Tag Archives: God

WEATHERING THE WINDS OF CHANGE

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Beloved,

Have you survived the Blizzard of 2015? Mother Nature has had fun with the weathermen again, she loves to challenge them and it is quite a challenge. They are expected to be precise as to just where and how much awaits the people in every town and city. The weathermen saved much aggravation and lives as without their prediction, no state of emergency would have been called in Massachusetts. No roads would have closed so people might have been trapped in the cars as has happened in the past. No schools and businesses would have closed. Even the Post Office closed! I worked at the Post Office for 23 years and never once did they shut down, not for weather or even Christmas. The people who work at the Post Office and those that deliver our mail should be thanked for all of their dedication through all kinds of weather and other obstacles. Am I prejudiced? Perhaps, as in my travels to other countries, I have found that we have the best mail delivery in the WORLD. We do take them for granted and it would be nice if they received some recognition for all their successful efforts. How about sending a card to your local Post Office or even the large distribution center which handles billions of pieces of our mail?

Here in Wales, we got at least 2 feet and with the constant winds, the drifts were very high. The wind forms a mini whirlwind of snow right around my house. The lake on one side of my home causes the circular wind pattern and drops more snow right on my doorstep and in front of the garage than it does on the side towards the lake. I need to keep shoveling my stoop because if I don’t, the snow gets so deep that I cannot open my storm door to get out of my home. With this blizzard, no matter how many times I shoveled, Mother Nature would put it right back. Two young men who do my plowing and shoveling (it is hard to find someone to shovel and they do both for me) came Tuesday night to plow me out and I teased one of them by asking: “Are you masquerading as a snow man?” His eyebrows and eyelashes were covered with snow and frozen as well as most of his face. He was so cold from the winter that he had to get into his truck because his nose was so cold. I don’t think he has this problem in very many other places because the wind is not so fierce.

The next morning I got up and, of course, the snow on my stoop was deep. It is a good thing I am not heavy as I could only push the snow just so far with the door. I got an opening so I could get one arm and my shovel out the door so I could maneuver the shovel and my body to at least push the snow outside one layer at a time. Then I had a larger opening so I could squeeze through to get my body out there. The snow was as high as my railings so it was difficult to pick up the shovel of show high enough to deposit it. I finally just pushed it all onto my sidewalk which was already high but I had to get a clear space to open the door or I would be a prisoner waiting for someone from the outside world to come and rescue me. I called the young men and asked if they could come back again and let me out. I have never had to call them two days in a row. I could not even get to my garage to use my car although it too was blocked by snow. My main focus in winter is to keep a path from my door, my stoop, the sidewalk and across the driveway to my garage free of snow and ice so I won’t slip and fall.

The next day, my son Steve came to clean up more. I used the scraper to lift the frozen snow and then I could push it over to a clear spot that the men had made for me with the plow. There is no way I could shovel as it just was too high for me. Steve shoveled a path in the front of the house to the birdfeeders for me but the other path to the other birdfeeders on the other side of the house was just too hardened and high to create a path. I guess they will just have to come to the front of my house.

This storm has reminded me of how much I dislike the problems that are caused for me by the snow. I feel trapped normally with severe storms but this time, the snow made me feel elderly and unable to take care of myself. I do not like that feeling as I am what I call Cussedly Independent. I have lived alone for the last 25 years and that scenario increased my need to depend on myself. I think I was given an opportunity to become aware again of living here on the lake in the winter. I think it is time that I consider being a snowbird. Do you know anyone who is a snowbird that I could speak to? I would love to get tips from someone who does that. Do you know any place in a warm climate, preferably with a warm ocean that has places for rent in the winter? If you do, I would love to know about it. You can contact me or tell them so they can contact me.

I am calling this the Winds of Change as the wind is helping me make changes again to my life. We all get opportunities of change by listening to what Mother Nature tells us in so many ways. Change is difficult for the human, me included. I prefer to be content with what I have or where I am but to change residences when you are alone is much more difficult. It means the UNKNOWN. How we humans dislike the unknown, we like to be in charge, to be in control. I know I like to feel in control and I am chuckling now because change is a very necessary phase of life. Change means growth in areas where we were oh so comfortable. The world cannot change unless we do, so it is important to embrace change. My new mantra is: “Embrace the Winds of Change”.

