Let It Snow

MERRY CHRISTMAS

May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.

Romans 15:13

It is early December and cold outside. I am about 10 maybe 11 and I am in the kitchen making hot chocolate to carry in the air pump thermos. My big brother Billy is yelling from the living room to hurry up or we will not be going. I holler back that he will thank me later if he will just hang on one stinking minute.

Today is a big day as we are headed to my grandparents property to get our Christmas tree. Usually the whole family would go but today was different, it would just be Billy and I making the trip up Bill Hill to the property where my grandparents own a few gold mines. Yes that is true Gold Mines, their gold is even in the Smithsonian.

The property up on Bill Hill holds many great memories of exploring with my siblings and with my cousins the Jardin's. We could spend hours running along Five Mile Creek and through the old apple orchard. We were mountain men, cowboys and great explorers of a long time ago. In the fall there were lady bugs to trap and apples to pick. In the summer we would follow grandpa into the mine to cool ourselves from the summer heat.

Those were now days long gone as grandpa had passed and today it was just Billy and I making new memories and setting out on what was sure to be a big adventure. With Christmas right around the corner we were tasked with finding a tree for our house and a smaller one for grandma. Now I was holding up the show and it was now raining and getting colder.

Once we arrived at the property we had to hurry and find a great tree and get going because an El Camino can get stuck pretty easy on a muddy snowy road and it did feel like snow would fall at any minute. There were no cell phones, neighbors to borrow a phone from and no AAA to come to our rescue if we got stuck.

We rushed up hills and slid in the mud down steep paths made by ancestors of a long time ago. The tree had to be perfect and fit inside the car and the living room. Suddenly, there it was. It was about 8 feet tall and and smelled like the perfect Christmas tree. A cedar with big bushes branches and boy was it wet. Billy made fast work of chopping it down and then we got one for Grandma Hazel too. Then the long walk back to the car. It was now snowing.

I was not much help as I was about 80 pounds and that was soaking wet so a large cedar like we had was a challenge to get to the car. The snow was sticking to the ground, the trees and to our uncovered heads. It was cold. Suddenly Billy stopped and whispered "Listen!" I froze as I was terrified we would run into one of those bears or mountain lions that I had heard so many stories about from my aunts, uncles and parents.

After what seemed like an eternity I said "What do you hear Billy?" " Nothing! Nothing but the silence of a winter snow storm." My whole body felt relief and the grin on his face let me know we were safe. Soon the trees were loaded and we slipped and slide our way up the old dirt road. Chatting about the adventure and drinking amazing hot chocolate. We were heroes, we were bringing Christmas trees home to decorate. Soon they would be covered with old ornaments, tinsel and lights.

Life is a little different today. The old mine was sold, Billy and I grew up and now we have children and he has grandchildren.  Amazing how fast the years fly by but we will tell the stories of the past about ancestors who mined for gold and how we saved Christmas.

There is one thing that remains the same, the opportunity to save Christmas. I do not mean we should all run to an old forest and cut a tree down but instead we should still find a way to save Christmas for a child, a mommy or a daddy. Save the day for a person down on their luck after all we have ALL been there.

Think about this, Christmas is a celebration of a baby coming to earth and loving us. All of us no matter what. The greatest lesson Jesus taught us was that we must serve each other and bless each other. He did. He healed the sick, brought sight to the blind and most importantly he loved us so much he died for us. He loved us no matter what and he wants us to show our love by helping others.

So tonight this blog is simple. How will you serve and bless someone this Christmas season? Its not too late and you do not need money. You can serve at a Christmas eve dinner, take dessert to a local fire station to men and woman working away from the families to keep you safe or you can hand that family with a sign a gift card to use for a hot meal. There really are many homeless that need our love and support.

Then there are the elderly. They are lonely. Knock on their door. Have them over for dinner, take them a card or socks or just stop and say hello. Call your parents. Adopt a family, a puppy or a kitten. 

Glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace good will towards men.

Luke 2:14

I have so much to be thankful for even with the challenges I face each day.  I know just how blessed I am to have a God that loves me so much that he allows me to serve others even when I have limits. I will forever remember that Christmas trip to find a tree. I also remember the Christmases when people blessed our family with love and support. They are memories forever kept in my heart and soul. Memories that I will carry with me as I make My Journey.

Storms Of The Soul

The Lord will be a refuge and a hiding place from the storm and the rain.

