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California – Apple Town and In-Laws

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Cupertino Aka Apple Town In our last blog, we detailed how our fears of air travel from Grand Forks to California were assuaged by trust in God and by what seemed to us to be the help of near angel-like people. We left off with our landing in San Francisco. Our first couple of days in California were spent in the Cupertino area where Apple has a corporate office called Apple Park or Apple Campus 2. We both carry iPhones in our pockets and sport Apple watches on our wrists, so it was cool to be in “Apple Town.” This is a beautiful area with few bugs (except in the phones), perpetually sunny skies, an amazing array of bush and flower types, warm temperatures year-round, and swarming Teslas.  Time One reason we were in Cupertino was that it had a solid and reasonable handicapped-accessible hotel close to our son’s in-laws who we promised to visit if we ever were in the area. Well, we were only a few miles from them so we arranged to meet them on a Saturday evening. Let me just say “disabi
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California – Embarking

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The Challenge I am on a road in retirement that began prematurely as medically approved disability leave from my school teaching job about four years ago. The road has had all sorts of adventures discussed in previous blogs. I finally undertook some serious actual pavement travel this summer to the tune of not one but two, two-thousand-mile auto round trips; always with a nagging anxiety in tow related to future air travel; could I do that? When I was healthy, walking, talking, and eating without any aids whatsoever, air travel was invigorating and fun. Now air travel loomed as even more frightening because it was becoming apparent that it was definitely possible. Air travel was now in my vocabulary; a challenge with daunting logistics and untold hazards to navigate compared to car travel. I’ll admit I was afraid.  Soothing Words Fears Assuaged One of the worst things a person can do with fear is keep it inside and not speak to anyone about it. So I spoke to my oldest son. I’m not even
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Refuge in Times of Trouble

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Strength from God Many have asked me how my husband and I maintain our strength, maybe even our sanity through the trouble, through the physical disease, through the complications of brain surgery, and through arguably the hardest time of our 40 years together. Our faith in God and a few Bible truths come to mind. We have finally given up on the notion that God provides a trouble-free existence if we just have faith—not true. It’s crystal clear to us now that God doesn’t always provide protection from trouble nor reward our faith with complete deliverance when in the heat of crushing circumstances. However, through these past 18 months of trial, we have found God’s promise of strength and endurance through any hardship to be true. That supernatural ability to find hope and press on comes through seeking refuge and sanctuary in his presence.  God’s Provision of Refuge God invented the words refuge and sanctuary to describe places where we humans could find his presence and his safety or
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Games - Kitchens & Dining Rooms

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As I stated in my last blog, I am cheerful, delighted, and full of God when I am enjoying the company of someone and playing games. My disabilities may keep me from bantering on or entering boisterously into the conversation, but I am paying attention because I also like winning. I learned to love card playing mostly in kitchens and dining rooms. Kitchens and Dining Rooms Both my husband and I learned a few things about playing cards in our grandma’s kitchens and dining rooms. Those heart-like places set the pace for all home activities. And bear with me because older architectures sometimes melded what we might call today a kitchen and a dining room. Many households of old ate their meals in the kitchen. My husband’s grandma‘s kitchen and my grandma’s dining room were not only places to cook and eat food, but they also served multiple purposes like debate center, courtroom, comedy theater, political platform, town hall, banquet hall, and most importantly, gaming center. Chris’s grandm
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Games

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 A Family Affair Several years ago I went on the road to the Hills of Missouri to pay respects to a precious matriarchal figure in my life. I lived in her home for a summer during my sophomore year in college in Southwestern Wisconsin, as things back home with my mom were strained and a bit tumultuous. Her youngest daughter was a close friend of mine, and the matriarch’s family became my family. The dad became a replacement for my dad who had died 11 years earlier. These people loved games. At the celebration of life, one of her sons even told a funny story of the matriarch’s notorious and well-hidden ability to cheat at cards. My summer in this home showed me how to delight in God. Being unchurched, I attended various religious groups on campus and noted that some Christians lived in religious piety in such a way that it stole their ability to have fun. Their relationship with God seemed dominated by the keeping of religious laws and rules. My college family and the matriarch taught
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Trapped in Silence

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  As stated in my last blog, I’ve had to adjust how I engage my God-given purpose. My biggest challenge in putting my gifts into action is my own body. I need every form of communication to carry out my purpose, but I battle silence; the inability to communicate. I describe it to people as feeling trapped in a cocoon of silence. It’s not just oral communication, it's every means of communique: my hands are unable to type an email, my fingers are prohibited from pressing the right buttons on a smartphone, and both hands and fingers are not able to effectively guide a mouse through the surf waves of the internet. Imagine daily isolation where the only response you get is from yourself. I can see words and imagine discourse, but my brain currently lacks the connective wiring to move my tongue, mouth, jaw, or fingers to vocalize or electronically communicate. I am trapped in silence. Escape My husband disagrees with me somewhat on this though and he's partially correct. We've
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Purpose Found

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On a Cliff of Purpose Crisis I feel like I left my last blog with the storyline of a car that’s gone through a mountain road guardrail and is one clinging wheel away from a 2000’ drop. Inside the vehicle, the main character has great fear in her eyes being on a precipice of purpose crisis. However, my situation isn’t like this at all (I just heard a concerted sigh). Actually, my situation is more like Tom Cruise in a Mission Impossible “impossible” dilemma, but with that sparkle in his blueish-green eyes. We all know he’s going to make it, after all, he is the hero and not bad to look at. I am no heroine, but my husband says I have that twinkle. My purpose to serve God and others remains, but I am navigating my assignments that come with that purpose, differently.  Gifts and Purpose Remain   As we all travel down our roadways of purpose, we need to be prepared for changes. My giftings from God like mercy, administration, serving, and just loving others remain. God reminds me that these
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