November Thoughts about Giving Thanks

A call to my office, this morning, from the elementary school, brought tears to my eyes.

But first, I must remember the start to my day.

There are few clouds in the sky, the sun is shining bright and it is the coldest day of the season, so far.  As I backed out of my garage for the short drive to work, I was lamenting the fact that my sunglasses were in beside my chair in the living room.  But, I was too lazy to walk the few steps into the house to get them. 

A few steps to the door and my eyes would be sheltered from the bright sun.  Instead, I chose to complain under my breath that I had to squint and the sun was too bright my poor sensitive eyes would feel pain all the way to work.  All for the lack of motivation to walk 50 steps.

The temperature was a subject of conversation as I entered the church where I am a secretary. 

"Isn't it cold outside," said one person and I replied that it was 22 degrees as I got into my car.  What I didn't say, or remember, was that it must have been a temperature greater than freezing where my car was housed in the garage.  My winter coat protected me and I didn't feel cold at all, but felt the need to go along with the weather complaints.

This is the first time in my life that I've had a garage, so I don't have to worry about warming up the engine before I get in to start the heater.  And, when the snow falls, it comes down outside and not on my car, where it has to be cleaned off.  It's really easy street for me.

At times, I'm very thankful for that, but this blessing just didn't occur to me as I joined the chorus of voices complaining about the cold in Pennsylvania.

In the office, before Bible study, someone told me the story of  a Minnesota winter, many years ago,  as he got in his car, one morning, the seats actually cracked because of the cold.  He had no garage and it was negative 22 degrees on that day.  No garage to buffer the cold.

A day set aside, once a year, to thank God for all that we have, is celebrated with a huge feast and people feel the tryptophan in the turkey kick in afterward.  Those that can, give to the local food banks so that everyone can enjoy this one day feast.  But for the most part, we lament over all the reasons to be disgruntled, disappointed and down in the dumps, just to join in the complaining.

Wait, what about this call from the elementary school that brought me to tears?

A lot of difficult issues come in by phone to our church office, but it is always issues with children that cause the most emotion for me.

Our church has a children's shoe bank where we give new sneakers to needy kids and the caller asked if they could come down to get a couple pair of shoes for a little one in elementary school.  I said, "Of course, we can't have someone without shoes in this cold weather."

The school counselor said, "No and his toes are actually sticking out, but we can't tell the size because the sneakers are so old and very big, so we measured his foot and will just have to guess." 

Then came the tears, as I asked for the first name of the child in order to pray for them, right then and there.

Thankfulness in November or any other time for that matter, should be first on our lips.... not an afterthought.  First, not after we complain about everything else.

Yes, there is one day for national Thanksgiving, but what about all the rest of the days of the year.

This Thanksgiving, think about all the little, every day things, that you can be thankful for on a regular basis.  Turning the light switch on and off to see in a dark space.  Turning the faucet handle to get fresh clean water.  Or maybe you are thankful that you can turn the thermostat up and get warm.  Of course, include the big things like family and friends, but look at your toes, are they sticking out of your shoes? 

Just like there are little toes sticking out in the cold, some people have no coat or they give up something just so they have heat in their house.  Maybe they are cleaning off their car because they do not have garage, but they are grateful just to have a car. 

What do you have to be thankful for every day?

First You Need A Passion

The Little Girl from Emporium has a passion for her hometown.

FIRST YOU NEED A PASSION

Do not let the word "Mentors" in our name put you off.  Hometown Mentors, in the mind of the founder are people still living in Emporium, as well as those who lived there at one time and now live elsewhere in the world, but maintain a heart for Cameron County, nonetheless.

All these "mentors" have a certain passion for their hometown.

Where there is a PASSION for a worthwhile cause, and there is a WILL to create a nonprofit to benefit that passion, there is a WAY for the nonprofit to become reality.

It takes at least one person to act on that passion and BEGIN to create a nonprofit corporation.  If no one moves to begin a plan, they may forever say, "Someday I'm going to....." or "I wish I had...." and the opportunity may slip by without the nonprofit 501(c)3 ever coming into fruition.

