Orange Beach Bound - Saturday Oct 5

In the Moment

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Alzheimer's Disease takes away the past and the future, the before and after, leaving only the present moment. In a way, it is a distillation of the reality in which we all live. However, we are so busy worrying about the past or fretting over the future that we fail to appreciate and live in the present.

The caregiver/loved one bears the pain and the burden of remembering. The caregiver/loved one worries about what will happen next. The Alzheimer's patient, in the last stages is free of those cares. What remains is a mystery. Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's gives insight that love remains, even if the subject of that love is forgotten. Self remains, though changed because a critical part of self-identity lives in relationships, in shared experience and shared memory.

In the last days of my mother-in-law's life, when Alzheimer's had taken everything but the present moment, I posted this verse above her bed with a reminder to her care-givers to be kind in that moment. In her former self, she was a brilliant woman but beset by anxiety all her life. I imaged her in those last days feeling as David did: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror. My soul also is struck with terror, while you, O Lord—how long? Turn, O Lord, save my life; deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.” Psalm 6:2-4.

This was my prayer for her, that her Lord would deliver her for the sake of love.

Clara Nelle is (almost) 90

We celebrated the 90th birthday (August 2, 1929) of Clara Nelle Westmoreland Taylor on July 4 weekend.  All three children and spouses, all seven grandchildren and spouses and all twelve great-grandchildren were there for a house-party celebration.  I rented an AirBnB house in Greenwood, Mississippi that turned out to be the house on Grand Avenue where scenes from "The Help" were filmed.  The grand old house has seen better days, but with a pool, 4 bedrooms and plenty of space, it was perfect for our family.

I'll share a few pictures here and the link to the google photo album.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/mnXQ2vLhWS5iUFx6A

Cataloochee Valley

Road Trip!!

The Cataloochee – June 2019

8:20 am mile 166830 Leaving from home

10:38 am mile 166943 North Carolina Exit 20, I-40 Entering Cove Creek Rd.

Trip 0.0

           1.2 Bear left at GSMNP sign; 10 miles to the Cataloochee Valley

           3.2 Road Narrows

           4.2 Stone Wall

           4.4 Big Foot

           4.6 Gravel begins around the hairpin curve at Boyd Mtn Rd.

           5.2 Commercial Development sign; wide turn-around

           5.7 GSMNP Boundary; Cove Gap; begin descent

           7.5 Pavement begins; go right

           7.8 Scenic overlook

         10.3 Big Creek Fork to Palmer House; Valley begins

         10.7 Campground; Desirable sites 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

         13.5 End of the Valley Rd

Picnic at Beech Grove School

3.25 pm Leaving Big Creek Fork

3:40 pm Park Boundary

3:48 pm Back to pavement

4:02 pm mile 166983; End Cove Creek Rd, Enter I-40

6:10 pm mile 167096; Arrive home

Google photos link

YouTube link: Cataloochee Valley, Great Smoky Mountains National Park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lbGd8JYl84&t=16s

Google photos Cataloochee Valley album

Holy Encounter

Holy Encounter

Moses encountered God in a burning bush. I encountered the Holy in a blueberry bush. In the early cool of a summer morning, quiet except for a mockingbird serenade, I focused on transferring plump-ripe blueberries from branch to bucket without dropping too many. Enveloped in stillness broken only by my earnest picking, I though of the hard-earned joy of a harvest. God-Nature, with some assistance from humans, produces abundant harvests to meet all our needs.

An abundant harvest is no accident. It is the result of careful husbandry – planning, preparing, planting and tending come before. Growing up on a farm, I learned to live in the rhythm of the seasons – to live in the truth of Ecclesiastes 3: “1 There's a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens: 2 a time for giving birth and a time for dying, a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted, 3 a time for killing and a time for healing, a time for tearing down and a time for building up, 4 a time for crying and a time for laughing, a time for mourning and a time for dancing, 5 a time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones, a time for embracing and a time for avoiding embraces, 6 a time for searching and a time for losing, a time for keeping and a time for throwing away, 7 a time for tearing and a time for repairing, a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking, 8 a time for loving and a time for hating, a time for war and a time for peace.”

I am thankful for the farmer who planted these blueberry bushes in anticipation of today's harvest, who mulched and mowed and tended to make his orchard productive. I reaped without putting in the work. In my own garden, I must do the work in advance in order to reap the rewards. With my head among the branches and my hand busy, I though of the many harvest seasons in my life experiences, of picking blackberries and dewberries as a young child of 6 or 7, of learning gardening skills, of learning the arts of food preservation, of mother and grandmother in the kitchen and Willis in the garden, patiently guiding, of more than 45 years of my adulthood -planting, tending, picking, canning, freezing so that my family could enjoy the abundance of a harvest sustainably produced.

Alone among the bushes, another bit of scripture came to mind: Luke 10:2 “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few...” Not many people appreciate the satisfaction of harvesting their own food. Our contemporary lives are ordered differently and most people do their harvesting in a store. When I enjoy raspberry jam on my toast or make blueberry pancakes for my grandchildren or serve green beans for dinner, I intimately know that food's journey. The harvest is multiplied. The Holy is encountered again and again, every step of the way.

A Garden of Hope

Hope and expectation Tender green beans and summer squash in 60 days. Okra to fry a few weeks later, Then purple hull peas to complete the meal. A gardener must by nature be an optimist. With expectation of the blessings of harvest, Seeds are buried in the dirt, In the ground beneath my feet, The ground of my Being.

Epiphany

I have always had a fondness for the story of the Wise Men, since my birthday falls on January 6, Epiphany, the traditional date of their visitation to Jesus birth. This year their presence has taken on new meaning for me. This year, as I pondered the birth story, I began to see them and the story from another perspective. 

Who was invited to the birth of Jesus, Son of God, Emanuel, Messiah, Christ? Shepherds were the first witnesses. They were of the lowest social rank, just above beggars and lepers. The were unclean - literally because they spent their days and nights in the fields guarding the sheep, and religiously because they were unable to perform the purification rituals. Then the wise men came - foreigners, outsiders, gentiles. They recognized the Advent of a new age in the birth of a baby in humble circumstances. 

Who was invited to bear witness to Jesus birth? Not the wealthy, not the political elite, not the religious leaders of the day. The lowly shepherds and the gentile outsiders were brought in.

I think this is a potent message for what God intended in His incarnation. In the powerlessness of a baby lay the hope for the world. That hope included all people, from the lowliest unclean shepherd to the very foreign outsiders. All are included in the embrace of God's Love.

I started this train of thought with the image of immigrants, refugees, the dispossessed, the least, the last and the lost. They have been scorned, villified and persecuted by the political leaders of the day. But God's Love includes them all. If we are a disciples of the Baby who was born in Bethlehem, our charge is to love them all, too.  It is the most subversive of ideas - Love.