I know this has been around for a while, but I enjoyed it again yesterday and thought I would share. It brought a smile, and then tears.

What do you think?

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

C. S. Lewis

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Our sunrises and sunsets have been so beautiful lately! The other evening Sharon called and said, “Go look at the sunset!” and I went outside to the west side of our house to see the salmon and periwinkle glow all across the horizon, with purple streaks of clouds that made me draw a breath at its gorgeousness.

Yesterday morning when I silenced the early alarm and sat up to put on my slippers, I noticed the glow in our bedroom. Everything looked magenta. I went to get the camera so you could see it too. Keep in mind that the curtains you see on the windows below are off-white, and that will give you an idea of how deeply colored the light from the brilliant sunrise was.

I got up close to the window (you can see the screen if you click on the photo) and took this shot of the sunrise over Lake Superior, which I think is astonishingly beautiful.

Normally I would be watching Louisa today, but I woke up sick this morning. I have a sore throat, dry cough, and just feel a bit tired. So Louisa will not be coming over to sweetly run through the house pointing at seventy-four things and asking in her 16 month-old way, “Uh? Uh?” She actually makes two smooth syllables out of each uh with the last syllable being upturned like a question, and it’s adorable. Never has a child been so expressive with one sound!  🙂

I am hoping to lay low, to read perhaps, and if I feel good enough I’ll fold the clean laundry. I always fold laundry sitting on our big king-sized bed, while listening to some soft music, and I’m still on my Audrey Assad kick.

Our younger Schnauzer Mildred exasperated me last night. I was on the phone with my friend Denel, and right as I watched, Millie came strolling in to our bedroom, squatted nonchalantly six feet in front of me and peed on the carpet. And I had just let her outside. I cleaned it up right away but noticed that the spot didn’t show at all and didn’t smell either, which I suppose would be something to be thankful for, except that it sent my mind going about how many other times she might have peed on the carpet and because it doesn’t show and doesn’t smell, I haven’t known about it!? Ugh.

Also, we recently had our home care assessment/intake meeting with a registered nurse who works for a local agency. We learned what is available to us, and it looks like twice a week a home care attendant will come in to help Michael shower. I’m grateful for that, and am hoping the person assigned to him is a patient and kind man. They nurse interviewing us said we could also have light housekeeping done, a meal prepared for Michael, laundry done, and that they could also play cards with him. I don’t need the housekeeping part or the laundry, and Michael is no longer able to understand well enough to play cards, but the help with showering will be a blessing. I hope he responds well to it. When the nurse asked Michael (in a too loud voice — I know people do that when they know someone is impaired, although Michael’s hearing is excellent) “Would you like to have help with showering?” and Michael answered, “I like it when my wife helps me.” So we’ll see….

In addition, an Occupational Therapist will come sometime soon to assess Michael’s walking, and hopefully work with him on learning to use the walker. He has struggled with this because he can’t remember to keep the walker close to his body, which is important for maintaining balance.

Lastly, this morning our son-in-law Jeremy called to say that the group of men Michael used to deer hunt with contacted him to say they had an extra deer, and did Michael and Jeremy want to split it? Jeremy came to pick up Michael this morning, and they used the truck to go pick up the deer. Jeremy will butcher it soon and there will be some venison chops and roasts in our freezers, for our profound and long-lasting enjoyment this winter. If you’re good at detecting sarcasm, you caught that one. 🙂 Sara just came into the office where I’m typing and said with some alarm, “Mom, there’s a dead deer in the garage.” So I had to explain to her how it came to be, and remind her that Dad has lived a Minnesota deer hunting life for over fifty years now.  Although yesterday when Michael and I were driving, a huge 20-point buck with a thick neck and a majestic bearing crossed the road in front of us and we slowed down to admire him. Michael said, “I don’t ever want to kill another deer” and I understood what he meant. But if a former hunting friend offers one to you, the Minnesota Polite thing to do is to accept it, butcher it, store it in your freezer, and enjoy the clean, organic, grass-fed meat for the next ten years several months on your own table.

I think this is enough trivia for this morning. I am going to clean the kitchen now before I try to take a morning nap. Have a blessed Friday, my friends, and don’t forget to show someone in your life how much you care. Probably the ones who need it the most are the ones we see day after day and whose presence we might be taking for granted.

Looking up with you,

Last Saturday one of our grandchildren, Mr. McBoy, spent the night with us. He’s always such good company and I enjoy having him here. He’s eleven years old now and in the sixth grade, but he’s so tall and composed I think people could easily mistake him for a teen. Not that I know many teens who are composed, but you get my meaning — he seems older than he is.

