Just what I needed

Have you ever had one of those experiences...something happens and you feel a force much greater than yourself was at work? Something happened "for a reason" (and I believe EVERYTHING happens for a reason, sometimes we just cannot see it.)

Well, I have had 3 of those things happen in my life in the last 10 days, and I guess I'm thick enough to take 3 things to happen to wake me up--make me pay attention.

Back on April 15th, 3 months to the day from the day my Mother had her stroke...I was really having a bad day. Just very down in the dumps, my Mom heavy on my mind. I had been teary...just feeling really depressed. As I got home from work and collected the mail, there in my mailbox was a card, hand addressed to me. I opened it up to find a "Thinking of You" card from my beautiful sister-in-law, Tammy Warren. Inside was a beautiful handwritten note, mentioning her awareness of how I might still be struggling with Mom's death, and some reminders about turning to the Lord for strength and comfort that Mom was in a better place. This card could not have come at a better time. It helped me to dig myself out of that mental hole, and refocus on something positive. Tammy...Thank You!

Then this week I got an email from somebody I greatly admire. A genuine person. Not a BSer...someone that has her own, extremely daunting issues in her life on many levels, but handles them with grace, strength and even humor. Someone who's words have lifted me up, in times when I really needed lifting.

"I just wanted to say Hi. Oh yeah, I also wanted to tell you that it
is time to update your blog. Please understand that I live in
Bakersfield and look forward to any connection to the outside world (i.e.
Warren Enterprises). Sorry to makeyou responsible for my entertainment,
but you are the only person that I actually know who has their own blog,
which makes you a celebrity of sorts.Anyway, I hope you are doing well and
I look forward to seeing you guys in the near future."

Now I have been MEANING to update my Blog on a daily basis...pretty much since the last time I did...which I believe was 6 weeks ago or so? Thought about it many times, but just "didn't have the time" or really probably just let the depression that is poking its nose in my life take over. This email
was JUST WHAT I NEEDED to kick me in the butt, motivate me to do what I had
been thinking about for weeks.

And one last thing. I love to scrapbook. If you know me, you know I love taking pictures and "playing" with them. I have been focusing in the back of my mind on all of the pics I put together on boards of my Mom for her
funeral, pictures of her in different stages of her life, pictures that I
have been wanting to take off those boards and put into books, with journaling, and the love and care I feel documenting my Mom's life (as much as I can) deserves. I
have felt until that job gets done I really shouldn't scrapbook any "fun" pages,
but everytime I think about tackling that task I just feel a little pit in my
stomach and I put it off. But this week it was my boss's birthday, and lacking
for a better idea I decided to create a scrapbook page about her dog, and put it
in a frame for her.

Just the act of pulling out my scrapbooking supplies, and making a page about
something positive...WOW, it felt good! I realized that maybe I should let
some of these "I need to do this" or "I HAVE to do this" go by the wayside...they are
bringing me down.

The same day, when I got home, I had a note waiting for me from my eldest
daughter, a girl that I believe is wise beyond her years.

Now again, she had no idea of what was going on inside my head. And yet her note, was just another reminder that I need to take a deep breath and realize it's okay to go on. That she would want me to go on, do the things I love to do, and be there 100% for the people around me. I had actually been thinking, dwelling lately on the fact that I don't "hear" her or see a sign from her somehow to let me know she is okay. My faith has been weak.

But DUH...could she be telling me any more plainly? Could God be working through others any more obviously? I just needed to really look at what was right in front of my face.

So thank you, everyone, for your words and your actions. I recognize that God is working through others, and it is

JUST WHAT I NEEDED.