One More Thing

 I'm just about finished with one of my winter projects that has lingered into spring. Getting two closets cleaned out as well as bookcases upstairs. The delay in progress comes about when something is found that makes one stop and peruse. In the midst of books, I came across the 1989 choir and orchestra directory  I thumbed through the pages and remembered as well as wondered at the youth of friends and the fashion styles of the late 1980s. It was great fun! So you know, post haste, some of those pics went right to FB so we could all remember those times and people. Very rarely will you hear me say, I miss those days or I wish I could go back...cause even with the good stuff, I don't want to return to the days of yester-year. Am I sentimental? Oh yes but in this addled ADD mind, there is a difference. In the hurry to post, it wasn't until the second set of pics that I realized I had forgotten to honor the man who was in charge of it all, Gerald Ray. Better late than never but not, last but not least. What a privilege to sing in his choir as well as have great fun in choir. For this non-gifted musical person, choir has to be fun for me to learn and appreciate. What am I saying? Almost everything has to have some element of fun for me to love and appreciate the experience. 

Yesterday, we made the trip to Hendersonville for bloodwork and the reward, breakfast at Another Broken Egg. Delicious for sure. A quick visit to Lens Crafters for glasses adjustments and then, Barnes and Noble. Yes, I made it almost to April with a Christmas gift card from The Joy Class. Bought three books in three different genres and only had to add $2.03 to the purchase price. I realized I hadn't been in a bookstore until yesterday for the year 2023. Hope to change that up a bit.

We didn't make it through all of the lesson on Sunday, so we will finish it up and go into John 15 and then we will be up to date with the quarterly. In the commentary provided by Lifeway, the introduction to the spring study mentions that this is the time when Jesus is wrapping up earthly ministry and time is clicking down to His sacrifice, so He is making sure that the disciples are getting the "one more thing" from him. It just so happens that a book I'm reading fit right into the one more thing thought. Parents are dropping off their daughter for college to begin her freshman year. They graduated from Ole Miss as well as their older two sons, so this is the last child to deposit at Ole Miss. A daughter born to them in later life, so this time it is fraught with emotion. The mother is frantic with thoughts of, did I tell her everything she needs to know in her first eighteen years of life. So she is ranting off common sense know how, separate colors from light colors in the washing machine, you can always call home, don't forget to lock your dorm door...stuff like that. The daughter is mortified and embarrassed. Jesus isn't frantic in His one more thing but is making sure the disciples hear this so they will remember in the coming days. I also like that He used simple words that would draw them in, love, home, My Father, Life and a comforter. Words they can identify and understand. That is the emphasis of the lesson from Sunday and the one coming up, the simple words that draw us closer to the Lord. Teaching the big theological themes...well, I will leave that to those so gifted in understanding them and better yet communicating them. We began last week in John 13:34-35 and we will conclude this week's lesson with, friendship, joy and love. 

**************

While driving about in the country yesterday, we were able to find SC strawberries, not from Strawberry Hill but from another farm. They are so good and sweet, we didn't add sugar. Trees are blooming out again or maybe for the first time this season. Our dogwoods are just now sporting little blooms. The red bud trees kind of got hit by the cold temps here but the peach trees made it just fine. Strange and odd for sure. Sunday afternoon Roy put in the fertilizer spikes for our fruit trees and while out in the front yard, I heard a couple of quick honks. Theresa honked every time she drove by and as I turned toward the road to wave, I realized it wasn't going to be her. 

In the recent years, the end of March and the first of April have been eventful. March 27th came and went before realizing the anniversary date when my father's cardiologist nurse thought he hadn't made it in for his appointment. After retracing routes he could have taken, I went back to his home and looked through his rolodex for phone numbers of his friends. He came in the house, saw me at his desk and as it is said, the rest is history. Even after explaining why I was there and what I was doing...this wasn't going to end well and it didn't. That date is the last time I saw my father, alive cause the bottom dropped out of his demented and evil mind. The end of March 2015 we were here waiting for the moving van to arrive on April 1st. A momentous and wonderful memory. Also on April 1, 2017 my father passed away. Quite fitting to die on April Fools Day. In 2018 I had my ablation for afib and a-flutter. Five years...wow! What a difference in life and sadly at Mission Hospital. 

Surely there is one more thing...but even now as I finish this up, Roy is making breakfast and I do not want to miss that.