MEMORIES OF THE PAST ... HOPE FOR TOMORROW ... AND BEYOND

Yesterday was my birthday! Once you pass 65, it's more fun to have them. It's like the game Pick-Up-Stix; you see how many you can accumulate before everything else upsets your progress. Ha! Ha! 

Throughout the day I found my mind wandering back to memories of birthdays past with fondness and smiles. Of course, remembering things and events factually is not always easy. We attach so many perceptions and opinions to Life's happenings, they are often altered from reality. However, I do remember that, as a kid growing up, our family didn't do a lot to celebrate birthdays. The trend now is to have a party with friends -- at home or out -- so each child is made to feel special. That was too "way out there" for my parents. 

We were individually honored in different ways at home by those who loved us best. Mom would always fix our "favorite" food for dinner; I always asked for macaroni and cheese. This, of course, was long before Kraft came up with a way to box it. Mom made it best and it tasted gourmet to me! This was a simple dish of pasta but the made-from-scratch creamy cheese sauce dressed it up for a feast on my birthday. It is definitely one of my comfort foods! Our gifts were not extravagant since there wasn't money for that and were often something we needed. However, I do not remember ever disliking my birthday. There are some that might think these activities are too ordinary to be called a celebration; but then birthdays are really just an ordinary part of life. 


My most memorable year's birthday was when I turned 16. I was part of a very active church youth group at Bethel Temple in Red Bluff, California--a small church in a small town...but we were anything but small in heart! There were about 30-35 kids in the group and our status with each other was more like a VERY LARGE family of brothers and sisters. We relied on each other for socializing, advice-giving, accountability and instigating Life changes. We even fought with each other!


In this sub-congregation of the larger church there were several girls who were born the same year and four with birthdays in August and September. This particular summer of 1965 was a "summer to remember"! We, in our adolescent way, attempted to celebrate each always hoping to catch the birthday girl by surprise. Unfortunately, after the first time, the formula was set and surprise was just a wish. Each girl was "kidnapped" by the others, blindfolded and driven around for a while. Then we would end up at the same family's house (the only one that had a pool in our sphere of friends) out in the country between Red Bluff and Corning. We had a party then! It was always fun--even if it was predictable--and still feels very special!

Since then, I have had other extraordinary friends to celebrate with over the years. Each one remains very special to me even if not mentioned here. 

While I was in Liberty, Missouri, there was a group of five, who, over a span of several years, would go to lunch/dinner together or embark on a shopping safari to an antique shop or flea market just to celebrate each other. It was always a pleasurable time filled with hilarious laughter, stressful tears or both, but always accompanied by much conversation. Just to be with friends who accepted each other "as is" and enjoyed being together filled our hearts. The memories are poignant, remembering the adventures of traveling through life together with those women. But, I also know they are lifetime friends and wherever I am or whatever I need, they will give me assistance. This picture was our last escapade together in 2006 and, as Life still moves on, we do also. 

Since that time, I've moved three times and the Lord has always provided new friends. The new do not displace the former friends but add to the number of ladies I love. These women bring perspective and encouragement, they sharpen my Christian walk and give me joy where I am and need it most.

My remembrances have also given me a new realization: that birthdays are more purposeful in one's life than we perceive on the surface. Birthdays are not to be confused with the vanity of attempting to hold on to passing youth; they are occasions of joy to soak in that you have experienced Life and can "chalk up" another year in your favor. They designate a time to other people in your life they have been granted permission to express sentiments that may not always be accepted at other times. A birthday is a milestone in your life that places other events and situations on an emotional PAUSE to allow the spotlight to focus on you. It's not a selfish thing to have and enjoy your birthday. It's an ordinary part of Life which, by the way, is never easy. Every person needs to be celebrated in a manner that will uplift and encourage him/her even in the most difficult of times.

If you think about it, because of the joy experienced during former times of birthday celebration, you anticipate next year's revelries with hope. It's not obvious but the expectancy just lies there dormant waiting for you to revive it with the smallest spark of interest. Our lives, believe it or not, are built on hope. 

