Just Because

I have a plaque saying, “Because it makes me happy, next Question” in my kitchen. I sometimes I complain about being very busy or having to do things, but most are things that I enjoy. Sometimes they all pile up into a challenging schedule, but when I add doctor’s appointments and testing into the mix things are almost overwhelming.

I was reminded of why I often do those things at church Sunday. Saturday was my docent day at the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society. It is something that I do occasionally. While I was there the Open Hands Thrift Shop next door was also open. I will visit it and look for clothing or other interesting things. As I wandered through their filled racks and shelves, I saw a short, ornate footstool. It was very light with scrolled wooden legs and a tapestry top. Many women at church keep footstools by their pew because they’re short and their feet don’t touch the floor. Sitting through the entire service can be tiring for them. So for only $0.50 I bought it knowing that someone would need it. A lady and her husband who sit one row back gladly claimed. She wanted to pay for it and I waved her off.

Sunday the wife of a friend also thanked me. Her husband had a triple bypass two weeks ago, trying to copycat me. I sent home a stack of buckwheat cakes I saved from the weekend at the Ohiopyle-Stewart Volunteer Firemen’s Buckwheat Festival where I fried sausage. Because my friend liked to visit several buckwheat dinners in autumn, I knew my friend wasn’t able to attend. The sausage was off the menu by his doctors, so I sent only buckwheat cakes. His wife told me he almost cried when he saw them, saying it was the medicine he needed to cheer him up.

One of my other volunteer projects for our church is the van ministry. It’s my duty to schedule a driver and a chaperone to cover every Wednesday night’s van route. I ascertain which kids will need a ride. The number of riders and their need for a ride varies. I also provide a snack for the kids on their ride home. For many of these teens and children it is the only time they hear about God and we have trained counselors available when they are stressed or have problems. Even though my contact with the kids is more limited than the youth leaders, I get attached to them. Their joy, happiness, worries, or troubles become mine as well. I do it “Just because.” 

What’s On the Menu?

I’m older now and there are changes that I have made in my life. Arthritis has made me doo things a bit slower and my hand grasps have diminished. It has caused aches and pains that’s eliminated some tasks altogether. A torn right bicep tendon has limited weight lifting on my right side and the impingement in the shoulder joint has caused the same thing on the left. I’ve shared before that I had bilateral carpal tunnel surgeries causing my grip to be further diminished. The procedures due to prostate problems and the woes of the triple bypass operation were other assaults on my body.

Recently as a routine follow up with my primary care physician, I had blood work drawn. The results showed my triglycerides were sky high, almost four times normal. I think it almost gave my doctor a stroke. She ordered an appointment with a dietician. My appointment was yesterday.

Alex was a very polite and knowledgeable young man. As we talked, I noticed a slight accent and being nosey, I asked. He then asked, “Where do you think?” His English was excellent which made me think he might be Canadian. I guessed Canada because of an almost French-Canadian sound to his words, but I was wrong. He was born in Russia. I can’t remember how long he’d been in the United States, but his accent was minimal. As he asked questions about diet and exercise, he thought that diet alone could not have raised my triglycerides to that level and we began to focus on my couch potato lifestyle.

After my triple bypass surgery I walked every day for almost a year, but I’ve allowed it to slip and it has been walking at Wal-Mart when I shop or walking to my mailbox and back to the house.

Next he addressed my sleep patterns and my stress levels, saying they also had a great influence on triglycerides, because the results of my other lab work was only slightly elevated. My blood had been drawn was shortly after I had the problem with double vision.

After completing multiple tests the doctors were no closer to determining what had caused my double vision that lasted nearly three weeks. During that time I was concerned as to what it could be. My greatest fears were, “Could it be a stroke or could I go blind?” After all of the testing, the doctors couldn’t give me a definitive reason. Worried? Stressed? I imagine I was.

At Alex’s request I started a daily log of exercises, menus, and times. I am now trying to regulate my diet, sleep, exercise, and stress. So don’t upset me. Housework stresses me, any volunteers? 

