How I became a Preacher

How I became a Preacher? I started "blogging " in 2005 and now have over 350 posts on http://www.ruthlace.blogspot.com/. Even so, some of my readers say, "More...why don't you write something more! "

Last night in flipping through the television stations, I ran across, Joel , who told how God used the death of his father, an event he and his family and friends had earnestly prayed would not happen, It put him in the pulpit. His father's ministry had been the forerunner of even greater and unexpected blessings for their Christian ministry.

In my post, One Sunday Morning, I tell in more detail how I became the pastor of the church my husband, Charles Shaw had been supplying as pastor after he had retired on disability.

Charles preached his last sermon, suffering a fatal heart attack three days later. Two weeks after my husband's death, I was told the Rico congregation had made a request to the church cabinet that I be appointed as their pastor. So I stood there to preach my first sermon as a pastor only three Sundays after my husband had stood in that same pulpit to preach his last.

Even though I had been on the periphery of ministry a long time, the role of pastor was a new one! When Rev. Marion Pierson, called and asked me to take on the pastorate; First, I was surprised the people would call a woman pastor. Second, I knew I would continue in ministry in some way as long as I lived because of my strong sense of calling. (My husband an I had recognized my call to preach earlier. He had asked me to preach a couple of Sundays when he was not able) Third, this was the open door the Lord was calling me to walk through!I learned also that the Lord does enable those whom He calls.

The Lord blessed us richly as I continued to serve the Lord in that place nearly four years while I enrolled and finished seminary, (Emory's Candler School of Theology in Atlanta). I drove back and forth the 30 or so miles three days a week for three years to earn the Master of Divinity degree and enjoyed the classes and the learning opportunity. But my love and top priority was preaching and serving Christ and the people in the Rico community.

The Rico United Methodist Church (photo above) is located in the beautiful open countryside and is only a hundred yards or so from Providence Baptist Church, (photo to the right).When I first went to Rico, I was interested to learn that the Baptist and Methodist congregations join together for worship services at least three times a year and also cooperate with each other in other ways.For example, each has an annual homecoming and both congregations come together for the fellowship dinner after the Worship Service. They attend the weddings and “showers” and other special services at both churches. Why so much fellowship across denominational lines? When I read the Rico Church History I found at least one answer.In 1902 when a man by the name of Shannon gave an acre of land adjoining the new Baptist church to build the Methodist Church he said, “The Baptist and Methodists should cooperate on earth as well as in heaven.” Then in Methodists and Baptists cooperate mor between this Baptist and Methodist congregation is a service at the Masonic Hall on the third Sunday of each September. I have not polled “the whole world” but I sus “place on earth” where Baptists and Methodists unite for a Sunday Worship Service in a Masonic Hall.This includes the two pastors preaching on the triangle. The Masonic structure is a little nearer the Methodist than the Baptist, a fact that I understood was pleasing to some of the Baptists who considered the Masonic movement a work of the devil.It was Sunday morning and my turn to preach. I had been a pastor less than a year and was a student in seminary. I had put all the time I could in preparation and felt it was not enough. The Baptist preacher would lead the singing and the pastoral prayer. After Sunday school both congregations walked the few yards to gather for this service. All of our Methodist people were present.One family had even postponed a vacation to “support Ruth” in my first attempt to preach to the Baptists. We had about an equal number from each of the two congregations. They were seated in clusters in what could be described as a “theater-in-the -round.” I do not know if this arena style is typical of Masonic structures.Rev. Glenn Dow, the Baptist minister, was seated on my left on the slightly raised stage at the wall in front of the entrance.We were into the service and our Methodist Children’s Choir was singing. (Yes. We did have a Children's Choir by this time...thanks to Judy Henderson, who with her husband Ernie had joined Rico Church, bringing their three children and also neighborhood children)A man came to the door of the Masonic Building and motioned. Rev. Dow went to the door. It seemed like an eternity before he returned to the platform visibly shaken. He walked to the podium and said, "I have a very sad announcement to make. I wish it could wait until after the service. But in my judgment it needs to be told now. There has been a terrible accident out on Garrett’s Ferry Road. It was Charlene Lewis (a member of Providence Baptist) and her children on the way to church. The children were rushed to Grady...Charlene is dead...it is time for prayer and they need prayer . . .we all need prayer. Let us pray.”There were audible gasps and cries all over the building. I found myself in tears. I had met Charlene and her two young daughters just eight days earlier at a wedding shower at our Methodist church for a Baptist friend. She was young and very much alive.The shock of sudden death is staggering. We were all reeling. My mind was in turmoil as I was bowed low listening to Dow and silently praying for the grieving congregation and for myself. What in the world could I say?Painfully I struggled to remember some of the sermon notes folded in my Bible. Would it be appropriate? The scripture I had asked Dow to read was Paul’s account in Romans 4:1-11 of Abram’s life of faith and a few verses in Luke 15:3-7 about God’s love for one lost sheep. I was to tie them together with the thought that God loves us and has a place and a plan for each of us. God’s laws are not just written in the Bible, but are also written in our bodies and our psyche. When we come home to God we are coming home to Truth.Should I try to explain why an “all powerful" and “all loving God” would allow a young mother to be killed on the way to church? We did not know at the time that the only child of a neighbor had also been in the car and killed. A drunken man had driven his car on the wrong side of this peaceful and picturesque country road.I do not remember Dow’s prayer. I do remember thinking he was handling it well. I had and still have great respect for this man of God. His pastoral care and concern was evident. Rev. Dow finished the prayer and sat down like a man whose sentence was served and looked expectantly toward me.It was all too soon my turn to speak. I could not just “be with the people.” I knew if there were to be any ultimates to be spoken by a human being, for God’s sake and for ours it must be said. I was not adequate but I knew the Eternal God was with me in a powerful way.It was not a funeral. It was a Sunday Morning Worship Service.

