A Yankee Girl Down South!

I moved to North Carolina from New York State this summer and, although I knew it would be different, it has proven to be different in unexpected ways. Sure, I was expecting the accent and the heat, but there have been other things that came as a surprise. So, here are some of the unforeseen differences I have noticed since moving south.

1.     If you need to make a left-hand turn into a parking lot you will probably have to drive down the road to the next light and make a U-Turn. It is crazy to Google map something and see the line on the map go past your destination and come back around.

2.     And since we are talking about driving…I have never been so amazed or frustrated or confused in my life: down here, people actually drive UNDER the speed limit. What??? I can be all about the journey…sometimes. But the other times, I need to get there, people!

3.     I love that I can go anywhere – and I mean anywhere, and a get a decent glass of iced tea.

4.     Did you know that the sky is actually blue? I think somewhere in the hidden recesses of my mind I knew it, kind of like I know the world is round, the ocean is deep, Antarctica is cold… You get the idea. Those things are all true, but I have not experienced their reality for myself. I now know for myself that the sky is blue because I have seen it. And blue is a much better color for the sky than grey.

5.     It is October. Sweater weather. Falling leaves. Pumpkin everything. But I have yet to see the beautiful fall colors. This makes me sad, as autumn is my favorite season. My head keeps telling me it is fall, but there are no leaves changing colors, and we have yet to have any cool fall-like temperatures..

6.     I don’t know if this is every city down south or not, but in Charlotte, it seems like there are two streets that will get you anywhere you want to go. For example, I went to a mall today; I had never been there before, and I wasn’t sure where it was or how I would get home—since I went directly there from work. When I Google-mapped directions home, the directions said to get on a particular street. I thought, “I know that street. Could it possibly be the same street I am familiar with?” Yes, it was the same street. And that street seems able to get me anywhere.

7.     Most of the churches down here have a choir in addition to a worship team. I think this is great for many reasons. First, four part harmony is awesome. Also, a choir gives a much larger number of people a chance to participate in the music ministry of a church. Finally, you can really build the dynamic of a song by adding in 50 voices.

8.     The last difference between north and south that I want to mention, and perhaps most important one (in case you didn’t know it already): the south is Biscuit Heaven! Seriously, so many restaurants have awesome biscuits, and biscuits are one of my favorite foods! I suppose this is kind of a mixed blessing.  If I ate every biscuit wanted to eat, I would look like a biscuit. And that wouldn’t be attractive. Biscuits are supposed to be round and fluffy, but people? Yea, not so much.

There are things I really like about living in the south and things I just don’t understand. You are probably wondering, is this northern girl going to turn into a southern girl? Probably not… I don’t know anything about Nascar and I don’t like country music.  

A Gentle and Quiet Spirit: Attempting the Impossible?

I have always struggled with the idea and reality of beauty. Growing up in a culture obsessed by physical appearance, I wanted what every other girl wanted—to be beautiful. As a teenager though, I became confused about beauty. I had a well-intentioned friend who often told me I would look great if I just lost a few pounds. My idea of beauty became linked with how much I weighed. Far more dangerous though was the seed planted that personal, physical perfection was attainable. I felt like such a failure because I never quite made it to perfection; I never measured up to someone else’s idea of beauty.

As I grew in my relationship with God, I realized that I was missing the mark of true beauty by looking at the world’s standards. I then turned to the Bible to see what God had to say about beauty. What I found was both pleasantly surprising, and alarming.

~The first thing I noticed is that the role of women in society defined what society considered beautiful. In Biblical times, a woman’s desirability was defined by her ability to have children.  A strong body, a body capable of bearing multiple children—that was what was important.

~The next thing I noticed was that beauty wasn’t talked about in the same way it is today. Solomon compliments his Beloved by saying, “Your hair is like a flock of goats,” and, “Your eyes behind your veil are doves.” These compliments don’t really translate so well today. (Both verses are from Song of Songs 4.) Checking my commentary shed a little bit of light on these passages and other passages like these from the Song of Songs, but left me unsatisfied as to true beauty.

