Well we had our meeting tonight and we are six hours from Bethel and an elder here has chartered a bus to take 50 from our congregation leaving October 16 and coming home very late on Tuesday night, the 18th! I am going to be on that bus! The deposit is not due for two weeks, but I paid already to be sure. I am teaching that summer session I keep complaining about, but I am happy now that I can pay the balance of the trip well in advance and with no budgeting.
We are also going to a Metropolitan Museum Bible tour. All my life, I've never been to Bethel. I am finally going to go. What a blessing!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Payday
Well, after all the bills are paid, I have a little left, so I am pretty happy today. During one of the talks at the DC there was a list of all the things that won't be in the new world, and money was one of them. Usually we think of doctors and nurses, eyeglasses, canes, pain, dentures, hospitals, pharmacies. As I approach 50 next year, I think about the health issues more than I did in 1974 for sure. And I have always enjoyed very good health before. But there will be no banks and money and paydays in the new world. One time in an interview with the author Stephen King, he said that he had so much money that it didn't matter anymore financially, but it was still a good way to keep score. Of course, I read that sort of thing as a writer and English professor. Anyhow, we won't be keeping score in the new world. I know people who would never work if they weren't getting paid for it. How will we get paid in the new world? When we left Arkansas, our congregation gave us a going away party. On the paper tablecloths, the hosts had put Sharpie markers and everyone had written their favorite word that I had defined in a comment. That just tickled me pink, no not that we were leaving, but that everyone had noticed my words and remembered them. And it was kind of fun to move to Pennsylvania and now all those comments I can make again. Anyhow, one of my favorite words is impel. Sometimes the WT will use it. It is very different from compel. Oh the pel is the same, but if you are compelled to do something, like work for a paycheck then the motivation comes from an outside source. If you are impelled to do something, it comes from within. We are impelled to do the preaching work from within. In the new world, we'll be impelled from our hearts to do our work. Having done such miserable work as residential construction clean up (and construction workers leave a mess!) with Rene, Rozaine, and another sister named Linda, I can say even awful work is lovely with your sisters. So I for sure look forward to my work in the new world, but for now I am relieved to have made it another month here. Tonight is the ministry school review, so I have homework, and I am teaching summer school from 3:00 to 4:40. Not a lot of blogging today. I know; I can be overwhelming. I am a writer first, and then an English teacher when it comes to profession. I asked my students earlier this week to write down ten labels that described who they were, and so they wrote such answers as student, blonde, future accountant, Pennsylvanian, Slovak, daughter, stuff like that. And I was thinking what are my ten things, and while writer and teacher made the list, I started out with Witness, then mom, then these other things. Of course redhead did eventually make my top 10. Here's a little thing no one knows about me till now. I just love parking at conventions. I love arriving and here in the midst of all this traffic, especially on Fridays surrounded by accountants and lawyers and the typical downtown milieu, here are these signs that say JW parking. Parking at the conventions is an art, a supreme evidence of organizational skills reflecting an organized Sovereign. I see that JW and it just makes me happy. Even all those accountants driving around know what the JW means. Here's another little story I love. One of the experiences we heard after Katrina is that when a huge group of refugees were shuttled to the Astrodome in Houston, our Texan brothers went through the crowd and so that non-believers would not prey on their charity, they had a tract in their handkerchief pocket peeking out, and all our brs/srs recognized the publication and knew who their brothers were, and our family was rescued and taken into homes right away.
Yep. Another kind of a JW sign. Isn't that cool? I am so happy to be alive now, but I wish sometimes I could have been alive during the Holocaust or the first century or Noah's day. Or even sometimes I wish I was Eve, because I think I wouldn't have messed up like that, but I mess up enough in 2011 not to wish that very often.