But we were crying for Charlene and for our own humanness. I said something like this; “I met Charlene at the shower for Linda last week. I remember her as vivacious and friendly.” I turned to my right where several persons were sobbing. “I grieve with you. I am so sorry…so very sorry. I grieve for all of us in trying to understand how a loving, all powerful God would allow a young mother to be killed on the way to church.“We know, of course, thousands of persons drove to church safely today and every Sunday drive to church without accident, but that does not make it easier today. And in our humanness, we take our safety, our life for granted. We only stop to question God when an accident or sudden death occurs.God has given us freedom. We are in a highly mechanized, fallen world and it seems to me many persons' lives are cut short needlessly. I remember a few lines I read some time ago: “The grass withers, the flowers fade…you and I die. How I wish it were n

Cooking From Scratch in the 1930's

Cooking From Scratch in the 1930's. When one "cooked from scratch" in the thirties, it was from the first "scratch" of a match. We had a large iron cookstove in our kitchen when I was a child. The iron cookstove burned wood. (The picture to the left looks much like the stove in our kitchen in the late 1920's and early 30'except our stove had white metal on the oven door and warming closet doors)

Wood had to be cut in "stove wood" lengths, brought from the backyard into the house and stacked in wood boxes behind the stove. A fire had to be started with crumpled up newspaper and kindling wood. Then the fire was kept burning by the constant additon of larger pieces of "stove wood."

The stove had , what we called "a warming closet" near the top. It had two decorative iron doors to open and place cooked food to keep warm until time to set on the table. A large reservoir was built in on the side to heat water. I remember one of my jobs was to keep water in the reservoir. The "eyes" on top of the stove could be removed to build the fire. There was a little iron utensil to fit into a hole in the stove eye to lift it and then put back in place so large pots of beans or potatoes or meat could be cooked on top of the stove. I remember my mother cooking beef roast, pork roast, and chickens on top of the stove in water. We called them "roasts", but they were sometimes boiled or simmered on top of the stove. This was used possibly for tougher cuts of meat than the roasts we cook today.

Chicken, pork chops, and cubed steak was fried in a large iron skillet. I have seen my mother take a hammer to pound steak to tenderize it. She would then flour and fry it in serving size pieces. Meat was not served every day.

Some kind of dried beans (a wonderful sourse of protein) were cooked almost every day - large butter beans, small limas, pinto beans, navy beans, or black-eyed peas. Salt pork was plentiful and added to the dried vegetables for seasoning. Potatoes were boiled with butter and sometimes dumplings...probably bits of leftover dough from the biscuits that were cooked at every meal. The term "low-fat" had never been spoken!

Large pans of sweet potatoes were baked often. Sweet potatoes seemed plentiful and were sometimes fried or made into pies or puddings. In the summer fresh vegetables were cooked in place of or in addition to the dried beans which were a staple and inexpensive proten food nearly every day, Fresh vegetables were seasoned with fat meat (uncured bacon). Thankfully my mother did not add the fat meat to fresh vegetables as lavishly as some cooks did.

My favorite summer vegetable plate was fresh crowder peas with a few tiny pods of okra boiled on top of the peas, corn freshly cut fine off the cob, and sliced tomatoes. On a cold winter day nothing was better than chicken and dumplings, one of Mama's really great dishes. What kind of bread? Cornbread, of course and hot buttered biscuits.



Mama made great vegetable soup from fresh tomatoes and an assortment of vegetables from summer gardens. She also made soup in the winter using canned tomatoes and canned corned beef with potatoes, rice, or macaroni and any vegetables she had. We had canned salmon made into patties fairly often and sometimes fried fish. The fish meal was often fish that Mama caught from the nearby Yellow River. ( My father died when I was nine after being bedridden for a years, so I was reared by a widowed mother. My two older brothers , Grice and William Bogan...whom we called "Willie B "and two older sisters Louise and Vera (whom we called Sis and Vek) were already married when my father died. I was nine and my youngest brother Jack was 14.)


Cheese and macaroni, rice, and rice pudding were common dishes in the 30's. Grits and eggs were often served for breakfast with fried salt pork or streak-o-lean. Sometimes we had ham to go along with biscuits and butter and jelly or jam that had been prepared and put away in jars in quantity during the summer. It was not uncommon to have pork chops or fried chicken for breakfast along with the regular homemade buttered biscuits. Real butter.

The first margarine I saw looked like a hunk of lard, and, for a long time, tasted like lard to me - as it did to anyone who had been raised on country buttered biscuits. The margarine of the late thirties was white and came with a vial of yellow coloring. To make it look more like butter, the margarine had to be left out of the refrigerator to soften at room temperature. The yellow coloring had to be worked in. I suppose the butter lobbyists mandated this. In a few years the margarine people prevailed and they were allowed to make margarine that looked as yellow as butter.

An after dinner speaker named Baldy White was popular when I was young. He was a big man and used to keep his audience laughing with such comments as, "We were so poor when I was a boy, all we had for breakfast was ham, eggs, buttered grits and hot biscuits with an assortment of homemade jellies and preserves. We didn't know there was such a thing as Post Toasties!"

I remember Aunt Cora bringing her two granddaughters my age, Mildred and Allene, down from their home in Atlanta one week-end and how excited they were to have homemade biscuits for breakfast. I was amazed. I would have been more excited to have cereal and milk or toast made with "store bought" bread. Rare!

ONE SUNDAY MORNING,

ONE SUNDAY MORNING, the Lord opened a door and pushed me into the pulpit! My husband Charles Shaw had been a pastor in the Methodist Church for thirty five years when he had a second heart attack which left him with heart damage. He had to retire from his work as a full time pastor.

About a year later, Rev. Harold Gray, District Superintendent (an Elder who helps with seeing that each church in his district has a pastor) called one Sunday morning and asked Charles if he would go to preach at a small United Methodist Church, whose preacher could not continue.

Charles, having "rested" in a pew for nearly a year, was more than happy to say "yes." He and I drove about 22 miles to the beautiful Rico United Methodist Church in Palmetto Georgia where only about a dozen members were present, not knowing whether or not they would have a preacher with them that Sunday.

Neither the Church nor the Bishop ever sought a replacement so Charles continued to pastor and preach at Rico for over a year. Attendance and membership grew with Charles as their gifted preacher and loving pastor. The First Sunday in Advent in 1986, Charles preached his last sermon, suffering a fatal heart attack three days later.

Two weeks after my husband's death, I was told the Rico congregation had made a request to the church cabinet that I be appointed as their pastor. So I stood there to preach my first sermon as a pastor only three Sundays after my husband had stood in that same pulpit to preach his last.

