Green Mountain Time (revisited)

So that was the title of my very first blog post which was just a little over three years ago.  It came back to mind today as I made my way up to Green Mountain for a walk with Mandy.  I took the picture below with my cell phone as we were winding down Big Cove Road... it was probably a little dangerous, but it just cracked me up when I looked over and saw her like that... 

Anyways, what a perfectly gorgeous day for a walk on the mountain today!!  I haven't been up there in quite some time and it was calling to me...  :)  The leaves are already beginning to turn and I had to promise myself to get back up there soon and take some pictures.  I'm doing some redecorating in my bedroom and I think a nice little 'collage' of Green Mountain pictures in the fall would be perfect in there. 

When I went back to my very first Green Mountain post - a long story about a wayward grasshopper - I was reminded of how troublesome life gets sometimes.  Last night, with our Club Xtreme class, we just happened to be talking about "Going through 'tuff' times."  (Mrs. Jimmy wrote this lesson and likes to spell things like that - ha!)  We read:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

and

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me." (John 14:1) 

We talked about the fact that trouble is a part of life here on earth.  You really can't escape it.  There was certainly trouble in my life then, and there is still trouble in my life now.  Seasons of life change, time marches on, troubles change in shape and form...  but we still have to deal with them.  So what to do?  Well, if I'm to believe what I so confidently told the kids last night, then:

#1 -- I have to BELIEVE Jesus when He says that He has overcome the world (and its troubles!)

#2 -- I have to TRUST in God, TRUST also in Jesus.

So I walked the mountain trail and talked a bit with Jesus about the troubles of life, and I believe that I found a little more trust to let Him work things out and a little more of the peace that He promises will come when I'm willing to let Him do that.  And somewhere along the way this old hym started playing in my mind:

So let us have a little talk with Jesus
Let us tell Him all about our troubles
He will hear our faintest cry
And He will answer by and by
And when you feel a little prayerful yearning
As your heart unto heaven is turning
You will find a little talk with Jesus makes it right.

And now any of you who are reading this and know the song, it'll be stuck in your head the rest of the day like it is in mine.  :)   But maybe that's not such a bad thing....

Sometimes you hear or read something so many times that the significance of it escapes you.  That has happened to me with this prayer that is so popular.  But it was quoted in a book I was reading this morning and today, instead of speeding past it with a "Yeah, I've heard that before, blah, blah...," it landed on my heart with a noticable thud and has stayed with me all day.  I've always liked this prayer, but today I suddenly realized how much I struggle with this prayer! I don't do it well at all and I don't think that I had realized that so clearly until today and it seriously challenges me.  I don't really think I can get into on here all of the different places in my life that this prayer touches and needs to be applied, but I just wanted to "put it out there" and hope that if you come across this, maybe you'll spend a minute with it and let it fall fresh on your heart today, too.

What I'm listening to...

It's been interesting over the last month since Mackenzie left for school to hear about all of her new experiences.  One of the things that she is enjoying the most is the opportunity to visit different churches and various gatherings for times of singing, praise, and worship.  I've heard about everything from Granny White Pike Church of Christ to Ethos and Sanctuary.  There are dorm devos, chapel services, spontaneous discussions with kids from all sorts of faith backgrounds sitting out on the lawn late at night, and nightly times of reading and prayer with her roommate.  Each experience brings its own unique style and each is bringing valuable new insights.  And the more I hear, the more I wish I could go back to college and experience it for myself! :) 

Yes, I admit, I am just a little bit envious.

Can I tell you the most creative thing I've heard?  ...and I just love this.  A week or two ago she told me that she had gone to a dinner for the kids that are in the Music Department and as they prepared to eat, they were asked to all join together and sing the Doxology as their prayer before the meal.  (Mackenzie said it was just beautiful!)  Maybe it doesn't have the same effect on you, but that runs chills up and down my spine as I think about how special that must have been.

So my way of connecting just a little bit to all of this has been to start listening to some 'podcasts' of sermons from the Ethos Church that Mackenzie has been attending on Sunday nights.  I've listened to 3 in the past few days and each one has been powerful, challenging and uplifting.  So I thought I'd share a link to my current favorite called "GO: Messy Church."    Those of you who know me well will probably laugh knowingly at why I like this just based on the title.  ha.   I hope, if you're reading, that you will take the opportunity to listen and be encouraged as I have been.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ethos-church/id285287602

I Remember...

Ten years ago I was at home in New Bedford, Massachusetts when the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon happened.  Jack was at work at Measurement Computing about 30 minutes away and Mackenzie was in 3rd Grade at E.C. Brooks Elementary School just down the street.  Anna was at preschool and you know what's bothering me at the moment, is that I can't for the life of me remember the name of the preschool!  Weird the things that you forget...


But I do remember turning on the TV that morning to check the news and tuning in just minutes before the 2nd plane hit the second World Trade Center Tower.  The news commentators were obviously in shock themselves and still trying to figure out what had happened to the first tower as the second plane hit.  At that point it seemed to become all too obvious that what was happening wasn't an accident.  I remember watching footage of the 2nd plane over and over...  it was hard to wrap my mind around it all. 

As the realty of what was happening began to sink in, I distinctly remember calling my parents to see if they had heard...  it seemed to me that if they had, they would have already called me.  My dad answered the phone and I knew right away that they hadn't seen the news yet.  I don't think I even told my dad what was going on, I just remember telling him to go turn on the TV and then asking him to call me back after while...