~ In Genesis, Sarai is called beautiful. Sarai was so beautiful that a couple of kings, in addition to her husband, desired her for themselves. But Genesis never mentions her hair color, her eye color, or how big or small she was. It just says that she was beautiful. A little more information is given regarding Esther. The Bible says, “She had a lovely figure and was beautiful.” A lovely figure - no measurements, size, hair color, no specifics - just “a lovely figure” and “beautiful.” This was both satisfying and unsatisfying. I wouldn’t miss out on true beauty because I wasn’t blond and blue-eyed, but my search for specificity regarding beauty in the Bible remained unsatisfied.

Then, in my searching and studying, I found a passage of Scripture that had some surprising things to say about beauty.

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” 1 Peter 3:3-4

On the one hand this was good news. It wasn’t about my hairstyle, and I wasn’t disqualified from being beautiful by not having a lot of valuable jewelry or expensive clothes. It seemed as though at last I was getting somewhere! Beauty that never stops being beautiful is based on something inside me: a gentle and quiet spirit. Gentle? And quiet?

Then I knew I was in trouble.

I am sure you can think of someone you would describe as gentle and quiet. My daughter, Katheryne is someone who I consider to have a gentle and quiet spirit. She would never hurt anyone, even someone she didn’t like. But honestly, there are very few people she doesn’t like. And she is quiet. Even when she is loud she is quiet; her yelling is the equivalent of some people’s talking. I love my daughter and she is someone I consider to be truly beautiful. She has the physical beauty as well as the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. But if you know me and you know my daughter, you know that we are opposites. Everything she is, I am not. I am not usually considered gentle. Plain spoken, honest, sometimes blunt—these words describe me. But gentle? And I don’t come close to quiet. I don’t talk non-stop, and it isn’t that no one else is able to participate in the conversation if I am around, but I can definitely hold up my end of the conversation. What are those of us who are not gentle and quiet supposed to do? Does this mean we can never be truly beautiful?

I left these verses alone for many years; I did not know what to do with them. But honestly, I wasn’t ready for what these verses really meant. I still wanted the A, B, C approach to beauty—weigh this much, wear this size, have this body shape—yup, now I am beautiful. Thankfully, God is not about specific parameters designed to exclude; just as God wants everyone to come to repentance, He wants all women included in beautiful. So God brought me back to these verses the summer after my marriage ended. I was feeling hurt and rejected and everything except beautiful. But I was finally ready to learn what these verses really meant.

I started by looking at the same verse in different translations. “Let your adornment be what’s inside—the real you, the lasting beauty of a gracious and quiet spirit, in which God delights.” This is how The Voice translates this verse. The NASB says, “But let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.” These translations mention the real you, and the hidden person.  

An adornment is something that decorates, so by definition would be outside—visible. If we are supposed to show on the outside what is hidden inside then true beauty involves transparency. I have to show people the real me: the person that I hide from everyone because I am afraid of my lack of perfection. While many people dislike transparency, for me, permission to be transparent was a welcome relief. I had spent so many years hiding who I really was and not only did it NOT help people to like me, but I lost myself in the process. No more hiding? I could handle that.

Then I grabbed a dictionary and discovered that, in addition to kind, gentle also means fair, moderate, not holding to the letter of the law. It considers the facts of the situation and behaves rationally, and is not argumentative. Quiet can mean making no noise, but it also means tranquil and peaceful. It is an inner peace that is not dependent on external circumstances.

This was not what I was expecting. God never expected me to change my personality. It is possible for me to be blunt but not argumentative, honest and yet fair, plain speaking and still full of grace. And I can talk. I don’t have to be literally quiet; rather when I talk, my words and my life should be filled with a serenity and certainty that comes from knowing and relying on God and not on whether everything in my life is going well. God expects me—us—to be fully, completely ourselves.

Today we have the ability to change our hair color and our eye color, but we can’t easily change our bone structure or our body shape. This is why beauty is not physically described in the Bible—because we have no control over our genetic makeup. And that is why beauty is not determined by the physical; beauty, true beauty, is determined by the things we control, the things we choose. It is determined by how we act and how we treat the people around us. When God decided that beauty would be about our inner person, He leveled the playing field and made beauty something that is possible for all women.

And for those of us who still struggle with the fact that we don’t measure up to society’s standard of beauty - consider Solomon’s love story found in his Song of Songs. Solomon wrote verse after verse extolling the desirableness of his Beloved, and yet she was considered unattractive according to the standards of the daughters of Jerusalem because she was not fair but was a dark beauty. In Song of Songs 4:7 Solomon sums up his thoughts about her when he says, “You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.”  I LOVE that!

