Forever changing...

Just like the little girl in the picture, watching the waves come and go, each wave is ever changing and different. Our lives follow the same kind of pattern. While the cool water bathes her feet, the sand between her toes changes with each wave.

This holiday season was different for me as a mother, as I wasn't able to be with all of my children or grandchildren. I have learned and am still learning about change.

We all have very special memories of our childhood. For some it is the tradition of family, a savory meal, gifts, church, the birth of Christ...the list goes on. But we can never recapture all that was, so we must learn to bend like a strong branch on a strong tree and realize that we are forever moving forward to a new day.

We must remember that life changes and our story is always changing.  If you don't learn to bend and change with the moments, you will simply miss them.

Change is like putting on a new dress you have never worn. It makes you look different, feel different, and be different.  Learn to love your family and friends in the moment and not just the day that is to be celebrated. Learn to be a woman or mother of great character and love those around you with a unselfish joy so that not only will they benefit, but you will benefit the most. Peace can and will be yours if you learn to bend with grace and ease so that your own joy will not be interrupted.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared,  ambition inspired, and success achieved...Helen Keller

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Romans 5:3-4 NIV

Heaven on earth...

This is what change can be about. I could have gone about my business and not waited for the birth of my newest grandson Cashton Patrick Campbell, but I thought the wait was worth it.

What a better way to spend a day than to experience the miracle of birth and a new life, and then be able to hold him, touch his soft skin, and smell the sweetness of a newborn.

Holding him only hours after birth I was amazed that he was opening his eyes, facing an unknown world and what it is going to bring, and the innocence of an angel in his infancy. To be so close to heaven and feeling God's energy took my breath away.

I have experienced many things in my life, being a grandmother is one of the highlights of my life. By the middle of 2011 I will be a grandma to five. It is hard to explain what it means to me, but I want it to mean something to each of them. I want them to remember who I was, and how much they were loved. You can't do that unless you spend time, keep in touch, talk, listen and love unconditionally.

It is a gift that God gives us, the gift of grand parenthood. Don't be too busy to give back that which you have learned over your many years. Someday they will remember who you were and how you touched their lives.

What a great legacy, to have someone think of you, feel your presence, and mention your name with love. I think that is what God has assigned me to do.

I think I will stick around awhile and make a difference.

Intense love does not measure, it just gives...Mother Teresa

Blessings...

My two grandsons are a little older now, but this picture speaks to me about the real meaning of Christmas.

Colton was three and Collin was five months old. It took my daughter a few snapshots to attain the essence of Christmas and the innocence and wonder of a child.

Christmas for me this year has a quiet inner calm.  It is the first year in a long time I haven't been consumed with presents, and if the gifts were the perfect gift. You know we all have done that sometime in our lives,but this year is different for me as I have grown a year older and hopefully wiser.

I am blessed to have two grandchildren coming my way. One coming any day now, and another in the summer of 2011. When I thought I would never live long enough to see one, I will soon have five. Blessings come in small packages and I am grateful beyond words.

It is in the eyes and knowing of children that I think we learn the most. When we take the time and give our children and grandchildren the gift of listening to what they have to say or share, it is really a gift to ourselves.

Put your grandchild on your lap and ask them what they really want for Christmas, you may be surprised by what they say.

So take the time this year to listen to your children, grandchildren or anyone who may need a friend. Be kind, gentle and carry the spirit of Christ in you by being Christ like.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said:  "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts: 20:35 NIV

All I want for Christmas...

I remember this picture and time in my life. The year was 1962. I had just graduated from high school and was attending college and working part time. My sisters and family were my joy. This picture of my Baba and Dido was on their 50th anniversary. It was a time for family and love.

Christmas was a very special time for me as a child.  l learned much about God, traditions, love of family and the importance of continuous faith.

When I was a little girl and still lived in Ohio, I was blessed to celebrate December 25th and January 7th. That is traditional Christmas and Russian Orthodox Christmas.

