The Afternoon of Life

December 23, 2016…WALMART…I know you’re already saying, “Why???” We had some grocery and essential shopping that needed to be done, and I knew I didn’t want to go to Walmart on the day before Christmas…but it never dawned on me that half the town might be thinking the same way. Several months ago I started using the electronic carts at Walmart.  The decision to do so resulted from a fall in 2000 that caused a lower back problem that has never been resolved.  I can’t stand for more than a couple of minutes without extreme, nauseating pain in my back.  Earlier this year I started noticing a swollen lump on the back of my right foot, and a visit to the podiatrist revealed a large bone spur…and an aggravating Achilles tendon that swells, making it almost impossible to walk sometimes.  I tend to walk like I’m wearing a high heel on my right foot.  The doctor gave us an application for a handicapped sticker, but I usually ask Dan to let me out at the do...

Tonight I asked Mia, my 6-month-old kitten, “Why are you here?”  She’s in the place she’s chosen to be “her space” since coming to us back in June.  I kid you not…she lays with her hind end on my left arm and her body stretched across my chest…her heart beating next to my heart.  If I lay down in my bed, and she finds me there, that’s where she will lie.  If I try to move my arm out from under her, she waits till I put my arm back in place…and immediately moves to lie on top of me.  It is "her spot", and she is there as often as she can be. She does this to no one else in the family.  She may lay on top of their stomach for a few minutes and let them pet her…but it won’t be for long.  She’s a “momma’s girl” of a cat.  But what she really makes me aware of is my missing breasts.  Is it my imagination, or is she really trying to make up for what’s missing?  Is she comforting me?  How could she even know…she wasn’t here wh...

With snow on the way this weekend, it seemed appropriate to start prepping the porch for winter…and Christmas.  Thanksgiving will come and go quickly in a week…and this year we get an extra week to enjoy all that Christmas brings. The Christmas season has somber moments now that I’ve reached the “Afternoon of Life”.  I’ve said good-bye temporarily to people that were part of my Christmas for over fifty years.  Now they celebrate the season in the Presence of the One Who made letting them go less painful…but not without pain.  There’s that moment when I hear Dad’s laughter in my sons’ voices…when I see Mom’s beauty in my daughter’s eyes.  There’s the wish that my grandchildren could have known the extraordinary love and wisdom my parents imparted while here on earth.  I know that they see Dan and me in the same way my children saw Dad and Mom…and I know that I just never feel like I measure up to her.  It’s not for not trying, though. I sat...