Wednesday, December 3, 2008

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas


If you recall in my last post I mentioned how I try to put special efforts into not being judgemental of others. That effort was put to the test the other day. J.D. received a phone call to inform him that his ex-sister-in-law, Patsy had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital. To make a long story short there is no love lost between the two of us and when J.D. relayed the information of the phone call to me, I opened my mouth and a judgemental statement fell right out. As soon as it was spoken, in my mind I was groping wildly to grab those words and stuff them back into my mouth. Of course even if I hadn't said the words, having them in my mind was the same as speaking them. I have done quite a lot of soul searching, forgiveness seeking in the mean time and had some lengthy conversations with my Creator.
The word that J.D. received is that Patsy had a stroke that effected the right side of her brain. She has bleeding in her brain and at this time she is in a coma. I don't know if it is a medically induced coma or not. He has received several updates since the first call and the outcome doesn't look too encouraging for her. Please add Patsy and her family to your list of prayers.



I thought that I needed to do a little decorating here at Moodscapes. The sites and sounds of the season has such a magical effect on most people. It reminds us that this is a time of hope for the future. A time of healing for those that carry emotional hurt and pain. A time to recall the happiness that was experienced in the past with loved ones that have traveled on without us. A time for families to gather together and feel the warmth of love that is radiated from that circle of love. These are all gifts of the Christmas Season that can be treasured for a lifetime. You don't have to worry about any of them not fitting, one size fits all. No problem if two of the gifts are the same, all the more warmth and love to revel in. No worry about outgrowing or wearing out these gifts, they are constructed of extremely stretchy and tough material. There is as much joy in giving as there is in receiving these gifts.

May you be blessed abundantly with the true gifts of the season.

6 comments:

Lib said...

Hi Jo,
Love your new lookfor Christmas:o)
I'll ad Patsy to our prayer list!
I Love this time of yr. The BEst gift we can give others is ourselves and true Love!
Blessins',Lib

Mike Golch said...

Like the christmas look. prayers are being said. and a link will be created. even though you do not get along with some one does not mean that you cannot pray for them when they need id.you are a great person for asking for prayers.

Diane@Diane's Place said...

I'll pray for Patsy.

I like your new look for Christmas. I'm working on mine, too. :o)

Hope you have a blessed holiday season, Jo.

Love and hugs,

Diane

Mary said...

Jo,

I will add Patsy to my prayer list.

Don't be too hard on yourself. We all make mistakes and I've done the same thing that you did.

Love your new festive Christmas look and the music.

Blessing,
Mary

Unknown said...

I clicked over from Mike G's blog and I shall certainly add Patsy and her family to my daily prayers.

BTW, please forgive yourself for the verbal slip; I'm sure that God has already forgiven you.

farmlady said...

True, true, true. It's about giving, not the gifts.

And we are all human, Jo. Don't knock yourself around for what you said about this lady. It's just another lesson to learn from a mistake. That's what we do here. We learn and grow and ,still, we can love someone who we disagree with.
If it will make you feel better and she is aware of your conflict. Go see her. Just hold her hand. She's just another human being. Write her a letter. Tell her how you feel. Don't carry it around with you. It gets in God's way and the last comment was right on" "God has already forgiven you."