6 September 2017

What has been important about today...

I suppose it depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your life at the moment. 

In the effort to increase my income with online sales, developing my crafted projects is up at the top of the list for me.  With Christmas right down the road, I need to find my products and get them listed online, with photos and descriptions.

I managed to sand down some of my crafting projects, but still needed to find You Tube videos about how to fix the sanding marks on FIMO clays.  I found a bunch of polymer clay videos on various topics... link to link to link. It gets hard to stop.  Tutorials and product reviews are plentiful.  Finding the best ones is a long and random process.  I did find some amazing polymer clay artists and crafters.  It gave me more hope for my own creative efforts as time goes by.  I didn't realize it was such a versatile crafting medium.  I watched how you can use paints and stamps for design elements, mold it into amazing shapes, and embellish pieces in ways I had no idea were possible.  It was a great investment of my time to watch these videos.  I expect to start some new experiments tomorrow as I continue to work on my other "clay" type projects... salt dough, diy porcelain clay, air dry clay....

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I wasn't able to see my PBS news programs today, but did see local news on the local fires.  It isn't over, and everything still depends on the weather... the wind, possibilities of rain, how much equipment they have to fight it, how many people there are to battle it on the ground.  People are still evacuated from their homes and waiting to return to them, worried about thieves taking advantage of their suffering.

It was still a bit smoky in the air, but not as bad as it was.  Even so, we didn't stay out too long.  I did my main yardwork in the morning hours, and that would have been enough for me, but the apples still needed to be raked up when I took the dogs out for their breaks.  :-)   We survived.

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I can't think of anything extraordinary about today. 

I did some of the things that I wanted to get done. 

Does that mean it was a good day? 

If I don't save the world, is it still a good day? 
Am I a worthwhile person?

Measuring the value of our lives is a big deal these days... I'm at the senior end of the world now... we are being starved to death in the same hospitals that use to take care of us... forced by judges to die slow and agonizing deaths, supervised by doctors and nurses that once cared for life and did all they could to keep it going.  Now it is all about the costs.  There's just not enough money to pay the bills, and poor, elderly, sick people don't help solve the problem.  They have no purpose in our economy so they would help the money flow by just dying, voluntarily or involuntarily.  This is the world we live in.

It has been this way all of my life... as one of the poor.  Here I am, heading into retirement at the same income level.  I didn't plan to be here... I tried to find a way out... my efforts just didn't work.  Without money, I am still not a worthwhile person in the eyes of this society, probably even less worthwhile than others who have overcome their poverty. 

The Bible tells us a lot of things about our relationship with money.  I know I thought the church would be the answer, but the church has problems dealing with poverty just as much as the government does.  If you take too long to get "better," you become a burden to the process.  We want problems to be fixed, fixed very fast, and then to move on to the next challenge.

It's like the news...  Texas has moved on to recovery, Irma is the next challenge.  Texas gets lost, Irma gets found.  The long-term needs of Texas are still there, but our attention is moved to the newest disaster.

In my life, I have discovered that help is a temporary situation, wrapped in qualifications you can't always meet, time-limited, and more about the giver than the receiver.  As I write this, I can see that it is about all we can do.  All our resources are limited.  Our needs are many.  Eventually, we all have to "recover" from our suffering on our own.

In my faith I am helped to find a path forward... I grow through my struggles.  I think our pain becomes the outreach for the next generation of people suffering from the same thing we did.

I guess this means that all the people who have been through a devastating hurricane are heading for Texas now, and will plan on being there as long as it takes. 

I hope so.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May GOD help us to "give what we can, take only what we need" to those who share this life with us. 
May our lives be filled with joy, mercy, compassion, sharing, trust, faith, giving, and hope.
May we find that peace we need to enjoy our blessings when others are suffering, and share our plenty when we can.
May life become a good thing in our hearts... for the unborn, for the less than perfect, for the old.
May our laws protect the innocent. 
May our government honor the laws of GOD.
May our society be a good example, not just an example of expediency, profit, or controlling force.
May the church rise up to care for the vulnerable.
May our hearts be filled with people priorities, godly values, and time for the things that really matter.
Amen.