Retired & Thinking

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. Hab. 3:2 NIV I want to take a few moments to process how God has been at work since my mom's death May 23. Besides the usual emotions, I've noticed that God has touched my life with a variety and interesting group of people. Some of them are old friends. Some of them are relatives both known to me and new. Some are [were] youth that I worked with when I was a volunteer. Some were people that I sort of remember. This probably won't make a lot of sense to you but that's my issue not yours. I've just been burned with the need to share what has been happening the last two months. Family: I met Jerry, a cousin from the Wilkerson family that I met when I was 3 or 4 years old. We got to visit over coffee and share some things about family and our genealogy hobby. Sadly, my mom never knew he lived less than 15 minutes from her...

One of the nice things about a personal blog is that it can be, well... personal. Many people have asked, "How are you doing" as concerns my mom's death. The easiest way to answer that is to say, "I'm doing ok...but." The ok part is that I understand the issues involved in grieving and my slips in memory etc. don't bother too much. I know that there's a bunch of stuff to do and most times, I feel just too overwhelmed to even start, let alone finish projects. The "but" part has been a journey. My mom had a stroke about 6 years ago. Where my mother is concerned, dealing with her post-stroke became my focus. I realize that a big part of me had simply shoved the other times we shared aside so that I could work on the situations and get things done. As I've thought about the trips dad, mom and I took I can recall many better than good times. I can relive some of those jokes she told me. I can smile at her exploration into doing "color c...

My mother passed from this life to eternity May 23rd. The cause of death won't be known till the toxicology screen is back from the coroner's office. We got the news of the fire in her mobile home as we were waiting to return from our vacation. It had been a time of celebration and relaxation up till the call. One night home in our own beds then off to Sacramento we drove. Many people in Portland and elsewhere were praying for us as we started the process of dealing with the details of her death. God answered the prayers of people. God used my mom's chief care-giver Christina to do so much it's amazing. God oversaw some the issues with my mom's CD's as well as with the insurance she carried on the place. All-in-all it the last week has been a heck-of-a lesson on watching God work. Is there more to do? Sure. Will there be set backs and road blocks? I'm sure there will be. But the fact remains that God's in charge and that's the best news we can hear n...