Yep. Another kind of a JW sign. Isn't that cool? I am so happy to be alive now, but I wish sometimes I could have been alive during the Holocaust or the first century or Noah's day. Or even sometimes I wish I was Eve, because I think I wouldn't have messed up like that, but I mess up enough in 2011 not to wish that very often.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
My Little Ruth
I call her that because she is so short and I am so tall. James was the most beloved of the apostles, so it stands to reason that while we love all the members of our worldwide brotherhood, there are some we draw closer to. Ruth has two sisters that I know back in my Arkansas congregation, Neva Joy and Mary. Mary brought Rozaine in the truth. Rozaine then went and married Bob and had three strapping baby boys and a precious little girl named Rene. Anytime Rene and I were shopping, if she found something for Mary, she would get it for her. We were both shoppers of the highest order and could squeeze 11 pennies out of every dime. So then I met Ruth, and she was my James. She still is. I am in Pennsylvania, but we still talk on the phone sometimes and email a lot and I send her stuff and she sends me stuff all the time.
When I picture the new world, Ruth is there and while she has a crown of glory now, I picture her the way she looked in her youthful vigor. I have a picture of her alone, and one of her and the girls and brother Jack. We're going to have red hair together in the new world. I have it now, but my crown of glory has started to make an appearance. I just keep telling it no, not yet.
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Ruth wrote me today that Mary is in the hospital with serious medical issues right now. And right away, I remembered that picture of the three of them as girls, and I longed to see them that way in the future. If I did not know about the resurrection hope, I don't know how I could stand living in this cruel world.
When I picture the new world, Ruth is there and while she has a crown of glory now, I picture her the way she looked in her youthful vigor. I have a picture of her alone, and one of her and the girls and brother Jack. We're going to have red hair together in the new world. I have it now, but my crown of glory has started to make an appearance. I just keep telling it no, not yet.
Our Brother Bob Oxford
I don't have any fleshly family really. I mean, of course I do. I was born of two parents like everybody else, and I have a brother who is six years younger. My father died in 1997 and frankly, while it is not for me to say and there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and unrighteous, I would not be surprised if my father didn't even make the unrighteous cut. I have a few scattered relatives who are not witnesses and one relative who is a witness that I never see or talk to. (Long story). But Jehovah has provided a spiritual family to make up for it.
In Arkansas, my first best friend was named Rene, with a squiggly accent mark on the second E that I cannot figure out how to do here. Her father's name was Bob and he was our PO at the time until he had age/health issues and then his son Brent had to take over. Bob's health continued to deteriorate because of diabetes complications and the effects of age and original sin.
Bob was a big refrigerator-sized guy with a barrel chest and hands that could have held a professional football. Two of his sons are refrigerators and one is kind of slim by the family standards, but still tall and broad shouldered. I have had my wayward youth when I didn't want to talk to any elders, and I have had my own imperfections to deal with and once in a while the imperfections of my brothers as well. But I never hesitated to go to Bob with any problem, never had any reason not to put my spiritual life in his big old hands and trust him not to crush me.
One of the little ones in our congregation, at about three years old, thought Bob was Jehovah because he was so big.
As he got older, he went to the last few DC's in a wheel chair. I could always locate him next to the rail in that orange section of the Tulsa Convention Center. I was always happy looking over there and seeing him. Sometimes, because I don't have a lot of family in the truth like many are blessed to enjoy, I would see them all family reunioning at the conventions and I would look over at Bob and not feel so alone.
The last thing Bob did that was kind of a social thing I guess you would say is attend my daughter Carly's high school graduation. None of those fleshly family members of mine could be bothered to send my child a card even, but there was her spiritual family. Bob was in the wheelchair down on the floor of the arena, and everyone else of us were up in the stands. Carly had to make a big walk around the floor and she passed Bob on her way back to her seat. All the other kids were waving at people and seeing their family, and Carly could not locate us up in the stands, but she saw Bob.
Later, I asked her how she felt about it, that her grandmother did not send her a card even, and she said that is okay. She said, "My spiritual granddad was there."
I have been in Pennsylvania for three years now, and last month, another best friend, Ruth, called me to tell me the news. I was not too surprised and I was glad Bob was no longer suffering. I worried about his family he left behind. Bob isn't suffering but they are missing him terribly I know.
When the announcement was made at the hall, Brother Stacey said this:
Our Brother Bob Oxford has fallen asleep.
Isn't that the most beautiful way to say that you have ever heard? So at the DC in Reading, that is who I was thinking of when the two sisters in front of us started crying during the song. I cried too. I have not even called Rene back. I can't because everytime I think about doing it my throat closes up and feels hot.