Even though I had been on the periphery of ministry a long time, the role of pastor was a new one! When Rev. Marion Pierson, called and asked me to take on the pastorate; First, I was surprised the people would call a woman pastor. Second, I knew I would continue in ministry in some way as long as I lived because of my strong sense of calling. (My husband an I had recognized my call to preach earlier. He had asked me to preach a couple of Sundays when he was not able) Third, this was the open door the Lord was calling me to walk through!

I learned also that the Lord does enable those whom He calls. The Lord blessed us richly as I continued to serve the Lord in that place nearly four years while I enrolled and finished seminary, (Emory's Candler School of Theology in Atlanta). I drove back and forth the 30 or so miles three days a week for three years to earn the Master of Divinity degree and enjoyed the classes and the learning opportunity. But my love and top priority was preaching and serving Christ and the people in the Rico community. (1)

The Rico United Methodist Church (photo above) is located in the beautiful open
countryside and is only a hundred yards or so from Providence Baptist Church, (photo to the right).

When I first went to Rico, I was interested to learn that the Baptist and Methodist congregations join together for worship services at least three times a year and also cooperate with each other in other ways.

For example, each has an annual homecoming and both congregations come together for the fellowship dinner after the Worship Service. They attend each others weddings and “showers” and other special services. Why so much fellowship across denominational lines? When I read the Rico Church History I found at least one answer.

In 1902 when a man by the name of Shannon gave an acre of land adjoining the new Baptist church to build the Methodist Church he said, “The Baptist and Methodists should cooperate on earth as well as in heaven.” Then in 1954 in an updated history this story is re-told with the comment, “It is said that there is no place on earth where Methodists and Baptists cooperate more than in the Rico Community.” So, at least for the old timers in the area, they took pride, perhaps even “un-Christian pride” in recounting their history of cooperation.

One of the joint ventures between this Baptist and Methodist congregation is a service at the Masonic Hall on the third Sunday of each September. I have not polled “the whole world” but I suspect there may be no other “place on earth” where Baptists and Methodists unite for a Sunday Worship Service in a Masonic Hall.

This includes the two pastors preaching in alternating years. The Masonic Lodge is equidistant from the two churches, in a triangle with the three buildings near one point on the triangle. The Masonic structure is a little nearer the Methodist than the Baptist, a fact that I understood was pleasing to some of the Baptists who considered the Masonic movement a work of the devil.

It was Sunday morning and my turn to preach. I had been a pastor less than a year and was a student in seminary. I had put all the time I could in preparation and felt it was not enough. The Baptist preacher would lead the singing and the pastoral prayer. After Sunday school both congregations walked the few yards to gather for this service. All of our Methodist people were present.

One family had even postponed a vacation to “support Ruth” in my first attempt to preach to the Baptists. We had about an equal number from each of the two congregations. They were seated in clusters in what could be described as a “theater-in-the -round.” I do not know if this arena style is typical of Masonic structures.

Rev. Glenn Dow, the Baptist minister, was seated on my left on the slightly raised stage at the wall in front of the entrance.

We were into the service and our Methodist Children’s Choir was singing. (Yes. We did have a Children's Choir and Children's Sunday School Class by this time...thanks to Pat Foster and Bobbie Edge who worked with our children on Wednesdays and Sundays, along with Judy Henderson, who with her husband Ernie had joined Rico Church, bringing their three children and also neighborhood children.)

A man came to the door of the Masonic Building and motioned. Rev. Dow went to the door. It seemed like an eternity before he returned to the platform visibly shaken. He walked to the podium and said, "I have a very sad announcement to make. I wish it could wait until after the service. But in my judgment it needs to be told now. There has been a terrible accident out on Garrett’s Ferry Road. It was Charlene Lewis (a member of Providence Baptist) and her children on the way to church. The children were rushed to Grady...Charlene is dead...it is time for prayer and they need prayer . . .we all need prayer. Let us pray.”

There were audible gasps and cries all over the building. I found myself in tears. I had met Charlene and her two young daughters just eight days earlier at a wedding shower at our Methodist church for a Baptist friend. She was young and very much alive.

The shock of sudden death is staggering. We were all reeling. My mind was in turmoil as I was bowed low listening to Dow and silently praying for the grieving congregation and for myself. What in the world could I say?

Painfully I struggled to remember some of the sermon notes folded in my Bible. Would it be appropriate?

Should I try to explain why an “all powerful" and “all loving God” would allow a young mother to be killed on the way to church? We did not know at the time that the only child of a neighbor had also been in the car and killed. A drunken man had driven his car on the wrong side of this peaceful and picturesque country road.

I do not remember Dow’s prayer. I do remember thinking he was handling it well. I had and still have great respect for this man of God. His pastoral care and concern was evident. Rev. Dow finished the prayer and sat down like a man whose sentence was served and looked expectantly toward me.

It was all too soon my turn to speak. I could not just “be with the people.” I knew if there were to be any ultimate to be spoken by a human being, for God’s sake and for ours it must be said. I was not adequate but I knew the Eternal God was with me in a powerful way.

It was not a funeral. It was a Sunday Morning Worship Service. But we were crying for Charlene and for our own humanness. I said something like this; “I met Charlene at the shower for Linda last week. I remember her as vivacious and friendly.” I turned to my right where several persons were sobbing. “I grieve with you. I am so sorry…so very sorry. I grieve for all of us in trying to understand how a loving, all powerful God would allow a young mother to be killed on the way to church.

“We know, of course, thousands of persons drove to church safely today and every Sunday drive to church without accident, but that does not make it easier today. And in our humanness, we take our safety, our life for granted. We only stop to question God when an accident or sudden death occurs.