We did what we usually do. We played Farkle, a couple of hands of Gin, we read some good books aloud, talked a lot, and gave each other hand massages. Then we did something we don’t usually do — we went to visit my friend Pat’s beautiful black horse Doc. Pat brought Doc out of his corral so we could pet him, feed him a bit, brush him, and watch as she cleaned his feet. Mr. McBoy loved it. He was able to feed Doc a handful of green grass and that simple act made him so happy. I think visiting Pat and Doc might have been the highlight of Mr. McBoy’s visit. When I drove him home on Sunday afternoon, we took turns recounting all the things we had done while he was with us. “We had sausage and eggs for breakfast.” “You whooped me at several games of Gin.” “You read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to me while I took a bath.” “You helped me do my first Christmas garland.” “I got to see Pat’s horse.” And so on. It sounds simple perhaps, but it feels lovely and right to me when each time I spend with a grandchild ends with such recounting of blessings and gifts.

As mentioned above, another thing we did while Mr. McBoy was here was work on some paper Christmas garlands to hang from our dining room mantel. He worked on the cardinal garland, and the next day when Carolyn came over I enlisted her help so I could finish the Merry Christmas garland.

I have two Thanksgiving garlands planned too. I’m not sure why I jumped the gun and completed the Christmas ones first, but things are sometimes a little confusing around here, so I guess I’ve just joined that club. I usually don’t decorate for Christmas until at least the day after Thanksgiving. I’ll post pictures of the Thanksgiving garlands when I’m done with those.

Mr. McBoy punched holes in a deck of cardinal cards, and I strung them together with some rough twine. The upper garland took a little more time. Carolyn cut out the plaid paper squares and the smaller white squares for me, and I drew the letters with a green Sharpie and outlined them in black. The twisted metallic cording is red, green and gold, and there are a few little white glittery snowflakes too. You can click to enlarge the photos if you like.

I was able to go to Community Bible Study yesterday and was so grateful for that. Michael was walking well enough in the morning that I felt okay about leaving him for those two hours. I know things might not always be this way, but on the days when this is possible I will seize the opportunities. Today he and I will go out to lunch, and then later in the afternoon we have our first in-home assessment with a health care agency. I have no idea what to expect or what we’ll be eligible for, but I know this is the next step in our journey with Michael’s Parkinson’s.

I feel like my life is getting so small that I don’t have much to share that’s interesting for this little blog anymore, not that the things I’ve shared in the past were that interesting. I do know that in God’s economy nothing is wasted, and just because someone’s life becomes more reclusive and focused doesn’t necessarily mean that huge things aren’t happening. I do have that sense, that while things on the outside might look and sometimes seem confined, whatever is happening in the spiritual realm has great purpose and is very precious to God. That knowledge is beauty and grace enough for me.

Thank you for stopping by here today…I pray this very minute that God will bless and keep you all today,

Spam /noun/ — Irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients.

I don’t understand Spam. I find it perplexing why my husband has always liked the “meat product” by Hormel called Spam. Years ago he used to buy it for himself when he would occasionally grocery shop. It didn’t seem to bother him that the block of soft, pink meat would slide out of the can covered in slimy gelatin and smell like someone’s serious digestive disturbance. He liked it on sandwiches and fried up in a pan. I can proudly attest to never having tasted one morsel of Spam in my life.

The other kind of Spam has not been so easy for me to elude. I find it in my blog’s spam folder a lot, and I don’t understand it either. There were nine spam comments in my spam folder this morning, and I thought I’d generously share with you all what some people all over the world spend their time doing.

These are a few word-for-word comments left on my blog (that got tagged as spam, thankfully):

1. Superior Net-website! I necessary to ask if I may webpages and use a element of the net world wide web website and use a couple of aspects for just about any school job. Remember to inform me by way of electronic mail whether or not that would be excellent. Many many thanks.

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3. Other news reports on drug cartels and Mexico in 2010 included a raid in South America where a totally submersible submarine, to be used for drug smuggling, was found under construction in the jungle, the murder of a U. Moreover, it is not a good idea to purchase a prescription drug online without seeing first your doctor even if you fill out a health-probing questionnaire. Even so the trends are commuting and more and more people prefer to purchase drugs from Online Stores. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world.

4. I all the time used to read piece of writing in news papers but now as I am a user of internet so from now I am using net for articles or reviews, thanks to web.

