This time of year is so special: trees budding, birds singing, geese nesting, the weather being completely unpredictable, and the hope of what is yet to come seeming bright and as glorious as those days when the sun actually shines in all it's glories onto my hopeful upturned face.

Since our children are grown and it is just the two of us, not neglecting the dogs but they are a fairly recent addition, we thought we would make a go of living in a spot we always wanted to be. So we moved, had garage sales like crazy and found a little spot to rent and work for awhile to take one day at a time and see how it went. It was a great place to live, very quiet, very diverse in both it's scenery as well as the local populace, yet there seemed to be something nagging at the back of our minds as we thought about my husband's aging mother struggling with various things. Though we visited when we could, when we would leave she would cry, although she is one of those souls that can do that rather easily, and then on the phone cry when we said goodbye, cry when she spoke about wishing we lived closer, cry when she would reminisce about how funny and silly we are... anyway, you get the picture.  So we sold out what we had there and moved back.

Due to the sequences of events we ended up building a little cabin right behind her place in an effort to try to be as helpful as we could, hopefully bring some peace and laughter into her life and try to see those tears dry up.

I'm not going to say it has been easy, but I will say that it has been good. Mom has a degenerative back disease, so she is in a quite a bit of pain and hasn't had the most nutritous diet; and now that there are others cooking for her she mentioned to one of her health people that she's eating more nutritous now than she can ever remember. She has cut back on some pharma that were supposed to help her sleep and help her wake up, and is now feeling more well than I have seen her in several years.

We are still working, day by day, to bring more hope, more peace, more joy into all the lives all around us; and I find it rather amazing how when you work to help others that work turns around and gives you an extra shot of life right in your very own arm.  I suppose I could sum up  this life exercise by saying:
"Making peace gives peace and brings peace back to you."

Lore