Teresa's Treasures

I knew she was watching me as I sat on the couch waiting for Ashley to cut my hair. I didn't know her but it was quite obvious she thought she knew me. After a few more glances she came over and introduced herself as Jamie Butt. She had been giving instructions about the credit card machine she had just installed at Tanglez, the beauty shop I go to, but found the time to come over and introduce herself. She informed me she was one of the women who had just completed the video series I taped in 2005 called Becoming a Woman of Peace, which she had seen at Freida Avery's house. Freida had told me when she came to pick up the series that she had seen a picture of a tree, in her mind, which she recognized when she saw the same tree on the cover of the workbook, that accompanies the videos, for sale at the Christian Book Store. She told me she knew as soon as she saw it she was supposed to buy it, not even knowing who would come if she decided to have a Bible class in her home. She, ...

Today, I received an e-mail notice that I had received a 5 star rating on an article I had written and posted on another site called Article Blogs, a site I had forgotten about, back in March of 09. I'm posting it again, to have a record of it on Treasures Treasures. Yesterday I went home to visit my mom and dad for their fifty-ninth wedding anniversary and to check up on my mom who has been sick with an unknown illness (maybe Parkinson’s) for a long time.What began with a change in her gait five years ago is now obviously a shuffle, which thankfully yesterday was not so bad.Yesterday was an unusually good day for her.She was calm, not anxious; more focused, not scattered; able to walk without her walker; dressed with clothes on instead of pajamas; and was able to walk up steps onto the deck so I could take pictures of both mom and dad and so dad could take pictures of me and moma beside the ginkgo tree which, oddly enough, grows through the middle of the deck. She was even able to...

“Why are you in a hurry, Mammie?” Bella asked, as I reached in to get the ice to cool off my glass of tea. I said “I don’t know, Bella.” which I’ve since wondered why now maybe a hundred times. I’ve envisioned acceptable times of running -- like the doctor who ran to do heart surgery on Larson and me as I’ve run to throw up with a stomach “bug” or Mr. Gregory as he ran to save the child from running into the street. I’ve even thought about times in the Bible where people ran: like the father who ran to greet his son when he returned home from living in the pig pen and Mary and Peter as they ran to find Jesus but instead found the empty tomb. These somehow seem acceptable to me, but not me running in to get ice out of the freezer to cool down my tea. Somehow what I did just seems so unnecessary to me right now. And Bella was sooooooooooo right to ask me why I was in such a hurry. I have since thought as to why I’m usually in a hurry and I’ve come to the conclusion it’s because I’m usual...

My Titus 2 class at http://titus2.ning.com is studying the beatitudes for the next several weeks. I injected this article after the third beatitude just because I thought I needed to before we went on to the next five. You can see the other blog posts regarding the beatitudes at the above address. I want to say up-front that I’m not a scholar on anything, but especially on the Holy Spirit. What I’m getting ready to write is from my own head and nowhere else. This is what I’ve learned. This is what I know. This is what I want to pass on to you before we go any further. None of these beatitudes can be done without the help of the Holy Spirit. It is not within man’s power to have any one of these “attitudes” within him. Not all people are born poor in spirit or mourning (yes, crying, but not mourning) or meek, as you and I well know; but all Christians are expected to be. All of them are; not one is left out. Even the most ill-tempered Christian, through the Holy Spirit can become poor in...

"You are the salt of the earth. BUT IF THE SALT LOSES ITS SALTINESS how can it be made salty again?" Matthew 5:13 Saturday, February 20 was a red-letter day for me. It was a day I knew would come; I just didn’t know when. I had invited David and Kelly over for supper. I was in the mood to cook and they were in the mood to eat. Of course, Bella tagged along… :). I was in the process of making Freezer Potatoes which I found out later I would never make again -- that it had been a mistake. I should have just stuck with the simple old mashed potatoes I’ve made for a hundred years. Anyway, as I was making the potatoes, Bella, who loves to do this, looked at me and said, “Wash dishes, Mammie!” and I knew what was to come. We took her top off, she got the stool and I proceeded to fill the sink with water, squirting lots of Dawn in to make bubbles…big bubbles. Since most of the dishes surrounding the sink were glass measuring cups, I got the plastic containers I have stored in my b...

January 15, 2010 Yesterday, I gave my mother permission to die. Monday, she was admitted to T J Samson Hospital with blood clots in both lungs; the doctor said large blood clots. She was taken by ambulance to the ER last Thursday, with the same symptoms as she had Monday when she was admitted; she should have been admitted, but wasn’t. She cannot roll over without help; she cannot sit up without feeling faint; she has not walked across the floor since Monday. Someone has to bathe her, change her, attach her to fifty cords, place an oxygen sensor on her finger to make sure she’s getting the right amount of oxygen to her brain, reposition the oxygen cord when it falls out of her nose, pull the bed rails up to protect her from falling out and, up until today, feed her. She is on blood thinners which are causing her nose to be dry and bleed. Her right hand shakes for some reason unbeknownst to the doctor, causing her food to shake off the fork or spoon whenever she tries to eat by he...

"Your word IS a lamp for my foot and light on my path." Psalm 119:105 CJB When I was meditating on what I was going to say today – thoughts centering around the words Your word IS -- I remembered two pieces of paper that are priceless to me. (Laura, if you’re reading this, none of them are from you, honey. But I want you to know you hold the most priceless. Don’t ever doubt that; I have an entire folder full of things you’ve written me.) Two paper napkins with words written on them from three very special people. Tonya wrote “I was thinking of you today as I picked these, and wanted you to have some.” -- a friend picking strawberries who brought them, because she thought of me that day. And on the other napkin is mine, Bo Reh’s and Ku Reh’s names, that I asked them to write in Burmese, Karenni and English, Sunday night when we took them out to eat at Mancino’s, after Home Bible Study. [Two boys come from Burmese refugee camps to America and we take them out to eat pizza and ...