I am going to tell Bob all these things when he wakes up.
In Arkansas, my first best friend was named Rene, with a squiggly accent mark on the second E that I cannot figure out how to do here. Her father's name was Bob and he was our PO at the time until he had age/health issues and then his son Brent had to take over. Bob's health continued to deteriorate because of diabetes complications and the effects of age and original sin.
Bob was a big refrigerator-sized guy with a barrel chest and hands that could have held a professional football. Two of his sons are refrigerators and one is kind of slim by the family standards, but still tall and broad shouldered. I have had my wayward youth when I didn't want to talk to any elders, and I have had my own imperfections to deal with and once in a while the imperfections of my brothers as well. But I never hesitated to go to Bob with any problem, never had any reason not to put my spiritual life in his big old hands and trust him not to crush me.
One of the little ones in our congregation, at about three years old, thought Bob was Jehovah because he was so big.
As he got older, he went to the last few DC's in a wheel chair. I could always locate him next to the rail in that orange section of the Tulsa Convention Center. I was always happy looking over there and seeing him. Sometimes, because I don't have a lot of family in the truth like many are blessed to enjoy, I would see them all family reunioning at the conventions and I would look over at Bob and not feel so alone.
The last thing Bob did that was kind of a social thing I guess you would say is attend my daughter Carly's high school graduation. None of those fleshly family members of mine could be bothered to send my child a card even, but there was her spiritual family. Bob was in the wheelchair down on the floor of the arena, and everyone else of us were up in the stands. Carly had to make a big walk around the floor and she passed Bob on her way back to her seat. All the other kids were waving at people and seeing their family, and Carly could not locate us up in the stands, but she saw Bob.
Later, I asked her how she felt about it, that her grandmother did not send her a card even, and she said that is okay. She said, "My spiritual granddad was there."
I have been in Pennsylvania for three years now, and last month, another best friend, Ruth, called me to tell me the news. I was not too surprised and I was glad Bob was no longer suffering. I worried about his family he left behind. Bob isn't suffering but they are missing him terribly I know.
When the announcement was made at the hall, Brother Stacey said this:
Our Brother Bob Oxford has fallen asleep.
Isn't that the most beautiful way to say that you have ever heard? So at the DC in Reading, that is who I was thinking of when the two sisters in front of us started crying during the song. I cried too. I have not even called Rene back. I can't because everytime I think about doing it my throat closes up and feels hot.
I am going to tell Bob all these things when he wakes up.
The High Priest and Samuel
Mrs. Potiphar's costume
I've been thinking about Mrs. Potiphar's costume at my DC in Reading. She was decked out in solid gold fabrics that draped and swayed beautifully. And when Joseph received his coat from his father, he swirled around in it like a fashion model admiring it's cut and length and colors. I thought wow, I could have made all those costumes! In my free time, right? So everything always comes together with a connection. I couldn't help but think about Gabriel and Megan, two youth from my Arkansas congregation and how they were in dramas this year in Ft. Smith and I did not get to see them. And I like the dramas. We had talent nights back home and for a couple of years running Jennifer and I put on a pretty good drama. One year it was Noah and the ark, and Gabriel's dad built a faux ark prop, and that door had a real drawbridge and my daughters made a sound effect CD to play with a slamming door, and then sprinkling rain and then thunderclaps and a huge storm. We must have had 300 people in that audience including the CO and his wife. Those were the days. The next year, we did Hannah. A spiritual woman, of course. I don't have any pictures left from Noah, but I have some of Hannah. I had a lot of help with that play too. My great friend and sister Loretta spent an entire day with me finishing up the costumes. So, I wanted to share some pics. Megan played Penninah and I don't know which drama she was in this year in Ft. Smith, but I could see her vamping it up as Bianca after that!
