Mona-moments

The last day of 2011.  How did the year go by so quickly?  2011 will truly be a memorable year both in happiness and sadness, joy and choosing joy in adversity, and peace and holding onto peace in the midst of the storms.  2011 hasn't been such a bad year, even though we saw the passing of my mom and recently learned of the passing of a beloved uncle. 2011 began with searching for a new condo or townhouse around where we lived and developed into building a house, way out, almost to the ends of the earth or at least to 1463.  2011 held fun and good times with friends and family.  2011 was a bit of a roller coaster for me health wise and I'm  just a little worse for the wear with a little added exhaustion extended in the closing of most days.  Roy and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary in 2011.  We both read a lot of good books this year and Roy became a part of the ebook generation by Christmas. 

There is so much to be thankful for in 2011.  We experienced God's richest and faithful new mercies.  His presence and peace accompanied and held us tenderly in difficult days.  And again we realized and trusted in that well worn through faith, beloved, and treasured verse, the joy of the Lord is our strength.

It wasn't a huge year of travel for us, but I did spend some memorable and restorative days in Rosemary Beach.  I think this is the first year in a while that we didn't head up to Asheville for any time away.  I think we just might get back on the Asheville trail in 2012. 

In 2011 both Roy and I are so thankful for our friends that we do life with.  It has been a blast only being 2.6 miles away from Peggy and Bill.  We do impromptu dinners, pedis (well Peggy and me) and just hanging out together fun.  Strange in that this is the first year in maybe 20 years that we did not do a Mildred and Gertrude performance.  We had opportunities and had been asked by several churches for a show, but scheduling conflicts conflicted with our personal calendars.  For years Dena was our 2.6 miles away friend and it has taken some adjusting not being so close locally since she and I did so much spur of the moment kind of stuff.  You know like dinner or shopping.  We've been creative in how we carve out time for dinner but maybe not so much shopping.  Who knows, might be kind of a good thing.   We are so thankful for our friends Emily and David and they have even hitched up their Conestoga wagon a time or two to go west and make it out here on the prairie.  David and Roy...ah, two opposite yet alike peas in a pod.  I am so thankful for my lifetime friends.  No, not friends I have made at Lifetime gym...that would encompass me actually going to the gym for that to be accomplished.  During the emotionally difficult days of my mom's passing, Mary Madeline walked with me through them and she being all the way in Georgia.  Her wise words and encouragement were so welcomed and I was reminded of her wise words and encouragement to me in my freshman year of college.  Her life has made a definite mark on who I am today.  Alice, my good friend from Southwest Texas days and I have re-connected on FB.  Her kind words this year blessed and again so grateful for the Lord making our paths to cross in and out through the years.  I am thankful for my friend Beth.  She came to Houston this year and our afternoon together was delightful and fun.  It is like no time has passed and although, hopefully, we are a little wiser, we still feel like our friendship did in high school.  I am thankful for my choir friends, church friends, Bible study friends, Facebook friends and life friends, too numerous to name, but not loved any less.  We are such blessed people to have such good and wonderful friends. 

This year Roy determined to be a diligent reader of the Bible and using a plan to accomplish this.  Ah, Roy is a plan man.  I on the other hand received repeated reminders from You Version that I was behind, no VERY behind on my daily Bible reading plan.  Might not be disciplined enough to start and finish a read the Bible in a year thing, but I can say I became more aware of God and His presence in daily life.  My eyes, ears and heart were attuned to see Him everyday.  This Christmas season I was very determined to experience God and I come away from this season satisfied and pleased in knowing Him.  I am so thankful He is in the details, even the smallest details of life. 

I titled this entry Mona-moments because Roy is developing a website and Mona-moments is the domain name.  Once he has all the bugs worked out and actually puts it online, he will have so many of his pictures on display for viewing and buying pleasure.  I decided to use his website name because that is what the post is about, moments in our lives. 

One of the more poignant moments in my life came the Sunday evening/Monday morning before my mom passed away on Tuesday November 8.  That moment came in a dream.  In my dream I was at the foot of the bed of my mom.  Her breathing labored but her countenance peaceful.  Somehow I realized she had just died and the next thing was just like out of the scene of a movie.  Out of her tired and worn body, rose up a little girl that looked to be about 12 years old and it was my mom at the age of 12.  Her image was one that I had seen many times in a photograph of her.  She wore a pair of black Mary Jane's and white ruffled socks in the dream.  In real life her family wouldn't have been able to afford such a luxury.  In fact, I am just now reminded that my mom wore hand me down shoes from a cousin.  The shoes never fit properly and she had to jam her foot into those shoes.  Don't worry friends, I'm not going to write a song about shoes to memorialize my mother. For the rest of her life my mom had permanently bent toes from those early shoe wearing years.  My mom looking and acting so young began to run around the room...but not on the floor but in the air.  She ran, did flip, jumped and skipped joyously.  In the dream after running about she began to climb a circular staircase that she could see but I could not.  When she had almost reached the point where my ability to see her stopped, she came down a step or two and waved to me.  She said don't worry, I'll be seeing you!  And then I woke up.  In my dazed waking moment I thought, my mom just died.  She didn't at that moment but I am so thankful for the gift of that dream to me from the Lord. 

That dream has reminded me of Mark 5: 40-42
⁴⁰ The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. ⁴¹ Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” ⁴² And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.

I'm feeling impressed that these verses and the ones previous and after these two verses will be my verses for 2012, for many reasons that are clear to me but I'm not going to share in my blog.  And no, I didn't chose these verses because at the end of the chapter Jesus instructs them to give the little girl something to eat. 

Happy and Blessed New Year Friends, Family and Readers of Monablog!