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

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

753. And then something invisible snapped inside her, and that which had come together commenced to fall apart. ~John Green

June 2, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Drop the last year of your life
into the silent limbo of the past.
Let it go, for it was imperfect,
and thank God that it can go.
~Brooks Atkinson

Have you ever had one of those stagnant years where the lackluster of life seems to have dulled and you are stuck in a kind of limbo? Well that’s the way life seemed during my Sophomore year in college. Not only had my father’s death at the end of the previous year dashed me against the hard rocks of an excruciating reality for the first time in my life, but my faith had been shaken, deeply shaken by events in and around his funeral. Not only had I to contend with his death and hypocrisy in the church but also the reality that some anger “business” between Dad and I was now never to be resolved and forgiven. That combined with some deplorable actions by the clergy and leaders in the church lead to what would become a decades-long derailment in my walk with the Lord. So indeed something had snapped inside me. I was barely 19 years old and I had commenced to fall apart which became clearly reflected in my first semester grades that year. By midterm I found myself on scholastic probation both for the University as well as for my sorority. Even my dreams of living in Paris had paled under the duress of my heartache and befuddlement. And for months and months nothing changed; lines had been blurred, dreams had faded, and hope had grown dim. I was stuck, stuck in limbo, stuck in unfamiliar waters of being, and all the while suffering, hurting alone since I’d been told by elders I should put my grieving aside and be strong for my mom and two younger sisters. But life has a way of moving on whether one feels its progression or not, and by the end of the second semester, my grades had come back up and a tiny ray of light began to break through the gloomy cloud cover that had been shrouding my world.

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. ~Proverbs 15:13 ✝

**Photo of La Tour Eiffel taken by Natalie Scarberry

732. Poor dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprises! ~Wallace Stevens

May 12, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise; whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy, it will open a new place in our hearts… ~Henri Nouwen

Some time back in March, I was standing in line at Lowe’s to check out when I looked over and saw a small packet of Peruvian Daffodil bulbs. Since I’d seen photos of these flowers before, I knew they were amazingly beautiful and was tempted to give them a try. However, never having had much luck with yellow daffodils, I wasn’t sure they would do any better with these especially as late as I was going to get them in the ground. But then I thought, as I often do these days, what the heck and bought them anyway. When I got home I had some Dahlias I was going try in pots and so I threw the Peruvian Daffodils in a pot too and set all 5 pots in places around the yard. After a couple of weeks, foliage began to appear. However, by that time it seems, I’d forgotten what was in that fifth pot. And then last week long stalks holding the blooms shot up from the strappy foliage, which I’d already been intrigued about making me even more curious about what in the world was growing in that pot. Curiouser and curiouser I grew, until…the lengthy “brain burp” ended, a vague memory of the incident at Lowe’s surfaced, and a bloom finally opened up. Oh, how I love surprises!!! And none better than exquisitely gorgeous ones in the garden! But now the surprise is raising conundrums. For example, I’m wondering if they’ll make it in the pot through the long hot summer and on into autumn and winter? Or should I put them in the ground when they’re finished blooming? And if I do that, will they make it in the ground during summer, autumn, and winter? Or should I take the bulbs out of the pot when they’ve finished blooming, let them dry, and store them until next year when I can repot them? My oh my oh my, perhaps it’s time to look for the yellow brick road so I can go ask the Wizard of Oz or follow the white rabbit down the hole, like Alice did, and see if he has any answers or check to see if Einstein had any ideas about such things or should I just ask the Holy One whose hands made all there is? That’s it! That’s always a good idea, just like Paris is! Oh yes, my friends, our trip to Paris is getting closer and closer!

PS. The little bug on one of the yellow anthers seems to like the surprise too!

He(God) will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. ~Job 8:21 ✝

617. Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. ~Anne Frank

January 19, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Life is full of beauty.
Notice it.
Notice the bumble bee, the small child,
and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind.
~Ashley Smith

Oh, the green, green, green of fresh growing things; the scent, scent, scent of fragrant flowery things; and the buzz, buzz, buzzing of little, busy bees. But wait, wait, wait! Back that “wagon” up and hold on just a minute! It’s still January and therefore wintertime. So what’s up with the green, the flowers, the aromas, and the buzzes? Ah the joyous blessing of a greenhouse filled with thriving, flowering, sweet smelling things! The only downside to such is that the bees seem to think the greenhouse is solely their domain and so object to a human interloper’s pottering visits. But then again, I seem to be developing a history outside the garden of adverse encounters with the wee buzzing folk. In my recent tale about a trip to Paris two years ago, I neglected to mention that on the very first day of our long-longed for visit to that magical city, we got off the metro, walked to the Pont Alexandre, and as we turned to walk on the gorgeously adorned bridge where I would get my first view of some of the city including the Eiffel Tower, I was stung on my face by a bee. But let me assure you that the subsequent outpouring of tears had absolutely nothing to do with the bee’s assault and everything to do with the legendary marvels that now lay before my very own eyes. And ya know, it didn’t stop me from the joy and the journey then and there nor will it keep me from the same in my greenhouse for both were and are filled with unforgettable beauty, fabulous fragrances, breathtaking spectacles, and beguiling allures.

