Easter Memories, Thoughts and Revelations

Easter 1964

As I've been pondering Easter, I began to reflect on my thoughts and memories of Easter, going way back to my childhood and then coming forward to what it means to me now. 

Easter 65 or 66

Easter 1970

As a little girl I remember Easter; new dresses, hats, baskets, Easter eggs and candy hunting. However, in spite of all those, my primary memory is that of going to Easter Service at church. That memory is dominated by something we did each and every year of my childhood at that service. It was the "Flowering of the Cross" all the children at church would bring flowers from home to put into a cross made of a wood frame and chicken wire to hold the flowers. After we would put our flowers into the cross we were given a plant, pansies as I recall. I loved getting those plants! And some years we were lucky and would get two of them. I didn't know why we got them but I loved that we got them.

Easter 1970 - This was probably
my favorite Easter Dress ever.

As I got older, and I received Jesus as Lord of my life, Easter took on a whole new meaning. It was the celebration of Jesus rising from the dead. His death on the cross, and coming forth from the tomb that morning meant that I would have eternal life, all because of Him.

It then took on an even deeper meaning to me, as I understood what it meant to allow Jesus to become Lord of my life, not just Savior. The level of thanks for that Sacrifice and miraculous resurrection truly set the course of my life, and I am thankful for it. The emotional highs, and lows of my life have all been made better because of it.

Easter 2015

Over the years there were many Easter Egg Hunts, those I attended and those I did for my children and those I took them to attend, and now those I enjoy doing for my grandchildren. The joy of watching them hunt for eggs and delight as they find them brings a smile to my face and heart.

As I was reflecting on all these things, and pondering the service at church, it took me back to those days of placing the flowers on the cross at St. Marks.  I got it, it suddenly made sense. The flowers we placed were picked, and therefore, technically, they were dead, and on a cross. The plants we were given in their place were alive and growing, and they represented a new life, like the one that we receive when we make that trade of dying to our self and accept the gift that was given to us through the His death on the cross, and subsequent resurrection.

My heart for all those who read this is that they have a blessed Easter and remember that it isn't just about new dresses, hats, baskets, Easter eggs and candy hunting-- It's really about a man on a Cross taking upon Himself all the sins and sicknesses of mankind and offering us a new life.

Fun Memories and Personal 'Gilmore Girl Moments'

Thinking about the holiday today and my November thankfulness postings on Facebook took me back to a sweet and humorous memory. This particular memory dates to the holiday season of 1979, must have been about mid to late December, it was my senior year of high school and was after I had met Glenn. He was one of a couple guys I had dated that fall, but this event is what turned the tide to us moving toward a relationship.  

I was active in Rainbow Girls and all the activities of the local Rainbow, Jobies and DeMolay. One of the things that happened that year was a barn dance and box dinner. For those that don't know what that entails, well a Box Dinner means that you make a meal and wrap it up nice and pretty for it to be auctioned off... in theory no one knows which dinner was made by who. The dinners are auctioned and then whoever is the winning bidder eats with whoever made the dinner.

If I remember right mine had Fried Chicken, rolls, some sort of veggie and pumpkin pie... and yes of course my date knew which dinner was mine, and everyone knew their dates box so that they would bid on it, lol-- it was for a bunch of teens after all.  

Glenn's band, Easy Street was playing the dance, and he was there with his date, and I was there with a guy I'd been dating since the Halloween dance. It seems like there was a hayride before the auction and dance, it was a lot of fun, but the story really starts at the auction. The dinners were each auctioned, and the girls dates were of course the primary bidders with a little bidding by parents & chaperons that were present, to at least make it some sort of auction. For me it got a little interesting when my box came up for auction, my date bid, and then Glenn bid, and this went on for a bit... increments weren't huge. It was a bit awkward, though, since we hadn't really talked since the Halloween dance when I kind of got together with Eric, my date, so I was a bit surprised. So was Glenn's date, lol... oops.  

During the dance, I had snagged Glenn's favorite hat from him, yeh, I was bratty that way. Well after the dance a large group of us did what we always did after dances, we all went to pizza. I know, we hadn't eaten that long before, and as I said, we were teens and pizza was a post-dance ritual. I think Glenn must have still been at the barn tearing down equipment while we were at the pizza parlor. Since he didn't show up by the time I was leaving I returned his hat to his mom.