Yes, I still struggle with feeling beautiful, but at last I know true beauty is attainable. While I do work on my outer beauty—haircuts, working out, wearing makeup—I also am intentional in working on my inner beauty as that is the beauty that will not fade. To remember what the verse means in all of its depth and detail I paraphrased it and I have included it below. Be encouraged knowing true beauty is possible!

Dyann’s Paraphrase 1 Peter 3:3-4:

 “We, all women, should not look to our hair, jewelry and clothes to define our beauty. Rather, our beauty should be defined by what shines out from within us - by the pieces of ourselves that we share with others. The qualities that make us truly beautiful with a beauty that does not fade are the qualities of fairness and equitable treatment, not flying off the handle but being moderate in behavior, not acting rashly but considering the facts and responding rationally, thinking about what we say before we say it, extending grace to others, not always having to be right, and being at peace, knowing that our lives and the circumstances of our life are in the hands of God. These qualities are the qualities that God values and considers beautiful.”

Divergent and the Job Search!

Divergent recently came out on DVD and I have watched it several times already. I loved it! But I generally love Sci-fi/fantasy movies, so I expected I would like it. What I didn’t expect were some of things I took away from the movie. Since I just finished the training on my new job I figured now is a good time to share some of my thoughts.

To give you a rough overview, Divergent is the story of a post-apocalyptic society divided into groups or factions. The division of society was to ensure governmental control, and is based on a test given to each person. The test places a person in a situation that causes fear and then evaluates that person’s response to the situation.  How each person responds to the different scenarios presented suggests his or her natural strengths. This, in turn suggests the faction a person should join. The factions are:

·      Dauntless – They are known for their courage and bravery and are relied upon to guard and protect.

·      Abnegation – They are selfless and guard against vanity, greed and envy.

·      Candor – They always tell the truth.

·      Amity – They live in peace and avoid aggression.

·      Erudite – They constantly pursue knowledge.

 In the Divergent story’s society, the kids are raised in their parents’ chosen faction until it is time for them to be tested (testing happens in their late teen years). After that, they either stay with the faction they grew up in or choose a different faction. If they choose a new faction, there is an initiation and training process that they go through. If they don’t make it through initiation, they are factionless. That means they do the worst jobs in society and don’t have enough food or clothing. Sound familiar?

I have been searching for a job. In the process of searching for a job, I have submitted more than a hundred résumés and job applications for many different kinds of jobs and I would guess that at least one application in ten has required me to participate in a personality or job assessment. What would I do if a customer left their credit card at the front desk? How would I handle being interrupted while working on a project? What if a co-worker needed help? And on and on… So decisions are made about me and assessments are made about my personality before I’ve met or talked to anyone. Why? Because before they, the human resource departments of these various companies, bring me in for an interview, they want to find out if I am part of the Customer Service faction, or the Hospitality faction, or the Sales faction, or the Administrative faction… You get the idea.

There is another group in the Divergent story’s society. They are called Divergent. They do not fit in any of the factions. They are unpredictable and non-conformist. The government tries to suppress them by killing them because they cannot be manipulated. The protagonists of the movie fall under this category. They successfully take on the some of the corrupt governmental leaders in order to protect innocent factions.

So how does Divergent relate to my job search? I have discovered that I do not really fit in any of the prescribed job factions, which makes me Divergent. I have pieces of all of the jobs I have applied to, but don’t exactly fit in any category  - my strengths do not fit with societal norms. I could be upset about this.

Why am I not upset?

Because being upset about it would mean being upset about who I am. I like being different. I like that my strengths are different. Instead of being upset about not fitting in, I choose to embrace how God made me. If I were upset with my strengths, it would be like telling God He made a mistake in making me the way I am. I’m not upset because I aspire—like Tris, and Katniss, and Eowyn, and other strong women of fiction; and like Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, and Rosa Parks and other real life women—to be a catalyst, a force for change in my world.

And lets face it—you can’t change world when you are happy being like everyone else. 

Wrestling with God = Transformation!

The conclusion of wrestling with God...

For each of these statements, I have not gone very in-depth. There are so many aspects to God and His power and His work in the lives of people that I cannot begin to cover all of them, and many others have already done this much better than I ever could. However, these specific things were enough to make me realize that I had no reason to be mad at God. As I stopped being angry with God yet continued honestly expressing my feelings to Him, instead of railing at God I began to talk to Him more as a friend who just needed to vent.

