Thank you, Linda!

The picture on the blog tonight is one painted by one of the guys who so impressed me at the retreat. Bless his heart, he even did butterflies. In our class we never got to the butterfly instructions. This guy had leukemia and had either a stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplant. I’m not sure how all that works, but I know he had a transplant and is very weak. He has such a wonderful attitude, though! I loved him and his wife, so much. He said he is a handyman and he’s gone through life making people happy because he fixed things for them. Now he isn’t able to fix anything but his challenge is to make people smile. He’d go in for chemo and look to see who looked dreary and do his best to cheer them. I was so impressed with that because I always went to chemo so self absorbed I barely even noticed the other people. Most of them looked pretty gloomy, but I figured I should leave them alone and not bother them; it didn’t occur to me that I might cheer up someone! Duh. He met one girl who was so down in the dumps and he cheered her up; they got to be close friends. She got better and even invited him to her wedding and even to the rehearsal dinner. He was a special guy and I love this painting because it is so like him to go the extra mile. Isn’t it amazing how different our pictures look (mine was on the blog a couple of days ago), and yet similar.

Tonight we’ve got the card group coming to play cards, so I’m working to get ready for that. I want to have the blog done already, so I can just go to bed when we finish. I’m baking cookies (ordered some frozen dough from a kid in the band) and popping popcorn for snacks while we play.

Thank you, Linda Rose for suggesting the neti pot for my allergies! I used it this morning and haven’t had an anti-histamine all day, nor a coughing fit! I’ve been alert and things are working smoothly for me. I feel so much better! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I thank God for old friends and new friends. Today my old friend, Linda, sure came to the rescue. Today I am recalling my new friends Randall and Anne from the retreat. God blesses us with family that is awesome and then the opportunity to make and keep good friends, too. Tonight our good friends are coming to play cards with us. We’re richly blessed.