• We hope our children see many birthdays and grown up.
• We hope our health remains good and we celebrate another year.
• We hope to see friends again in the next year.
• We hope the crops come in again at harvest or we receive a pay increase at review time.
• We hope next year will be better than the past one.
• We hope our country gets more stable with the next election.
• You will be secure, because there is hope... Job 11:18
•  ..my body also will rest in hope, Acts 2:26
• Therefore, since we have ... faith, we have peace with God through ... Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access ... into ... grace ...  And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

So don't let the self-centered culture voices instill the lie that we have to remain young forever. Who wants life to be stunted in the selfishness of the immature anyway? Celebrate birthdays!-- with gusto whatever they look like! Celebrate YOU!-- as an experienced Life Participant! Celebrate others' birthdays!--so they can know joy and hope of the future! Celebrate your dreams and hopes and the future! 

Ladying for September 15, 2016:  Our hope can only be built on something which is not reliant on humanity. It must start with the Creator and His immense love for us. Then our foundation can only be built on Jesus' death and resurrection as there is nothing else solid.  "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 

A STORM IS COMING!

When you live on the Gulf Coast, the warning of a coming storm is fairly frequent...but it is just as often impotent. Being this close to the origin of landfall, things can change pretty quickly. However, the change can be for the bad as well as the good: the storm may miss you when you think it's coming right at you OR it can hit you when you thought it wouldn't and you're unprepared. Today, Hermine missed us. Thank you, Lord! It was a hot sunny day on the Emerald Coast.

For that I am thankful because my plate is still full otherwise. Two days ago I received my second regimen of chemotherapy and I'm now halfway through. The infusion session itself is rather boring in & of itself. The 4-hour period of sitting in a BIG recliner/rocker hooked up to an IV is broken only by several necessary trips to the bathroom and any activities I bring to amuse. I had thought ahead of time to include my lunch and a couple of drinks to refresh myself and my computer and I-phone to entertain me. The time passed fairly quickly and it seemed I was not any worse for the time I spent having poison poured into me.

And yet, my physical storm still rages around me. I am, however, comforted by the lyrics of the contemporary Christian song popular now:

"In the eye of the storm,

You remain in control.

In the middle of the war,

You guard my soul.

You alone are the anchor

When my sails are torn.

Your love surrounds me

In the eye of the storm."

The 'eye of the storm' is just a break or lull from the fury of the wind and rain that is still swirling just out of reach of me. Although there is peace in the 'eye', it is understood that the time is a short span and that it should be spent gathering supplies or finding a better place of refuge; a time to be proactive concerning safety.

My 'eye of the storm' is spent gathering energy by eating healthily and exercising when I can. There are unstressful activities I like to participate in: a lace knitting class I want to finish so my next infusion session can be spent knitting a gift; time praying for those God brings to mind or the ones who are praying for me; new books on Christian life; and I've started reading the Sue Grafton alphabet mystery books all over again. All the while my body is fighting! Fighting the cancer, fighting against bacteria in the air around me, fighting the poison itself that claims it will heal my body. But fighting takes energy so I must gather it where I can.

My husband, Dave, has learned to cook again. It has helped that we are eating simply now. There are no sauces or multiple ingredients to make an entree on our diet. We have grilled chicken breast, or chicken sausage or hamburgers cooked on the griddle. Sometimes we have oven-roasted sweet potato bites with coconut oil but more often microwave baked sweet potatoes accompanied by microwaved frozen veggies or a lettuce salad with veggies. Simple yet satisfying fare!

The doctor checked me over before this last infusion session and declared that I was much more fit than some 40 year old women who he had seen. I am thankful for the few months of healthy eating that has helped me get to this place!

We don't eat sweet desserts because sugar is cancer food! So, I stay as far from it as possible. I did, however, find a banana cream pie to try out this week (see link below for the recipe). This pie is sweetened with maple syrup (or honey) and is simply what the name says: bananas and cream.  It was wonderful! And, although my husband was begging for seconds, I was well satiated with a slim slice that gave me the sweetness I think is necessary after a savory meal. I find it's good to have some completeness in one's life!