The next day the guys from the different DeMolay chapters in the area had all met in Medford for some football and after their game Glenn showed up at my house unexpectedly, looking for his hat- for some reason apparently his mom hadn't given it to him or told him that she had it. -- Thanks mom!

My silly teen flirtations and hat snatching were enough to encourage him that I was still a possibility for connecting with, so he started calling again, and he came over a few times over the next couple months, until he asked me to go steady on Valentines Day. From there the rest is history, and many happy memories to look back on.

I do enjoy looking back and seeing how the Lord orchestrated events to bring the two of us together. 

May your Holiday's be blessed with many events that will become happy and fun memories!

Blessings, 

Mary

Peaks, Valleys and Pits

We've all heard it, and most likely said it; Time Flies!  Yep, it's true, it really does. Life moves forward no matter what. I am sitting here at my desk, realizing that it's been over 6 months since I have written a blog. I'm surprised at this, I was sure I had written more recently, I know I sat down to do it, several times... but, for whatever reason, apparently I didn't actually write.

Life can take so many turns and bring us to so many places, those places contain peaks, valleys and deep pits. Peak's are the high points, joyous happy times. Valleys, well that's what I call the day to day, fairly smooth places in life. And pits... yeah that's the very low moments. Over the last 3 years I have seen them all. The last six months have been mostly valley time. But there have been some peaks of varying heights and also some pits of varying depths. 

Overall I can look back at the last six months and be thankful for so many blessings!

Some of the peaks -

• I have transitioned completely out of Pizza Hut - a job that was right for the time I had it and I am thankful that it was available to step into when I needed it.
• I am now blessed to be a foodserver at The Teapot on Wheels - Working with friends that are like family, overlooking the beauty of the Rogue River, and meeting new people.
• Spending time with friends, enjoying coffee or lunches occasionally. - Something that may seem to not be a big deal to some, but to me, (and others that have been in similar circumstances in life,) a very big deal.
• A trip to the coast - short and sweet, so very needed and enjoyed. Also a chance to enjoy the company of my youngest son on the way home, just talking.
• And more closure this spring with the completion of the placing of Glenn's headstone. Nothing short of the Lord's hand on that one! Bittersweet but good.
• Enjoying my family.

A few pits along the way-

Pits, potholes, what ever you want to call them-- they are still there. There aren't so many of them now, but spring seems to be when I have the bulk of them. Probably tied to the significant dates that I try not to think about most of the time. Some of them are small, potholes, bumpy moments in my day; the times when a memory crosses my emotions and creates a few tears. Then there are the pits; the days that I still miss Glenn so much it hurts, I miss our conversations, and our quiet times... yeah, those are the moments that suck!

Admittedly, there are a few of the potholes that are actually a bit humorous from a twisted perspective... like when I am dealing with a computer issue that was in Glenn's area of expertise, and I give his picture a dirty look and tell him off for just a little while. Pointless in the real world, but it makes me feel better.

A walk in valley - 

My life still feels a bit sideways, but mainly that comes from missing Glenn and his part in my daily life. In all reality, it is busy, but has settled down so much. With the job change has come a stable schedule, I can plan around. I know when I can set appointments, run errands or just have a coffee. All these are very good things to be able to do. This is most days in my life, just normal, some easy, some a little crazy, but basically normal, life is good.

I am confident in the knowledge that the valleys will continue to be the greatest part of my life, I know that I will be blessed with more peak times and the joy that comes with them, and at the same time I know that there will be more pits, but they will be less often and not as deep.

One thing I know, something that is reinforced through all that I have gone through, with God's help, I will continue to see life's glass as half full on the hard days, not half empty. God really is good all the time!  Each day I begin to understand more fully. Ecc 3:1 To everything there is a season, ​​A time for every purpose under heaven. 

Time does fly, enjoy the flight, there will be turbulence but we can look past the bumps of it and know that we are heading toward a future that will bring new and good things.

Here's to a life lived in Faith and Hope! Remember with the storms are the Rainbows of Promise.

Blessings!               

PrairieMouse

a.k.a. Mary