Little tree, monks and condo-manium part 2

If you look closely at the middle of the picture, in the midst of concrete and debris, there is a little bit of autumnal green. Just a sprout, but my tree is growing back after it 3rd or 4th mow down. I believe it is coming back quicker than usual. After running errands yesterday, I went to the front of the car just to take a peek and see if there are signs of recovery. Yes! Again I am filled with great joy and hope cause this little tree is searching for the sun with a vengeance. I love this little tree. God uses this little tree to give me strength and hope in the hard terrain of life I am called to walk from time to time. This tree and I are going to clap our hands. Of course I know the Bible says the trees of the field, but baby, this is a rock hard field. Maybe tonight when I leave for church I will give this tree a standing ovation. Take a little Praise Break and give Him some praise!

At noon today I had a meeting to attend at church. I was asked if I would be one of the monks doing the Hallelujah Chorus for the Christmas Program this year. It is a fun group of people, most of whom I know already, but I am looking forward to getting to know the ones I haven't met before. Any group with members such as Pamela, Jennifer S, Peggy, Jaime,

Drew and Mark B is going to be fun. Of course when they gave us the CD to listen to the Hallelujah Chorus, I was pretty happy about that and the promise of a DVD to practice with...I'm all for that, but when we were handed a chart of the words and how they would be done, I said to Peggy, I didn't know math was going to be involved. Hopefully they know with whom they are working with and give me a really easy part to do.

I wrote about our condo in this post and thought I might add a few more condoments...tee hee. I could not resist. When Roy and I came home from lunch today, (no we don't eat at home very often to those of you new to monablog) and saw Deloris. I have written about her before. She was the mistress of a local and well known businessman for years when she was younger, but looking at her now, you'd just think she is a sweet old lady. She looked kind of worn today and I think Mary's death has been very hard on her. She had her little grocery cart and the 24 pack of Bud Light seemed to be the dominant purchase from the store. She has come up in her choice of beer, she used to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon or Lone Star because it was the cheapest beer to be bought. She usually walks in with Roy and me, but she hurried onward like she didn't really want to talk with anyone. If I bake this year at the holidays, I think I will take her something. She, Mary and Mary's sister always traveled on the holidays and I wonder if she will do so this year? It is like the United Nations on our floor and wing. There is a mother daughter combo that live down the hall who are French Jews. Just a couple doors down from them a Muslim girl lives who awaits her mom's arrival from Jordan to live with her. In between them is a older gentleman whose wife lived at The Forum and needed assisted living. She died sometime last year. He is kind and is out early every morning walking the neighborhood. The man who lives next door to him is just plain strange and odd. In all our years living here, we have attempted conversation with him and he avoids conversation at all costs. The girl who lives across the hall from us saw our last name and thought we owned a paint company. Every time I saw her she would hint at needing to paint her place but was strapped for cash to be able to take care of that. I finally had to tell her we did not own the paint company, the pool company, the cleaners, and we weren't the dental association that has our last name. Needless to say, she hasn't wanted to talk with us much since then. She had the horrible bad luck of parking next to a big ol' time Joe Bob and his Dooley truck. Seemed like Joe Bob had a difficult time of just taking up his spot. She left him a note on the truck one day politely asking him to park on his side. He waited for her one morning and lambasted her with words that shouldn't rightly be said to a lady. The condo management realized he was kind of crazy and took the proper precautions with him. I think he sold his condo and moved back to whert he came from.

I cannot help but think about some of the animals that have lived here in our condominium complex. Lots of dogs and you can't help but notice cats sleeping the windows or just watching over the sights. Lot of big dogs live here as well as small yappy kinds of dogs. We had a yappy kind of dog when we first moved in. Walking her was almost always an adventure. She and I were nearly struck by lightning once, but that will be for another time. I was telling someone the other day about the time Tiff the dog cornered a squirrel by the gated entrance off the parking lot. It was an early morning and I was dressed for a tennis match later that morning. We came upon the squirrel and I thought I would release a little more length of the leash to let Tiff get a little closer to the squirrel. She had desired to catch one all her life. So I was going to let her look, then we would walk to another entrance and let the squirrel be. So, like an idiot, I let a little of the leash go so that Tiff is two steps closer and then to my utmost surprise the squirrel began running right at me. I was frozen and could not move as I watched this rodent with a busy tail come at me...I screamed like I had never screamed before. The squirrel is closing in, I am like a tree by the water, I shall not be moved, when the squirrel went all Rocky and Bullwinkle and leaped and flew in the air...still headed for me. The squirrel has his paws out in front of him, kind of Superman like and uses them to bounce off my knee brace and make an amazing turn in mid air away from me and away from Tiff the barking dog. After the squirrel's departure, I still stood there. I had always laughed at people who said I was so scared that I wet my pants. Silly people who aren't in control of their emotions, I always thought. But I stood there and said out loud Tiff, I think I wet my pants. We better get in to check on that. This is the same entrance where I had a Seinfeld moment or rather an Elaine moment when a bird flew into my head.

Well, enough for now. No deep spiritual moments here in the blog as of late. But, I know that God walks with me in all happiness and in the valley of the shadow of a squirrel. He walked before Roy and I last night as we headed over to my parents. One never knows which direction the conversation can take with my dad and I went through my check list of what ifs with him on the ride over to their home. God assured me in the deep recess of my heart He had the whole evening in control and I shouldn't fret or worry. He did. We learned in Esther this week that God knows and He knows how... He is mindful that we are but dust. Speaking of that, I better go check the dust in the mirror and add whatever I need to make my dust look good for church tonight.