Although I do not know you in the same way that many of your “feedback” friends do, I want you to know how much I appreciate your “Blog’. I have received encouragement from reading your posts, and those that come from your friends and family. Life continually changes, and we never know what will be in our immediate future. However, we do know that God will keep us until the day He calls us. You have put forth the example for all of us to follow until that day. Thank you

Time certainly slips by us everyday no faster or slower than ever but on days like these I can’t help watch it pass with sadness. You have given me a lifetime of memories that have shaped my life but there are 3 gifts you have given that I take, by your example, to each day, to the future, and though life.

Those are the gifts of celebration, wonder, and love.

I have learned to celebrate life and all it brings, birthdays, compositions, Swedish meatloafs, God’s touch;
I am filled with wonder by butterflies in a corn field, spider webs, silence, frogs on the roof and thunderheads, and;
The greatest of these is love. Being raised by cheerleaders and loved to the very depth of my toes has given me the great and immeasurable pleasure of also loving family, friends, and those yet to come.

These things don’t exist on a timetable or end or begin. They do not exist in a moment. They are moment makers – memory makers. They are ours for the taking, enjoying, and sharing.

Thank you for doing just that.

PS – the fourth gift is cooking and especially baking bread in all its simple wonder. Actually, coming home from school to the smell of bread and eating it warm with butter and honey is one of my great memories. Mmmmmm. Thank you for that especially.

Jim and I saw “Julie/Julia” last weekend and just loved it. A true gem of a film compared to the ad/trailers that preceded the showing.

You continue to teach me so much through your blog – about the beauty of daily routine and God’s great and obvious presence in nature. I ride my beautiful Holsteiner, Bayly, these mornings and sense such things. We have seen the activity of wildlife at the barn shifting with the change in weather; the wild turkeys have a new routine and the pricked ears of the horses tell us that other creatures are “afoot.”

I am glad that you continue to have the strength to enjoy important moments with your family and friends.

With care and prayers for you and dear Charles whom I miss.

Betsy Bobenhouse