"Begin", they say, "the rest is easy".

So, remember, the first thing to have, when starting a nonprofit, is a huge passion for a worthwhile cause.  The first thing "to do" is to make a business plan and run it like a business, not a hobby.

Passion, as defined by Miriam Webster, is: "a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept".  

Passion is also defined as: "the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and His death", as well as, "sexual desire".

So, as you can see, the word passion has very strong connotations.

If not for an absolute passion for my hometown, it's people and my parents, Hometown Mentors, Inc. (HMI) would never have come in to reality.  Frankly, creating a not for profit, or as I prefer a "FOR PURPOSE" organization is way too much work, unless you have that drive and passion.

My passion for the cause was so strong that when I talked about HMI and what we wanted to create for Emporium, it was as if a soap box magically appeared and plopped down in the center of the room.

I would take my stance on top of that pedestal and begin spouting off.  The speech would go on and on, as long as the listener would allow.  Usually, the listener nodded in agreement with my speech, giving me more confidence and so the words would get faster and faster and the speech went longer and longer while my voice got louder and louder.

Even though I knew in my mind what I wanted, the total concept did not come out of my mouth in an organized fashion to let others know the totality of the vision.

Have you ever wanted something so badly, but you were afraid to start it because you knew if you started it, that it might fail?

I just could not get it all down on paper.  There was the desire to encourage the current residents of Emporium that they were not alone in this world.

Then, there was the desire to encourage the students that there were many opportunities in the world for them.  Others had learned various careers and whatever the student wanted to do in life, we could find a mentor with the same small town background that could lead them along a path.  This path from school to a successful career would be much shorter if there was someone who had already taken the long route with all the pitfalls and mistakes.

Then, there was a desire to help get more technology into the area.  Many many people, by this time, were using computers and the Internet every day.  This was not the case in rural areas of the country.  Much of that had to do with the lack of reliable bandwidth to keep your computer on the Internet.  Also, people had to teach themselves how to use a computer and the Internet, due to the lack of training in that area.

There was also the desire to help older people maintain their independence longer by putting an easy to use video call device in homes of the elderly in Emporium.  The idea was that, eventually, it could be connected to emergency services and their families that lives hundreds, if not thousands of miles away.  Staying connected is important to the state of mind and independent thinking.

I saw a huge potential that this nonprofit could go state wide.... NATION WIDE!  It was while looking at how much work must go into the formation of a corporation and the 40 page application to actually be certified as a nonprofit, where I lost confidence that it could be done.

There was another reason that I was dragging my feet.  I had owned a retail store in the 1970's and 80's that failed miserably, in the end.  The LAST thing I wanted to do was to start another business.  There had to be another way to help Emporium, I thought, but for the life of me, I couldn't find a way to bring funds into this small town without forming a 501(c)3 charity and I certainly did not have the financial wherewithal to do that.
But I did have the passion.

I believed that there was a good amount of grant money sitting in the coffers of the state and federal government. Foundations and corporations also have monies available to assist rural communities and places where the population is under-served.  Emporium and Cameron County are definitely under-served by the government because of the small population base.

There are many people, whose faces are forever young in my minds eye, with whom I had gown up and who learned perseverance and integrity (character) while living in Emporium.  These people had gone on in life to make a name for themselves.  They also have a love/passion for their hometown.  Surely, these people would like to help and give back to this worthy cause.

The idea was that these people might be willing to give donations to a nonprofit that would have a focus on bettering their hometown and encouraging her in to the future with projects like gardens in town or playgrounds or sponsoring the recognition of our past teachers and group mentors?

Government grants, as well as foundations, require an entity to have a 501(c)3 nonprofit status to apply for most grants.  Therefore, if we were to bring grant money in to Cameron County, then we had to have the nonprofit corporation certification.