God has given us freedom. We are in a highly mechanized, fallen world and it seems to me many persons' lives are cut short needlessly. I remember a few lines I read some time ago: “The grass withers, the flowers fade…you and I die. How I wish it were not so. How I wish things were different. But if things were different, it is entirely possible that we would not possess whatever it is...we wish would never die.” (that phrase had stood out in my reading a few days earlier and seemed important to me)

Moses wrote in Psalm 90, “A thousand years in God’s sight are but as a day when it is past and as a watch in the night.” It seems to me that measuring the length of life in the light of eternity - whether we live a hundred years or just twenty or thirty years - we have only a brief time. This is why it is so important to learn from God. The eternal God is our dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms. This is why what we do at church is of supreme importance.“

Before beginning the sermon, I also said a few things I had planned about my respect for the Baptist church and a few words about my call as a woman. Very few! When faced with the mystery of death, the disputes between denominational understanding and between the place of men and women in the church seemed insignificant. This Baptist pastor invited me to speak at his church and we had Bible studies with both churches participating. When I finished seminary and was sent to another community as a full time pastor, I had the same type of relationship with the Baptist pastor and his congregation. God bless these dear men and women of God. They may have a different understand of the Lord's call for Chrisitan women in the church but were respectful and loving.

BTW, I have observed that in churches where Christian women are not allowed to "preach," they preach and call it "Bible teaching" or "speaking" or "witnessing." In churches where women are allowed to preach, we teach the Bible and speak and witness and call it "preaching." Churches that preach that women should not preach, allow women to "witness, speak and teach" on the mission field. Hopefully we, as Christians, can continue to love and respect one another and fight our common enemy and not one another.

It has been one of the heartwarming and faith building experiences of my life to look at the message the Lord gave me during that week. I did not know what would be happening on that Sunday morning but it seemed evident the Lord did. From the opening story to the final illustration, the sermon spoke to all of us in the crisis situation in which we found ourselves that day.

Everyone stayed to complete the Celebration of Worship until the last amen of the benediction. Then they came forward in tears to put arms of love around Dow and around me and each other and to say affirming things about the service and about their faith.

Notes
1. I am not downplaying the opportunity and great privilege of attending seminary at Candler. It was a wonderful and valuable experience for me! But I was 63 years old and was not "preparing" for ministry but was already "in ministry." I would reach mandatory retirement age in 7 years. It was good preparation that I had spent years as a student of Bible, Church and Methodist history. It turned out helpful also that at Georgia State I had been certified in Gerontology.

The Giles Girls

When I think of quilts, I always think of the Giles sisters.

My mother had cousins she and her siblings called the "Giles girls." Three of the girls never married. One of their specialties was quilt making. In one of the bedrooms in their country home (near Fayetteville) there was a stack of beautiful quilts that reached all the way to the ceiling. Not just an eight foot ceiling, but a country ceiling! And the platform that held the quilts was just a few inches off the floor.

When I went with my family to visit as a child, we were always awestruck to see such a mountainous stack of quilts. And they were folded only once, and the corners matched perfectly

Whenever anyone mentioned the Giles sister, someone would say, "I wonder whatever happened to all those quilts." I do not know. With no children nor grandchildren to wear the quilts out sleeping on the floor, they may be heirlooms in some home.
Hopefully some of the nieces or nephews have them.

Mama loved and respected her Giles cousins and had played with them as a child so we visited as often as possible even though we lived some distance apart.

I remember them in our home a few times. The family lore is full of stories of the perculiarity of the "Giles girls." On one of their visits to our house, we were all sitting around at bedtime in the "sitting room - bedroom."

The slop jar had already been brought in. I do not remember all the circumstances but my four year old nephew was asleep on one of the beds. Lula said to Mama, in her slow speech typical of the Hollywood stereotype of the Southern drawl, "Eula do you think it would be alright for me to use the slop jar with that little boy in the room."

The Giles sisters were perfect housekeepers. Their country house was said to be so so clean one could "eat off the floor." I am sure no one ever did!

Annie (1885-1975) and Lula (1882-1956)were in charge of the cooking and Pearl (1888-1978)did much of the work in the large garden. They raised their own vegetables for year round use. They canned vegetables and dried fruits for winter use. I remember sitting at their table one time as a child with bowls of vegetables and a huge platter of fresh sliced country tomatoes. I do not remember much about the rest of the menu, but no doubt they also had fried chicken and perhaps another meat dish as a typical "company" dinner in the rural South.

Their mother, Aunt Elmira (Elmira Mask Giles 1854_1940)) was a sister
to Mama's mother, Elizabeth Mask Dick. Elmira and Elizabeth were the daughters of the properous (for the times) farmer and Methodist preacher Bogan Mask. They could (and did ) trace their (our) family history back to the Revolution. Family history was important as "Class" was valued in the South with so many other things "gone with the wind" after the Civil War.
One of the Giles daughters had married, and their only brother had married; but Annie, Pearl, and Lula never married. When Mama and her sisters, Aunt Molly, Aunt Cora and Aunt Fannie visited together, they sometimes remarked about how "pitiful" it was that the Giles girls had never married. Marriage for women was considered of utmost importance then. So it follows that some of the Women's liberation generation rebelled in the opposite direction.

Aunt Cora pointed out that the reason the Giles girls did not marry was because their papa, Uncle William Giles )1859-1826) was so "peculiar." They said Uncle Bill Giles was "curious".

This did not mean the dictionary reference for the word as eager to learn or inquisitive.
Uncle Bill, they reported was " flat out cure-rus" which meant strange.. He would never let his daughters date. It was said that he "ran off" every man who showed an interest in courting one of his daughters.

It seems that the youngest daughter, had "run off and got married."

It is strange and of little importance to me now but my mother told us on more than one occasion, when we were "poor as church mice" during the Great Depression, "we came from good stock.
.But life goes on. God bless the memory of these dear Giles sisters who were such a fascinating part of my childhood.

Happy Mother's Day 2012

Happy Mother’s Day! We are all either the son or the daughter of a mother. So in that capacity all of us fit into a Mother’s Day Celebration.

As a Mother myself, I have had a difficult time with some of the sermons I have heard on Mother's Day, They make us all …all mothers “angels.” One would get the idea that to become a mother is to become a saint.
We all know there are loving, hard working, good mothers and there are also selfish and neglectful and not so good mothers. Most of us as mothers find our place somewhere in between.

But there is something about motherhood that tends to bring out the best in us. In spite of the seemingly endless nausea and misery of pregnancy and pain of childbirth, the incredible love that we have for that helpless and amazingly beautiful baby when it is finally born is awesome. Our love for our children is amazing.

Erma Bombeck said, “The easiest part of being a mother is giving birth. The hardest part is showing up on the job every day." And I might add it is showing up 24/7.