Have you heard of Nellie Bly? I had heard the name before but this video refreshed and added info about her. She is quite a model for us ladies who wish to walk our own path and be ”Cussedly Independent”. How can I complain about one storm after having such a role model? I am so grateful for all the females who came before me so that I am allowed to be independent.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/events070125/

This is one being experiencing an opportunity to change her entire life. What courage it must take to “see” what you have never seen before. Another female role model and kudos to her hubby who loved her no matter what.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/donated-eyewear-allows-blind-mother-see-newborn-baby/

Here are a couple of other female warriors and kudos for her hubby’s support until she was ready to take the plunge.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/two-elderly-ladies-flying-first-time-watch-support/

I am so glad that we are still being shown the police and all the good that they do even when they do not get recognition for it. Notice the husband supporting his mentally frail wife. There is so much good in the world and I, for one, would love to see more media coverage about our average people and how much they help.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/cops-buy-back-pawned-wedding-ring-elderly-cornwall-couple/

Tomorrow, Jan 31St, I will be reading from my book, The Wounded Chalice, at the Central Branch of the Springfield City Library at 220 State St, Springfield, Ma. I am participating in the “7 minutes’ Literary Arts Spotlight. There are 10 authors who will each read for 7 minutes from their creation. I wanted to let you know about it. It will be from 1-3pm tomorrow afternoon.

I guess Spring is on my mind as I am hoping it comes soon(after all, tomorrow is Feb 1st). I wanted to leave you with a chuckle and it reminded me of Spring

You will chuckle as you read this ….. Because as stupid as it may sound,
this is exactly what we do!

GOD to ST. FRANCIS:
Frank, … You know all about gardens and nature. What in
the world is going on down there on the planet? What
happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff
I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden
plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand
drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the
long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and
flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of
colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.

St. FRANCIS:
It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites.
They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to
great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD:
Grass? But, it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t
attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod
worms. It’s sensitive to temperatures. Do these
Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS:
Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it
and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing
grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD:
The spring rains and warm weather probably make
grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.
ST. FRANCIS:
Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they
cut it-sometimes twice a week.

GOD:
They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS:
Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD:
They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS:
No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD:
Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so
it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off
and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS:
Yes, Sir.

GOD:
These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer
when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat.
That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS:
You aren’t going to believe this, Lord. When the grass
stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay
more money to water it, so they can continue to mow
it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD:
What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees.
That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself.
The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty
and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to
the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture
in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It’s a
natural cycle of life.

ST. FRANCIS:
You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have
drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they
rake them into great piles and pay to have them
hauled away.

GOD:
No!? What do they do to protect the shrub and
tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS:
After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy
something which they call mulch. They haul it home
and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD:
And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS:
They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD:
Enough! I don’t want to think about this anymore.
St. Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie
have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE:
‘Dumb and Dumber’, Lord. It’s a story about….

GOD:
Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story
from St. Francis.

—
Love and Light

Mary Grace

http://www.IAmMaryGrace.com
http://www.TheWoundedChalice.com

GRATITUDE = GReat ATTITUDE

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Beloved,

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of people, food, things or places that had you feeling GREAT FULL. The holidays are a season that brings up all sorts of emotional opportunities to expand your capacity to feel content with what you have or to inspire you to grow even more into compassion and acceptance for yourself and others. The season is also the catalyst to bring up challenges in the way we handle ours’ and others’ emotional and physical reactions to each other.

My Thanksgiving actually began Wednesday night when my sub pump alarm went off at 10pm. It is a system that tells me that water is coming into my crawl space where I have my electric water heater and all the tanks and electrical needs for my well. My first reaction was “who to call at this time of night?” I played with the possible solutions to this problem. I thought maybe if I reboot it, turn the power off, wait a few minutes and then turn it back on, perhaps it would start pumping again. Remember we had three and a half inches of rain after a long dry spell. I went outside with a flashlight and my boots on to check if it was possibly actually running but not stopping? No, no water was coming out either at the side of the house or down into the grass.

I finally decided to call the company who had installed it. The telephone operator took my message and said she would pass it on. A half an hour later, the head boss himself called me. He suggested a few things I might try but nothing worked. I am chuckling now as I recall how he tried to describe which screws to take off and how to lift the cover and then to jiggle the “float”. He finally decided I would need a new pump and he would come over Thanksgiving morning to install it for me. That is quite a caring boss who would interrupt his holiday to take care of a customer instead of calling one of his employees to do it. The concern was that the water might continue to come in during the night until he could arrive the next day.