We also needed the charity status from the IRS in order for people to receive an income tax deduction on larger donations, over $250.  I had some work experience working with boards of directors in for-profit corporations, during my career in administration, and the wheels in my head just kept turning round and round on how to get some of this grant money in to Emporium/Cameron County.

The first step was an experimental project that would set up the manor in which HMI might work, going into the future.  We found a project right away that used volunteers to design and build meter box covers that would be placed on parking meters in Emporium during the holiday - no pay season.

Through a conversation with the Cameron County Chamber of Commerce, we found they had been trying for a couple years to find a more decorative replacement for the plastic bags on the meters downtown.  She envisioned wooden boxes to cover the parking meters that would be durable enough, not to blow away and that could be used for a number of holiday seasons.

This was my first "something" for Hometown Mentors to "fix".

For the solution, I called my most beloved "hometown mentor" and my "go to guy" for anything I've dealt with in life ... My Dad.  So, I guess you can say that Ken Ostrum was THE first official member/stakeholder in Hometown Mentors, Inc. (HMI) ever!

We talked about the problem and, being a retired electrical engineer from Sylvania, he began his "problem solving".  Problem = wooden box cover design, requiring measurements of the subject meters to find the right sizing for the wooden boxes.  He suggested the second hometown mentor, Ken Byrns.

Step One:  DESIGN... We contacted Ken Byrns, a long time friend of my Dad, who said that he was on his way out of town, but could take the measurements and make the design when we got home.  However less than three hours later, we had a draft design, on paper, for a box that would cover both the one and two headed meters in down town Emporium.  The project had merit and now had a place to begin.

Step Two:  CUTTING THE WOOD... We contacted my old science teacher, the Late Calvin Hugar, because his hobby was woodworking and we thought that he would have the tools and knowledge to choose the wood and cut the pieces to be assembled.  Ken Byrns had also counted the meters and there were over 100 boxes needed to complete the project.

Step Three: PURCHASING WOOD... Since HMI literally had no treasury, we paid for the wood with a donation of $188 from my Dad.  HMI later paid it back.  Mr. Hugar cut the plywood into five or six pieces, as per the design. These covers were able to lock into place so that it would make it harder to be vandalized.  He did this labor at no cost.

Step Four:  ASSEMBLY... A fourth hometown mentor volunteered to assemble the boxes as a community service project.

Step Five:  DECORATING... By this point, our project had become known around Emporium and the Chamber hosted "family painting parties".  Some of you will remember that the pictures on each box were "coloring book" picture outlines stenciled on the boxes.  Families and any member of the community were invited to paint them, then they would be water proofed and the borough crew installed them on the meters.

This first Hometown Mentors project was "in the books" and it did exactly what I had envisioned.

The project itself brought the whole town together to accomplish "something" and it was fun. The meter boxes even made the pages of the local newspaper, The Cameron County Echo and many of the painters took credit for their work by signing their meter box for posterity sake.

It has been many years since the meter boxes were made and they only lasted a few years because we made an error and did not seal/waterproof them as well as we should have.  We should have done maintenance on them after each seasonal use, but we didn't.  These are lessons learned.

What a wonderful memory this is for the history of Hometown Mentors.  It also proves that Hometown Mentors are NOT people coming in to town trying to teach or change anything.  Hometown Mentors are those people in Emporium, or not, who see a need and who band together to fix the problem that needs fixed.

You see, the highest degree that I have, is a high school diploma from Cameron County High School.  As it turns out, that's the only degree I ever needed in life and in order to create this corporation. 

It was a passionate heart for my hometown that started the brain thinking.  

Following posts, will show other wonderful-fun projects where Hometown Mentors, Inc. began to shine in Emporium and Cameron County.

Subscribe to this blog to see more history of the HMI corporation.  

Hometown Mentors a "STATE-OF-THE-HEART CORPORATION"

The Little Girl from Emporium starts thinking

By Cathy J. (Ostrum) Swarmer

These chapters are part of an eBook about the formation of the nonprofit charity, Hometown Mentors, Inc. 