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The Ft. Smith DC
Keep the Faith
I can say I've never lost faith. But it seems to me that all my life, since my baptism in 74 (age 11, probably too young) I came home from every DC just brimming with joy. I want to stay that way. I remember one year at the DC when I was about 15 thinking as we were clapping after singing "We Thank You Jehovah" that I did not understand myself, why I cared every school year by the time spring rolled around what the other girls at school thought of my clothes and grade and life. But by every April I was yearning to be pretty and popular and one of them. It didn't help that I grew up in a town of 7,000 people and only 30 members in the congregation, and very few young ones. I'm not complaining - the summer I turned 12 I pioneered with a 52 year old sister and had a wonderful time. You simply cannot buy that kind of attention and mentoring in the world, and I got it free. That sister's name was Margaret Pritts. Her son Eddie was at Bethel and her other son was married. I think their names were Chuck and Susie, not sure. Anyway, this blog is my date everyday to remind myself of what really matters. I have two daughters and a job and some things are out of my reach. But joy is not one of those things. I thank You, Jehovah.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Lebeau Bindery Bible
So while I was in Reading, which by the way, they pronounce it as Redding, like Otis Redding, and not like reading at all, which my being an English professor is how that word looks to me. When I first moved here and everyone was talking about going to the DC last year in ReDDing, I kept wondering where on earth this town was. Finally they told me, and I said oh, that is READing. All my life, me and everyone I knew in childhood played Monopoly with four railroads and one of them was reeding, not redding.
Well, that's okay. So we went to Reading again this year and I felt a little better navigating it because I had been there once before, and I had a GPS this year for the first time. Much better. Anyhow, I have wanted to have my reference bible bound in soft leather for a few years now, and as my regular deluxe Bible is about to wear out, and two pages of 2 Corinthians are coming loose on the top, I really need to get this done. But I have not wanted to do it, hoping to find a husband and of course, having a name stamped on the bottom that had a different last name.
This time last year I thought it might happen and actually ordered a second bible so I could bind both of them to match, one for me, one for the new husband. So, that is not happening, and I've made my peace with that. I'm going to have the bible done and I'm going to call it my personal capitulation translation.
In a talk about brothers in the Holocaust, I heard an experience once about a brother who went to the fence everyday at the camp praying desperately for Jehovah to rescue him, that he could not survive. And after a month he realized the answer to that prayer was no. So he decided to get back to the bunk and strengthen the brothers. I figured out that I kept focusing on wanting a husband in the truth and the answer is obviously no, so I decided to get on with my life. So now I am ready to get the bible bound with the name I have now.
So my favorite color is green and as I am walking by an attendant at the DC, I notice he has his song book bound in green. I stop and ask him what bindery he used, and he finds the tag in the back and his name happens to be familiar to me, and it turns out his grandparents are pioneers in the Mundy's Corner congregation here in Pennsylvania.
I've been to the www.LeBeauBindery.com website to look over the binding options and am about to send my bibles (the girls want their books all done as well) and song books in to have them bound. My point is that I was thinking about Mrs. Potiphar and Bianca from the drama and how they were so spiteful when they were turned down by Joseph and the brother in the drama. I know how that feels even when everyone is trying to uphold Jehovah's standards. A few brothers have looked my way over the past decade, and a few of them I turned down and a few, after getting to know me a little, turned me down. And every time, even when I was pretty sure I wasn't going any further either, it still hurt that I was found lacking and I felt a little spiteful even if I did not act on it.
Of course, Eve didn't have this problem. Did she doubt for a moment Adam would follow her sinful course? Of course if I had been Eve, none of this would have happened, because I despise snakes, and even that scripture about the child playing on the cobra hole, wow, I have to think that won't be my baby in the new world even if someone finds me and we have progeny. I wouldn't have talked to Satan for a minute. Satan would probably have come up to me as a tiger. A big Shere-Khan kind of kitty cat trying to con me out of my perfection.
I'm going to have a beautiful green bible and song book in a few weeks at least. I can't afford to lose 2 Corinthians.
Well, that's okay. So we went to Reading again this year and I felt a little better navigating it because I had been there once before, and I had a GPS this year for the first time. Much better. Anyhow, I have wanted to have my reference bible bound in soft leather for a few years now, and as my regular deluxe Bible is about to wear out, and two pages of 2 Corinthians are coming loose on the top, I really need to get this done. But I have not wanted to do it, hoping to find a husband and of course, having a name stamped on the bottom that had a different last name.
This time last year I thought it might happen and actually ordered a second bible so I could bind both of them to match, one for me, one for the new husband. So, that is not happening, and I've made my peace with that. I'm going to have the bible done and I'm going to call it my personal capitulation translation.
