Westwoods

     This is what I say for broken relationships in marriages today.  I feel the pain, the bitter taste, the stabs and pangs of disappointments.  I have been there.  There was a time when I couldn't see where or how it could ever end.  The worse part is feeling so caught with no way out;  like a prison with no light pouring through the bars.        There is a way out.  I know this also from experience.  And it lies largely with you.  You see, when it comes right down to it, the only person you can change is yourself.  It doesn't matter how right you are about your spouse or friends faults.  The only faults over which you have power are your own.   First steps are baby steps, but the most important ones. They are the steps of seeing that my sins nailed Jesus to the cross.  And they look no different to Jesus than my spouse or friend's sins.  Jesus sees souls. Sins of self look l...

                Be sure to click on the about "About Westwoods" page for an update on our lives...     Because that is all you have sometimes.   Written on Thursday...Tonight I came home from school especially exhausted.  Bruce was standing on the porch greeting us as we came in.  He had an amused grin on his face; I think because the more we came the gloomier we were.  I promptly went to the bathroom to escape conversation and had a brief meltdown.  I was weary in well doing.      I finally braved up and faced my husband who had stayed at home all day, and came out to the double recliner to sit with him.  Part of my gloom was knowing he was off again in two hours to another fire department meeting.  Some very small part of me realized that to be grateful for the moment of time on the couch with him was better than no time at all.  So I sat.  He asked about my frustrat...

        I don't really know how God works but that is the miracle of life.  And finding out how He works comes usually after having experienced something beyond explanation.   It's a fact that my reality of the moment is often skewed by my lack of faith and fear of the unknown.       I have a special memory that is still clear in my mind of something that happened a long time ago in Coyhaique, Chile.  Bruce and I were visiting for the first time.  We had left our three, then very young children, with their grandparents in Puerto Rico.  I was still in the baby fog years.  That is when thought processes are so slow that you find yourself in situations such as a soaking rain and not realizing you are wet till much too late.  In those years of fog, I knew when things weren't right, when I felt uncomfortable, and when I should try to care about what was going on around me but I often never wholly got there.    ...

Warning:  The following is a serious amount of memories... If you are not in the mood to view family photos of years gone by, this is not the place for you.  These have all been posted before but in my perusing old blog post, I discovered although time passes so quickly, the nostalgia and longing to kiss my babies and snuggle them close has not left.  It used to be a lot easier is all.  My sixteen year old son no longer needs so much affection but will still tolerate a goodnight kiss.  The girls love their hugs and kisses as much or more.  I wonder if this is the way girls are or if they will soon not need them as much too.                                           Look at all those baby teeth!  7 years ago...    They have grown so much.  At one time, they depended on us holding their hand on a hike.  I miss ...

It was the empty green S. Pellegrino  bottle with the sprig of Oregon grape that made me do it... I snitched the bloom of Oregon grape through the slat in the privacy fence yesterday and stuck it in the empty bottle for a place to put it but all day it grew prettier to me.  This morning while I prepared our Sunday lunch, "The Bottle" became the centerpiece for a tablescape. I had the urge to create and so I did.   I searched my linen closet for a white tablecloth and discovered I don't have one so instead, I found an old floral sheet and tied a knot in each corner so it would stay in one place.                          Lambs Ear from the garden was the perfect green... I am seeing now that I didn't have the lighting right for this photo shoot.  I could call it a 'smash' but will instead be humble and show the flaws too.  The point was, I felt like it was a Sunday morni...

The prodigal is me and you some days.  Like the prodigal son, we ask God to give us the portion of goods that falleth to us. We prepare and plan our own way, taking a journey off the boring path of normal.  We waste all we have learned about our perfectly good life and squander our time foolishly. There grows a famine in our souls; loneliness crowds in, while we join ourselves to another person or thing of misery. We lower ourselves to eating the pig slop of life, slop not earned by our own ability, rather, found in our searching to fill all the gaping holes of our own making. Then, we come to our senses. We see God's way was better. We see where God did work hard in our behalf, even while we were feeling jaded and betrayed. At least walking with God, we had food and water,  not slop. In our search for more, we found complete emptiness, We run back to our Father. We beg for forgiveness. We are broken and humbled as we bow before HIM. He welcomes us with ...