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” ~Numbers 6:24-26 ✝

**I took this photo in my greenhouse. The bee was nectaring on a gorgeous anemone.

614. If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast. ~Earnest Hemingway

January 16, 2015 by nataliescarberry

I love Paris every moment
Every moment of the year
I love Paris, why, oh, why do I love Paris
Because my love is there.
~Excerpted lyrics by Cole Porter

Ooh la la! Je t’aime, Paris! It was my high school French teacher and lines like these above that began my love affair with the French language and Paris, the city of lights. Now more than half a century later, I still have to agree with Audrey Hepburn that “Paris is always a good idea” and with Earnest Hemingway that “Paris is a moveable feast.” In fact I thought it was such a good idea way back then, that when I went off to college, I decided to major in French in hopes that one day I’d be able to go there and live for awhile or for that matter maybe for the rest of my life. But alas and alack, as the poet said, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” And so they did! Before I graduated from college, I met and married my husband, a born and bred Texan who vowed he’d never leave this place, but being the young romantic that I was, I thought I could change his mind. It took awhile but eventually I did. During the summer of 2013 after we’d been married 50 years, my daughter, her husband, their three children, and James and I left Texas for a whirlwind visit to London, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Dublin, and Paris, all places that we thoroughly enjoyed. But go figure! James fell in love with Paris at first sight, so much so that if all goes well with my knee replacement next month, he and I are going to Paris again this coming summer. The rest of the previously mentioned crew will head to Italy while James and I stay in Paris, and then we’ll all come together in Strasburg for a 5 day Rhine River Cruise before coming home. The moral of the story: No matter how old one gets, he or she should never give up on his or her dreams, and God is always good!!! Four weeks, four days and counting…

Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose
~Excerpted lyrics by Guglielmi, Luis Gugliemo/Gassion,  Edith Giovanna/David, Mack

“You know, I sometimes think, how is anyone ever gonna come up with a book, or a painting, or a symphony, or a sculpture that can compete with a great city. You can’t. Because you look around (in Paris) and every street, every boulevard, is its own special art form… ~Quote from the movie, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. ~Proverbs 13:12 ✝

**All collages created were by Natalie from images via Pinterest

234. Year’s end is neither an end or a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. ~Hal Borland

December 31, 2013 by nataliescarberry

Time is the coin of your life.
It is the only coin you have, and only you
can determine how it will be spent.
Be careful lest you let
other people spend it for you.
~Carl Sandburg

Recently I heard a college student talking about her graduate studies in Glasgow, Scotland. As I listened, I remembered how much I’d wanted to study in Paris when I was her age. That started me thinking about the life choices I’d made and wondering how different my life might have been had I chosen differently. After pondering the matter for a few days, I came to the conclusion that geography changes very little, if anything. One can dance and bloom and thrive wherever they are, and joy would be as joyful, sorrow be no less sorrowful, nor would trials be any less difficult. Scripture states that time is more richly spent in the lives of people who choose to be happy wherever they are, who choose to do good while they live, and who choose to find satisfaction in all of their toils.

An example of God’s hand of blessing in blocking some of the choices one has to make came when my daughter who had 5 collegiate scholarships from which to choose was led to pick one that actually saved her life. For tragically, at one of the universities she turned down, the girls on the swim team for which she was being recruited were all killed in a heart-rending bus accident that year. So as another year ends and a new one starts, I praise the Lord who knows so much better than we about where and how to spend the time coin of our lives. By His hand of goodness and mercy I did in fact finally get to Paris this last summer along with my daughter whose life had been spared so many years ago.

My wish today is that the “going on” of which Borland speaks brings each and everyone of you immeasurable blessings and that you encounter again and again the Holy One by whose Hand they will be delivered.

Trust in Him at all times, O people, pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. ~Psalm 62:8 ✝

Sacred Touches

Life is a time of purpose and anointed blossoming…

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