In a talk about brothers in the Holocaust, I heard an experience once about a brother who went to the fence everyday at the camp praying desperately for Jehovah to rescue him, that he could not survive. And after a month he realized the answer to that prayer was no. So he decided to get back to the bunk and strengthen the brothers. I figured out that I kept focusing on wanting a husband in the truth and the answer is obviously no, so I decided to get on with my life. So now I am ready to get the bible bound with the name I have now.
So my favorite color is green and as I am walking by an attendant at the DC, I notice he has his song book bound in green. I stop and ask him what bindery he used, and he finds the tag in the back and his name happens to be familiar to me, and it turns out his grandparents are pioneers in the Mundy's Corner congregation here in Pennsylvania.
I've been to the www.LeBeauBindery.com website to look over the binding options and am about to send my bibles (the girls want their books all done as well) and song books in to have them bound. My point is that I was thinking about Mrs. Potiphar and Bianca from the drama and how they were so spiteful when they were turned down by Joseph and the brother in the drama. I know how that feels even when everyone is trying to uphold Jehovah's standards. A few brothers have looked my way over the past decade, and a few of them I turned down and a few, after getting to know me a little, turned me down. And every time, even when I was pretty sure I wasn't going any further either, it still hurt that I was found lacking and I felt a little spiteful even if I did not act on it.
Of course, Eve didn't have this problem. Did she doubt for a moment Adam would follow her sinful course? Of course if I had been Eve, none of this would have happened, because I despise snakes, and even that scripture about the child playing on the cobra hole, wow, I have to think that won't be my baby in the new world even if someone finds me and we have progeny. I wouldn't have talked to Satan for a minute. Satan would probably have come up to me as a tiger. A big Shere-Khan kind of kitty cat trying to con me out of my perfection.
I'm going to have a beautiful green bible and song book in a few weeks at least. I can't afford to lose 2 Corinthians.
Drama Queen
Well, if you have not been to the 2011 DC yet, and you don't want to know the program before you go, stop reading now. I can't keep quiet about the drama about Joseph and Potiphar's wife.
The script segued back and forth between Joseph and a modern day young brother having the same kinds of problems. Potiphar's wife claimed Joseph raped her so he ended up in jail for ten years, making you want to go back in time with a crime scene investigator to correct this great injustice, but Joseph endured in prison. The modern day brother had an unbeliever after him to "hook up" and she was pretty sure of herself that she could get him. When she failed in her efforts, she posted on a social network internet site about their encounter, making it up as she went along and fabricating a tawdry rendezvous that left a lot of people assuming the brother had actually been with the girl. She was persistent, using all her feminine wiles and saying that she needed his help in school as a math tutor and she was cute and seemed very experienced in, well, hooking up.
The time when she reported they had been together turned out to be a time when the young brother was at a circuit assembly and having dinner with his Uncle Jack and his mother. Uncle Jack is an elder, they are out of town, that's a pretty good alibi. The adults approached the girl, Bianca, with this evidence and she publicly retracted her words. A good ending - but I kept thinking wow, if she had done a little homework on when he was not so well documented for his whereabouts, this could have ended differently. Horribly, for our brother.
I don't mean to be sympathetic to Bianca or Mrs. Potiphar. But a part of me is sorry for them. No, not that they brought trouble to our brothers. What they did was wrong, but I can understand what drove them to behave that way. Bianca is watching music videos and reality TV and that is what men want from women. It must have really confused her when our brother did not want the one thing she believed men valued about her. If he didn't want it, then she was useless to him, and felt her own worth totally undermined. And she talks the talk when she is trying to detour him.
Not as good, however, as Mrs. Potiphar. She really lays it on Joseph thick. She tells him how they are both aliens in Egypt, how seldom she sees Potiphar himself, and how she's so lonely and Joseph is always so nice to her. I totally understand how a good Christian man appeals to a woman tired of the trappings of our current culture. Who wouldn't prefer an elder to a drug addicted rapper? Some would, but some women are tired of this world's scene. Sisters face this too. Plenty of guys like the idea of a girl who is untarnished by the world's acceptable behavior.