Most of us as adults have an emotional attachment and love for our mother. In cases where the mother has such personal problems as to neglect, abuse or abandon the child there is always unbelievable sorrow.

Just the thought of "mother" brings about great emotion in many of us. I remember one Saturday before Mothers Day when I was sitting in the sanctuary with our church music director. We were discussing the music for the next day and got into conversation about some of the old Mother's Day hymns. She mentioned two old gospel songs, "That Silver Haired Mother of Mine" and "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again." We both choked up.

It seems to me that mother love is more nearly like God's love...unselfish love...agape love, than any other human love. Mother seems to see possibilities in us that other people seem not to notice. Just as God sees possibilities in us that we do not see in ourselves and others fail to see.

Charles Swindoll's book entitled, Living Beyond The Daily Grind has a chapter, The Grind of Motherhood. Is there any one of us who will not agree that in addition to the many joys of motherhood and the endless rewards, motherhood is a four letter word called "Work." Swindoll puts it this way; "the daily mounds of laundry, ironing, folding, cleaning , cooking, car pooling, being a referee, a coach, and encourager, a counselor, a cop, staying pretty, remaining tactful, loveable, compassionate, cheerful, responsible, balanced and sane..."


My daughter, Deborah Lewis wrote a book in 1990, later put out in paperback which I think is the best on the subject; "Motherhood Stress." On the cover of "Motherhood Stress" is a woman stretched out across two mountain peaks, with children walking across her, and the sub title is "Finding Encouragement in the Ultimate Helping Profession." Motherhood is the ultimate helping profession and parents are encouraged to realize the importance of the job.

I was in my early fifties when my mother died at age 88. Even though I had a husband and seven children, I will never forget the sense of loneliness and loss I felt to realize my mother was no longer in my world.

The above photo is of my mother with her youngest grandchildren and some of her great grandchildren made at her home in March of 1960 or 1961 at our annual homecoming which we celebrated every year near her March 6 birth date. Until the last few days of her life, she lived in her own home and took care of herself. I am old enough now to realize it was not an easy thing to do. (The three youngest Shaw children are seen in the photo above. The two girls standing behind the sofa are Deborah Ruth Shaw Lewis and Jane Ann Baird Lathem. Four of the children in the part of the photo seen are great gandchildren. Far right (the his arms crossed) is David Baird Shaw. Next is Charles "Chuck" Jerry Baird , son of Jerry and Pat Baird and grandson of Ruth and Charlie Baird. Don't write it in stone but I think next little boy is Danny Loyd, the son of Benny and Evelyn Loyd (the grandson of Pelham and Vera Loyd. Sharlyn Beth Shaw Roszel is sitting next to her grandmother and the little girl next to her is Diane Loyd Gage, daughter of Benny and Evelyn Loyd.)

My mother had a philosophy of life as a Christian, not to worry about things that “could not be helped” and to take each day as a new beginning. In honor of my mother, Eula Ann Dick Baird (3-6-1885- 12-7-1973) I wrote a ballad in 1985.

A BALLAD FOR MY MOTHER
1. My mother grew old. . . had lines etched in her face
Worked hard all her life. . . with uncommon grace
She lived by the Bible. . . Each day and each mile.
She taught me her secret. . . of life with a smile.

Refrain: She said. . . Today is the first day. Of the rest of your life.
Don't borrow trouble, With yesterday’s strife.
Take time. . . Smell the flowers.
It makes life worth while
Then pick up each new day.
With love and a smile!

2. Widowed while young. . . Mama worked in a mill.
Washed on a scrub-board. . . Brought wood up a hill.
She sang as she labored… to stay out of debt ,
She taught me a lesson. . . I'll never forget.

Refrain: She said. . . Today is the first day. Of the rest of your life.
Don't borrow trouble, With yesterday’s strife.
Take time. . . smell the flowers.
It makes life worth while .
Pick up each new day With love and a smile!

3. One day I said, Mama,. . . Your life has been hard .
You've buried two babies. . . Out in the church yard.
You've known all the heartache of struggling for bread,
She smiled through her tears and these words she said:

Refrain: She said. . . Today is the first day, Of the rest of your life.
Don't borrow trouble, With yesterday’s strife.
Take time. . . smell the flowers.
It makes life worth while.
Pick up each new day. With love and a smile!

Her old fashioned teacakes? We ate the last crumb!
Her old fashioned flowers? She had a green thumb!
She lived by the Bible. . . Each day and each mile.
She taught me her secret. . . of life with a smile.

Ruth Baird Shaw

Happy Birthday Dear David on May 9!

Happy Birthday to David Baird Shaw, a good and talented man! My husband and I brought David home from the hospital to 333 South Ninth Street in Griffin Georgia on Mother's Day in 1958.

David's may 9th birthday falls on Wednesday before Mother's Day this year 2012! (The picture to the left is David happily holding his day old grandson, Alexander James Rogers. Alex was born April 6, 2010.)

David was born on a Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. the seventh child and the of a Methodist Pastor and his wife. This was at a time when pastors salaries were low even though ordination required 3 years of Post Graduate Seminary education.

David was welcomed as enthusiastically as if he was an only child. We brought him home from the hospital on Mother's Day over 50 years ago and I am still proud to be his mother.
David was a bright and happy boy who took seriously the fact that in the Bible "seven" is the number of perfection as well as completion.

As a boy, David preferred peanut butter sandwiches to vegetables and tried to live on them. This fact caused his Daddy to consult with a doctor friend. The doctor said he had heard of children who tried to survive on worse and David would grow out of it.

So he continued to push his veggies around on his plate and drop as many as possible on the floor thinking his mother would not notice.
His sisters like to tease him at all family gatherings to this day that David never made his own peanut butter sandwich. They report he enlisted one or another of his indulgent siblings to do it for him. Even my granddaughter Lyn tells me she was enlisted to made him sandwiches. As Carol said, "He was just so cute."

So David never needed "self esteem" lessons nor "diversity" training. He played the guitar and drum in the RSV (Revised Standard Version) Youth Group at church, so he was popular with his classmates and especially the girls as a teenager.
David is now a hard working business man and and lay leader in his church.

David is married to his lovely childhood sweetheart and the proud father of three beautiful daughters and now a son-in'law (in small picture below) and Grandfather to almost two year old Alex.