I have mentioned that I learned many things about God through this process. Aside from what I have already talked about above, there are a couple other things I have learned about God through my wrestling with Him:

1.     There is no safer person in the world to talk to than God. In all I expressed to Him, holding nothing back, He never betrayed me by talking about it with someone else.

2.     God is the only person who not only hears what I say, but also hears the cry of my heart. In so many situations, people I trusted did not stop to consider that my heart’s intent was good, but my actions were the flawed actions of an imperfect human being. God never misses my heart.

3.     God delivers. It may not be as soon as we want it or in the way we want it to happen, but GOD DOES RESCUE HIS CHILDREN!

4.     God wants us to make good choices! What I mean is that He and “the great cloud of witnesses” are cheering us on, rooting for our victory! Until I wrestled things out with God I never realized how much God wants me to WIN!

5.     I am one of God’s favorites! I learned how much God loves me. I learned that God does not view me only as one of His children collectively, but just as each child is uniquely special to their parents, I am uniquely, personally special to God.

I have to assume that just as I have wrestled with God a lot up until now, my wrestling with God will continue in different ways and in various situations through the rest of my life. As long as I remain teachable and open to God, I believe my wrestling with God is a good thing. Not everyone wrestles with God, and if you don’t, you should not feel guilty. But for those of us who question and challenge, who push the boundaries, and refuse to accept what has always been accepted: you shouldn’t feel guilty either. Wresting with God is part of the process, it can be life-changing, and transformational. Isn’t that the goal of everything—transformation?

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Still Wrestling With God: The Three Assumptions

I used to hold back in expressing my feelings to God. I was brought up believing it was a sin to say anything that could be construed as disrespectful, it was a sin to disagree with God, and it was a horrible sin to be angry with God over things that had happened to me.  I would think things—mentally carry on conversations, sometimes rants, but not verbalize anything. I am not exactly sure when the light bulb went off, but one day it occurred to me:

God already knew what I was thinking.

If He were God ONLY then perhaps my thoughts were a sin. But I had already experienced too much of the relational side of God and it didn’t strike me as logical for God to want a relationship with me, create me with feelings and then get mad when, as part of the relationship, I expressed those feelings, so I began to open up in my conversations with God. I began expressing my anger.

Many times, in the heat of the moment, it is hard to separate out the emotions involved in our anger. The secondary emotion behind anger is fear, so while anger may be an emotion, it is also a defense mechanism; it is how we protect ourselves. When I first started honestly communicating with God, I railed at Him. I was hurt and afraid and I thought He should have stopped the things that happened to me. But something happened as I continued expressing myself. I began to realize that my anger was misplaced. I don’t think it would be the same for everyone, but for me, as I expressed how I felt, I was able to sort through the different emotions involved in my anger. As I sorted through emotions, I was able to let go of them and see things more rationally. With rational thought came the realization that some of my feelings were not logical. When I realized my feelings lacked validity, I knew I had to reevaluate some of the things I thought I knew about God.

Little rabbit trail here… Yes, I know feelings are not logical and I don’t expect them to be logical. I also know feelings are not right or wrong; it is what we do about how we feel that is right or wrong. But I think we do ourselves, and those around us, an injustice in NOT evaluating our feelings for validity. We miss an opportunity for personal growth!

When people hurt, they look for an outlet for their pain, and they tend to look for a person to blame. They lash out in an effort to find relief. Some people point a finger at an individual and many people point a finger at God. I also felt, when I started honestly talking with God, like somehow He was responsible for what happened to me. I know God is sovereign, all knowing, and all-powerful, and I know He has and does intervene in miraculous ways to help those who follow Him. But what do you do with the times when you prayed and asked God to intervene and nothing happened? Does that mean that God failed? Is it a betrayal in some way? In evaluating God’s sovereignty and miraculous intervention, I realized that there were three assumptions I had to consider: God did nothing to help me, God is responsible for my pain, and God should have stopped the other person from hurting me.

Let’s consider these statements.

1.     God did nothing to help me. This belief is responsible for many people walking away from God. But upon closer reflection, it is actually rather arrogant. How do we know God did nothing to help us? Can I state with absolute certainty that God did nothing to help me? The reality was and is that there are many things that happen on this earth every day that we know nothing about. In order for us to state unequivocally that God had done nothing, we would first have to know everything that God is doing. So I may feel like God has done nothing to help me, but, regardless of the situation, that does not make it the truth.

