768. The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all directions. ~Chanakya

June 11, 2015 by nataliescarberry

We are each made for goodness,
love and compassion.
Our lives are transformed
as much as the world is when
we live with these truths.
~Desmond Tutu

The cup of this day
is waiting to be filled.
Let’s make it overflow with
the fragrance of
our inherent goodness,
our innate ability to love,
and our compassionate
yearnings for a
better us and the world.
~Natalie Scarberry

And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence… ~Exodus 33:19 ✝

Today’s Quote

June 10, 2015 by nataliescarberry

767. I think our dreams are held in safe-keeping within our souls, and when fulfilled, tears are the happy release of the “minding.” ~Masked Native at: http://maskednative.com/

June 10, 2015 by nataliescarberry

There is sacredness in tears.
They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.
They are messengers of overwhelming grief,
irrepressible joy,
deep contrition,
and unspeakable love.
~Adapted quote
by Washington Irving

I want to start off by thanking all of you who read the daily installments of my personal saga about Paris as well as those of you who took the time to comment about my story. I didn’t realize that walking back through the years to tell about the events that lead up to our trip in 2013 and the one we’ll be making again soon, would bring about a kind of catharsis which ultimately defined and released long held emotions about things in my past.

However, now I realize more than ever how important it is that people share their personal stories, the things that make us who and what we are, not only for the impact they’ve had and continue to have on us, but also because others may find release, healing, encouragement, assurances, etc. in our narratives. We are, after all, a composite of everything that happens to us as well as the resulting influence of all those who cross our paths.

Several years ago I ordered some morning glory seeds from a catalog, and another packet of a different kind of morning glories was thrown in as a bonus. However, that bonus package got lost at the bottom of my seed-storage box until I discovered it again earlier in spring. So I sowed the seeds, “et voilà,” here it is. Isn’t it lovely? I’ve never seen a morning glory like this one, but I think I’m falling in love with its cute, pink and white curlicues.

Although in France they don’t associate the color pink with the city of Paris, imagery around the turn of the last century (the Belle Époque) as well as later images in the media and Paris-themed feminine merchandise, the color pink does continue to be associated with Paris elsewhere in the world. So I’m calling this frilly little pink posy my “Parisienne Glory,” and I pray that it blesses your eyes. Love, Natalie

Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. ~Psalm 126:5 ✝

766. Paris is always a good idea! ~Audrey Hepburn

June 9, 2015 by nataliescarberry

…wherever you go for the rest of your life,
it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
~Ernest Hemingway

In the summer of 2013 about 6 weeks before our 50th wedding anniversary, James and I, along with our family, did in fact fly over the big pond. We landed first in London, and after three days there we took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland, which was another huge, huge treat for me. (My dad had worked for Southern Pacific Railroad when we were growing up and every summer we traveled to places all over the US by train, and I loved, loved, loved riding and sleeping on trains.) After 3 days in Scotland we flew to Dublin for 2 and a half days. And from Dublin… Are your ready for this?! Could I have a drum roll please!!! We flew to Paris! Regrettably we had booked a hotel in Versailles, instead of Paris proper, and so after being picked up by a prearranged taxi, we went straight to our hotel to check in our luggage. Since it was quite late when we arrived at the hotel and we had yet to attempt traveling on the RER (Metro in Paris), we spent the evening in the town of Versailles. However, even though all I’d gotten to see of Paris that first day were views from the plane and a speeding taxi, it was enough to start the adrenaline flowing. The next morning when we got off the Metro in Paris and turned to walk onto the Pont Alexandre III bridge, one of the most ornate and extravagant bridges across the Seine, the excitement exploded into breathtaking fullness–so much so that I came to an abrupt halt right where I stood, frozen in place and completely stunned by everything that now lay before my eyes. The dream had at long last come to pass, and what I was seeing was even more dramatic and wondrous than I’d imagined. In that instant that bridge became a part of me and I belonged to it and it to me. Then when I turned to hear what my daughter was saying and the Eiffel Tower came into view, uncontrollable tears began streaming down my time-worn face. The teenage girl, who had fallen in love with the French language and Paris as a senior in high school, was finally witnessing her dream come true. Though, I could barely utter the words to explain the tears to my daughter, she somehow knew to put her arm around me and stand there with me as I took it all in. Then as we turned to walk across the bridge to join the others, I was stung on the side of my face by a bee. But ya know, no matter how bad that sting hurt and it did, there was nothing, simply nothing, that could have kept me from relishing that moment on the Pont Alexandre that glorious morning. I was “home” in a sense, and in less than 2 weeks, we are going “home” to Paris to feast for the second time. This time our hotel is between the Eiffel Tower and the Pont Alexandre. Imagine that?! My, oh my, oh my! How very, very good God is!!! By the way, I was thrilled that James fell in love with Paris from the get go, but it’s probably a very good thing that he didn’t say something silly like, “I wish we’d come here years earlier.”