The World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web! It has been suggested to me that when one maintains a Weblog, they are writing for the whole World. After checking the Ruthlace sitemeter for just a few weeks, it indicates readers from most (if not every) states in the United States and many places in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India as well as all the countries listed below.

Many of the countries also added the name of one of the locations (or cities) listed. I added the names of some of the cities listed. Some of the countries who check out the Ruthlace blog never list a city or location beyond the name of the country. This has been a learning experience for me, as some countries have been listed on my site meter I am only now learning about. I put them in alphabetical order.
1. Algeria
2. Argentina-Santa Fe)
3. Aruba-(Oranjestad)
4. Asia/Pacific Region
5. Australia-(Sydney, New South Wales)
6. Austria-(Kremsmnster, Oberosterreich)
7. Azerbaijan- (Baku, Baki)
8. Bahamas- Nassau, New Providence
9. Bahrain-(Manama, Al Manamah)
10. Bangledash-(Dhaka)
11. Barbados-( Bridgetown, Saint Michael)
12.Belarus-(Minsk)
13.Belgium-(Koningshooikt, Antwerpen)
14.Bermuda-(Hamilton )
15.Bosnia and Herzegovina Visoko-(Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
16.Botswana- (Gaborone, South-East)
17.Brazil-(Braslia, Distrito Federal)
18. Brunei Darussalam-(Brunei)
19. Bulgaria-(Gran Sofiya, Plovdiv)
20. Canada-(Edmonton, Alberta)
21. China-( Beijing )
22.Chile (Santiago, Region Metropolitana)
23. Cote D'Ivoire
24. Columbia-(Medelln, Antioquia)
25. Costa Rico-(Alajuela)
26. Croatia-(Dubrovnik, Dubrovacko-Neretvanska)
27.Cyprus-(Nicosia)
28.Czech Republic- (Prague, Hlavni, Mesto Praha)
29. Damascus
30. Denmark-(Copenhagen, Staden Kobenhavn, Nrum)
31. Dominican Republic- (Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional)
32. Estonia-(Tallinn, Harjumaa)
33.Egypt-(Cairo, Al Qahirah)
34.Ethiopia
35. El Salvador- (San Salvador)
36. Eucador- (Guayaquil, Guayas)
37. Europe- (Europe listed a "country". btw... 17 minutes blog time)
38. Faroe Islands- (Trshavn)37. Finland-(Mikkeli, Eastern Finland, Western Finland)
39. France- (Paris, Ile-de-France)
40.Germany-(Stade, Niedersachsen)
41.Georgia-(Tbilisi, Dushet'is Raioni)
42. Ghana
43. Greece-(Athens, Attiki)
44.Guadeloupe- (Baie-Mahault
45.Guam-(Barrigada)
46. Guatemala-( Guatemala City)
47. Guyana-( Georgetown, Demerara-Mahaica
48.Honduras-(San Pedro, Sula, Cortes)
49. Hong Kong-(Central District)
50. Hungary-(Budapest, Pcs, Pecs)
51. Iceland- (Yeykjavk, Gullbringusysla)
52. India-(Ludhiana, Punjab)
53. Indonesia-(Jakarta, Jawa Barat)
54. Iraq
55. Ireland-(Cork, Dublin)
56. Israel-(Jerusalem, Yerushalaym)
57. Italy-(Rome, Lazio, Milan, Lombardia)
58. Jamaica- (Kingston, Saint Andrew)
59. Japan-(Narashino, Chiba)
60 Jordon-(Amman)
61. Kenya -(Mombasa, Coast )
62. Korea, Republic of (Seoul, Seoul-t'ukpyolsi)
63. Kuwait-(Khaitan, Al Kuwayt)
64. Latvia-(Riga, Liepaja, Liepja) \
65. Lebanon-(Beirut,Beyrouth)
66. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya-
67. Lithuania-(Vilnius, Vilniaus Apskritis)
68. Macedonia-(Skopje, Karpos)
69. Madagascar-(Antananarivo)
70. Malaysia- (Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan)
71. Malta - (Birkirkara )
72. Mexico-(Tlaxcala, Cuernavaca, Morelos)
73. Mauritius-( Baie Du Tombeau, Pamplemousses)
74. Maldives-(Male)
75. Morocco-(Casablanca, Rabat, Rabot-Sale)
76. Myanmar -(Yangon)
77. Nepal-(Kathmandu
78. Netherlands-(Amsterdam, Noord-Holland)
79. New Zealand-(Christchurch, Hamilton, Gisborne)
80. Northern Mariana Islands-(Saipan)
81. Norway-(Trondheim, Sor-Trondelag)
82. Nigeria
83. Oman-(Muscat, Masqsat)
84. Pakistan-(Islamabad)
85. Palestinian Territory-(Gaza, Jenin)
86 Panama-(Coln, Colon)
87. Paraguay- (Asuncin, Central)
88. Peru-(Lima)
89. Poland-(Krakw, Malopolski)
90. Portugal-(Pao De Arcos, Lisboa)
91. Philippines-(Cavite, Cavite City)
92. Qatar-(Doho, Ad Dawhah)
93. Romania- (Pitesti, Arges, Bucharest, Bucuresti)
94. Russian Federation-(Arkhangelsk, Arkhangel'sk)
95 Saint Kitts and Nevis- (Charlestown, Saint John Figtree)
96. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Kingstown, Saint George
97. Satellite Providence Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesKingstown, Saint George
98 Singapore- (Singspore)
99. Saudi Arabia-(Riyaah, Ar Riyad)
100. Slovakia-(Bratislava, Cfer, Trnava,Nitra)
101. Slovenia-(Maribor, Brezovica)
102. South Africa-(Pretoria, Gauteng)
103. Spain -(Barcelona, Cataluna)
104. Sri Lanka- (Galle)
105. Suriname-(Paramaribo)
106 Sweden-(Stockholm, Stockholms Lan)
107.Switzerland-(Zrich, Zurich)
108. Syrian Arab Republic-(Damascus, Dimashq)
109. Taiwan-(Taipei, T'ai-pei)
110. Tanzania-( United Republic of Dar Es Salaam, Dar es Salaam)
111. Thailand -(Bangkok, Krung thep)
112. Trinidad and Tobago
113.Tunisia
114.Turkey-(Trk, Burdur, Erzurum)
115. Uganda- (Kampala)
116. Ukraine -(Poltava, Kharkivs'ka Oblast')\
117. United Arab Emirates-(Sharjah, Ash Shariqah)
118. United Kingdom-(Kings Langley, Hertford)
119. United States of America-(Ketchikan, Alaska)
120. Uzbelistan-(Tashkent, Toshkent)
121. Venezuela-(Caracas, Distrito Federal)
122. Vietnam-(Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh Municipality)
123. Virgin Islands, U.S. -(St Thomas)
124. Yemen- (Sana, Hadramawt)
125. Zambia
126.Zimbabwe

School in the Southland in the 1890's.