This unique 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation has done some special things over the years that have brought many smiles and some encouragement to our mentors of the past as well as to the residents of the future.  

The WHO, WHAT and WHEN are integral to the "vision theory" and purpose for HMI.  Each component was a puzzle piece in the beginning, which took form, when gathered together, to create the charity as it is today.  

I don't believe in coincidences.  I believe there are only reasons that things happen the way they do and the puzzle pieces had to be connected. 

The theory for a nonprofit started with a passion for the welfare of current residents, along with the nostalgia held for our hometown by the people who used to live there and with whom I grew up.  Emporium now has a population just over 2000 people and, as with other rural towns, the population has diminished over recent years.

Many of my friends and relatives were skeptical about the formation of Hometown Mentors at first, as they thought that it couldn't be done.  All agreed that it was a wonderful idea, however.  

Frankly, this author wasn't sure it could be done either, but went about the step by step tasks of forming HMI with a determination and an attitude of  - "Where there's a will there's a way". 

That is how I proceeded, full steam ahead! Although, at times it felt like our ship was dead in the water, I knew that we were going in the right direction... albeit slowly.  

HMI is the ultimate creation of a "STATE-OF-THE-HEART CORPORATION".

The first puzzle piece had a lot to do with my late Mother.

So, my Mom always said, "Cathy, once you get something in your head, there is no getting it out".  I'm not sure if she thought that to be a good thing or not.

Another thing, both Mom and Dad agreed on, through my life, is the fact that I have always taken things apart to fix them.  Unfortunately, the clock on my Mom's wall oven in 1965 never worked again after I took it apart, but I tried.

Maintaining a positive attitude, persistent determination in life, along with a mind that always tries to find "A FIX" for something, can be quite daunting and tiring over the years.  However, all these traits have ultimately worked together and served me well over the years.

From her many sayings, to the songs she sang for any subject to personal talks of caution through life, my Mother played a very key role in the beginning theoretical science of the HMI concept.  It was such a profoundly memorable role, that I thought for a time of naming the nonprofit organization after my Mom and Dad.  I was reminded, however, by family, that she was a very private person and would not want her name on an organization, no matter the cause.

And so, we start the HMI story on January 27, 2005, at The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. 

January 27, 2005, had national historical significance due to a visit to Cleveland Clinic by then President, George W. Bush.  


January 27, 2005, is remembered by me and my family, because the Emporium Ambulance Crew came to Main Campus, to take my Mother home to Emporium, one last time. 


Of course there was traffic congestion, while roads were closed and cars were rerouted in order to accommodate The President of the United States.

You have to understand that Emporium is about "fifty miles from everywhere".  It is at least, a three hour drive by car from the Clinic and she was in such a fragile state with so much pain, that no way could she be jostled and shaken by a long drive like that.  In fact, the doctors warned that trying to take her home in our car, would most certainly be fatal. 
So, you see, my Dad was up against a rock and a hard place.

Days earlier Mom made up her mind that she wanted to go home.  She wanted to spend her final days in Emporium, where she was born and raised, and where most of her friends lived.  She understood about going into hospice care, following a long battle with cancer, and asked my Dad, saying, "Please take me home".

That request was not as easy as it sounded to fulfill.  

The health professionals, at Cleveland Clinic, explained that Mom would need to go by ambulance, if at all.  They also explained that the cost would be prohibitive.

Most likely the expense would be in the thousands of dollars because an ambulance and crew for that distance, especially, was a very expensive means of transportation.  Such a long trip would be a huge financial burden that the insurance would not cover, and that is not even to mention the cost of a flying ambulance.  

The remote location is the reason we like Emporium, as it is safely nestled in the hills of north central Pennsylvania, Cameron County, away from many hustle and bustle struggles of urban life.  

The remote location is also the reason living in Emporium can be challenging in times of health emergencies, because it is truly in the heart of the PA Wilds Area. 

