It occurred to me today that five years ago, I took my first cat Lucy to the vet and got a good report back. All her bloodwork and other tests came back fine. A year later, I took her to the same vet, and she turned out to be very sick, only days away from crossing the rainbow bridge.

It’s difficult to remember everything from that long ago, but I’m certain I would never have guessed five years ago what would transpire in a year. It never dawned on me at that point that I could lose my beloved feline. I probably took for granted that she would be with me for a long while.

I know friends who have lost loved ones very suddenly. I can’t claim to be a mind reader, but I know planning for a funeral was not in their agenda. Grieving the passing of a loved one wasn’t on their radar.

The older I get, the more I realize that it’s important — no, it’s vital — that you learn to cherish all the days you’re given. Cherish all the people in your life. Cherish each and every moment you can. You almost never know when a moment or a conversation or a gathering will be the last one.

More than ever, it’s important to hold on to everything in your life with open hands, ready to let go when it’s time. The only time when you need to grasp tightly is when you’re holding on to Jesus. He’s your constant in a world of change.

The beautiful part is that even when you can’t hold on to Jesus, when you’re too tired and weak, that’s when you find that Jesus has been the one holding on to you all this time. He’s the one who will not let go and won’t grow weary.

You never know when the hard dark days will come, but you can know for sure that Jesus will be there.

I think the older I get, the less I am able to deal with hot weather. Actually, what gets to me is the humidity. I don’t mind hot days with low humidity nearly as much as when it feels like I walk outside and I’m instantly sweating and swimming though air think with moisture.

I typically like summer and winter . . . for about two or three weeks. Then I’m ready for the next season. My favorites are spring and fall, with fall winning because of almost all my favorite holidays being in the fall.

Summer is more fun when you live near an ocean or a lake or a large body of water. Or swimming pools. I can close my eyes and almost recall the salty scent of the breezes coming off the ocean. Plus, the sound of waves crashing on the beach never fails to soothe me.

What I’m saying is that I need a beach vacation, which is unlikely. What I also need is air conditioning, and lots of it. I probably need to drink more water and keep it with me when I’m outside.

Most of all, I need fall to get here. Pronto.

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” (Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey)

If you’ve ever read the book of Job, then you know that the best thing his friends ever did was to come sit in silence with him in his grief. The mistakes started when they opened their mouths and tried to make sense of Job’s predicament. If they’d kept their big mouths shut, they’d all have been a lot better off.

When we think about the kind of friends we want, that’s a clue as to what kind of friends we should be. People don’t need your wisdom and your expertise and much as they need your presence. As the old saying goes, they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Sometimes, just being there is enough.

I think about my Grandmother Ruby, my other Grandmother Iris, my Uncle Bob, my Uncle Monty, and so many other family and friends that I have known. The size of their impact might vary, but they left noticeable footprints just the same.

Who in your life has left footprints in your heart and changed you for the better? You can grieve the loss, but you can also thank God for the time you had with them. You can thank God that He appointed the time when you and the other should meet. If the circumstances had been a little altered, you might have missed and never met.

Above all, remember that you are not the same as you were before. Every person God brings into your life brings you closer to rediscovering and recovering the imago dei that lies within you.

Kids today will never know the joy of the Blockbuster experience on a Friday or a Saturday night. In fact, most people have either never known or forgotten what it was like to walk into a Blockbuster in search of a movie to rent.

For me, it was hoping against hope that the new release i had been waiting to see would still be there. It was also about discovering a hidden gem in the 99 cent rentals in the middle aisles.

Later, I found out about previewed movies that were available to buy. Usually, that meant that they had been rented a few times but the store no longer needed as many copies as the movie wasn’t in as high a demand as before.

It was a memory that I carry with me to this day. I believe there’s only one actual Blockbuster store still around, located in the Washington state area. Apparently, you can rent the store for a night and watch all the movies you can cram into one night — or something like that. Hopefully, you can wear pajamas and bring sleeping bags.

I do love Netflix and Amazon Prime and all things streaming, but it’s not the same. There’s nothing that beats holding a physical copy of a movie in your hands, ready to check out and take home.

Maybe I can dig up my old Blockbuster card somewhere. All it’s good for now are the nostalgia and the memories.

I think that just about says it all. Surrender is looked at these days as a bad word, but in God’s economy it’s the best way to live To give up all expectations and preconceptions and to let God be God and do what He does best is freeing in the utmost.

I don’t subscribe to the philosophy of “let go and let God” as much as you do your part in obedience and surrender the outcome to God. Most of obedience is surrender, but there is also an aspect of getting yourself ready to receive what God has for you.

As much as you trust God, the more you will surrender to God. The more you know of God, the more you will trust God. The more you surrender, you will trust God. The more you surrender to God, the more you will know God. It’s all interconnected.

Surrender and trust is the key. Then when your expectations are completely centered on God, great things happen.

“Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says–‘I cannot stand anymore.’ God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God’s hands.” (Oswald Chambers)

I learned early on that if you want patience, you should never pray for patience. That’s when you find out how little you do have, because it WILL get tested. Probably more than once.

But just as you can’t grow physically without pain, so you can’t grow spiritually without some tough lessons, patience being one of them. It’s not like you ask God for patience and then BAM! you automatically are the most longsuffering person in the universe.

Usually, you find out that you are a decidedly impatient person, more so than you ever thought. But little by little, you find over time that you’re just a smidgen more patient than you were a week ago or a month ago or a year ago. Circumstances that used to vex you don’t bother you so much anymore.

Some virtues you can learn by watching others. I think (at least for me) that patience is one that you can only learn for yourself the hard way. So I guess keep asking for patience in your prayers and forgiving yourself and asking God’s forgiveness when your patience fails regularly. After all, it takes patience.

I really really am ready for the week to be over. Not because it’s been bad or stressful or anything. I’m just ready to sleep in and be lazy and have my weekend. I’m ready to turn off the alarm and sleep.

It’s kinda sad when you’re to the point where you fantasize about . . . sleeping.

That’s the concept that blows my mind sometimes.

God is in my past where I made the mistakes that I regret and acted too often out of fear instead of faith.

God is in my present where I’m learning to trust Him from moment to moment.

God is in my future, regardless of what worst case scenarios my anxiety throws at me.

And He is in all three places at the same time.

Time is a way for us mere mortals to process our lives. God is outside of time. Every moment in history is now to God.

If I let it, thinking about God being outside of time would make my head hurt, so I choose to trust that wherever my time of greatest need is, He has always been there.

Usually, I start off with the best of intentions only to end up angrily wadding up the folded sheet into a ball and stuffing it into a closet somewhere. If there were five steps to perfectly folded fitted sheets, I’d probably make it through the first four and fall apart during the home stretch.

I get the purpose of folded sheets, but I feel there is a design flaw. I’m not sure if it’s actually in the fitted sheets or in the people who are attempting to fold the fitted sheets. Either way, there will be cussing and tears and eventual resignation before it’s all said and done.

If you are among the 2%, consider yourself blessed. And yes, I will hire you to come fold my fitted sheets. You can even pet my cat Peanut. Probably after removing her from the fitted sheets a number of times.