House.   The first President to use the President’s House as his residence was President John Adams, and his wife Abigail, who moved into the  unfinished house in 1800.

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On the last day of January, Marcia and Erika joined us for a 2½-hour first class train trip to the beautiful city of Florence.  With its many art galleries and museums, this ancient and beautiful city is known as the cradle of the Renaissance.  Founded around 50 BC, the city soon became an important trade center.  As the city grew, Byzantine walls were added to the Roman walls around 540 AD for protection.  Additional walls were also added from the 1st to the 13th centuries for additional protection of the inhabitants and commerce of the city.   Lorenzo the Magnificent ruled from 1469-1492, at the time considered to be Italy’s artistic highpoint.  In 1494 Florence surrendered to Charles VIII of France at Sarzana.  1865 Florence is made the capital of the newly united Kingdom of Italy, with King Vittorio Emmanuele being installed in Palazzo Pitti.

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The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo) was magnificent.  Originally designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, construction began in 1296 AD.  During the next 140 years it took to complete the basic structure of the cathedral, many designers and architects added their inputs to the basic design.  When completed and consecrated, in 1436, the cathedral still had no dome.  Because of the many opinions at the time about the best dome design, it would be another 10 years before designer Filippo Brunelleschi won the design competition and began construction of the dome.  The conical roof was crowned with a gilt copper ball and cross, containing holy relics, by Verricchio in 1469.  The decorations of the drum gallery by Baccio d’Agnolo were never finished after being disapproved by none other than Michelangelo.

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As can be seen in the picture above, across the piazza from the Duomo was the Baptistery of St. John, one of the oldest buildings in Florence, thought to have been built between 1059 & 1128 AD.  The Baptistery is renowned for its three sets of artistically important bronze doors with relief sculptures. The south doors were done by Andrea Pisano, the north and east doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti.  The east pair of doors were dubbed by Michelangelo as “The Gates of Paradise.”

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The bronze-casting and gilding on the main entry doors was done by the Venetian Leonardo d’Avanzano, widely recognized as one of the best bronze smiths in Europe. It took him six years, with the doors being completed in 1336.  These proto-Renaissance doors consist of 28 quatrefoil panels, with the twenty top panels depicting scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist.  The eight lower panels depict the eight virtues of Hope, faith, charity, humility, fortitude, temperance, Justice and prudence.

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—–To Be Continued—–

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