Isaiah 4:6

As a child I could lay for hours and watch  the afternoon thunderheads that slowly rose over the Sierra Nevada mountains. It happens most warn days as the warm summer air makes its way east it collides with the cool mountain air and large billowing white clouds raise up into the atmosphere.

As a kid I could lay on the lawn for hours and watch the clouds and pretend they looked like different things. I saw elephants, lions, mickey mouse and horses. I also saw angels, bears and I always saw God.

Late in the evening the clouds would turn brilliant colors at sunset.Gold, orange and pink. It reminded me of fall, ice cream and cotton candy. By the way have you ever made cotton candy. I did recently and it is not so easy. I was making it with a friend and it was all over the place. In our hair, in our eye brows and even on the ceiling. Fun times.

If you are  lucky and the clouds make their way done the hill you have wonderful afternoon thunder storm.The storms can be fierce. Loud thunder, down pours of rain and lightening. Tree limbs break, the wind roars and the water washes away the dirt that is blowing in the air. Its a storm of amazing magnitude and if you are lucky you can stand right in the middle of all the excitement and dance in the warm storm as mother nature rains down on its earth and cleans it up and causes change. The air is pure, the dead limbs are gone and sometimes wild fires start.

Life can be like this. Some of us can have an occasional storm while others fight daily storms that challenge them completely. The amazing thing is we do not always know the storms that others face. Why? Well there are many reasons some keep it personal, some use an umbrella and block the rain and wind and kind of hide there in that safety net and yet there are others who stand in the middle of the storm and dance.

Some days I hide under an umbrella and keep my troubles to myself and use the umbrella like Gods shield as a way to keep my pain and worries to myself. It is amazing how God can protect us in our time of frustration and loss. I get frustrated because I can't always do the things I used to do. My body is not as strong as it once was and when I try to do yard work or physical labor I really hurt later and pay for it dearly. It takes longer to complete projects and there are even projects I cant attempt to start because I don't want to face the hurting back, throbbing hip pain or the leg pain that I know will follow the simplest  of tasks.

Then there are the days I say heck with it and I dance in the storm. I just throw it all to the wind and go for it. Does it hurt? Yup! Do I loose sleep? Absolutely. Then why do I do it? Partly because I am really stubborn, I get that from my Dad, and I want to get projects done. The other reason is I don't want to give in to reality. The reality that I have limits and I have to face it.

The days that I over do it and find myself suffering from the pain and challenges I feel this storm deep inside my soul. A storm of frustration and confusion. The wind moves through my mind and erases memories. It erases things I need to remember. That is the Parkinson's. It is a storm that is not always visible, but for me, it is always there. Always in my soul.

Jesus calms our storms, even the wind and the rain obeys him

Matthew 8:26

So what do I do? How do I survive? How do I not allow it to consume me? I turn it over to God. It is that easy. I have Parkinson's disease it does not have me. Really it does not. If I was to sit and worry or sit and let it control me then the disease wins. Instead, I came to the realization that Parkinson's may cause challenges but GOD can overcome.

So if the disease progresses then God is in control. No matter the challenges I travel with God and I weather the storm and I write blogs and I help those in my community in ways that I can give to them so they can overcome obstacles. No matter how much mobility or memory I lose I still have words and on days that it is challenging to type, like tonight, I will type slower. For the words give me peace. They calm me and give my mind and my soul an avenue to share with you the love I have for you, God and my life that I have been blessed with.

There will always be storms and as I watch the wind blow the leaves from their branches and out into the world I realize that the winds of life are an obstacle that wants to challenge us and the leaves are us as we float through the air and through life twisting and turning.

And one day when old age has settled into my body and my arms and legs no longer do as they are told I will know that my life on this earth has neared its end.

Slowly, the cold wind will erase the memories that are locked away deep in my mind and they will be lost forever. But the memories that God has placed in my heart will continue to live on. Forever. My heart will hold memories of a community that has carried me, friends that have blessed me and family that has loved me.

Most importantly it will hold the sounds of my children's laughter. It hold memories of two beautiful daughters and an amazing son. It will hold the memory of the greatest blessing that God ever gave me. And though my mind will forget my heart will remember. It will remember long sunny days, warm spring rains and fields of wildflowers.

All these memories of warm days, summer rain storms and  beautiful pictures but none will match the memory I have of my loving wife. A wife with a sunny smile, a warm heart and beauty that is unmatched. My heart will remember that loving smile, her gentle touch and how her hand fit so perfectly in mine as I made my way on "My Journey."