5. Just a tip – I bought several really cheap little carpet dots the other day and affixed them to the bottom of the feet of my dining room chairs. No more scraping along the floor boards when my daughter makes use of them like a walker!

6. While interesting while little league can be, it can be quite a lot of work to perform distinct goes. What’s more, it Presented a lot of online games in on-line. Declare “one, a pair of, about three, a number of, a few, a number of, about three, a pair of, one particular.”

If you have a blog you know what I’m talking about. And of course our email inboxes can often have a few ugly, unmentionable spam messages there as well.

With all there is to do in the world, I just don’t get it. Think of all the books to be read, the walks in the woods, the sunrises to enjoy, lonely people to connect with, jobs to perform, meals to prepare, houses to clean, friends to encourage, naps to take. It’s hard for me to understand why so many people spend their time spamming other people who don’t want their spam. It can’t be that lucrative, can it? Does anyone have insight on this?

“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets….

…When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

~~ C.S. Lewis

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This is one of the songs from a CD that’s on repeat mode in our house these days. If I’ve played it once I’ve played it fifty or eighty-nine times and I’m not through yet. So many of the songs from this CD seem to place a comforting, soothing hand to the dryest part of my soul, and this is one of them.

This debut CD (and song) is called “The House You’re Building” and the gifted artist is Audrey Assad. I watched an interview in which Audrey shares how this song came to be. It’s about feeling like you don’t belong, like you’re a misfit, and wonder where your place is in the world. Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt that way. 🙂

It’s beautiful and powerful. Take a listen.

Yeah these are old shoes that I’ve been walking in
I’m wearing weary like it’s a second skin
I’ve been looking for a place to lay my head

All this time like a vagabond
A homeless stranger
I’ve been wandering
All my life you’ve been calling me
To a home you know I’ve been needing

I’m a broken stone
So lay me in the house you’re building

You are a shelter for every misfit soul
We are the four walls and you’re the cornerstone
You are
And you’re the solid rock that we are built upon

And all this time like a vagabond
A homeless stranger
I’ve been wandering
And all my life you’ve been calling me
To a home you know that I’ve been needing

I’m a broken stone
So lay me in the house you’re building

‘Cause in you I find my meaning, yeah
And in you I find my beauty

All this time like a vagabond
A homeless stranger
I’ve been wandering
All my life you’ve been calling me
To a home you know I’ve been needing

All this time like a vagabond
A homeless stranger
I’ve been wandering
All my life you’ve been calling me
To a home you know I’ve been needing
I’m a broken stone
So lay me in the house you’re building

Lay me in the house you’re building
In the house you’re building

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So are you an Audrey Assad fan or is this possibly your first listen? I guess I’ve been living in a cave because I just heard of her less than a year ago. I guess I’m a little out of touch with Christian music lately…I’m still playing all my old favorites.

What a blessing her music and lyrics are to me at this time of my life….

I make a pot of tea in the morning and enjoy three to five cups all throughout the day. I enjoy simple things, like picking out the different cup I want to drink from each day. I like very thick and heavy mugs, and I also like very thin and fine tea cups. It just depends on my mood, but I have many to choose from and I rarely just reach for the first thing at hand. Most of you know that in our old house, I used to display my blue and white cup/mug collection on a huge wall in the kitchen, and you can see it here if you like.

My dear friend of over three decades gave me this mug for my birthday, and I love it. I have a post in the works to tell you about Su, but it’s so long I sometimes wonder if it should be in three parts. Hopefully someday soon you’ll be able to read about her and the way the Lord has worked in our friendship.

Anyway, this morning as Michael is napping and I’m getting ready to start on the piles of work in my office, I thought I’d share my cup with you and ask you why you think this cup might be so appropriate for drinking tea?

Some of you will see it right away. Maybe some of you will wonder what I’m talking about. When Su gave me this cup I thought for several days that it was a uniquely patterned piece that reminded me of a cow hide, except most cows aren’t dark blue and white.

Then one morning I was sipping my fragrant, steaming tea from this cup and I saw it.

And I thought, “How apropos!”

Do you see it too?

Since we of the frozen north are totally weather obsessed and I jumped right on that bandwagon when I moved to Minnesota in 1981, I will open this post by telling you that it has been in the low twenties recently, and not long ago our high temp during the day was a mere 29 degrees (minus 1.6 Celsius). So imagine my happiness when two men arrived the day before yesterday with our new gas insert and installed it into our dining room fireplace! It took them about four hours, and right before they left one of them gave me the tutorial on how to use the remote control.

