The American Pastime

I saw, in action today, what makes baseball and America great, at least for me. It is a game for all. Even I have played softball, catching with my worn out knees and loving every minute of it. But today I saw such beauty in the game and what it offers. I was attending a doubleheader for my son Malachi's team and then music started playing and people began cheering on an adjacent field. I walked over. There were a large group of people dancing and clapping and there were these children. Some of the most beautiful spirits you could ever hope to meet. And they were in uniform and they were so excited. You see, it was opening day for The Challengers, the handicapped league, formed a few years back by some great folks at Northern Lights. I watched for awhile and took a bunch of photos, three of which I posted here. Then I sought out a leader, because I wanted to know more. I learned that they began this league with 16 youth and now have 69 participants on 5 teams. I watched this man's face as he talked about this program and what it has meant for his child and for others and I saw mission. I love seeing mission. I got his information. Karl and my boys will be volunteering for this group, there is much need. My favorite photo above is the one with the young, able bodied boy, pitching to one of the young ladies on the league. The participants were enjoying themselves but the able bodied volunteers were lit up. It was glorious. My favorite moment of the day? A young man who was wheelchair bound got a hit and began making his slow way around the bases. An impaired young man got up behind, a large youth, and he connected and had a beautiful hit. He started around the bases and very quickly passed the wheelchair bound teammate. He got to third, realized what he had done and made a large circle to return to the teammate, asked permission, and pushed him so that they crossed home plate together. Yes, for those who know and tease me so often, I was crying. Best day of baseball I have experienced in years.

Hands

A new acquaintance recently said to me, "I look at people's hands first. This tells me all that I need to know." I got so excited. I took a breath to speak and tell her how much I could understand what she was saying. But she was not done. She continued,"If a person's hands are not clean and manicured, then one knows that they care little enough about their appearance and I would likely not be comfortable with them for very long." My mouth clamped shut as I quickly hid my hands from her view. But I feared that she had already seen my garden weary mitts. So I did not share with this person my feelings about hands. I too look at a person's hands first. Hands do speak volumes. But they tell a story, and I adore stories. My great grandmother Harmon and I were quite close. She was and still is my first real mentor. She and I used to sit together and watch people's hands and decipher from what we saw there, that person's story. If you play this game correctly, which Grandma always did, you can learn to have love and charity for a person without ever speaking to them. Noticing hands is still a habit for me. I realized this today, in a half a dozen situations where my reading of a person's hands gave me insight that I needed. As I sit here studying, I think of Christ's hands, the hands that paid such a price for me and for all of us. And I thought of how every one of our stories is written in His hands. And I wondered, for the billionth time in my life, how to repay Him for what He has done, just a small offering, since I can do little more. I turned again to scripture and was quickly led to Hebrews 12:12, "Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." Oh, okay, I get it. So now I will focus on reading hands to know what I can do or say to lift them, not judging, but assessing, and then doing. It is the least I can do with my hands.

Clouds

I have been up for hours with a poor, ill, wee one. Seviah is trying to survive one of those nasty, 24 hour tummy bugs. Icky stuff. But, as I was sitting here, watching the day come into being, I was struck by something. Yesterday morning, we awoke to a foot of snow, and it was still coming down, and it was 34 degrees and the snow was melting off the roof. This morning, it is clear as a bell and it is 12 degrees. This fascinates me. Clouds fascinate me. They have since I was a very wee child. My two youngest and I watched the movie UP night before last and one of my favorite parts is when Carl and Ellie are lay and watch the clouds together, both in happiness and in sorrow. Someone once attributed my love for hiking as an attempt to get nearer to the clouds. This is likely true. I know that I have received some of my most powerful answers, insights, strengths and feelings of love and peace, while staring at the clouds. So, since I was up anyway, I went on a cloud search in the scriptures. WHOA!! It was so cool. God and clouds are intimately linked. He uses clouds all the time. I just love this. He is my insulator from my sin and my anguish just as clouds are the insulators for the earth. From the very early days of the earth, the cloud was His vehicle of choice. He set the rainbow "in the cloud"(1). He went before the children of Israel as they fled Egypt "in a pillar of a cloud"(2). He appeared to Moses "in the midst of a cloud"(3). When His people needed protection, He "spread a cloud on them for a covering"(4). In times of retribution, He "rideth upon a swift cloud"(5). Those who are translated to the heavens are "caught up together in the cloud" and we are to "comfort one another with these words"(6). When He returns to the earth "he cometh with cloud"(7). I could go on and on, there are a large number of other references to God and clouds in the scriptures. But I want to wrap up this comforting epiphany with the scripture that just enfolded me in His arms and brought me to tears, the good kind. In Isaiah 44:22 it states, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." What an image that speaks to me in a very real and personal way. It is scriptures like these that make me feel that He is my God, my Redeemer, my Father, my Brother, my SAVIOR! 1) Genesis 9:13 2) Exodus 13:21/Numbers 14:14 3) Exodus 16:10/24:18 4) Psalms 105:39 5) Isaiah 19:1 6) 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 7) Revelations 1:7

Laughter...

As has been previously noted, here on this blog, and on Facebook, and for a few sorrowful souls, in person, I have a laughing problem. I bellow, I guffaw, I snort, I tend to get my entire body into the act of laughing. Yes, I am an embarrassment to my loved ones, quite regularly. If they see me heading to the greeting card section, they scatter like a shotgun blast. I have decided to embrace it, I cannot fight it anymore. And with each passing day of my life, I find the laughter so much more necessary to survive. Yes, survive. Today, for instance, my dear, dear friend Melinda and I spent the bulk of the day together. We talked, A LOT. (Well, I talked a lot, Melinda is an amazing listener). And we talked about some very heavy issues and topics. And we could do this for an entire day because we laughed A LOT. The laughter cleansed our palates so that we could dive into the deep end again. I was talking about laughing with my kids tonight and one of them accused me of frightening people, on occasion, when my laughter issues forth, unexpectedly. This leads me to the true epiphany of the day for me. Laughter keeps the fear at bay. There are so many things that strike fear in my heart. For instance, this afternoon, I laughed and laughed at and with a young man that I love with all of my heart. He is very funny. Sometimes even when he does not mean to be and he is quite puzzled by this laughter, which makes it so much worse. But, for some time now, my heart has been heavy with fear for the young man. He is making some scary choices and is struggling to get a handle on finding a better path. For me, this means that I am even more desperate for the laughter when I am with him. When we are laughing, he is the lighthearted kid that I want him to be and the laughter strengthens me to face the down times that will inevitably be right around the corner. This is so true in so many areas of my life. I know that God sends me regular laughter opportunities just to balance me and allow me to be strengthened so that I can be a decent wife and mother and sister and daughter and friend and teacher and mentor and leader and person.