It took me longer to fall asleep that night but somehow, “emergencies” send me into a different zone. Out of the emotional zone into my brain zone where my brain functions better, more logically rather than running around like a train in my head. I credit that to the daily meditating I do that increases the trust I have in my Creator and his angels, which includes his human angels.

AT 6:45 am, I got a call from my older son that he was quite ill so he would not be able to prepare the meal for us. He was so sick that he went to bed. My first thought was that I would now have a whole day I could devote to loving myself and treating myself to whatever I felt like doing. An hour later his wife called, and said she would be doing the cooking so all was on again.

I checked the crawl space, hoping not to find it full of water, but to my amazement the wetness had only increased slightly. Then the owner of the subpump company came over at 10am to change the pump. It is a very small crawl space and he was a big man, it was the first time he had been in my home. His employees who installed it and the one that came a year ago to replace the pump were familiar with the small space there is to work in. He was not dissuaded though and did his best to step down into the crawl space, bend over and let me close the door over him (as he could not reach it) so then he could at least have a little room to move around in. 15 minutes later, he asked me to open the door and he handed me the “NEW” pump. I looked at him quizzically and he said he tried one more thing before he dismantled the pump. Remember I said we had had a long dry spell? Well, it appears that a large air bubble had formed and was preventing the water from being pumped out. He was able to allow the water to drain and the air bubble went away. Hurrah! I thanked my angels and my human angel who was willing to come all this way to help me.

I had started writing to you before he came so I continued after he left. I was just about ready to send the newsletter to you and suddenly it was gone. I had decided to combine my newsletter and my Thanksgiving wishes in one but I had not “saved it” and I could not find a copy of it anywhere. I did not have time to write it again and I so wanted to send my wishes so I sent it without much personal writing from me.

Because of the illness at my son’s house, the meal was delayed an hour which was fine with me but my younger son needed to be at work for 1:30pm so he was not able to join in the festivities. I brought him a plate at his work so at least he was able to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal. With the other changes, I was to pick up my grandson to bring him for the celebration. I needed gas so I stopped at a gas station and when I got out of the car, I clicked to open my trunk and shut the door. Guess what? I had clicked the locks and now I was locked out of my car. I stood there and zoned out again. I could not call my grandson to tell him I would be late because I had not memorized his phone number. My phone. and AAA card was in my car. What now?

I remembered that three years ago when I bought my car, I had put a spare key under the trunk. I used to have it in the wheel well in my other cars but this car did not have the metal available for the magnet to stick to. I got down on my knees to look under the trunk but could not find the black box with all the black under there. A young man pumping gas in his car right in front of me, told me to hang on and he would help as soon as he was done pumping. He came over but could not locate it and he even checked all around my car. He finally said to call AAA and I thanked him for his help but still proceeded to check out under the trunk. I remembered clearly that I had put one there so it had to be there. In just a minute, I was able to locate it and the young man was relieved and so was I.

Off I went to get my grandson and I was only about 5 minutes later than I planned on. With all of these interferences happening, I was amazed at myself. It was like I was an observer of myself as I logically went through all the steps to a solution without the usual upset, the mind racing and not being present and logical. I did not feel rushed or guilty or any of the other emotions I used to feel when all these normal upsets would occur.

We ARE human and when a group of us decide to come together to share anything, there are always miscommunications, events that occur that delay or hinder our plans, unexpected occurrences with our modes of transportations and a jillion of other things that happen. Have you ever attended an event, party or celebration where at least one of the people attending did not have something unexpected happen? We are perfectly imperfect. That is the beauty and pleasures of being human. We don’t know what is just around the corner and the surprises that occur thrill us or at least give us a chance to be who we are without preparation. That is how “heroes” are made….by the unexpected and our reaction to it. It certainly makes life exciting if we do not blame either ourselves or anyone else for the events that present themselves.

My lake at this time, is very different to look at. Since the winds have stopped, the water developed a slight layer of ice on it during the night’s cold weather. When I got up this morning, there were no waves only a calmness with most of the lake frozen. There were still patches of water here and there but it certainly looked different and felt different. As the day progressed, the sun was out so almost half of the lake thawed out (it was only a slight film of ice). No ducks to be seen though, not even Oscar, the sea gull. I have NOT put my kayak away though, I never know what Mother Nature has in mind until it is solidly frozen. Then and only then, does my kayak get put away for the winter.