2.     God is responsible for my pain. The fact that God did not stop the people who hurt us, does not indicate that God endorsed their actions. In evaluating my specific situations and evaluating how God feels about sin, I know that God wanted the people that hurt me to behave differently. Each of those individuals were given numerous opportunities to do the right thing, to walk away from the sin; in each situation the person or people made a choice. God’s ultimate power and authority does not lessen the personal responsibility of the people making the choices. Because I know that someday we will all answer for our actions, I also realized that, while they may or may not face any consequences here and now for their actions, ultimately they will answer for their choices.

3.     God should have stopped the other person from hurting me. As I consider this thought now, it amazes me that we put this on God. Most people are offended with God because of what He considers sin and because of what the Bible says we should and shouldn’t do. When we put this idea on God, we are expecting God to let us do what we want while he stops other people from doing what they want. We want to be free, but we don’t want others to be free. We can’t have it both ways.

The final part will be posted next week... 
 

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Wrestling with God: Walking the Tightrope

 Several months ago I posted a blog about wrestling with God. I thought I was done with that topic, but I have been through a huge change in the last couple of months. I packed up my life in Johnson City, NY, and relocated to Charlotte, NC, where I moved into an apartment. Once again I am searching for employment, and once again I find myself wrestling with God. The longer I wait to get a response from potential employers, the more I wonder if I have done the right thing in moving. I chose Charlotte because I believed God was directing me here. What if I was wrong? This kind of wrestling isn’t connected so much to the reality of God, but rather considers God’s faithfulness. I moved here in faith; will God provide for me now? And so I find myself still wrestling with God.

Sometimes a relationship with God feels like a tightrope: it is hard to maintain a balance. God is, after all, GOD. You know, sovereign, creator, holy––GOD. But He is also a friend, a companion—He wants a relationship with us. If I completely embrace a relationship with God, then sometimes I feel like I am disrespectful of His divinity; but if I focus completely on God as divine being, then He becomes unapproachable and the relational aspect is gone. This struggle between the divine and relational aspects of God brings up a dilemma for those of us who love Him and are trying to walk with Him: what are we supposed to do when God offends us? What do we do when we are struggling with God?  I wish there was a formula I could give you, that doing X,Y, and Z would bring everything back into balance, but it doesn’t work that way. All relationships are unique between the parties involved. It is up to you to figure out how you will handle your relationship with God. What I can tell you from experience, and what I think is the most important aspect of wrestling with God, is that God is okay with our wrestling with Him. In fact, I believe God LOVES it when we wrestle with Him because it tells Him we take the relationship seriously.  

Wrestling, as a sport, is up close and personal. It is not done from a distance. It involves physical contact, looking at the opponent face-to-face. It is impossible for wrestling to be indifferent. It is heated—the people involved are invested in the outcome and biased as to what the outcome should be.  Given these two factors involved in wrestling we can see that wrestling is intensely personal. It is the same when we wrestle with God. We omit the physical element as we cannot actually touch God, but the other components remain the same. We cannot wrestle with God unless there has been closeness in the relationship. When we need or want something from God and we ask, because we are told to ask for what we want from God, it doesn’t always go the way we hope. We care—about our relationship with God, about whatever the issue is, and about how the issue is affecting us. We cannot be indifferent in our wrestling with God. It is personal.

Wrestling gets very complicated and confusing, though, when it comes to the expression of our feelings. This is another one of those tightropes. If God is only a DIVINE being, then we do not have the right to express our feelings. But if God is relational, then communication of both parties’ feelings is essential to the relationship. Here is where it gets tricky. Most relationships are built on rules, and although the rules vary depending on upbringing and life experience, among these rules you usually find the idea of mutual respect, caring, and a balance of honesty and tactfulness. Those of us who have a relationship with God want to maintain a respectful attitude toward God; we get that He is GOD. But sometimes the pain is so excruciating, the hurt and anger so overwhelming that you cannot hold back in expressing how you feel. It isn’t that you intend to be disrespectful or that you are challenging God’s authority, but the emotions are intense and an honest and relational approach to God dictates the need to “let it all out.” It is critical to realize at those times in our life that God can handle the FULL WEIGHT of our emotions. 

