Sunset over Middle Lake from Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL
Hey, Y’all! Been a while, huh?! Sorry to have left you hanging since my last posting in May. But, life got a little out of its normal bounds for a few weeks at the beginning of June, and I am just now getting the time to play “catch up” in several areas of my life.
I’ll attempt to give a quick (Oh, who am I kidding. I can’t tell any story “quick”.) recap of life over the past several weeks…
On June 4th I got a call from my brother that our then-87 year old Mom had fallen, resulting in a break in her femur right below the ball joint of her right hip, similarly to the break she sustained five years prior to her left femur. Knowing that our Dad would not need to be alone for however long it took for Mom to heal from surgery and complete her rehab, I packed my things up that afternoon and moved in with my Dad. With the initial information from the doctor, we expected it would be at least four weeks before Mom would be home. And, although she had hoped to be home in that amount of time, it was actually seven weeks before she was comfortable enough to leave the rehab facility and return home to complete her healing and rehabilitation.
Although it was a rotten, painful situation for my Mom to go through, I often found myself over those seven weeks thankful for the situation her fall had put my Dad and I in. No, I am not thankful my Mom was hurt. But, I was blessed by the situation in that for the first time in my 46 years I got to actually KNOW my father.
You see, unlike my Mom and I, he is a rather quiet man and not one to really share much about himself. It wasn’t until the last seven years that I even heard him speak of his time in the United States Air Force. During the Korean War, he was stationed in Japan and worked in communications. A week or two into our time together I even found an old scrapbook Mom had made from the pictures during his time over there. What a treasure that was to discover! It was such a “God thing” within itself as to how I discovered it. With Dad sharing stories of his time in Japan, I began to “wish” I could find some pictures from that era. My Mom is a HUGE picture taker/saver, so it felt odd to have never been shown any pictures from that time in their life. I knew there had to be some somewhere! After a few days with this on my mind, I went into the spare bedroom…which was much like the spare bedroom in most of our homes where it’s the “catch-all” room. I just started scanning the room, almost WILLING myself to find something. I look down right beside where I was standing, and peeking out was the smallest amount of a very colorful picture. I’d never seen it before, so I began to pull it out from under everything else that was stacked on top of it. I open it up and sure enough, I’d found exactly what I’d been hoping to! I flipped through every page, read every caption Mom had written and then took it to Dad so he could reminisce and tell me about each picture. It was a moment in time I want to never forget. Honestly, there were many moments during those seven weeks that I hope I never forget. I won’t share them here, because they are for me, but I will cherish each of them.
After getting back home and settling back into a more “normal” routine, the first thing we were ready to do was to get back to our beloved Canal Campground for some much needed rest, relaxation and kayaking with our camping buddies from Muhlenberg County. So, that’s just what we did with our first weekend after my return home.
So, now that I’ve given a little update as to why there has been such a delay in the time between my previous post and now, I am hopeful to get back into the habit of posting more regularly. Although, these days, I have so much that rattles around in my mind…so much more than just our travel adventures. Which means I will likely be adjusting my posts to include more ramblings in the lifestyle area of my life in the days to come.
Life is still a little out of its bounds…as I’m sure most people’s are as compared to where we all were pre-COVID. But, in reality, isn’t life always that way? Aren’t we always hit from the sides by what we don’t or can’t initially see coming? Our ability to adjust course is what makes us the resilient, strong people that we are. For me, that resilience and strength comes from Christ, without whom I would not be where I am today and without whom I could not face an uncertain tomorrow….because every tomorrow is uncertain, after all.
Blessings to each of you who have taken the time to stopped in to catch up with me. Talk soon.
XOXO