Mosaic Monday

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.  ~Anne Bradstreet

After three months of being laid off and struggling with everything from the finances to finding another job, my daughter is once more gainfully employed. With a little networking, a few phone calls, an immediate interview and she was hired on the spot Friday and is starting her first day on a new job today. Our God is so Awesome. Lots of prayers went up and God's abundant love came pouring down. A huge amount of Thanks to all those that kept those prayers going up.

  May you be wrapped in a quilt of God's warm blessings until your springtime arrives.

  

Join me at the Little Red House to visit more blogs taking part in Mosaic Monday.

Share The Joy Thursday

Life takes many twists and turns along the way. You follow the path as it is laid out for you and try not to question HOW, WHO or WHY. There is sorrow, pain and disappointment along the way that you tend to carry with you. You need to examine these things and study them for a while to understand what you are supposed to learn from them. At some point though you must lay the sorrow, pain and disappointment aside. Hopefully the journey will be long and unless these experiences are set aside they become heavy and burdensome until they become overwhelming and are all that we see and feel.


While traveling on this same path there are experiences that would otherwise be the same, that needs to be laid aside after studying except for one reason. That reason being the people or person in your life at that time. An experience that could be unpleasant can instantly be turned into one that brings laughter and JOY! all because of the reaction to the action.

Such is the experience of falling down (not a good thing for someone that has two new knees) and being pulled out of the snow and ice by the love of your life. So many times since we have begun our journey together, my husband has helped turn what could have been my unpleasant experiences and heavy baggage into backpack memories that I can carry with me because they are light and JOYful. 

The JOY! that I share with you today is my husband, J.D. 

Why not join me at Meri's Musings 

to share in more JOY!

May your journey be blessed with JOY!

The House With Nobody In It

THE HOUSE WITH NOBODY IN IT
by: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

HENEVER I walk to Suffern along the Erie track

I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.

I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute

And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.

 

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;

That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.

I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;

For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.

 

This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,

And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.

It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;

But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.

 

If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid

I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.

I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be

And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.

 

Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,

Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.

But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone

For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

 

But a house that has done what a house should do, a house that has sheltered life,

That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,

A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,

Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.

 

So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track

I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,

Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,

For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.

"The House with Nobody in It" was originally published in Trees and Other Poems. Joyce Kilmer. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1914.

A special thank you to my dear friend Ellie Mae at 'Over Good Ground' for pointing me in the direction of this poem. I wasn't quite ready to walk away from yesterday's post and this poem seemed to be what I needed to finalize it. You Know me so well, my friend.

May God hold you in the palm of His hand. 

Mosaic Monday

To look at this house today, most people would just dismiss it as an old run down, forgotten house that is slowly being reclaimed by nature. However a closer look and a listening ear might tell a story of a happy young couple that once made this house their home. A home where they planned to raise their four children. A home filled with love, happiness and laughter. A home where music was plentiful. A home where evening entertainment for the children might be shadow puppets done my their mother.

Life can turn cruel when you least expect it though. My husband's father was 37 years old when TB took his life. Suddenly J.D.'s mother found herself a single parent with four children to raise on her own. J.D. was 9 years old and remembers the day that his daddy died and how he felt as he watched him being carried away. 

The shell of the house that was once home to J.D. and his brothers and sister still stands. The memories that they share, keeps their childhood home from fading into the landscape.   

  

Join me at Mary's Little Red House For links to more Mosaic Monday participants. Have a blessed week.

Share The Joy Thursday

As the snow continues to fall outside my window on this fine Thursday morning, I am finding my JOY in the warmth radiating from the little wood stove in the kitchen and a soothing cup of coffee.

I was hoping to share whatever news I received yesterday about my MRI results, but due to obstacles beyond my control I didn't make it to the doctor's office. The sheriff's office had issued a Snow Emergency Level 1 warning until 7PM. A Level 1 warning means that the roads are hazardous and may be icy in places. To reach the main roads, we first need to travel 5 miles down J.D.'s mountain. By 10AM I still hadn't seen or heard the snow plow bopping up and down our road performing it's magic with that road salt. Taking all of this into consideration, J.D. and I decided it would probably be best to reschedule my appointment. So now we wait until February 2nd for those results.

I have appointments coming up the first of next week to discuss two other test results with other doctors. God willing and we don't get hammered with another snow storm come Monday morning, I should have at least a few answers by Tuesday.

Why not join us at 'Share The Joy Thursday' and share what has brought JOY into your life. May you find blessings in all that you do today!