So here are two women separated by centuries, one of them fictional even, and I realize the point of the drama was about Joseph and our brother and endurance. But I have to admit that I thought the script gave good context for what the women were going through, what their motivation was. This world is in the hands of the wicked one, and he is certainly no friend to women. Sometimes I think it is worse for women than for men even.
Anyway, it was a great drama. In another talk, a brother was talking about all the faithful ones of old being resurrected and how we'll get to meet them, and then he gave a list. Oh what a long list he gave, and it mentioned more women than men! With Moses and Abraham was Sarah, Zipporah, Hannah, Esther, Ruth, Naomi. One time when the CO was at our hall, there was a part on what do you do during family study night, and I commented that my daughters and I spend time researching different women in the Bible. Well, the next visit of the CO he comments during a talk about the different things that can be done on family night and he said one of our sisters and her daughters research women of the Bible. And I thought wow, this was something to remark on, how sweet. Of course I am interested in the women of the Bible.
And I often thank Jehovah in my prayers that of the 144,000, many are faithful sisters. I want a woman judging me when that day comes. Of course I do.
The script segued back and forth between Joseph and a modern day young brother having the same kinds of problems. Potiphar's wife claimed Joseph raped her so he ended up in jail for ten years, making you want to go back in time with a crime scene investigator to correct this great injustice, but Joseph endured in prison. The modern day brother had an unbeliever after him to "hook up" and she was pretty sure of herself that she could get him. When she failed in her efforts, she posted on a social network internet site about their encounter, making it up as she went along and fabricating a tawdry rendezvous that left a lot of people assuming the brother had actually been with the girl. She was persistent, using all her feminine wiles and saying that she needed his help in school as a math tutor and she was cute and seemed very experienced in, well, hooking up.
The time when she reported they had been together turned out to be a time when the young brother was at a circuit assembly and having dinner with his Uncle Jack and his mother. Uncle Jack is an elder, they are out of town, that's a pretty good alibi. The adults approached the girl, Bianca, with this evidence and she publicly retracted her words. A good ending - but I kept thinking wow, if she had done a little homework on when he was not so well documented for his whereabouts, this could have ended differently. Horribly, for our brother.
I don't mean to be sympathetic to Bianca or Mrs. Potiphar. But a part of me is sorry for them. No, not that they brought trouble to our brothers. What they did was wrong, but I can understand what drove them to behave that way. Bianca is watching music videos and reality TV and that is what men want from women. It must have really confused her when our brother did not want the one thing she believed men valued about her. If he didn't want it, then she was useless to him, and felt her own worth totally undermined. And she talks the talk when she is trying to detour him.
Not as good, however, as Mrs. Potiphar. She really lays it on Joseph thick. She tells him how they are both aliens in Egypt, how seldom she sees Potiphar himself, and how she's so lonely and Joseph is always so nice to her. I totally understand how a good Christian man appeals to a woman tired of the trappings of our current culture. Who wouldn't prefer an elder to a drug addicted rapper? Some would, but some women are tired of this world's scene. Sisters face this too. Plenty of guys like the idea of a girl who is untarnished by the world's acceptable behavior.
So here are two women separated by centuries, one of them fictional even, and I realize the point of the drama was about Joseph and our brother and endurance. But I have to admit that I thought the script gave good context for what the women were going through, what their motivation was. This world is in the hands of the wicked one, and he is certainly no friend to women. Sometimes I think it is worse for women than for men even.
Anyway, it was a great drama. In another talk, a brother was talking about all the faithful ones of old being resurrected and how we'll get to meet them, and then he gave a list. Oh what a long list he gave, and it mentioned more women than men! With Moses and Abraham was Sarah, Zipporah, Hannah, Esther, Ruth, Naomi. One time when the CO was at our hall, there was a part on what do you do during family study night, and I commented that my daughters and I spend time researching different women in the Bible. Well, the next visit of the CO he comments during a talk about the different things that can be done on family night and he said one of our sisters and her daughters research women of the Bible. And I thought wow, this was something to remark on, how sweet. Of course I am interested in the women of the Bible.
