'Poison Ivy...Not all it's cracked up to be"

A friend of mine told me the best story. I wish I could video tape her and just stick her on here telling it. It would be way better. She tells stories with her hands and her eyes and every once in a while she shares something that seems so absurd I laugh out loud.

When my friend,Kate (we're going to call her that), was a preteen she and her childhood friend decided they had had enough school for their liking. It was the end of the year, they were bored, they wanted an escape from school. Now most normal, not so creative, kids would have faked the flu. Not Kate, Kate takes a more drastic approach. Her plan.....Her approach.....POSION IVY.

Time to write

It has been a very long time since I have written. A very long time. I have been waiting to write. I have been waiting to have something to write. I have been putting other topics to the side until I could conquer the one topic I needed to write about.


It's time to write.

You may remember the special blog I wrote imploring you to pray for my dear friend, Lynne, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. So many of you responded and so many of you prayed and I never wrote another thing.

In Early December of 2008, Lynne's conditioned worsened. The chemotherapy was not working.

Really

About an hour ago I felt very inspired to write about who God is.

You see, this morning I had the privilege of attending an event where one of my dearest friends was the speaker. She carried a message that was simple yet extremely profound - God is real, the only reality. Her message was powerful to me for two reasons. 1) I know her and I have seen God in her life. I have seen his truth in her and 2) I love her deeply and was again amazed by the people God had filled my life with. As she spoke of God's reality I found myself creating a list of all the good things in my life and then one by one acknowledging they are only from Him. He is the only truth, the only goodness, the only thing real. It was an exercise all about Him and it was wonderful. Plus, I love moments like that where you feel your faith, really experience it, where it wells up in your throat and you feel as though you truly could say to a mountain, "move," and it would move because your God is so big, so huge, and so yours.

Five Minutes

My children know how to do life way better than I do. They attack it with a vengeance. They cry when they are sad. They laugh when they get something stuck in their teeth. They ask for what they want without pretense or apology. I like my children so very much.

Recently my 4-year-old son imparted wisdom to me.

It was almost bed time when his sister was found guilty of something or other and sentenced early to bed. When my son realized he was still free while his older sister was not it was as if the heaven's opened up and shown upon him. He was overcome with awe.

Being adults my husband and I reminded him that it was only five minutes and he was soon to follow his sister. He didn't care. He had five minutes.

If you have ever prayed

This post promises to be unusual. A plea more than a post, unpolished.

A dear friend of mine has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It is advanced. I feel odd even writing that. Like it is pretend, that I am making it up. It was only a few months ago that I typed the same words to you about my dear step mom.

God is mysterious.

My friend is more than a friend. Her name is Lynne Ott. She is our Pastor's wife. She is the mother of four boys, now men, but still boys when it comes to their mom. She is a grandma. She is one of the most naturally gifted people I know. She is creative, witty, and beautiful. She could have done anything she wanted to do with her life, would have been a success in any field but she chose to give her life to a rag tag group of grumpy believers in rural Pennsylvania as her flock, as her own.