I love that we can set the thermostat at, say, 65 degrees, and then if the house gets cool during the night (IF the house gets cool during the night? IF? In Minnesota I’m asking IF?) the flames jump to life and the kitchen and dining room are cheery and warm when I get up at pitch black-forty-five to start breakfasts.

Our oldest Schnauzer Edith figured out within a few minutes that standing about 18 inches in front of the double doors below would bring comfort to her old Schnauzer bones, and it was sweet to see her just standing there soaking in the heat in a place she’d never lounged before.

In early November it will be daylight savings time and we’ll have to set our clocks back one hour. This will mean yippee for those of us who get up early since we’ll get an extra hour to sleep. But it will mean that by Christmas it will be dark by 4:30 p.m., and I’m already thinking how lovely it will be to have our dinners by firelight. Snowflakes falling outside, savory smells wafting from the kitchen, dancing firelight within arm’s reach while we eat….ahhhh. Now if I could only get someone in here to take care of making sure those savory smells waft.

Michael has a doctor’s appointment today, and I’m hoping this will be the time when an in-home evaluation is ordered, and someone knowledgeable comes in to assess things and advise us on what other things to attend to. I’m hoping that occasional respite care can be arranged. I emailed my CBS core leader this week to tell her that things had taken such a turn with Michael that I wasn’t sure I could leave him for two hours anymore. I realize that unless I have someone come in on Tuesday mornings, I may not be able to return to Community Bible Study this year. I will not be content with just anyone coming in to be with Michael, and I pray that the right person/s is out there. An indifferent college student who took a home care job just to get a paycheck while studying for her degree probably won’t work. An overzealous, seemingly perfect young man who talks too much and acts like Michael’s new best friend would set my radar on high alert immediately. Gahh… I need to just release this to the Lord.

My dear friend Carey and I were going to meet for lunch yesterday but it began to be apparent that I shouldn’t leave, so I asked her if she could pick the food up and bring it to our house. She graciously agreed and acted like that was a better idea to begin with, because that’s the kind of encouraging and wonderful friend she is. We sat at the table and had good food from Burrito Union, and talked about our families and how our perceptions of our heavenly Father are changing and coming more into alignment (I hope) with who He really is and what He wants in our lives.

The other night as I was taking a bath and listening to Pandora, an old (beloved) song by Jennifer Knapp came on, and I experienced one of those rare moments when I knew the Truth was resounding into my spirit and I was receptive enough to fully take it in. The words to the song are:

When it rains or it shines on this pillow of mine
I will lift up my head to the sky
So I have a chance to see
Where my hope has come from
Know there’s nothing that I can’t abide

When nothing satisfies you
When nothing satisfies you
When nothing satisfies you
Hold my hand

Send forth Your light Lord,
And send forth Your Truth
Let them guide me to Your Holy Place
Then will I go to the Altar of God
To my Joy, my Delight and my Strength

When nothing satisfies you
When nothing satisfies you
When nothing satisfies you
Hold my hand

Why are you so downcast o my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God
My Savior, my King
My Savior, my King

When nothing satisfies you
When nothing satisfies you
When nothing satisfies you
Hold my hand

I cried as I listened to the words and wished that somehow I could really, physically reach out and find the hand of Jesus to hold onto. I told the Lord that. I know most of the spiritual answers to this longing, how He resides in those who’ve called out to Him to save them and we find Him through them, how people all over the world are His hands and feet, how the Holy Spirit often comforts us and prays for us in times of grief and trouble, and how we don’t hold onto Him, because He is already holding onto us. I believe all that, and I’m so thankful for it. And I have experienced the wonder of finding Him in another yielded person. But I still would like to be able to hold onto the nail-scarred hand of the Savior and feel that infusion of strength and hope and joy that would surely come.

Well, little Louisa will be arriving for some grandma time today, so I must close this for now. Thank you for stopping by here, and for leaving your comments. I hope your weekend is sweet and that the Lord helps us all to love and bear with and encourage the people in our lives….

A few weeks ago The Second Annual Lupi-Soo Convention Convened. Or maybe I could say The Second Annual Lupi-Soo Reunion Reunited. Whatever we call it, it’s a tradition my oldest friend Denel and I have begun and are loving. We have vowed to each other (well, vow is a strong word now that I think about it—it’s not like under pain of death or disembowelment that we’ve made this promise to each other) that for as long as we can, we’ll meet together somewhere each year for a long weekend. To catch up, to be thankful in and for our 49 year-long friendship, to reminisce, to listen, to laugh, to sit, to sightsee, to rest.