My mother was only 18 months old when her father, Charles Irvin Dick, died - leaving a pregnant wife and seven little children.

As a child, Ieula Ann Dick never knew her paternal relatives, but she was told her Grandfather Dick had been the "first sheriff of Clay County, Alabama." I am told her Grandfather Dick's picture is still on the wall of the Clay County Courthouse.

Mama's young father had gone hunting late on a cold Christmas Day. He became very ill with a cold that turned into pneumonia and proved fatal for Charles Dick and for many others in that year. (1887)

Soon after her father's untimely death, her maternal grandfather, Bogan Mask, moved his daughter, Elizabeth, and her children from Clay County Alabama to a small house on his large farm in Inman, Georgia. Inman was a farming community in Fayette County, Georgia, where the grieving widow, Elizabeth, gave birth to her eight child, a son. I do not know how Charles Dick in Clay County Alabama met Elizabeth Mask in Inman Georgia? But apparently Bogan Mask thought Charles Dick worthy to marry his oldest daughter?

Mama loved her Grandfather Mask who apparently tried to be a father to his oldest daughter's fatherless children. He was hard working and prosperous for the times - a farmer and a Methodist preacher. Bogan Mask also is credited with beginning Ebenezer Methodist Church in Fayette County and Friendship Methodist Church in Clayton County.

Aunt Cora, Eula's (my mother was called "Eula") older sister thought Elizabeth and her eight little children were overlooked often by their more prosperous relatives. But Mama said her mother was aware of her dependance and was timid about making her father aware of their needs.I do not know all of what was going on during the "Reconstruction of the South". But certainly Rev. Bogan Mask had his heart and hands full with farming and family as well as pastoring several churches.

The South was still in reconstruction in the late 1880's. My mother said she remembered the first pair of shoes she ever had. She told me how one time when her mother mentioned her feet were cold, she got down at the foot of the bed to rub her mother's feet until they were warm. Apparently the younger children were sleeping with their mother. My mother, whose IQ was at least as high as mine, had to stop her schooling after about ninth grade.

Mama had grown up to marry Wilson Baird when she was 18. Wilson was, according to Eula , "a young 40. " Wilson was the youngest son of William and Mary Baird. William had served as an officer in the Confederate Army and was wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness. William Baird was said to be a Methodist Exorter. In the history of the Methodist Church at Oak Hill, He was known as Colonel William Baird. He was listed as the Sunday School Superintendent and was one of their literate members before the devastation of the schools during the War Between the States.

My father, Benjamin Wilson Baird's father had been wounded and his older sister's husband had been killed while serving in the Confederate Army, leaving his wife with a child to raise.

My understanding it that Wilson Baird, my Papa stayed on to work the farm (he was said to be a good and talented farmer) and help his mother and widowed sister in the care of his niece, and so waited until his 40's to marry. I am the youngest of Wilson and Ieula's 11 children, nine of whom survived into adulthood.

I grew up realizing the personal cost of the Civil War to my family as well as others, both Black and White families in the devastated Southland. My father, who died when I was nine, was a devote Christian man and church lay leader. He was a good farmer and although with little formal education read widely.

Mama told me a little about the school she attended. As was typical in the South, this bright little girl went to school only too briefly in the war-torn South where many of the schools and houses had been torched as General Sherman and his Army moved through the Southland "all the way to the Sea."
We need to see how we did overcome many of these problems and not continue down the road to bitterness and political division of class and ethnicity and also not continue the destruction of our hard won life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (1)

Mama told me about Professor Culpepper who taught her though all the arithmetic books and into much of algebra in the little one room schoolhouse near Inman before, all too soon, she had to leave school to work in the fields and on the farm. School was a luxury few in the South could afford. When I asked Mama what grade she completed, she told me they did not have grade levels then (1890's) as we then had when i was in school (early 1930's). However, her formal education was probably somewhat equal to a ninth grade education. Strangely, this was more education than many of the women in our neighborhood had at the time my family moved there in 1922, a year before my birth.

Mama revered Professor Culpepper and told me how he took time to teach algebra to her in that one room schoolhouse. Mama was also glad to tell me, in a world divided by class as well as race and gender, her father and her mother's family "came from good stock." They valued education for the girls as well as the boys.

My Cousin, S.J.Overstreet sent me this 1904 picture of the one room Inman Schoolhouse in Fayette County Georgia. Dr. Culpepper is shown on the back row. My mother was 19 in 1904 and had long since had to drop out of school and had married. When I think of how valuable family history is to me, I know the need for all of America's children to hear the unique history of America at a time of world wide slavery and later illiteracy, class divisions and racial segregation.
Notes
1.Recently,(7-8-10) I heard a member of the New Black Panthers say he hated "all white people. " (If so, as reported in another post, this young African American man hates the Caucasian descendents of Abolitionists. From the beginning of Africans being sold into slavery to some White slave owners and some also sold to African American and Native American's, at the same time there were many White people who were working tirelessly and some giving their life to abolish what John Wesley and other white Christian men and women called "the vile institution of Slavery.)

G.K Chesterson said, "When Jesus died, Slavery was defeated but it took the church many years to become powerful enough to defeat the powerful slave trade."

Moirologist

What is a moirologist? In the "Word A Day" email that has been coming my way for several years, I learned that a moirologist (moy-ROL-uh-jist) is a hired mourner. From Greek moira (fate, death) + logos (word).

As I read the email this morning, my mind traveled to Ellijay, the beautiful Georgia mountain town where my husband served as pastor immediately after graduating from Candler School of Theology, ( Emory University in Atlanta) in 1958.

