Brick by Brick: Rebuilding the Broken

June 2017 "On Rain"  written by: Sue Leerhoff Drr-ip Drr-ip Drip Steady, slow and soft Faintly tapping on the windowsill Perhaps silent for a beat or two then resumes it's gentle song Beckons for an audience as it dances on the rocks Soothing rhythm Refreshing sound Gathers in puddles Shuddering softly across the ground Thunder echoes Lightning awakens Tranquility interrupted by heaven's fireworks Clouds thicken racing towards each other Rolling in turmoil over which way to go Breezes hurry unsure and restless Trees sway whispers and shivers The sky is the battleground Who will win this time? Nature pauses but a moment ZZzz-ip Zzz-ing CRR -ack Brilliant whites emblazon the blackness Showing off it's energy unleashed Clouds grumble in dissent growing angrier by the minute Uncontainable They all collide in unison Erupting in an orchestra of chaos Furious and Captivating Rain Stories from the journe...

I was a difficult child. I usually talked out of turn, and constantly told jokes because I was reading so many joke books every day. That was before the second grade. Then I got glasses. I became the shy kid. Unsure of myself, I didn't like the new me. It was hard to adjust and the ramifications lasted a very long time. If the teacher ever called on me, I would immediately forget everything I ever knew. Soon I learned to become invisible, hoping to be looked over and avoid talking out loud. I didn't seem to have control of what came out of my mouth. It scared me. I hated me. Now I am like that child once again. I thought I knew the answers, but then the Teacher called on me. I wasn't prepared to lose our son, not ever, but certainly not after all that we had been through. I thought I had prepared myself for battles, for tough assignments. I thought we had been through so much already, we were invincible. I thought we were on the better road by now, we ...

I am pretty sure if you are reading this, you know the saying - "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." When I was a child, I didn't like lemonade. So, to me, making lemonade sounded like a really bad idea. Of course, I had no idea what the saying meant anyway. By the time I understood the old cliche, I didn't like it at all. My life had turned not only into lemons, but more like a bad dream I couldn't escape. It seemed everything I did was never good enough. I decided that my life had pulled a practical joke and filled those nasty lemons with smoke bombs, or something. But, whatever they were, I wouldn't call them lemons. I hated that saying with a passion. Then I became really good at making " lemonade ." I figured out how to serve the best side of me , so no one would ever suspect the volcano brewing inside. I have been making pretty decent liquid lemonade, too. In fact, I have come to realize that lemons are actually u...

The art of repairing broken pottery with gold or silver I Am Nathanael's Legacy: Legacy: anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor. Many people don’t like hand-me-downs.  It makes them feel less than capable of providing needs. I don’t like being handed down a legacy from my son.  A parent shouldn’t have to bury their child.  I feel less than capable of so many things now. It is hard to carry on. In the first month, I was so angry I took my favorite pottery and slammed it against the sidewalk.  Of course, it shattered to so many pieces that it couldn’t be repaired.  I wanted to break more things, knowing that what I wanted unbroken, I could never have. But the Master Potter was right there through it all,  Patiently turning the potter’s wheel and holding us the entire time.  He never took His hands away for one moment. The Potter is taking m...

Summertime.  The season of everlasting road construction.  Warning: Bridge Out Ahead - is not a sign you like to see on your gravel road.  That quaint little wooden bridge that the children once stood on, looking down at the murky water, watching for tadpoles squiggling about.  The bridge that was just far enough away for a short trip on bikes.  That bridge is gone now.  A gaping hole remains, all the boards gone, the steel beam torn away, and the dirt is piled higher than the bridge ever was.  By the time summer is over, I am sure there will be a brand new, safe, little bridge in it's place.  But until then, every time we want to go that direction, we remember we can't.  We have to find a way around it, a detour.  If we were to forget and continue on that road, we would fall in and most certainly ruin our vehicle and maybe make it out with just a couple broken bon...

 My son Nathanael was a wise old soul in a young heart. He had a way of making you see the important things even in the most unlikely sources. One of his favorite videos as a child was Old Yeller. It took me a few years to see what was so intriguing about a movie where the young teen has to get rid of the lovable dog that the family worked so hard to keep. All I could see was the scary moments, the sad things, the hard times portrayed in the show. Until I watched it with the kids once, the boys rewound the movie, and showed me the quote that sticks with me to this day. When Arliss' father comes home from delivering cattle and sits down with his son to listen to the story of how they gained, and lost, a beloved dog while Pa was away. Pa tells Arliss: " It’s not a thing you can forget. Maybe not even a thing you want to forget….  Life’s like that sometimes…  Now and then for no good reason a man can figure out, life will just haul off an...

 I like the old country music where they sang for pure enjoyment of relaxing in the shade after a hard day at work in the fields. The songs that were fun just to listen to, and the ones that got stuck in your head and you weren't afraid of randomly singing them out loud. If you know anything about the late '70s, you are probably familiar with Kenny Rogers' signature song whether you are a country music fan or not. "You got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, And know when to run." -The Gambler by Kenny Rogers is a song that becomes an ear-worm even if you haven't heard that song in a coon's age! It holds a lot of good lessons within (pun intended) and can be applied just about anywhere in life. When it comes right down to it, I need to put this song on repeat to help keep me grounded some times. In fact, I really should put it on my list of songs to learn how to play. I ha...