Last year for our first Lupi-Soo, I chose our destination. Denel lives in Southern California where we both grew up, and I’ve made Northern Minnesota my home for almost 33 years now. So I envisioned a cabin in the Rocky Mountains somewhere, and we met in Denver and drove 9000 above sea level to our, ahem, cough-cough, cabin in the Rockies, and had a wonderful time together. If you never saw those photos, you can click here to see them if you like.

This year Denel chose Seattle and Bainbridge Island, and below are probably too many pictures for you to enjoy of our recent Lupi-Soo. (For those who are new here, our maiden names of Lupiani and Sooter are the roots for the goofy conglomerate title we use for our trips.)

I have been a less than happy flyer since early 1981, but I keep flying. Here’s my plane in Minneapolis as I waited to board on an overcast Thursday morning. Did I pray and ask the Lord to keep that thing in the air and to also keep the flight smooth if He didn’t mind? Oh, yes I did.

I had a window seat and these are what clouds look like in Montana.

I had only seen photos before of majestic Mt. Rainier, but I couldn’t resist my own shot when we were still 30 minutes outside of Seattle and it loomed on the horizon. I say loomed because it should be a slightly dangerous word…Mt. Rainier is not a dormant volcano. When I learned that bit of trivia I blinked more than a few times.

After Denel and I met in the Seattle airport and rented our car, we dropped our bags off at our hotel. Of course Denel and I visited the Farmers Market, and I think we could have spent a lot more time there. The fresh flowers for $5 a bunch! The lemon juice infused balsamic vinegar samples on fresh bread! The musical buskers! The amazing produce! I would visit the Pike Place Market quite a bit if I lived in Seattle.

Here’s a picture of Denel at The Athenian Inn at the Pike Place Market. We enjoyed a baked goat cheese, artichoke and tomato on crusty bread appetizer. (Apparently Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks made this place famous when a scene from the movie Sleepless in Seattle was filmed inside.)

So moanworthy….

We were delighted with our hotel room, which was right on the water, facing west, and had a little corner gas fireplace too.

The view from my bed:

This was looking out our hotel room window, toward the Seattle skyline:

And the same view at night:

Beautiful Denel in the fancy elevator which had landscapes of twinkly lights and a movie screen inside featuring all kinds of undulating sea creatures…

My dear friend Shari lives in Seattle and I was so excited to be able to see her for the first time since 1975, back when we graduated from Covina High School. We’ve kept in touch through letters and emails all these years, but the last time we saw each other in person was when we were 17 years old. Shari met us at our hotel’s restaurant for breakfast Friday morning and we spent the day together. Shari is on the left and Denel is behind us.

She went to the Space Needle with us, because you have to take the elevator up 605 feet to see the Space Needle if you visit Seattle, right?

The stunning view of Seattle from the top observation deck of the Space Needle, and the non-dormant volcano Mt. Rainier in the background right:

And I included this photo because on top of one of the buildings under the Space Needle, you can see huge, long-legged spiders. Yikes! Click to enlarge if you want a better view:

Denel and Julie, quite calm even though we were dozens of stories in the air…

We also went on the Seattle Ducks, which my friend Ginny recommended to us. I confess I probably wouldn’t have thought to take this land/sea truck/boat tour had Ginny not been so enthusiastic (I think she texted “one of the highlights of my life”), but it was fantastic! Such a great way to see the city without having to drive all over and find the highlights on our own. We learned fun and interesting things about this beautiful city, and the tour guide played appropriate and sometimes crazy music and wore strange hats that really added to our enjoyment.

Shari and Denel on our Duck Boat tour…

We were so glad Shari was free to spend the day with us, because she’s one of the truest, sweetest people I know, and because she knew the city and suggested we have a late lunch/early dinner at Ray’s. 🙂

Once again we were right on the water, and we ate outside and had these delicious fruity beverages…

Later that night after we said goodbye to Shari, Denel and I weren’t hungry enough for dinner. So we went downstairs in our hotel to this beautiful fireplaced lobby (right on the water) and had appetizers.

Mine was a melted blue cheese and blackberry crostini appetizer, and I couldn’t help but notice that Washington blackberries are almost as big as ping pong balls. We have berries in abundance in Minnesota, but they’re not this size!