The Methodist parsonage where we lived was next door to one of the two Funeral Homes in the community. My husband was asked to participate in many of the funerals in Ellijay and Gilmer County.

Ellijay, a delightful home and community to us for nearly four years, had more than it's share of accomplished and highly educated citizens. It also, as in every community had it's "town characters",

This included an older woman who was said to be a "Professional mourner." She was not a member of our church nor a resident of the town but lived "out in the countryside."

I never met the lady and do not remember her name but it was told she was one of those "town character" who attended and mourned at every funeral in Gilmer County.

My husband had seen her at funerals many times and somehow I got the picture of her as an older women dressed in black. I doubt she was ever paid for her efforts. Perhaps she was just a tender hearted woman who mourned with anyone who faced the parting and trauma of death?

Perhaps she was a lonely woman who needed the attention of being one of the mourners? Perhaps she was going through one of the five stages of grief herself? I do not know!

Back to our word "moirologist"? Has our society become so isolated from friends and church that many now need to buy a "Mother's Eulogy pack" or a Father’s Eulogy pack" for a "do it yourself " Funeral service?.

IRAQ

Interesting Facts recently reported about Iraq.

1. The Garden of Eden was in Iraq.

2. Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq , was the cradle of civilization!

3. Noah built the ark in Iraq.

4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq

5. Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq!

6. Isaac's wife Reb ekah is from Nahor, which is in Iraq!

7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq.

8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq.

9. Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel.

10. Amos cried out in Iraq!

11. Babylon, which is in Iraq, destroyed Jerusalem.

12. Daniel was! in the lion's den in Iraq!

13. The three Hebrew children were in the fire in Iraq.

14. Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the "writing on the wall" in Iraq.

15. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq.

16. Ezekiel preached in Iraq.

17. The wise men were from Iraq

18. Peter preached in Iraq.

19. The "Empire of Man" described in Revelation is called Babylon, which was a city in Iraq!

And you have probably seen this one. Israel is the nation most often mentioned in the Bible. But do you know which nation is second? It is Iraq! However, that is not the name that is used in the Bible The names used in the Bible are Babylon, Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia The word Mesopotamia means between the two rivers, more exactly between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The name Iraq, means country with deep roots.

Indeed Iraq is a country with deep roots and is a very significant country in the Bible.

No other nation, except Israel, has more history and prophecy associated it than Iraq.

The following verse is from the Koran, (the Islamic Bible)
Koran (9:11 ) - For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace .

(Note the verse number!) Hmmmmmmm?!

Happy New Year 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012! What will 2012 bring? It lies before us as an unexplored continent...full of uncertainty but also full of possibilities.

I love to quote the eight lines of poetry below to illustrate the fact that the difficulties of life are often used by God to teach us important life lessons. This has been true in my own life. It began at the age of nine, when I stood at the bedside of my dying father and witnessed the Christian peace and love that, not only sustained him, but gave him joy in the midst of death. I remembered; "when I grow up, I want to be that kind of Christian."

"I walked a mile with pleasure,
She chatted all the way.
But left me none the wiser,
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with sorrow
And n'er a word said she.
But Oh the things I learned from her,
When sorrow walked with me."

~Robert Browning Hamilton~

A few years ago a piece with a similiar theme passed through the internet. It was tiltled "I wish you Enough."

This is something to think about as we began a New Year, "I wish you Enough". Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said "I love you and I wish you enough." The daughter replied, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom."

They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry.

I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking "Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?"

"Yes, I have, "I replied. "Forgive me for asking but why is this a forever good-bye?"

"I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral," she said.

"When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?" She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations.
My parents used to say it to everyone." She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more. "When we said 'I wish you enough' we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them." Then turning toward me she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory --

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough faith in God to get you through the final good-bye."

To all my friends and loved ones,
I WISH YOU ENOUGH...A HAPPY NEW YEAR OF GRACE AND PEACE.
Ruth<><

Happy New Year's Resolutions.

Happy New Year. New Year’s resolutions, is said to be something that goes in one year and out the other.

Below are what others have said about New Years and resolutions:

1.Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me....“He who has an ear, let him hear..." (Jesus ) Revelation 3:20-22

2.Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to. (Bill Vaughan)

3.Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average … which means, you have met your New Year's resolution. (Jay Leno)

4.New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time. (James Agate)

5.An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. (Bill Vaughn)

6.Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right. (Oprah Winfrey)

7.New Year's Day … now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. (Mark Twain)

8.May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions! (Joey Adams)Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. (Oscar Wilde)

9.We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives ... not looking for flaws, but for potential. (Ellen Goodman)

10. One resolution I have made, and try always to keep is this: To rise above the little things. (John Burroughs)

11. The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul ... Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective ... Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. (G.K. Chesterton)

You Don't Have to Shovel Sunshine

SNOW EXCITMENT IN GEORGIA! Pictured is the snow covered grave of Ellen Axson Wilson, wife of President Woodrow Wilson in Myrtle Hill Cemetery Rome Georgia.

Woodrow Wilson described "Miss Ellie Lou" as having, "what splendid laughing eyes!" when they first met in downtown Rome.

The historical information was given and the picture was taken by my son, Terrell Shaw during his three hour walk through downtown Rome's rare five inch snowfall on the early morning January 10, 2011.


I have been a widow for 24 years. A few years ago I was friends with a man who had retired and with his wife had moved from Michigan to Georgia. His wife had been dead a couple of years when I met him at a church conference. He told me they moved to Georgia because in Georgia he "did not have to shovel sunshine."

At this point in my life, I am glad to not have to shovel snow or try to walk on ice or snow. But so many of our best family memories when our children were young are tied up with the few snow storms here in the “land of sunshine and cotton.”

My husband and I were always as excited as the children when we had a rare snow storm. He would gather up the children and some hastily makeshift sleds and hurry to Shorter Hill or some other special place. Even if there was only a little snow, we all pitched in to make a snow man.

My job was often to stay home, prepare a pot of nourishing soup, put out a clean sheet to catch fresh snow for snow ice cream, dry out wet gloves, serve hot soup and keep the home fires burning.


Today, as someone too old to shovel snow, I am enjoying the snow covered landscape on this second " snowed in day" and looking for someone to shovel my driveway and remembering " you do not have to shovel sunshine!"