Living in the Light

Like Eeyore, sometimes the clouds of life overwhelm me. Clouds of disappointments, clouds of trouble and loss, clouds of fear or confusion. Even clouds of change.

Travelling down this long lonely road into West Texas from Arizona for my mother's memorial service in Big Bend National Park was one of the most difficult journeys I have faced alone and it was travelled literally under a Dark Cloud.



I had finished weeks of sorting through her things and was bringing some of them to distribute to family members, so the rental car was loaded down with many of her most precious possessions: her memorabilia: family scrapbooks, journals, manuscripts; as well as her craft projects: quilts, dolls, stitchery wall hangings, cards; and boxes of geneological research. It was like my last time to be with her.

The trip was long and required a night in El Paso. A night which was comfortable enough but outside terrible thunderstorms raged and I worried about the precious cargo in the car.

The next day the rain was falling so heavily that I had to pull off the highway several times because of zero visibility. Eventually I drove out of it to learn of major flooding in the National Park. The storms had been stirred up by Hurricane Ike which was due to make landfall in Galveston/Houston that night. Relatives coming in from that direction were also stressed.

And yet when we all woke up the next day, the Park weather was beautiful and allowed many in the group to take a day hike up to the summit of a popular trail and almost all of us made it up to one of Mom's favourite lookouts for a time of remembrance. We were so thankful for the glorious weather that day. I couldn't help but feel her smile in the sunshine.

God reminds us over and over again through nature that after the storm comes the sun. Clouds of life come and go, but there is always light beyond them. Today, as I mark the end of a richly defining era in my life, and hang up my CM consultant badge, I am looking beyond the clouds of sadness knowing that there will be new doors to open and more delights to discover as I live in the light.

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The Layout: With so much more media coverage we are now aware of every tragedy around the world in depth and almost as it unfolds. I feel privileged to share this kit, Hope for a Brighter Future, by way of this layout. Some lovely designers at For the Luv of Art created it to raise funds for Red Cross Japan and New Zealand. Please pause to take a look at all the goodies it contains and purchase it for yourself and for a good cause.

A Real Buzz

I grew up with the Space Program. It was in the air we breathed in Houston and being so close to it all made the cartoon, The Jetsons, seem like a look into a future we would actually experience in our lifetime.

Recent news that my Space City hometown was denied one of the shuttle orbiters for display at the Johnson Space Center was dumbfounding.

Who in this wide world does not equate the Space Program with Houston? I am far outside of all the real and perceived politics of the decision, and do not wish to engage in that dialogue here. It just seemed the decent and obvious decision to grant one of these aircraft to the place that trained its astronauts, managed the missions and designed the craft and the program in the first place. A no-brainer.

Phew. Now that I have had my vent, I want to share another of my wonderful memories triggered by the shuttle's last flight. As a girl I used to wonder if I would bump into an astronaut as I moved around the city. Once I thought I had taken a phone message from Neil Armstrong! I did, but it turned out not to be THE Neil Armstrong. Sigh. Many trips to what we locals called "NASA" punctuated those years. But never an actual astronaut in the flesh.

So I had no illusions that anything would be different when we brought the kids to America for the first time, and to NASA for the first time. No real astronauts are there for tourists to meet.

Well, I was wrong.



Much to my utter amazement Buzz Aldrin was there that afternoon launching his (then) new book! We bought a few copies and then stood in line to get them signed. There was no way that our children, at 3 and 6, could appreciate the magnitude of the moment or the man they were meeting. Their conversation with him was brief and much like most he probably had with children coached by their parents. In fact, our youngest was much more interested in playing with the Buzz Lightyear figure that was on the table with Aldrin! (Yes, my research says that the character was, indeed, inspired by the astronaut.)

My husband, typically, entered into a brief engineering chat with him about something and I took photos of it all with our malfunctioning film camera. Why do cameras never work when you most want them to? I was shaking so badly that it is a miracle that we have any photos at all.

When I had a chance to say something to Buzz I had no tongue. In fact, I flatlined in brain activity. It was at least 10 minutes before I came out of my stupor.

In spite of my inabilty to speak and reluctance to take a photo with him myself, it was one of those wonderful moments deeply embedded in my memory. I had finally met an astronaut - and probably the most famous of them all! After all, it wasn't Neil Lightyear, was it?

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This layout was created with a range of kits from MaryAnn Wise, Little Feet Digital Design and Creative Memories. Sometimes it is just fun to mix it up! The rocket is clipart. The "Buzz" word font is "Showcard Gothic," text is "Complete in Him".