The feeling of it all was overwhelming...  shock, sadness, disbelief, confusion...  but I remember the fear and anxiety the most.  It didn't take long for the news to start reporting that the 2 planes that had hit the towers were from flights that had originated at Logan Airport in Boston.  How many times had I flown in and out of that airport?!?  It was only a little over an hour away from my house...  how could terrorists have gathered and boarded planes to kill thousands of people just miles from where I was living?  And then another plane went down in Pennsylvania...  and then the Pentagon.  It was just horrifying.  And I was scared. 


I remember wanting Jack to come home and wanting to go get the girls from school.  I talked to Jack about it...  but not wanting to upset the girls and get too overwhelmed about it all, we decided to leave the girls at school...   and he stayed at work.  And I watched TV...  all morning until I had to get Anna.  I finally picked her up at preschool and then Mackenzie came home later on the bus.  Jack came home a bit earlier than usual from work. 


And it was quiet.  Eerily quiet.  The president had ordered, by then, that all flights were to be grounded - everywhere.  There were no planes in the sky.  That's what I remember.  There were always planes flying overhead where I lived...  now it was just quiet.  And everyone was home with their families and afraid to go out. 


But we decided to go out - to go over to our good friends' house, Mike and Roseanne Bently.  I think we just needed to be with people we loved and felt safe with...  try and process the whole thing and make sense out of it.  And pray.  We went to their house and had dinner and prayed for everthing that was happening... for the people who had died and their families, for those we still hoped would be rescued, (though in the end there were not nearly as many of them as we had hoped for), and for our own safety and protection because honestly, the uncertainty of what might happen next was just really scary.


So that was Tuesday night.  I think, but I'm not sure, that school was cancelled the next day and I do remember that church was cancelled on Wednesday night.  At that point most people were being encouraged to stay close to home because no one was quite sure what was going to happen next, especially since these attacks had happened so close to home. 


It's amazing to me now to think that it has been ten years since all of that happened.  I was watching the Today show on Friday morning and saw an interview with a few kids who had lost one of their parents in the attack.  It showed interviews and pictures of them 10 years ago and then they had them on the show talking about how they are doing now and how they had been affected.  And even though they all seemed to be healing and doing well in their lives, it was hard to watch and think about what they have been through. 


But it was good for me to take some time to remember...  that day, all the feelings, the need to be with the poeple you love and hold them close, to draw near to God and trust that in the midst of all the chaos, He really is still in control.  It seemed like, then, that we would never forget...  that time would just be frozen in that moment, in those events.  That the sense of unity that we felt with friends, with family, as a nation would never be broken again.  But time has a way of moving us on and away from the urgency of those emotions.  And we get busy with the things of 'now' once again...  which I guess has to and needs to happen.


But I just wanted to take a few minutes today to thank God for the blessings, the peace, and the protection on my life and those that I love and pray, once again, for those who have had to deal with so much loss because of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

Quick Update on Kids...

First of all, Mackenzie is coming home tonight and I'm SO happy!  I really have missed her and it will be nice to have her back home, sleeping in her bed where she should be. ;-)   Of course, when I have to send her back on Monday, it'll probably be even worse than when we left her up there 3 weeks ago...  but I digress.  This is supposed to be a happy update. :)

Mackenzie is doing great with the transition to college life.  She loves her classes (well, except College Algebra, which is apparently the 'most boring class on the planet').  She's making new friends and definitely enjoying the social life.  Apparently almost every night there seems to be someone on campus offering free food, so she's certainly not going hungry.  She tells me that every time someone finds out that she bought the biggest meal plan they laugh at her. :)   She tried to tell us that she didn't think she would need it, but we didn't want her to go hungry...  haha.  Guess we'll know for next semester!  She has visited several churches and various worship and devotional times with Ethos and Sanctuary that she absolutely has fallen in love with.  It's exciting to hear about her experiences there and what she is learning about God.   And let's see...  oh!  I found out yesterday that she got a job! She will be a 'party hostess' for Bounce U.   It's a kid's party place with indoor inflatables.  It should be lots of fun to hear stories about how that goes.  :)   So that's Mackenzie's story...

Anna is settling in to the high school and, as she said the other day, would just love it if she didn't have to go to english or science...  not enjoying those classes too much.  English is just hard and science, well, she's not enjoying her teacher there so much.  Her schedule is pretty crazy with all the gymnastics at night, so we find ourselves being 'creative' with all the free moments in between school and gym and then doing our best at night to not be up late ALL the time finishing homework.  It's a work in progress....  :)     But continuing my theme from the last post with 'funny stories about Anna,' I have to share this.  They have been doing Presidential Physical Fitness testing in PE this week.  I guess they test them at the beginning of the year and then at the end to see how they improve.  Well Anna has, every year, gotten the highest award in this because of all the gymnastics she does...  she usually even outperforms most of the boys! ;-)  
So on Wednesday, they were doing push-ups.  They had to do 21...  so she reeled off 25.  The PE Teacher came over to her and started raving about how perfect her push-ups were - and I guess went on about that for quite a while, telling her that "I wish everyone could do push-ups like that - those are the most beautiful push-ups I've ever seen - I wish I had a videocamera and could tape those, etc."   Anna was just laughing at how excited she was and was also embarassed by all the attention at the same time...      But what was even more funny, was that she saw her friend Hannah later in the day and Hannah told her, "Oh yeah, the PE Teacher was going on and on about your push-ups!  Talking about this gymnast who could do such beautiful pushups!  And I knew it was you.  :)   Then yesterday, she saw a boy in the hall that she knew a long time ago and one of the first things he said to her was, "Oh yeah, the PE Teacher was talking about you and how good your push-ups are!"    So I have concluded that we may have a fight on our hands with english and science...  but no one can mess with my girl when it comes to perfect push-ups!!!  :) 

And that's the latest stories from here...  looking forward now to a fun, and hopefully restful, holiday weekend - woohoo! :)