The Long and the Short of It

“The long and short of it” about sums up the physical stature of both sets of my grandparents, although with each pair their sizes were reversed. With my grandparents Beck, my grandfather Edson Thomas Beck was tall and slender with a full head of white hair. He held many professions in his lifetime. He worked on his parent’s farm and “made” post in his youth. Later he wrote deeds, wills, and kept “books” for two large companies and did taxes. Folks often referred to him as Squire Beck. He was also a lay speaker and started the Mount Hope church along Route 31 between Jones Mills and Somerset. Grandma Anna Nichols Kalp Beck was a short more petite woman who loved to cook and read the Bible. Her quilts were utilitarian with blocks of thick wool and tweeds fastened to a flannel back with yarn knots. They were mostly made for warmth and not for fancy designs. As a Pentecostal, she often prayed in tongues. When a flood roared through Melcroft, Granddad tore down their large farmhouse and built two smaller houses in Indian Head along Back Creek; one for him and Gram and one for his older daughter Estella and family. Estella’s home had been destroyed by the flood, almost drowning her and her daughter Shirley.

My grandparents Ray and Rebecca Rugg Miner were exactly the opposite. My grandfather Ray was short of stature, but he was an unbelievably vibrant man. He worked the coal mines at night and did the chores of his small farm during the day. His vitality was remarkable. I don’t understand how he managed to rest raising eight kids. He was a quiet and hard-working man.

Gram Miner was as hard working as he was. She was several inches taller than Ray. She was a stout woman, very capable of raising those eight children, cooking, baking, and gardening. Her ability to sew clothing and quilts was nothing short of amazing. Although she only finished fourth grade, her creativity was remarkable eking out the needed money and food. She would make Christmas gifts from scraps of wooden apple crates and leftover pieces of leftover material. She even fashioned a Christmas tree from a strand of wire and pine branches. Her hair remained black until she was into her eighties.

I wish I’d taken the time to listen and remember more about these wonderful people. 

 

With Halloween so close, I decided to share a poem I’d written years ago.

Things

I see things in the darkness of night

Things that I cannot normally see

Imagination or second sight

Moving, creeping, closing in on me.

The air is still no current or breeze

The sliver of moon casts no light at all

Stark skeletal branches fill the trees

Subtle moans grow no matter how small.

Is it real or do my eyes play tricks

Movements or the shifting of my mind

Maybe it is neither but a mix

No matter, I will still look behind.

It seems much worse when I walk alone

Darkness surrounds moving ever close

Something stirs its origin’s unknown

My pulse races and my lead foot slows.

Pale mists rise, twisting, turning, swaying

What’s rests beneath, hidden from my eyes

Dark things, lurking things; all turn to gray

Silently waits and in darkness lies.

Pull Up Your Big Boy Pants

All around us we see discouraging things happening. We see taxes and prices on the increase. There are more crimes and threats of war with larger escalations. We find in our government more ineptness and a complete lack of regard for the rights and liberties of us, the American citizen. The Federal government wants to dominate ever larger parts of our lives, our homes, our businesses, and health care. Each law they pass somehow diminishes or completely curtails or removes a freedom in our lives. The “Green” ideas stimulate only their greed and whet their appetite for a more far reaching cancerous taxing, “life-eating” of our rights and liberty.

These people are supposed to be accountable to the constituents of their districts, but ever too often they entrench themselves into the DC Beltway crowd and think all too often of how to enrich themselves and their cronies. Too often they take for granted those people who elected them and spend the voter’s hard-earned money frivolously. These politicians force us common people to tighten our belts, then we must decide what we can do without just to exist. We must budget ourselves, while the politicians try to find something else to tax. Do we continue to buy the food, pay utilities, purchase fuel, or buy our needed medications?

Anyone who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will understand that there will come a much harder time; a time of persecution and times of trials. But it is the joy and peace obtained by a personal knowledge in the saving grace of Jesus Christ that carries us through these hard times. Pray daily and fervently that there will be another great awakening where others might find the light of Christ in these times of darkness. Pray that they might understand their need for a Savior. Pray that the Word of God might enter the hearts of the politicians, the professors and teachers, each and every sinner, and yes even wayward pastors who have allowed the evils of the world to enter their churches. Pray for the lost wherever and whoever they might be. See them through the eyes of Jesus. Love the sinner, but do not be drawn by their sins. God says the sins are an abomination to Him. He sent His Son to die on the cross to redeem us and give us the gift of salvation. It is free and life changing when you understand and accept it.

Once saved, the Words of God found in the Bible can give comfort and peace. It can give power and healing. It is a refuge and strong tower. It is a book of answers if it’s read with an open mind and heart. It is God’s love letter to us.