Banana Cream Pie 

Our grandsons remain a constant source of joy and entertainment in my life. They are now old enough not to require as much care and attention as they needed in the past. This makes it easier to help relieve Kristi and Matt for their ministry as we came prepared to do here. We were able to get a couple of our old computers working with Windows 10 and the boys come into our living room to play games on them. It is quite a hoot to watch them! Life is always an adventure with the "Tribe of Ruckel".

And so, I gather energy from the lives and love around me, from the friends and family far and near
who support me through prayers and words of care, from my Lord who never leaves me. If you are reading this blog, you are part of my support system and I thank you from the bottom of my heart! While I gather myself in and hunker down with the Lord beside me, you help form the barrier around me that will give additional protection for me to go from the 'eye of the storm' through to the other side to become a survivor.

Be blessed because you are loved!

LADYING FOR SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

You may never know whether or not you impact someone's life--but don't let that keep you from trying.

MY LIFE IS IN CHAOS...BUT IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

What do you have going on in your life?  This is Tuesday and I’m thinking ahead to Thursday and calculating what has to be done before then.

“I made the mayonnaise and Ranch dressing but still need to marinate the chicken breasts, slice and freeze them. (My husband needs things to be easy when he makes his own meals.) The laundry is in process and the sheets can be changed on Monday.”

I’m having a third cancer tumor surgery Thursday morning, this time a beast lumpectomy, in the space of four years. Things are relative now: the easy tasks will keep me busy during recuperation while the more difficult ones need to be delegated or put off. It’s a situation that makes me feel out-of-control and that’s something I don’t like at all! I asked the surgeon for a month’s reprieve before the surgery was scheduled to bring a possible change to my situation. I wasn’t sure what could be done but I couldn’t just sit down and do nothing.

My first thoughts, of course, went to familial health. My family has a prolific history of heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes but no history of cancer. So, that made me think that there is something I’m doing that makes my body fertile for the tainted cells to multiply. Therefore, I begin to investigate the environment that cancer thrives in and what I could do to change that in my body. I’ve read books, watched infomercials and special reports and looked into eating plans so I can help my body become a nuclear wasteland for cancer—a place where it CANNOT grow.

My research indicated that cancer finds sugar to be particularly fertile for its growth as is an oxygen-deprived acidic ecosystem. WOW! That described me exactly. So now what? My plan of attack started with the Whole30 eating plan. This involves: eating lots of meat, of all kinds, which are grass-fed, without antibiotics and artificial hormones; eating lots of fresh (preferably truly organic) fruits & vegetables, of all kinds in all forms; adding in “good” fats of coconut oil, fresh avocados & oil, olive oil and clarified butter; using cage-free chicken eggs; abstaining from: (other) dairy, sugar, legumes, corn, & all grains; and avoiding all processed products (which include preservatives). I admit that it was difficult during the first 30 days of detoxing, but I’ve reaped so many benefits that I continue to cook and eat like this.

This food plan took care of the sugar but what about the acidic pH of my body system? A friend sent me an article that quoted Dr. Otto H. Warburg who won the Nobel Prize for discovering that cancer cannot live in oxygen-saturated surroundings. He suggested a drink that I consume every morning which has not only helped the tumor to shrink but has also helped my GERD situation. Your Body is Acidic

Is the cancer gone? I don’t know for sure but certainly hope it’s being strangled at this moment! I can say with certainty that the tumor has deceased in size during the past 59 days. My doctors are good men and know lots about health but couldn’t help me when I needed it.

As I was listening to Christian radio the other day, the song, “It Is Well With My Soul” came on. I am always moved by the words and decided to look up the backstory on it. I found this information on ¹www.sharefaith.com.

“Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago lawyer”¹ with everything the American Dream says you need: family, wealth and fame. He was also a devout Christian and even assisted Dwight L. Moody with some of his evangelistic crusades. Surely Horatio was blessed of God and given favor to do His will. Yet…he and his wife “suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.”¹ Then, in 1873, his wife and four daughters were on a ship to Europe that had a collision and all four girls were drowned; only his wife survived.