I was lucky enough to know both, and each parent celebrated the day very differently. My mother who was orphaned at age 8 was all about the gifts. Years later she would share with me that she didn't have very good memories of Christmas, and she said she always wanted her girls to be showered with gifts that she only dreamed about. She also never knew the closeness of family and the love that goes with it. So I learned to embrace both of those days. There was turmoil in our home around each holiday, but as a child I just learned to embrace and celebrate both.

My father,Baba and Dido, and family celebrated the holiday very quietly and in reverence. The Christmas Eve feast was homemade mushroom soup, bread, letchie ( a doughy dish made with poppy seed) and heavenly lemon bars covered with powered sugar and oozing of sweet tangy lemon!  We fasted on Christmas Eve and the 12 dishes that represented the 12 Apostles were served before church, meatless dishes that were amazing.

My favorite part of the day was going to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  My grandmother had a tree, but gifts from that side of the family were homemade and meant as much to me as all the toys I was given on the 25th.

My Baba (grandma) taught me and showed me by the way she lived her life who God was. She never lost her faith or her beliefs in the church or God. She was a woman of short stature but strong character. She was a mighty woman of God. She had a strong will as well as strong hands that always smelled of Jergens lotion. She kept a jar at the sink. The sweet cherry almond odor still reminds me of her.

I can see her rushing around in a kitchen no bigger than a large closet, apron covered with flour, her strong steady hands kneading dough for home made bread and other amazing dishes that would suddenly emerge from this tiny kitchen, present on a simply set table and grumbling stomachs, it makes my mouth water still.

So all I want for Christmas are the memories that I can still recall, my continued good health and the health of my family. I pray for the new babies coming our way and know that God has somehow already touched them before they birth themselves into their new world.

I am thankful I had my Baba in my life, the memory of her is still fresh in my mind. I pray I will leave lasting and warm memories for my children and grandchildren.

So go make a memory with someone you love, so one day they will recall the essence of you as I have remembered the essence of love that is born out of family.

Merry Christmas
Christ is Born...Glorify Him

The Great 1950 Thanksgiving Snowstorm...

Anybody that lived in Ohio or Pennsylvania in 1950 will remember this storm. They called it the great white blizzard, the Thanksgiving snowstorm, the white out. Whatever you called it, you would remember.

This picture was taken of my grandmother's house from inside my tiny upstairs bedroom. The drifts were as high as 10 feet and people were unable to open their doors or possibly go outside. People were unable to go to work, all businesses were shut down, too much snow on the road to drive, and you couldn't get out to shovel or clear the streets, and I was stuck in the house not only from the snow but I had chicken pox. I was not a very happy child that weekend.

My grandfather and father made a pathway using a shovel and two days of hard labor between grandmas home and ours. I lost the picture I had of that particular event but remember it well. The path was narrow but did allow us to go back and forth for a visit or check the winter fruit cellar for well stored food.

It was a time of coming together in a community that still endears my senses and continues to give me hope that our country and communities will come together in time of need. I remember we still had a coal furnace and we used the coal as sparingly as possible as the delivery trucks couldn't deliver due to the storm. Whatever one didn't have the other would pitch in and make sure that all was right with the neighborhood, your neighborhood was your family.

We lived on a hill and the roads were steep and narrow and made of bricks. Riding a sled as fast as possible and crashing into a bank of snow was the best. No helmets, no arm or shin guards, just earmuffs, mittens, leggings, boots, and a heavy wool coat. It was amazing we could move at all. But what fun. I never was able to ride my sled until the following weekend, but there was plenty of snow still. I was in kindergarten that year and we missed two weeks of school, and in those days you didn't have to make it up.

We had very little contact to the outside world other than our old radio sitting in a corner and giving us the latest updates. Nothing was instant and it really was heavenly. The news, other than what affected us was not missed.

If was a time of love, fellowship and caring for each other that is not seen today. Maybe someday that feeling of family and community will return, to make that happen we all have to introduce ourselves to our neighbor, give a helping hand and have a spirit of togetherness that abounds. We are here to help one another and make a difference.

When you make a batch of cookies, or have an abundant meal, share it with those you know and especially those you don't. Go introduce yourself to someone you don't know and receive the gift of giving to others.


Encourage one another daily, as long as it is Today...Hebrews 3:13 NIV