Saturday Blessings

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Patricia Ann

However you spend it, may your weekend be relaxing, fun-filled, and full of love.

Saturday:

When Love Hurts

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Patricia Ann

“When Love Hurts” is the title of a book relating to abuse in a relationship. authored by Jill Corey and Karen McAndless-Davis. The third edition is published by Penguin Randomhouse and is available on Amazon.com. The authors were recently interviewed on CTV and are currently traveling to promote their book.

Karen is the daughter of two of our congregation’s long time and much respected members who had no idea what their daughter was going through during the early years of her marriage. Her story is related on Amazon and is a source of inspiration to those of us who have suffered abuse either directly or witnessed it.

Love hurts in other ways as well. It is called when “I do turns to I don’t”. This happens when one or the other partner in a relationship withdraws their love and affection little by little over the lifetime of the union. What is left is a shell. The shell maintains the normal activities of day to day living…all the things that keep a household going…the “his and her” agendas, the family get-together’s, the social functions to be attended.

But something is missing…and that something is the little things; the hand-holding, the hugging, the gentle touch, the communication, the togetherness that was there in the beginning and has somehow faded into the dailiness of living life.

Thanks to Karen and Jill for putting the spotlight on abusive relationships with their book Amazon.com: When Love Hurts: A Woman’s Guide to Understanding

http://www.whenlovehurts.ca/authors/karen-and-bruce-story/ And thanks to the rest of us for recognizing the love that hurts in our own lives and rewriting our relationships to include the healing human touch.

What a Wonderful Day

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Patricia Ann

I see sun shining through clouds of gray; I feel love all around…what a wonderful day. Happy Sunday!

Yosemite National Park, California

To Tie the Knot or Not

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Patricia Ann

I just have to write about these recent love stories I have either heard about or experienced first hand; not first hand for me but for someone close to me. This would cover the two recent weddings I wrote about, Barefoot Over the Bridge and The Unexpected Gift. These weddings involved young people in their twenties, two of my granddaughters, in fact. Both were beach weddings; one bride walked barefoot over a bridge and the other stood with her groom on a huge rock in the sea when the tide was out.

However, there is another wedding that I heard about. This is a couple who have been dating for a couple of years, fell in love and got married also just recently. You’re groaning, right? Who needs to hear about another wedding, right? Well this couple happens to be in their twilight years…she’s eighty and he’s eight-four. The bride made her own dress and looked just delightful (I saw a photo). Her groom was in more casual attire as it was a back-yard wedding. There was no mistaking the look of love on his face as he gazed at his beloved during the photo shoot.

And then I heard of a couple who have been married for sixty-four years, he’s in his nineties and she in her eighties. Every night without fail, hubby leans over and kisses his wife goodnight. “He’s been doing this since we got married,” she told me.

And then there are the couples who choose not to marry but have a deep love for each other. They live together in exactly the same way that they would have had they crossed over a bridge, stood on a rock, or taken vows in a back yard garden…or wherever.

Love and commitment are very evident in the lives of all these people, young or old, large weddings or small, and whether they decided to tie the knot or not.

God bless them all.

The Unexpected Gift

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Patricia Ann

Have you ever received more than you expected? A week ago on Saturday I welcomed a sixth grandson-in-law into my growing family. Before the day was over, however, I was overwhelmed with the gift of another grandson-in-law…totally unexpected.

Amberley and Chris had married on the previous Tuesday in the Channel Islands…Jersey, to be exact. It was a small and private wedding, which, they tell me will be followed by many celebrations in various parts of the world where they have so many more friends and family.

Both sets of parents, along with siblings and a few friends attended this very special occasion. I do wish I could have been there.

Love knows no bounds when it comes to people meeting people. Chris is from Scotland, Amberley is from Jersey; one works in Houston, Texas, the other just moved from Dubai, and they met in Whistler, B.C. I hear it was love at first sight, and I don’t doubt it because it was the same for me when I first met this new family member.

If you can be hung over from an overdose of love, then I have the biggest hangover in history. But I’m not complaining; in fact I’m enjoying the after-buzz very much.

So, I guess the moral of this story is that you never know what’s waiting for you in each future moment.

Many congratulations and blessings Amberley and Chris and thank you so much for my unexpected gift.

It’s Sunday Again

Posted on September 18, 2016 by Patricia Ann

Yesterday evening I saw a beautiful rainbow after an all day rain. All I could think was How wonderful! I wish you a Sunday just as wonderful.

Have a Blessed Sunday.:

Barefoot Over the Bridge

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Patricia Ann

Walking down the aisle is no longer the only road to matrimony, it seems. On Saturday I watched my granddaughter, Courtney, walk barefoot over a wooden bridge, in her princess wedding gown, accompanied by her proud dad, to stand by Matt, the man she intends to spend the rest of her life with. The lake water lapped and glistened as if in symphony with the nature of this outdoor wedding.

Everything else was traditional in a sense. The wedding party, beautiful in their pastel gowns and gray suits, waited for the bride to take her place beside her groom and the service began.

It was both solemn and sweet as this special couple took their vows having eyes for only each other. I’m not sure whether the vows they repeated were written by themselves or the minister who performed the ceremony, but I do know that Saint Paul wrote the following words of love in 1 Corinthians 13:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.⁸Love never fails…¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

These words have been repeated at many wedding ceremonies over the centuries and my heart filled with love for the young couple hearing them now, probably for the very first time. I hope their love will remain as alive as it was on Saturday when Matthew watched his bride walking toward him,..barefoot over the bridge.