Believing that there was a way to take Mom home, Dad contacted the Emporium Ambulance Crew who immediately said that they would come to Cleveland Clinic and bring her home.  Many things have changed in the intervening years, but at the time, the cost could be worked out later and would not be in the thousands of dollars.

So it was, that this date was chosen and they had to fight the presidential motorcade and traffic.  The Cleveland Clinic is a large facility and some roads were closed and traffic rerouted on Main Campus for the president's visit.  It took a little while and a lot of patience, on the part of the driver, but the ambulance crew found my Mom in her room.  

This was an emotional day for all of us.  I was present as they gingerly lifted her from her bed to the gurney and then wheeled her down the hall to the waiting ambulance.  Her prayer was being answered the journey home began.

When Mom was safely on her way down the hall, Dad reached to shake the hand of one of the crew members and said, "Thank you so much.  This means a great deal to us."

The response from this person resonated in my mind for many weeks after that.  He said, "It's alright, Ken.  Emporium takes care of their own."

This would turn out to be an "Ah Ha" moment and the whole outside frame of the puzzle which lead to the formation of HMI.  I thought, "But who takes care of Emporium"?

Emporium, PA Borough

The town is separated from the rest of the state by hills on all sides and Emporium is the seat of the Cameron County Government.  

There is one school district and some students are bused nearly 30 miles to school each day. This is my hometown.  

Next to God and my family, Emporium is my heart.

So, when I heard the words, "Emporium takes care of their own", it resonated in my brain and I wanted to "FIX" something.  


I wanted to make it better.  


I got it in my head, and remember what my Mom said, "Cathy, once you get something in your head, there is no getting it out".  

From this point on, I began turning over the puzzle pieces, one at a time, until the charity, Hometown Mentors, Inc. was a reality and the "FIX" was in.

Are you interested in starting a nonprofit corporation?  I like to call it a "for purpose" organization.

If you are interested in starting a charity for your cause, what is the first thing that you must possess to start a 501(c)3 tax exempt charity?

The answer to that question is clear:  PASSION for a worthy cause.
In my case, it was PASSION for my hometown of Emporium.

If you like what you've read, click on the Follow button on the right side of the page and follow along.  It is absolutely free of charge.  Cathy would be honored.

A list of Cathy Swarmers writings:

therealcathy.blogspot.com

myrealfaithseeds.blogspot.com

travelswithcathyjane.blogspot.com

The Little Girl who lived in Emporium, PA

Forward:  In order to give a clear picture about how and why Hometown Mentors, Inc. was created, we first need to introduce you to the founder and give you the "in-a-nutshell" story of the girl who grew up to create HMI. This unique nonprofit did not just appear on the scene out of the blue.  We will first tell you her story, then in following chapters, the story of the town itself, followed by details of how to create a nonprofit corporation in Pennsylvania. We hope you enjoy the tale. 

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in Emporium, Pennsylvania, a small town in the heart of the endless mountains, where there are more deer and bear than there are people.

It was a very normal thing, in the late 1950's and early 1960's for her family to drive on dirt roads in the woods, at dusk and shine a bright light into the wilderness to see how many deer they could find.  Everybody did it.

The little girl and many neighborhood friends would sometimes stand along side a huge bear hanging by it's legs, many feet off the ground, at the game warden's place, for pictures.  She once cuddled an abandoned bear cub who was only a few weeks old.

Heck, that was nothing.  The game warden also brought 5 or 6 rattlesnakes to her church day camp as an exhibition.  You could see the lumps on his hands where he had been bitten by rattlers once or twice.  It was so cool.

Some days she would visit her grandparent's house, next to the railroad tracks in town, and smell the aroma of sassafras, as her grandfather sat on the back porch to make sassafras tea, from roots he collected in the woods that day.  Sassafras is a lot like rootbeer.

Some days Poppy came home from hunting, while still dressed in his orange hunting clothes, holding a turkey by the feet with its huge wings spread out, as if trying to fly upside down.

