"Being real is difficult"

"from The Path Beyond the Gate by Ann Smith...

"I wanted to be strong for Nathan's sake.  I wanted to be there for Nathan.  But a part of me was thinking, We've been working all these years at being real with each other.  Do we start playing games now?"

Ann Smith lists three blessings received from "being real."  You'll have to read the book to find out what they are, but I will quote her one more time from this entry about being real, because it's so good.

"It's not our failures and our mistakes and our struggles that hinder the work of the Kingdom; it's pretending we don't have any.  That's what hinders us.  We need to be saying to people, 'Yes, life is both pain and joy, but there is someone who walks with you in the good times, the bad times, the in-between blah times.  There is someone who walks with me and helps me in this journey.'"

I'm thinking circus again because I go from not being real enough to being TOO real, which can very easily turn into drama.  We don't need drama; I want to be me, but I also want to be the "new" me in Christ.  I want my life to reflect peace and the faith and trust that I have in God in the middle of good times and tough times.  But to say that I didn't have a moment of hands shaking, heart pounding (mine), and a few tears recently when Don needed nitro, well, that would not be real.  I am happy to report, with all honesty, however, that God gave me perfect calm in the middle of the "excitement."  That, too, was real.  I know that I can be real and God can use that, because He is real IN me.

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We had a pleasant surprise visit, well, sort of a surprise because we knew they were in the park since Sunday late, but we didn't know when they would knock on our door.  Yesterday afternoon, late, Norm and Lori came to see us!  We met this wonderful young couple our last Sunday in Coffeyville, KS, last December.  We had an instant connection as happens a lot with Believers, exchanged contact information (you know, email and blog addresses) and have kept in touch since we met.  They worked again this Christmas season at Amazon.com and made reservations to come to Sunscape when they left Coffeyville.  We invited them to stay for soup and sandwiches and then we played a couple of games of Zilch.  It's wonderful to get to know them better and we are looking forward to the next three months with them and getting to know them better.  Lori has a beautiful soprano voice and will be joining us in the choir.  Yeah!! A much needed Soprano!

This morning was beautiful and even warm in the sunshine so I grabbed my camera and headed across the street to the cactus garden where I heard the quails calling me.  I just never tire of watching these beautiful birds or taking pictures of them.

While out washing the gobs of dust from the patio, Toma came out and invited me to come look at her completed quilt top when I finished washing the patio.  Her very colorful southwest theme quilt is now ready to take to the quilting ladies on Thursday morning.

It is beautiful!!

Also, took a picture of Toma's Christmas flowers while I was there.  The paper white narcissus was so pretty against the red poinsettia.

Tonight, dinner down at George and Karen's.  "Tune in" tomorrow for a report on our evening.

God is good.  All the time!