After a restful night’s sleep we decided to order room service for breakfast, and I chose something I’d never had before. Steel cut oats with toasted walnuts, grated candied ginger, chopped dates and strawberries drizzled with a maple cream sauce. I wonder what the folks in my house would do if one morning when asked what’s for breakfast, instead of mumbling “Toast and eggs” or “Fruit and cereal” I answered liltingly, “Steel cut oats with toasted walnuts, grated candied ginger, chopped dates and strawberries drizzled with a maple cream sauce!” They’d probably fall over. Then they’d get up and dig in.

Denel ordered the fruit salad with homemade granola, yogurt and mint. Another wow and another yum.

After two nights in Seattle, we took the Bainbridge Island Ferry across Puget Sound, and drove to our beautiful beach house. Here’s a link if you’d like to see photos of the rooms, views, yard, etc. This little friend was waiting for me in the kitchen window:

Here’s a view from the kitchen of the very modern and airy decor:

The back yard was lovely, and views of Seattle can be seen from almost anyplace in or near the house:

The nighttime Seattle skyline from the deck of our beach house:

Even though rain was forecasted for most of the time we were there (Hello? It’s Seattle!), Denel kept asking the Lord for sunny weather. We had beautiful sunny days for the most part, and after one period of rain we saw a double rainbow over Puget Sound, as a cruise ship was heading out to sea. You might be able to see the fainter rainbow just to the left of the tree if you enlarge the photo…

There was a cozy window seat in the living room and we sat near there to enjoy the beauty. Denel and I also read three books before our Lupi-Soo, all either set in Seattle or on Bainbridge Island, and we had ourselves a little book club discussion on one of the grayer days. We both thought this book was quirky, unique, funny and like nothing else we’d ever read.

Bainbridge Island has giant pine trees and beautiful flowers almost everywhere:

We ate at a great place called Doc’s Marina and Grill, where we wanted to try a drink called a Gordon Green. It was in the Bernadette book. Because it has lime juice in it, and cucumber juice and sugar, I thought I might love it. Alas, I have never developed a taste for strong alcohol and I wasn’t a fan. We had a nice dinner though, and talked about our families and our prayers and dreams for those we love. Denel and I will always pray for each others’ children and we don’t hesitate to text each other if prayer is needed.

Since my father’s name was Doc, I had Denel take a picture of me in front of the sign to I could send it to my dad’s wife Dorothy:

Lined up with dozens of cars on Monday morning, sailing on the ferry back to Seattle on Puget Sound.

Denel and I turned in our rented Subaru at the airport, and then found that we were departing from separate concourses and had to take different buses to our respective terminals. We quickly took a picture of ourselves together, hugged and prayed for each other, and waved goodbye until next time. The picture below on the left was in a photo booth at Long’s Drug Store in the Eastland Shopping Center in Covina, CA. Denel and I were almost 13 years old. The photo on the right was right before we said goodbye in Seattle, 43 years later.

Next fall when we meet somewhere for our 3rd Lupi-Soo Convention, it will be my turn to choose. I’ve never been to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and I hear it’s beautiful there. I also wouldn’t mind some place in New England — maybe a cabin in the woods of Maine, with a view of the grey Atlantic will do. On our next Lupi-Soo we’ll be celebrating 50 years of friendship. We know each others’ histories, the family stuff that shaped (and hindered) us, we loved each others’ parents, traded each others’ books, shared vacations, school, giggles and heartaches, and because of God’s goodness to us, we’ve made more memories than either of our brains can bring to mind anymore.

Today I’m thinking of my cherished, oldest friend Denel, and thanking God for all He’s given us…

Joni Eareckson Tada is one of my favorite people. I’ve never read a book of hers that hasn’t made me weep, exult, and yearn to be changed. I was happy to see this little video she did recently, and just had to post it, because one of my favorite people is sharing about one of my favorite things….

And while I’m at it, may I recommend one of Joni’s more recent books to you?  If you haven’t read this one, I promise it will be one you’ll want to own. You might even want to give it as a gift. If you’re a Christian, people are eventually going to ask you why a loving God allows such suffering in the world, and this book will speak to that in ways better said than almost any other book I know. (Tim Keller and Peter Kreeft do a phenomenal job of addressing this issue as well…)

And if you’d like to see if there’s a CBS class near you, click right here and look for the “Find a Class” button near the top of the page. There are daytime and evening classes available all over the world.

I’d also like to invite anyone who has been to CBS to leave a comment below and share their opinions and experiences about attending!

I hope your Wednesday is full of God’s peace,