When she was eleven or twelve, she joined the Sylvania Rifle Club and learned to shoot a .22 rifle at the range, up Plank Road Hollow.  That's where she got her little trophy for marksmanship.  She went hunting at 14, with the preacher and her dad,  and shot a deer.  But, when she got home with it, her kid sister called her a murderer and she never went hunting again.

This little girl had the best Mom and Dad in the world and, life was all about church and grandma's house for Sunday dinner, youth organizations and family picnics at Sizerville Park.  She was content and happy and then she started "adulting".

That is when her world began to change.

She graduated from high school, taught Bible School for a few weeks on an Indian Reservation in Middle Verde, AZ.  She worked at the court house, met a Marine from Wisconsin, got married, adopted a dog and a cat, went through years of infertility, adopted 2 girls and wrote an article about the adoption triad for a local magazine.

Right after that, late one night, a drunk driver hit her thirty-seven year old husband of fifteen years, while he walked alone a country road.  She grew up immediately and became a caregiver to her brain injured husband.  The little girl became the woman-of-the-house at thirty-five years old, while she raised two girls, aged 3 and 9, at the time.

This girl - now woman - from Emporium, went on day by day, trying the best she knew-how, to get along in life, with life and in spite of life.   After a time, she got very tired and emotionally drained. She wasn't in Emporium any more, Toto.

Eleven long years passed with full time work, frequent visits to the doctors, mobile therapists, psychologists, raising two wonderful daughters, parent teacher appointments at school and trying to stay away from angry outbursts directed at her from the new personality of the man who now occupied her husband's body. There was a dirty house that she never had time to clean, tears in her bedroom, so no one would see her cry and putting up a good front to her extended family and church family.  She tried to stay content but inside she was tormented.

She worked at a full time job and was laid off because of the number of times she came to work late, in tears and the number of doctor appointments she had to attend.  Her boss said that she was bringing down the morale of the office.  She was living this life 24x7, but even her own psychologist admitted that 20 hours a week of seeing patients was all he could stand.  She was up against the proverbial rock and a hard place.

The house that the family lived in for twenty-six years was sold so that the bank would not go through with foreclosure and they moved to a house that was cold and unfamiliar, just in time for her older daughter to graduate high school and go in to the Army.

Her depression grew and, unlike the old song her Mom used to sing, "the grey skies would not clear up".  She wanted to go back to Emporium.

When she was 47 years old, she suddenly packed a little overnight bag with pajamas and the items that she had given her girls on their adoption days and ran away to her parent's house where she wanted to cower in the corner for a while and then start all over again.

But, you can't start all over again, can you?

Somewhere, somehow, there had to be a place where she could recover the peace that she knew while growing up in her hometown, but financially she had to earn enough money to support herself and her younger daughter who was now a teenager.

She took off her wedding ring, put on her CCHS class ring to cover the twenty-six year divot in her ring finger, and ran away again.  This time to the city.

She worked at a store called Nordstrom's in Tyson's Corner, VA.  While she had never even heard of this store, she soon found out that it was a bit "hoity-toity". She was selling tank tops for $50 each!  That was unheard of in Emporium.

This woman from Emporium was good at customer service and many of her wealthy customers said, "Now, sweetie, never let the city take the sweetness out of you".  That sounded sort of like what people wrote in her CCHS 1971 class yearbook the year she graduated.  Maybe she had held on to that character from Emporium.

Some days she floundered and some days she was on top of the world, but all the while, she remembered her sweet hometown, her grandparents, her Mom and Dad and her two younger sisters.

She held on to hope and her purpose in life because of the character and roots that where established in those early years in Emporium.

Fast forward to 2019...  Some nights, when the darkness prevails, sad memories overflow from my eyes, as tears, and I can easily lament all the pain and hardship that life held.  But I snap out of it when I dream about that little girl's early life and the peaceful laid-back little town of Emporium.

I am lucky enough to still have my Dad, who is living in Emporium today.  I go back in time as I sit on my late Mother's front porch swing, on his screened in front porch, not too far from what used to be the railroad tracks.

