Seize the Moment

This morning I had the RARE opportunity to sing a lullabye to my 17 year old son! What a blessing!

How many of us and how often do we have these chances to reach out and grab a piece of LOVE?! More than we realize - I say.

My son has the habit or going back to sleep on the sofa after having breakfast in the morning. Usually I get upset with him and bark at him to get up and get moving but this morning the Lord gifted me with an awareness that this was an opportunity for a special moment!

I walked over to the sofa and sat next to him and caressed his head and his hair, the same curly trusses that I used to caress when he was just a toddler. Same boy, same curls, how have I missed this?

Thank You God for slowing me down just a little and opening my eyes to the gift of this child before me.

I gently asked him if I could sing him a song, knowing he'd agree to anything that meant he could lie there another moment before the hustle and bustle of getting ready for another Monday of school. I began.

"You Are My Sonshine" (that's the way I sing it because he is my 'son' ;-)...my only sonshine, you make me happy when skies are gray... I always sang him this song, when he was just a little guy, to wake him up in the mornings.

This morning, as I hit the familiar notes, his mouth curled slightly, at the corners, to show his approval and an awareness of a mother and son connection that only the two of us hold. Sweet.

The song ended and I wasn't ready to let go and fortunately, he wasn't ready to get up ;-) so I said

"OK, I'll sing you one more" and I began a favorite lullabye from when he was a baby.

I want to share the lullabye with you:


Believe me if all those endearing young charms,

that I gazed on so fondly today,

were to fade by tomorrow and fleet from my arms,

like fairy dreams fading away,

thou would still be adored, as this moment thou art,

let thy loveliness fade as it will,

but around the dear you, in each wish of my heart,

would entwine itself verdantly still still...


if any song was perfect for singing to a child (knowing they will one day be a teenager), this is it! ;-]

Well, I caressed his trusses a few seconds more and then had to use my Big Mommy voice to get him moving.


Thank You Lord for the gift, this opportunity for LOVE and may it entwine itself verdantly still in our hearts forever!

and may each of us be aware to Seize the Moment!

These pictures relate to my last blog 

a Mother's Love  

my baby girl, her husband, and his son visiting, July 09 

she will now be his mom with his mother's passing 

my baby girl, my first grandchild ;-]  & me!

Dec. 2010, (due the end of March, 2011)

my son, trying to be a mama for Florabelle Dec. 2010

a Mother's Love

Yesterday, we learned that my daughter's stepson's mother had passed away.  He is 8 years old.  We are all so very saddened by this loss.  The part which grieves me most is this child's loss.  What a great and glorious gift is the love of a mother for her child.  What a huge loss for anyone, especially a child.  A mother is designed by God, to Love  her child unconditionally, to care for him and nurture him, no matter what!


I lost my own mother, to cancer, just 2 years ago and still find myself needing her, wanting to call her to share something or to just be loved on with that super-fantastic unconditional Love!  I sometimes find myself with tears of regret for not reciprocating that Love enough.  (a subject for another day)


I could not help but ponder these thoughts this morning as I was preparing the two 1/2 gallon bottles of milk for another child that lost it's mother, our baby calf, Florabelle.   Her mother died in childbirth just before Christmas and we have been bottle feeding her since.  My son, age 17, took on the responsibility of feeding her twice daily and loving on her as much as his time will allow.  I fix her morning bottles just to save him a little time for getting ready for school.  He does love the calf but is sometimes put out by the inconvenience of it all when he is late home and having to go out there in the dark and cold and often rainy blustery evenings. 

I, myself, have 4 children and I can still remember the "inconvenience" of it all.  And, how driven I was by LOVE thru every bit of it!  The nursing, the leaking breasts, the up-all-nighters, the colds, the flus, that went thru the entire family, one at a time.  The homework!!!  Arghhhh!  The homework!  (my least favorite motherly duty).


And all of you Mothers, you know, we'd do it all again and again in an instant!  I praise God for that extra overflowing dose of Love He's given to us for this glorious calling!   
I call on each of us now, to look out for those children who have suffered the loss of this Love and to Love all over them as much as humanly possible!


I pray for my daughter and her husband to be able to give this child an extra measure of Love and that God will pour His Love thru my daughter as she tries to fill that void in this child's life and also that I, as his "step-grandmother" will also be able to lavish him with God's LOVE!

Last night, at our church's Wednesday night Bible Club program, one of my students leaned his head upon my shoulder, as we were beginning our large group activities, and said "I love you."

This melted my heart! I turned to goo, a good goo ;-}

"I love you too..." I responded and it was truth.

I sat there basking in this gift from God. Reflecting...what had spurred this outpouring of Love? Just moments before, I had been sharing with a friend, during our meal (Wednesday Night Fellowship Meal) just how much I love these kids...

In fact, my main goal, in facilitating this 4th/5th grade group is to share God's Love with them, to be sure that no matter what else goes on during this short time each week, that they feel that love.

He felt it! And it welled up inside him and overflowed right back onto me! And I hope, to his family and friends as well.

The remainder of the evening, that Love spilled over my brim, my cup 'ranneth' over and poured out onto the rest of the class.

...ahhh...LOVE

Today is the beginning...

...of my blog

The purpose of which, is to share the Love, God's Love, which I feel spilling over sometimes. It is given to us freely for us in turn to freely give. Love is such a sweet nectar one must not keep it to themselves. It must be shared, cannot be saved, or it will dissipate. It is something we each possess and in endless supply. We cannot overspend our love. It replenishes and multiplies itself. There is no reason to hold it back, for even if rejected, it flows softly out into the world and makes it better.

I Love what Edward Walker (William Hurt) said about it in the movie The Village;

"The world moves for love; it kneels before it in awe."

Its time for the world to be moved, shaken, and flowing over with LOVE!