Categories
Self Improvement

Who Suffers the Most When You Don’t Stop Procrastinating and Start Forgiving?

Graphic on forgiveness
Image via Wikipedia

It was last Saturday morning when I got back from a very unexpected weeklong trip to upstate New York. As a result, I’ve been playing catch-up since my return.

Instead of traveling I had expected to be home alone while Brian and Natalie drove her fiancé Dan’s car to upstate New York to Dan’s parents’ home. That’s where Natalie and Dan will reside for a few months while he continues his recovery from his disabling accident in Thailand. (Read about the accident)

My plans changed quickly when on the Friday before their scheduled departure on Monday, Brian received a phone call from his brother. Mike told him that their mother, Julia, had been hospitalized and not expected to live much longer. Her blood pressure was way out of whack and her body was cold.

Just a few days earlier Brian’s sister Anna had told us how well Julia was doing in the nursing home. So Mike’s news was a surprise.

I knew Brian wanted to be with his mother again before she passed away, so I told him that I would take his place to drive with Natalie, and I would book a flight for him to leave as soon as possible.

Very early the next morning I drove Brian to the airport.  When I returned home, I continued preparing to leave the following morning for the long drive to New York.

Meanwhile, Julia’s children and grandchildren gathered in her room in upstate New York to be with her during her final hours.  During that time, Brian’s sister Anna was moved to ask forgiveness from her brother Peter and from Peter’s son, Peter. They hadn’t spoken in many years because

Categories
Inspirational

Can You Guess Who Approved of My Inspirational Story?

Snails in Atrium
Image by LyricalJoyce via Flickr

This is a follow-up to the inspirational story I wrote last week (my last previous post).

So if you haven’t yet read “How Can You Be Helped by This Inspirational Story?” do it now because it is the beginning of this story.

Here’s the follow-up story.

It was late at night, shortly after I had finished writing the rough draft of that story, when Brian called me to have a look in our atrium.

I couldn’t believe what I saw!

So many snails gathered together on the rocks (See the picture above) in our atrium and, of course, not a snail shell in sight! As best as I could tell, I’d say there were at least fifteen snails.

What did this mean?

Categories
Inspirational

How Can You Be Helped by This Inspirational Story?

Little did I know when I began work on a project many weeks ago that it would lead to an inspirational story.   And as the project is coming very close to completion, I have been noticing how focused I am.

I have also noticed signs from nature.

How much attention do you pay to what is going on in nature?

Have you ever noticed the trees waving to you?

What insights does nature hold for you?

Now that I have learned the value of nature awareness, I am more grateful for the gifts nature gives us. And I pay close attention to nature. When I say that, I don’t mean listening to or watching the weather news unless I know very bad weather looms nearby. And even then, I don’t pay that much attention to it. When Hurricane Ike boldly whirled through our area last year, I slept through it.

One night a couple of weeks ago after heavy rain, as Brian walked by the atrium in our house he noticed something sparkling on the atrium ground. He summoned me to have a look.

What we saw was a sparkling, glittery irregular spiral line. Brian noticed a snail without a shell by the sparkly trail, and it was then we knew that the sparkling trail was left by a snail, a gift to us. The gift remained for several days, until a heavy rain washed it away.

Years ago I never thought I would enjoy seeing a snail in our atrium. After all, there were a lot of snails in there back then, eating our wandering jew plants while destroying their lovely leaves. We did our best to get rid of those pesky destructive snails, and finally we no longer saw snails or the shells that protected them.

I’m not sure when we began to see snails without shells inside our house near the atrium door.

Snails in Our House!
Snails in Our House!

Maybe it began a year ago, but it has occurred quite a few times since. It was a mystery to us how they got inside and why we never saw their shells…