Where do you go from there? How can you get up and go again or have any hope for the future? Horatio Spafford went to his anchor in life and wrote the lyrics to the well-known hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul”¹:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain
It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.

God’s love is so powerful that just being in his presence brings healing: spiritually, emotionally and physically. So, to my Savior and Master I have run. It is He who created me, loves and cares for me, redeemed me and set me aside to be with him in Heaven; it is He who will heal me.

Ladying for June 28: My soul is well despite the chaos around me. I am immersed in his love and can only return it with everything I have. I pray you will find that too! 

LEGACY AND A FATHER'S DAY TRIBUTE

I've been following the family lines of the Cooks and the Walkers on Ancestry.com for about 6 years now. The Cook family has been traced back to 1194 with several Earls and Ladys and even a Mayor of London. The Walker clan goes back to 1500 with origins in the Iroquois Indian tribe and a governor of the first white colony in Maryland. Both families had heroes of the Revolutionary War, Civil War (both sides), WWI & WWII, the Korean War and the Viet Nam War; and, not to leave out the women, ladies who played major roles in the frontier life and the expansion of America. Some people might be impressed by this lineage because of the history and the romanticism that have been attached to it. We can look back at these ancestors and see what they did by overcoming obstacles and difficulties that seem insurmountable today. How could they have lived and done that?

So, this is what I see that these "great" people gave me and my family as a legacy: "Life is not easy but it brings opportunities. Capture every one you can and make yourself better."

This is life! We choose a spouse that "compliments" us and pulls the best from us; we have children that we can help to live a more full life than we lived as children; we instruct our grandchildren in the ways of God and love of country and to honor their parents. We buy low and sell high and become wise and economically strong; we become educated and educate others by reading and learning about God and life around us. When opportunities come for us to experience these things more, we seize them and let them transform us and fill us with the sights of life in a fuller dimension.  

But life is often hard and not as exciting as we think it should be, so it's easy to sit back and let it go by without a hint of what we've missed.

My life has been centered around the church and its activities since I was a child. Not only did we gather at the church building but we went to the homes of of other members--in essence we were families that comprised one BIG family. It was a very special time in my life. Now, there is a special page on Facebook to explore and reminiscence about growing up in our small town. There is so much talked about that I don't recognize as part of life in that town! A large part of life passed me by because I was so involved in the church. I had no idea I was missing out...

However, I can honestly say that I was doing what I wanted to do. My life is the Body of Christ and his Kingdom! Nothing else compares to serving it nor is as fulfilling for me. My dad was terrific at praying in public. His normal demeanor was that of humility and a little embarrassed to be in the public eye. But when he prayed, he was not conscious of those around him that could hear his words. He was talking with his friend, the world's creator. There was no stammering or searching for just the right word. He spoke with confidence in the relationship he shared with his Lord and poured his heart out so that others could relate to and desire to have the same thing. 

My mom was an intercessor and prayed for others with a fervency that (I believe) caused God to take notice. I can't tell you of the times that death was averted or difficulties were lessened not to mention occurrences of healing that happened because of her prayers.

So this is what I perceive as my parents' legacy: "Prayer is a reflection of your relationship with God and can make a difference in the life of others as well as yours."

When attending a house church back in the mid-80's, a prayer was spoken out publicly that reminded me of my dad. I asked the man who gave it if I could reproduce it to give to my dad and he gave me permission. At the time I was employed by Hallmark Cards in Kansas City and hired one of the artists to give me a graphic rendering of it. I send it to my dad (and gave a copy to the man who prayed it originally). After dad passed away, it was returned to me. I keep it now as my own prayer and the basis for the legacy I wish to leave behind.

LADYING FOR JUNE 20: Your life will be a legacy of something when you are gone. What will it be? As for me, this is the legacy I want to leave behind: "She knew Christ and make him known through her life."