Unimaginable blessings

Lately, the beautiful weather here in Minnesota has been just perfect. Warm, sunny days with low humidity, and every few days a deep, soaking rainshower comes along to water the gardens and lawns. This is what we dream of in deep winter when we shiver, fingers icy as we start our cold cars.

But I don't want to talk too much about weather....

I was sitting in our patio the other day, enjoying the coolness of the morning sun, eating a really juicy white peach, and thinking about unimaginable blessings. Unimaginable... what does that look like? Each of us has our own idea of unimaginable; mine would look different from yours.

For example, eating that deliciously fragrant peach is an unimaginable blessing to a starving child. They have no idea a fruit like that even exists, and eating one would be outside the realm of their possibilities.

I am surrounded by unimaginable blessings. If you're reading this, most likely, you are too. Open your eyes to see these inconceivable things; imagine being brought here from a cardboard shack in some third world slum and being inundated by this wealth.

We may not think we're wealthy in material ways -- after all the economy stinks, and jobs are scarce. But we are wealthy... even the "poor" of this nation live in unimaginable wealth when you compare it to the poor of many other nations.

I watched a TV show that interviewed several people "living in poverty" in the US, and they also showed their homes/apartments. What struck me is that our definition of poverty is so skewed.... They had MANY material items; in fact, one man had a wall full of what looked like VCR movies and CDs.

For a family of five to qualify for free school lunches, the maximum wage earned has to be below something like $45,000 a year. Wow. We are a blessed nation indeed.

I'm sure in my sheltered life I haven't seen everything there is to see about living in poverty in the US. I know that. When you compare the poor here to the wealthy, the chasm is pretty deep... but not as deep as it could be.

This isn't an economic rant... I am just overwhelmed at the amount of good things that surrounds me, and want to be grateful for it, and never to take it for granted. I need to remind myself that I AM RICH, materially, and spiritually. Thank goodness I have a Creator to whom I can be thankful.

How are you surrounded by unimaginable blessings?

"Get rich quick; count your blessings." (Church sign here in St. Francis)

In need of a hug

I wrote something about a year ago that makes me tear up when I read it. My boys are getting bigger every day, and it's hard to measure their growth on a day-to-day basis. So it's nice to look back and see how far they've come in a year's time.

I wrote this in my "therapy journal" which helps me work things out by writing in the third person. I'll try not to mention which son I'm talking about, but you may be able to guess.
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"...#2 especially has been a pain in the rear end for a while now, and she was nearing the end of her rope with him.

There was a moment last Saturday when she dropped him off at choir -- when he dropped his bad boy attitude long enough to show her (unconsciously) that he was only a 12-year-old in need of a hug. He'd gotten out of the van and she put her arms out for a hug, and to her surprise, he came willingly, without the usual dramatics.

She felt something go klunk and looked down, breaking contact briefly. It was her cell phone, so she picked it up, and was surprised again when he continued the hug.

Afterward, his awkward "I'm twelve and I don't really need hugs" self came to the fore briefly, but before that, she saw the shy neediness in his eyes.

On the way home, she cried for that boy, the sensitive, affectionate, sweet one buried most of the time underneath the loud, raucous, obnoxious, attention-seeking show-off. That quiet boy needed his mom to give him the encouragement and affection he needs to survive and grow strong.

But if he doesn't get it, he covers up the hurt by being louder than everyone; the noise drowning out the cry of his psyche for the affirmation that he is worthy."

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This parenting thing will break your heart, but as someone once said, "If it doesn't break your heart it isn't love." Mistakes and bad decisions aside, I love my sons more than just about anything or anyone, and I have to cling to that when the bad times come. I KNOW I love them, and in my imperfect way, I want to do the best I can as a mom. With God's help, I can only keep trying.