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. ~Psalm 62:5 ✝

**The Pont Alexandre III, the Beaux-Arts style bridge, with its exuberant Art Nouveau lamps, cherubs, nymphs and winged horses at either end, was built between 1896 and 1900. It is named after Tsar Alexander III, who had concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892. His son Nicholas II laid the foundation stone in October 1896. (Pictures in collage are mine.)

765. Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future. ~Paul Boese

June 8, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Chocolate says “I’m sorry”
so much better than words.
~Rachel Vincent

I’ve have been absent this weekend and have not been able to read your posts or answer comments for days, and I’m so sorry. My granddaughter graduated from high school yesterday, and it was a very busy weekend preparing food for a party on Saturday and then the ceremony itself was yesterday. I’m also the one usually picked to take all the photos during such events so there were the 400+ photos to download, edit, and email to the interested parties. But I believe that by tomorrow, life should be back to my normal routines at least for the next two weeks. I wish I could give you some of the candy in this Paris shop because their chocolate is so much better than ours. Please accept my apology as I do care about each and everyone one of you, and I’ve hated not being able to be involved and in touch. Love, Natalie

May you be blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. ~Psalm 115:15 ✝

764. Every day holds the possibility of a miracle. ~Elizabeth David

June 8, 2015 by nataliescarberry

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
~Albert Einstein

Okay, now let’s fast forward to the summer of 2012. Our daughter and her husband had started talking about taking their kids to Europe the next year for their annual summer vacation. Yeh, I know, lucky kids, huh?! And lo and behold, one day out of the blue, James says to me, “do you think we ought to go to Europe with them?” I was so stunned that I just sat there speechless and staring at him for a minute or two until I finally blurted out, “Are you serious? You do remember that you have to fly over the big pond to get there, right?” And he says, “Well, at least we’d all be on the same plane together if it went down.” Yeppers, that’s my James for ya. I guess a group death is better than a singular one. But just to make sure I asked him several more times if he really wanted to go, and he said yes each time. So I called our daughter, Nikki, and the next week we began making plans and reservations for a 15 day trip to London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Paris. But alas, one more time, another of those dratted “best laid plans of mice and men going awry” things threatened to keep the now more than 50 year old dream a reality. It was on November 9th, 2012, less that a month after my 70th birthday that I had an ischemic stroke caused by two clots in my brain. After I was rushed to the hospital by ambulance a neurosurgeon order a cat-scan and a MRI. When the results came back, he told my family that if the clots were not removed, I would die and that the surgery to remove the clots could end my life as well. Of course, they opted for the surgery and here I am today. The Lord guided the surgeon’s hands and blessed me with even more miracles because the only residual damage I have from the stroke is that I have a little trouble spelling a word or two every now and then . Oh well, it’s a small, small price to pay for life and limb, as it were, n’est-ce pas?!

You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. ~Psalm 77:14 ✝

**Collage created by Natalie

763. In the end, there is no absence of irony… ~Winona LaDuke

June 7, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Life is too ironic to understand.
It takes sadness to know
What happiness is,
Noise to appreciate silence,
And absence
To value presence!
~Author Unknown