And I often thank Jehovah in my prayers that of the 144,000, many are faithful sisters. I want a woman judging me when that day comes. Of course I do.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Home from DC
We just got home from our District Convention in Reading, Pennsylvania. I needed it and most of the counsel, well I don't know what everybody else was doing there, because it was mostly directed at me, but I guess the other 5,400 other brothers and sisters got something out of it too.
On Saturday, I was sitting behind a lovely sister with a crown of white hair. Her son came by and was talking to her as we ate lunch, so I was observing both their profiles. They had matching eyes so that is when I interrupted them nicely and said hey, how are ya'll related? They were from Baltimore, and it never ceases to amaze me at the DC's up here that the accents are all a little bit off, and a lot of brs/srs ask me where I am from. Anyhow, we had a nice time chatting away. The son's name was Gary and his sister was sitting with the mom, and the sister's friend. Both of them were from the DC ASL congregation. I tried to learn ASL back in Arkansas, always looking for something new and interesting, which is one of the times I found out my only facility with language is English. I tried learning French, German, and ASL, and I just didn't cotton to it.
Anyhow, in conversation, I found out that Gary's father died in 2008. Later that day we were all singing the song to end the program and the sister and mom started crying during the music. I cried too. We lost a brother back in Arkansas a few months ago. We could not afford nor did we have time to go back for the service. But I still am very tender at heart over this loss, my best friend's father, my daughter's spiritual grandfather, oh how I am both sorry and relieved to add Bob's name to the list of those I will look for in the resurrection. So I was crying away with them and after the prayer, we all hugged.
The next morning, Sunday, I have three girls to pack up and exit the motel, argh. We arrive during the music and head for the same seats as yesterday. There are the sisters from the day before. The seats directly behind them were taken but the ones alongside them in the row were available. Actually, Carly and Sara sat across the aisle; Kimberly and I were with the same sisters. But here is the deal. When we headed that way, the sister looked up and saw us, and smiled, oh she smiled like a sunburst to see us, and we were filled with joy that there were seats (yes, I was crabbing on the car ride there that we'd probably be in some terrible nosebleed section and I'd cripple myself going to the restroom) but mostly, I don't know how to describe it. But if you're reading this you know what I mean. My sister that I had only known for 24 hours looked up and saw me and welcomed me and I was at home in those seats all day.
On Saturday, I was sitting behind a lovely sister with a crown of white hair. Her son came by and was talking to her as we ate lunch, so I was observing both their profiles. They had matching eyes so that is when I interrupted them nicely and said hey, how are ya'll related? They were from Baltimore, and it never ceases to amaze me at the DC's up here that the accents are all a little bit off, and a lot of brs/srs ask me where I am from. Anyhow, we had a nice time chatting away. The son's name was Gary and his sister was sitting with the mom, and the sister's friend. Both of them were from the DC ASL congregation. I tried to learn ASL back in Arkansas, always looking for something new and interesting, which is one of the times I found out my only facility with language is English. I tried learning French, German, and ASL, and I just didn't cotton to it.
Anyhow, in conversation, I found out that Gary's father died in 2008. Later that day we were all singing the song to end the program and the sister and mom started crying during the music. I cried too. We lost a brother back in Arkansas a few months ago. We could not afford nor did we have time to go back for the service. But I still am very tender at heart over this loss, my best friend's father, my daughter's spiritual grandfather, oh how I am both sorry and relieved to add Bob's name to the list of those I will look for in the resurrection. So I was crying away with them and after the prayer, we all hugged.
The next morning, Sunday, I have three girls to pack up and exit the motel, argh. We arrive during the music and head for the same seats as yesterday. There are the sisters from the day before. The seats directly behind them were taken but the ones alongside them in the row were available. Actually, Carly and Sara sat across the aisle; Kimberly and I were with the same sisters. But here is the deal. When we headed that way, the sister looked up and saw us, and smiled, oh she smiled like a sunburst to see us, and we were filled with joy that there were seats (yes, I was crabbing on the car ride there that we'd probably be in some terrible nosebleed section and I'd cripple myself going to the restroom) but mostly, I don't know how to describe it. But if you're reading this you know what I mean. My sister that I had only known for 24 hours looked up and saw me and welcomed me and I was at home in those seats all day.
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