One day in this shop, they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, “May we see that? We’ve never see one quite so beautiful!”

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. “You don’t understand,” it said. “I haven’t always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, “Let me alone!” But he only smiled and said, “Not yet”.

“Then I was placed on a spinning wheel,” the teacup said, “and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I’m getting dizzy!” I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, “Not yet.”

Finally the door opened; he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool.

“There, that’s better,” I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. “Stop it, stop it!” I cried. He only nodded, “Not yet.”

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven– not like the first one.
This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time, I could see him through the opening, nodding his head saying, “Not yet.”

Then I knew there wasn’t any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened, and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later, he handed me a mirror and said, “Look at yourself.” And I did. I said, “That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful!”

“I want you to remember, then,” he said. “I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked.”

“I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.”

Click on the link below for a beautiful Irish blessing!

http://www.e-water.net/viewflash.php?flash=irishblessing_en

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU

O God, when I have food, help me to remember the hungry; When I have work, help me to remember the jobless; When I have a home, help me to remember those who have no home at all; When I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer, And remembering, help me to destroy my complacency; bestir my compassion, and be concerned enough to help; By word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted.

Amen.

– Samuel F. Pugh

 It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 am, when an elderly gentleman, in his 80′s, came in to have sutures (stitches) removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and re-dress his wound. While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had a doctor’s appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for awhile and that she was a victim of Alzheimer Disease. As we talked, and I finished dressing his wound, I asked if she would be worried if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now. I was surprised, and asked him, “and you’re still going every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?” He smiled as he patted my hand and said.. “She doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.” I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arms, and thought, “That is the kind of love I want in my life.” True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will never be again.

Welcome to the world, our precious gift!

I realize it has been a while since I have blogged…no excuses will you hear…I have just been busy prioritizing the important things in life lately.  Taking care of a newborn and taking care of my family/myself have been on the list of top priorities as of late.

Our beautiful daughter, Sophia Grace Caputo entered the world on August 11, 2009 at 9:56 am.  Some would say she wanted to “back into the world” with her rear end facing first, as she was born an unexpected breech.  Therein lies the undoing of MY original birth plan.

I am constantly amazed at how our plans (the namesake of my blog as well) do not always align with God’s.  That was the premise of why I started this blog–a constant reminder and realization that my life is not about me at all.  I can have all the plans in the world, but if they don’t align with where God wants me to be, then they are pointless!

My husband, Dan, and I had proactively taken all the birth classes and had diligently written our “birth plan” for how we wanted our first child to be born.    However, with the words of the doctor still echoing in my ears (“I think I feel a baby’s butt!”), I was quickly wheeled into the Operating Room of New Hanover Women’s and Children’s Hospital to do an emergency c-section to retrieve our precious blessing.   Just one word, BREECH, had changed the “plan” entirely…

And so it is with life…we have our plans…and God has others.  But in the end, it all works together for our good.  We have a gorgeous little girl, a blessing and a gift straight from Heaven.  And while she may have not entered the world in the way we had planned it, she is here nonetheless.  And as her loving and doting parents, we are and will be, forever grateful!

Recently encoutered this Yahoo article about the city of NY offering the homeless opportunities to go home to where relatives wait with open arms.

It is part of an effort to save the system of New York’s homeless shelter’s about $36K a year per family, but I like the concept of the thoughts behind it.  According to the article, 

“The city, which spends $500,000 a year on the program, employs a local travel agency, Austin Travel, to book one-way tickets for domestic trips. Department of Homeless Services employees do all the planning for international travel.  City officials said there were no limits on where a family can be sent, and families can reject the offer and stay in city shelters. So far, families have been sent to 24 states and 5 continents, most often to Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.”

Here is the article link if you want to check it out:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32197939/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/?GT1=43001

This concept got me thinking…God offers us the same thing–a one way ticket home, to His heavenly home, where He waits with open arms for each of us…but how many of us will actually take Him up on the offer?

We adopted our two racing greyhounds into what the adoption agency terms their ”forever homes”.  So I ask…do you want a one way ticket to your forever home?  The decision is yours.

¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (NIV)

Several questions have been really eating at me lately…such as:

• How much more could we show the love of Christ if churches worked together instead of arguing among themselves about the best way to do outreach?
• How much more could we enlarge God’s kingdom if we stopped working on selfishly-driven agendas and realized that it is not about US or building our individual churches?
• Why would anyone who is not a Christian want to be one when they see some of the things Christians do to each other, especially when they are considered to be part of a loving “church family”?   People can see when there is lack of unity among the “church body”.  This is not a shining light (spoken of later in the verses of Philippians 2) for anyone who is searching for one.

This video I found recently on YouTube raises the same thoughts I have had about Christian unity.   Forgive me for saying it so bluntly, but here it goes:  I am just over-tired of the various church labels…who needs them?  I mean, really WHO NEEDS THEM to do what God asks of us in the first four verses of Phillipians?  Will your label get you a better place in Heaven’s rankings?  I think not…Christ sees us in two ways:  His or not His…isn’t that enough of a label?

Enjoy the video here–pray and think on it.  HOW will  you respond when someone asks what your religion is or what religion you are?

Unity in Christ

Old Glory Porky Pig