Not too long after I graduated and began working in a secretarial position, the grant that funded James’ job at the blood bank expired and so he had to be let go. After a few months he got another job, this time with EPA working in air pollution control here in our area, and thus we continued moving forward in paying off the debts incurred from his illness in our first year of marriage. On a side note, as a requirement for his job, James had to attend conferences on air quality and pollution controls. When one came up which required that he fly to North Carolina, I learned for the very first time that James was very much afraid of flying, and though I hadn’t thought of it for several years, it occurred me then that that probably meant the end of any chance of ever getting to Paris. But I told myself such is life and just let the dream fall by the wayside again. Soon after that I decided to stop wasting the education that my parents had worked hard to fund and went back to school one summer in order to get a third teaching field. In the fall of 1968 I finally got my first teaching job, and then 2001 I retired after having taught English and/or Spanish for 31 years. And go figure! I never did get the opportunity to teach French. And so whoooosh! The dream’s tiny, remaining flame is all but snuffed out one more time. However, all had not been lost. Life had gone on in spite of all the setbacks and dashed hopes. Over the course of our now nearly 53 years of marriage, I had given birth to our one and only child who was and is the delight and love of our lives. But wait! Are you ready for this one? She met her future husband while they were both working on their Ph.D in graduate school, and they married shortly after their graduations. So? One might ask. What’s the problem with that? Well… Where do suppose he took her on their honeymoon??? Why, where else but Paris of course and for a whole, entire week! To be continued…

You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. ~2 Samuel 22:29 ✝

**Image via Pinterest

762. Life is like a canvas. It begins blank every day, and when at day’s end it’s like another brush stroke has been painted across it. ~Edited Unknown

June 7, 2015 by nataliescarberry

You don’t just have a story –
you’re the story in the making,
and you never know what the
next chapter is going to be.
That’s what makes it exciting.
~Dan Millman

Life is like a book and
we’re the writers of our own stories,
the makers of our own destiny.
And each day is a new chapter,
a new challenge,
a new path,
a new journey.
~Unknown

Your word, Lord, is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. ~Psalm 119:105 ✝

761. It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong. ~John Cheever

June 6, 2015 by nataliescarberry

The best laid plans of
mice and men often go awry…
~Robert Burns

James and I married on August 17th, 1963, two months before my 21st birthday, but Mom agreed to go ahead and pay for my last year of college. We didn’t have have a dime to our name, not even enough for a honeymoon, but we were happy and hopeful. James had been in graduate school, but he dropped out to get a job while I finished my last year. Since James’ expertise was chemistry, he got a job doing research at a local blood bank. Sadly though our “best laid plans went awry” on “a splendid morning that seemed like nothing could go wrong” in September. It was Labor Day weekend right before my first semester began when James became quite ill. He was running a high fever, he was jaundiced, and his bilirubin count was way too high; so the doctor sent him to the hospital immediately to run more tests, tests that indicated James may have either gotten into some kind of poison or had been infected with hepatitis from handling a tainted blood sample at work. Consequently he had to be hospitalized and quarantined for the next two weeks, and everyone who had been in contact with him had to have painful hemoglobin shots. After his stay in the hospital, he wasn’t allowed to return to work for another month. All the while, I was taking care of him and keeping up with my school work, but needless to say, we were now going deep into a hole financially. But we pressed on ever hopeful that this setback would not last forever, and I completed my first semester. However, it seems there was to be a double whammy of woes for the newlyweds! As happens sometimes with hepatitis, James had a relapse in January and had to be hospitalized again for a week and off work for another month which dug our debt hole even deeper. By the time our first year of marriage ended and I graduated I had no other choice but to put any dreams of Paris on hold and to find work as soon as possible. Since I couldn’t secure a teaching job right away, I took a secretarial job which is what I had done all four years in college while working for the Dean of Women. Because of my considerable skills and education, I began moving up into supervisory positions, and so for awhile I continued working at that company so we could whittle away at the hospital and doctor bills. The human spirit can endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? ~Proverbs 18:14 ✝

**Upper right hand photo of Les Invalides found on Pinterest

760. When writing the story of you life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen. ~Unknown

June 6, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Life is one open book full of pages.
We laugh, we cry, we smile,
we stumble, we stand, we fall,
and we succeed.
Every chapter defines who
and what we really are.
~J. Johnson

Some stories don’t have a
clear beginning, middle, and end.
Life is about not knowing,
having to change,
taking the moment and
making the best of it
without knowing what’s
going to happen next,
delicious ambiguity..
. ~Gilda Radner

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. ~Psalm 27:1 ✝

Sacred Touches

Life is a time of purpose and anointed blossoming…

Author Archives: nataliescarberry