This is an article that holds so much inspiring truth that will open your eyes to WHO you are.

http://spiritlibrary.com/lightworker/the-choice-choice-in-a-multidimensional-world?utm_source=Spirit+Library+Updates&utm_campaign=2416fa57b9-Daily_Update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ef6a5211f4-2416fa57b9-120804410

Do you remember when I sent you information about the 21 days of meditation with Oprah and Deepak Choprah? Well, it is almost done and if I don’t get to listen to it that day, there is no replay. But they sent me this one, day 11, that is open and you can listen to it. It is only 20 minutes long with a talk from Oprah and one from Deepak and 10 minutes of meditation. I have so enjoyed these short meditation and perhaps, just perhaps, they are why I was able to smoothly attend to the little disturbances that occurred on Thanksgiving. Give it a try.

http://www.chopra.com/ccl-meditation/21dmc/free-stream-mr-day11.html?utm_source=nurture&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nurture9

This is a fitting ending for the celebration of Thanksgiving. Ask and ;you shall receive. Believe (no matter how long it takes) and miracle happens. This is one of those miracles.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/inspired/19yo-gets-first-thanksgiving-with-real-family.html

G.O.D. stands for: GRATITUDE OPENING DOORS

In appreciation of you, I offer you my gratitude for being YOU.

—
Love and Light

Mary Grace

http://www.IAmMaryGrace.com
http://www.TheWoundedChalice.com
http://www.waleson5.com/marygrace.html

WHO AM I?

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Beloved,

At this time of the year, there is much to put away, to put in
hibernation for its rebirth in the Spring. I have still not put
my kayak away and it is at this season that I deeply appreciate
the opportunity to see my surroundings in a different way. Most
of the boats are now removed or dry docked and most of the docks
have been pulled up onto dry land. There are still a few stragglers
like me who won’t give up until the lake starts to freeze.

I have not seen a boat out in the past two weeks and I myself have
not gone out in the water much as this season is also windy and I
do not want to battle the wind with the water being so cold. I went
out in the kayak last week but half way around the lake, the wind
was making the water rough ahead of me so I turned around and came
back while I still had some peaceful water. I went out this morning
even though it was not sunny but the water was like glass. I put on a
thin waterproof pants and jacket but as I sat down in the kayak, I
jumped up as the seat was so CCCCold. I came back in the house and
put on some sweats under the waterproof coverings and then went
back in the kayak.

We have a dam at one end of the lake and I have lived here for 16
years but have never seen how they raise and lower the “boards” so
that they lower the water level in the fall and raise it in the
spring. It was quite interesting and I discovered they can only do
it one board a day or week. You should have seen the rush of water
over the dam when they removed only one board. If they did two at a
time, the rush of the water would be too great and people would
get flooded out.

My older son bought a bass fishing boat and tomorrow he is bringing
it here so I can have a ride in it. I am really looking forward
to seeing my lake from above as in the kayak, I sit down into it so
it is a different feel and perspective.

From the kayak, I see many houses now peeking out at me as the trees
have let go of their leaves. The seasons not only change how the
water itself behaves but also what the habitation around the lake
looks like.

Happy Halloween!!!

It is fascinating to see how people change their appearance. It
is the only time you get to look funny or different and it is
accepted by society. Who would you like to be for a day or night?
I don’t know if it is my age or not, but I am quite happy to be me.
It is so difficult to pretend to be other than who I am yet when I
was younger it was fun to try to fool others. Maybe I just did not
know who I was then but now I do.

Once in a great while something as beautiful as this
comes along and must be sent.
Enjoy!!

Acapella Hymn, “WHO AM I”?
ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!! a MUST listen/watch
….

This is beautiful.
The music and photos are wonderful…

No musical instruments, except those given by God.

Click here: YouTube – Who Am I

http://www.youtube.com/embed/MBDwpLLXMTA

This message from God says it better that I ever could.

http://www.heavenletters.org/this-is-the-world-for-you.html

Love and Light

Mary Grace
www.IAmMaryGrace.com
www.TheWoundedChalice.com
http://www.waleson5.com/marygrace.html

PO Box 403
Wales, MA 01081, USA
413-245-3977