To be continued... ;-)  

Music!

Music has always been part of my life. When I was little I listened to my parents sing in church. As I got older I listened and sang along with my parents Letterman and Sandler and Young records. In high school I sang in my school choir and the church choir and listened to Lionel Richie, the BeeGees, Billy Joel and Bon Jovi with my friends. As an adult I participated in church worship teams. Music has always been there. But I didn’t realize until the last couple of years that, for me, music is a necessity – I literally cannot live without it.

Life is strange.  You go through the day-to-day and while everything isn’t perfect, it is okay and you can deal with the occasional twists and turns. But then the bottom drops out of your world and it doesn’t take long for whatever reserves you had to be depleted. It is funny though, life doesn’t stop when your reserves are depleted and you have to figure out a way to keep going. I was praying, I was trusting in God to help me, but it wasn’t enough. And that is where music stepped in.

Music is not just something I hear; some days it is my prayers, some days it is my hope. I don’t understand how it works, but music is able to go deep inside and pull things out of me - dreams I didn’t know were there. Music gives me courage, it inspires me to keep going, it lets me know I am not alone, and it reminds me that life is still fun and full of good things.

While my taste in music may not be everyone’s taste in music, I will share a few of the songs that have kept me going over the last year.

Not For A Moment – the Vertical Church Band with Meredith Andrews

http://youtu.be/XD0cvWImVjA

Worthy, Worthy – the Vertical Church Band

http://youtu.be/NA1mOQJouRg

The Great I Am by Phillips, Craig, & Dean

http://youtu.be/BhlDGS8wTeU

You Won’t Let Go by Michael W. Smith

http://youtu.be/zl9blXdooqY

Let It Out and When We Come Alive by Switchfoot off of their Fading West CD.

http://youtu.be/vl9focF2tvg

http://youtu.be/QfTopfOAEdY

Dark Horses and Afterlife by Switchfoot off of Vice Verses.

http://youtu.be/5_5oE0ijhKg

http://youtu.be/j6z-H3_hgEU

Never Let You Go by Manafest

http://youtu.be/8g3lBhgMW-M

On My Own by Ashes Remain

http://youtu.be/4l7fhxNrrrM

These songs have gotten hours of playtime; sometimes the song is on repeat and I listen to it over and over again. There have been days when I wished that I could somehow take in the music intravenously as I couldn’t seem to get enough of it. And it never seems to be loud enough. Some days that is how consumed I am by music.

I am going to close with a quote that pretty much sums it up for me,

“I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me - like food or water.” Ray Charles  

My New Apartment

I recently moved. It has been hardest and most challenging thing I have done EVER. I left behind my daughter, my parents, numerous friends, and places that were familiar to build a new life

When I got to New York I knew I wasn’t going to be there long term. I tried to stay – applied for numerous jobs and didn’t get one of them. After realizing I wasn’t going to stay, I had to figure out where to go. Through a series of odd events and for several reasons, I chose Charlotte, NC. The middle of June I packed up all my stuff and I headed out for Charlotte; a couple of weeks later my parents drove down with all my stuff and a week after that I moved into a condo.

It is always risky renting a place when you aren’t familiar with an area, but it has turned out well for me. Target is around the corner, Trader Joe’s is less than 10 minutes away along with Ikea, Ulta, Old Navy, Hobby Lobby…you get the picture - I am centrally located to many stores that I like and shop at quite often.

Because of moving into a new place and making a new start I purchased some new things to hang in my apartment. I love them and I am going to share pictures of a few of them with you.

            This used to hang in the Broadway Cafe' at Davis College. I worked there this past year.

"

                     "at first glance it may appear too hard, look again - always look again."

                                                                        Love this one!                                             

                                                                      I love Dr. Seuss!

                                                      Some of my snarky coffee signs. 

 This one is special! My daughter painted this for me. She knows "Beauty and the Beast" is one of my favorite Disney movies. And she wrote a quote on the edge of the painting from another of my favorite Disney movies - Mulan, "The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all." Both the picture and the quote seem to fit my life.

This one is also special. Last December my daughter married into a wonderful family; I am truly blessed in that they also brought me into their family. My son-in-law's mother made this banner and gave it to me before I moved. I am so pleased to have something she made hanging in my house!