Irony of Joy

It is Sunday and I am still in California. My husband’s sister, Kristen, lives about 3 ½ hours away from Burbank where my son, Bryon, lives. Since Bryon was feeling pretty good (the further he gets away from his week of chemo, the better he feels), Kristen came to Burbank for a day trip visit. The three of us went to a local restaurant and while we were having a lovely lunch together we heard a joyful voice say, “Bryon, it’s good to see you eating.” We all looked up and there stood one of Bryon’s oncology nurses. Of course, she had seen Bryon at his worst from the chemo. How ironic to see her there. 

After lunch, Kristen, Bryon, and I walked along the sidewalk and chatted. After a stop for a scoop of ice cream, Bryon said, “Ok, I’m spent, I need to sleep.”  The whole visit lasted about 2 hours, but it really was a very enjoyable time. It was nice to see family.

After hugs and a quick picture, Kristen left, I dropped Bryon off at his place, and then I drove back to the area where I am staying. Along the way, I stopped at a park to walk some more and be alone for a while. As I was walking, I met a lady who was walking her dog. The dog was all muscle and I made a comment about it being part bulldog. She told me the breed was a combination of bulldog and pit. Trixie was the dog’s name and she was very sweet. 

“I’m Lona,” I said. 

“My name is Joy,” she replied. 

How ironic! The second woman named Joy that I have met and spoken with here in California. I wonder, does this mean something? Maybe it is just God’s way of letting me know there is plenty of Joy to be found, even in the middle of a very challenging time. I don’t have to look for Joy —Joy just showed up. All I had to do was say hello.

I took a bunch of pictures while walking in the park. The trees there were so very interesting. Leave a note and tell me what you think about them.

Taking a Break

After 5 days of sitting with my son as he had chemo that merged into a weekend where he was feeling way beyond miserable, it was time for a break. Bryon needed some time alone and I needed to step away from cancer and oncology, and focus on something different. 

I arrived in California the Saturday before Bryon started his chemo. I went to church with Bryon and Amber (Bryon’s sweet, sweet girlfriend) and met a lovely woman named Joy. She was raised in the South and has a sister who lives near Charlotte. She approached me and we talked about Cheerwine and pimento cheese and, of course, Bryon. I gave her my card and later on she texted me to check in to see how we were all doing. She made an offer, “If you need time away, let me know”. 

I took her up on it. Joy came and picked me up on Monday, took me to lunch and we chatted away about our lives. Joy is an artist too. She told me about being a screen writer and director of the Sugar Gang movies as well as the Mandie movies (that is so cool!!). Joy also paints and she took me to see what she was working on. Let me just say, the girl is good!

Then she took me to Eaton Canyon. We went on a short hike and she told me about watching out for rattle snakes as we walked down the jeep-sized dirt path. As we walked over a bridge, I looked out and there was a pair of sneakers hanging from a tree. I took a picture and wondered how and who put those sneakers in the top of that tree so far off the ground.

My new friend pointed down to the shallow creek and told me that it was unusual that there was water in the stream. “It doesn’t happen often,” she said. We walked further down the dirt path and made our way down to the creek.  It was lovely there. I pulled out my phone and took some more pictures. I took note of a speckled stone and Joy reached down and collected it for me.

It was a good day. Here are some pictures — I thought I would share them with you.

This is my break from my son’s cancer.

Groundhog Day

Last week Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.* 

I've never met Phil, but I've seen lots of his kin in my lifetime. A groundhog is a woodchuck, a rodent, a ground squirrel. I grew up on a farm in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York and there were woodchuck holes all over the fields. The critters liver underground, where they dig long tunnels with several openings on the surface. When I was a young girl, I my father stopping me from galloping a horse through the field. He took me out to that field, showed me a groundhog hole and said, “If that horse steps in one of these holes while running, it's gonna break its leg and we’ll have to put ‘em down.” I never ran a horse through the field again.

In Germany, hedgehogs were the animal of choice to predict the coming of spring. But when German immigrants came to America, there were no hedgehogs to be found — so they called upon the woodchuck to predict the weather. It works like this: if the groundhog sees its shadow, it will be scared of the shadow and run back down the hole to sleep for another 6 weeks. But if the groundhog does not see its shadow, it means spring is close at hand. Now, mind you, groundhogs are only 40% successful at actually predicting the coming of spring, but still the ritual happens every year. Oh well, what can you expect from a humble rodent that never went to college.

*If you aren't happy with Phil's prediction, here are 8 other groundhogs that predicted spring last week.

Paper Flowers

Our oldest daughter got married a year and a half ago. She lives in Lynchburg, VA, and, of course, she wanted to get married there. She and her fiancé had both been living in the area for several years and they had established a great group of friends and a church family there so certainly it made sense. 

I wanted to have a shower for her but since her social group was in Lynchburg, it made more sense for me to travel there and host it in the area rather than having it in Charlotte, NC. I wanted it to be special, original, and transportable from Charlotte to Lynchburg. I needed to do as much as I could at home so the set up would be easy.

After some thought, I decided to multi-task flowers/decor and favors into one. It was Spring, so a garden theme fit in perfectly. Origami is one of my hobbies, so instead of purchasing flowers, I made them… about 100 of them.Then I made tags for each flower with a positive word on the tag; happy, wonderful, amazing, lovely, enjoyable, and so on. I used them to decorate the tables and at the end of the shower everyone received 2 or 3 flowers to take home and enjoy. My daughter kept several as a memory, too.  

Our lives are made up of memories and then we share them with others by turning them into a little story. What happy memory do you have? What did you do that was special and original?