This morning there was a narrow group of clouds rolling by...

They weren't full of water by any means. They didn't seem to even have air inside them. They trounced or staggered toward the sunrise, like an inebriated band after a long night of partying. None of them were paired off and so they went home to sleep off the cares. I don't know if they really partied last night, those clouds. Clouds have a way of always looking a bit tipsy. It might have been my lack of caffeine that tilted my judgment about these beauteous wonders of the Huntersville skyline, or it might just be my vivid imagination at work again. It was bound to be an on again off again cloudy interactive day.

The night clouds are making a ruckus, perhaps castigating their inebriated young-uns for their last night's romp, I imagine. Anyway, Helen whispered to me, Sing the "Blind man song" so I did. We giggled that she knows the blind man song to me and I know that the blind man song doesn't have blind man in it, it is just the wrong way that I sing it. I just can't help, falling in love with you. Blind men stay, It's not blind men, it's wise men stay, only fools rush in. As soon as I said it, I started laughing that Helen and I would be singing that song together. She can see stuff, she never could and I can't see things that I should see. That is why we are friends. Well after we laughed for a while about whether it was blind or wise to be wise or blind, we ended the song and we knew that we weren't singing it to each-other, but for eachother to converse on the dark concourse of life, between time and eternity. The things tha-t entertain earthlings so much is funny to those enjoying the completion of their course. I can't find my backhand, I tell Helen. She is singing to me to help me find it. Maybe if I laugh it will come back to me.

It looked like Uncle Charles was on cloud duty today...

I can just imagine him in the dark room of heaven, perfectly developing the skyline for me. I know Jayne will see this cloud better if it is turned just so. I imagine. I didn't see the coffee clatch of angels over the pond this morning as I passed to carry my little fellows to their assigned duties today. I can no longer amuse them at the beauty of the works of God around them in creation. They are getting too grown to imagine the angels of condensation and evaporation, as I put it to them when they are young. That is puff the magic dragon for me. Just mommy's with whom God's mystic sweet communion becomes passe' all too soon for it to be communicated to their young'uns and the darkling world that steals and kills and destroys the dreams of true faith in the hearts of the children of the godly. God's Holy Spirit is the victor, whether mother lives to tell the children or dies in the conflict.

Dear new baby Gracie!

I am so very sorry not to have been able to attend your birth celebration. We have been waiting these 9 long months for you to be born. It is a delight and a treasure that you were sent at the very time that you were and we are counting it a "grace upon grace" for you to come to be a part of our family. Your mother and father are obviously aware of the grace of you or they would not have named you that name. Isn't God good? AMEN! I write, hanging precariously off the precipice of a great cliff. It is not a danger, really. It just feels like it is and looks like it is, most of the times. You see, I was diving for a volleyball in the second hit of a rally of the game and leapt long and far. I felt myself flying in falling, or falling and flying, whatever the case may be. Anyway, I was somewhere in midair, when an angel caught me in his teeth, by the foot. He continued flying and I am very grateful that the skin on my feet are so tough, or who knows where I would be. I am also grateful that the teeth on the angel were so strong and that he was not fastidious enough to be grossed out to catch me by the foot. We flew together long and far, the angel knowing where he was going and keeping me from tumbling to my physical and spiritual demise and I, flying by the skin of the alligator feet that I have been blessed with, that served me well, especially in this circumstance. When we got to where we were going, the angel tried to dislodge my feet, only to find out that they had become enmeshed together. Now, I really don't know where his teeth begin and my hard skin feet start. My feet are somewhat as tough as teethskin, by the way, so it is not very hard for this to have happened. The angel knows that if he detangles my feet, I will start careening into oblivion again, so he stands at the cliff and guards my soul from falling. I wish that I could be there to see your sweet and delightful baby face, today, but I can't. Wish me well, in my excursions hanging by the foot and I will wish you well in your endeavors in life with my sister as a grandma and dear Netty as your mother. I love you, Aunt Jayne

I didn't expect the whole crew...

I had sensed some interesting spiritual activity going on around the house. Truly, I was praying and sensing some sort of surprise brewing. It is usually, Helen. So, I have come to expect the unexpected here and there. This was certainly of a different sort. Shadows and alerts here and there. My soul seemed a bit more calm, when it should be alarmed. These shadows didn't scare me and I couldn't have guessed what they were up to at all. Things like this are like reflexes. They happen all of a sudden, but they seem to take alot of time in prep and in absorbing. I really think that the elder people who have gone before meet here, before they go to NY for special occasions from Heaven. I know Netty is ripe with child, so I can only imagine that this is why they came to me. It is always special, but I think that they were telling me that fellowship with Heaven is not once in a lifetime, as I assumed, but a perk of communion with God. I said to myself that this is something that will happen and be over with, or maybe it means that I am not long for this earth. Well, in anycase, the night seemed so very long. I was aware of the Valentine theme around the house more than usual. We are all lovydovy around here and the sight of the children making Valentine's for Ezra's class was a beautiful sight. I slept and then awoke a few times. Ben gave me a long discussion that was about this and that. I didn't fall asleep once,{prodded by the convicting sermon that I heard by Pastor Stu}. I think he was even surprised that I didn't fall asleep he talked so long. Then when I slept I dreamed a very pictoral dream about the angels and up and down from heaven. I said that I would remember, but when I opened my eyes it was spiritually decorated all around me. Shadows and lights and darks, like being on the inside of a snowflake. I know Helen and baby Ben were there, Grandma Ruth, Aunt RaRa and Aunt Iva, who else, I don't know, but they were all around the room and it was dark and light at the same time. The angel that wakes me to prayer and praise, seemed nowhere around this morning. I got up and went to prayer and God is always there, who is more special than the most special guests who might come by, every once in a while.

I'm used to sparrows coming to visit, but these were the tiny delightful kinds.

I can't tell if the snow brought out the sparrows or the warm days that are coming. We have so little snow in our neighborhoods that the children hardly ever would have a snow day, if it weren't for some very kind school superintendents and thinkers who give us a family day, whenever Jack Frost pops his head out. Friday and Saturday were just such days. Saturday would have been the makeup day for last weeks unseemly frost and freeze day. The children were elated at the freezing weather. We played, the children played a board game{the first time in a long time}.

Oh, I still want to see Him!

Helen always comes with me to the children's concerts.

She is a delightful companion at these events where there are too many people and I get so very nervous in crowds. She points out the interesting things around, me that I would miss if she weren't with me. Last year she showed me how she dances to the African drums and I nearly fell off my chair with laughter, to imagine her dancing around me as she did. This year, she pointed out the flags on the ceiling, which I never would have noticed. She got right up on the stage with those children and danced to Santa Clause is coming to town. Last year she was comforting me, so she couldn't go up on the stage. This year she knows that I won't fall off the chair so easily, so she left me for a minute or two to enjoy the spotlight with the children. There were so many little people in the audience and she especially loves the chopsticks song. I don't know why she loves that song so much, she doesn't let me ask her too many questions, she just does. My son in the concert is my complete entertainment and I would miss all of the other enjoyments about me, had I not a friend who points these other things out.