She was me? I am she?  I lived that little girl's life and I'm here to tell you that Emporium is the best little town in the world because of her people and the character building that begins in that wonderful mile wide valley in the hills of Pennsylvania.

The passion that I have for Emporium, Pennsylvania was the "first dot" in many that we have connected in order to form Hometown Mentors, Inc.

I'd like to tell you about the beginning of HMI.  The story is interesting and something that could be done in any small town in Pennsylvania.  Actually, it could be done in any small town in the US.  This unique 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, given it's exceptional board of directors, has done some truly great things for Emporium.

They (my family, my friends, the town folk) all said it couldn't be done.   But, they also said to me many times in life, "I don't know how you do it.  I wouldn't be able to get through all this."

We all have to WANT to do something.  Do you have a passion for your hometown?  Let me show you how easy it might be. The saying goes, "God doesn't send the equipped, He equips those He sends. Read on to learn the story of how HMI came to be a legitimate nonprofit.

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Butterfly Blessings,
The Real Cathy

A Daytona Beach Sunrise

Sunrise Daytona Beach, FL 2/8/19

It is 8:50 AM and already there has been so much action it's hard for me to take it in.
I woke up to watch the sunrise for the second day in a row and, while I was taking pictures, I saw two Mennonite kids walking on the beach.  The lime green and black colors of their clothing was the first thing that I noticed and, of course, the girl's long dress.

Seeing them on the beach was odd, but then they walked back closer to me and, as I spied on them from my balcony on floor twelve, each of them bent down and used their hands to draw a heart in the sand.

As they say, "It wondered me to see them that close to the ocean". I also marveled at what their thoughts must be from living so simply in every day life, to standing on the sand of this expansive body of water.

The "Awe" they must feel!

The "Love" they must have at this moment in time, for each other.  May it last forever in their hearts.

I watched the sun come up until I couldn't watch any more, as it hurt my eyes.  I took pictures but they look like the pictures I took yesterday.

Same sun. Same ocean. Different day.

But it isn't "Same ole, same ole".  It FEELS like a different day.  Then I started getting text messages.

Not good text messages.

My sister writes that my Dad woke her up in the night, shaking and with a fever.  The ambulance was called and they were off to the ER.  He had just been to Cleveland Clinic the day before for a follow up check after having had a kidney stone removed the week before.

At the ER, he was diagnosed with an infection and readmitted to the main campus of Cleveland Clinic.

Here I was, looking out over my balcony railing and admiring God's beauty and young peoples innocence and just that quickly, I had to come back to the real world.  Back to the real Cathy.

Do you think that God gives us glimpses of heaven while we deal with the realities on Earth?

Each sunrise over the past two days, I noticed that the flocks of birds sit on the sand of the beach until the sun rises and only when the sun is above the horizon, they start flying and fishing and chirping.  But until the sun is high enough in the sky, they wait.

They "wait on the Lord".

Isaiah 40:30  "but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Romans 8:25: "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

Romans 12:12 "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."  This is my Birthday Verse.  I was born on 12/12.

Exodus 14:14 "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord".

While I'm writing this, my sister is dealing with my Dad being admitted again to the hospital with an infection, when they thought he was on the road to recovery.  He is scared, confused and not at all happy.  I'm texting both sisters to say "this" and "that" and remind him that "This too shall pass".

It's so difficult to be so far away at times like this.  But my confidence in prayer says that my Dad will be fine very soon.

Just don't be scared Dad.

I'm continuing to pray for my Dad and watching the ocean as it moves closer to the shore.

Tiny Mustard Seed Matthew 17:20

God moves the moon which moves the ocean and He tells me that with faith only as big is a tiny mustard seed, I can tell a mountain to move.

Therefore, today, I'm telling this mountain my Dad is climbing in his health, right now, to move.... go away.... My Dad will be JUST FINE.

Butterfly Blessings everyone,
The Real Cathy