Musical Messages for Mom

When you walk through the storm, hold your head up high.
 This song was on my radio this morning as I drove home from school in a torrential rainstorm.  I tried it... Sitting up straight really can change your perspective.
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
Seriously - I love that golden sky.  Sometimes living in the Northwest it seems that the sun will never again be seen.  It often seems that way when we are in the middle of a trial - especially when it seems to be so open-ended.  We know that it will pass and time will heal us, but we cannot control that timing it can be frustrating.  That is when the next lines kick in:
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
This morning I dressed in my exercise clothes with the intent to go walking.  The rain was heavy enough to cancel those plans and here I am at my computer instead.  When we are having a hard time we cannot just cancel our trial and move on to other activities.  We have to just keep on walking.  People wonder how we can handle our children's situation with their tendency to grow tumors.   We have to walk on.  I marvel at the trials I see friends and family facing each day - they have to walk on.
To stop walking is to stop hoping, and that is a frightening prospect.
Walk on, walk on with a hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never, ever walk alone

When we moved to our home 12 years ago,
I hung this portrait of Christ right by the
front door so that all who enter will know
that we worship our Savior and look
to Him for strength and direction.

I know that it is my Savior that is walking with me.  He walks with my children.  He walks with my friends.  Learning to let Him walk with me is probably the single most important lesson I have ever experienced, and an area in which I can always use improvement.

 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. Psalm 28:7

Jackie sang in her final choir concert at Clark College a few nights ago.  Along with her chorale, the women's choral ensemble also performed.  Their second to last song was titled "Roots Before Branches" - and I was touched by the chorus:
I gotta have roots before branches
to know who I am 
before I know who I wanna be.
The words caught my attention because, prior to singing, an older woman stepped forward and explained that she was recently divorced and her youngest child had just graduated from high school. She said that Clark College had helped her develop roots so that she could now branch out into her new life.  My heart was touched as I thought of her life being uprooted and having to start over again.
The wind can come and do its best
blow me north and south, east and west;
but I'll still be standing here.
I'll stand if I have roots before branches.

The Lord is my Shepherd.
This is the image I want in my mind
during Natalie's surgery on Monday.

As they sang I thought of my roots - my family,  my faith,  my friends.  Those things that give me strength in the wind.  There is a strong, straight, central root from which other roots may grow - for me this root is knowledge... knowledge that I am a Daughter of God.  This is the knowledge that gives me hope to never walk alone.  This knowledge gives me hope for the golden sky.  Knowing my divine heritage tells me that I can hold my head up high as I walk through the storms of life.
I know who I am, and I know who "I wanna be".  I am a daughter of God and I when I am reunited with Him, I want him to be pleased with all that I have tried to do and tried to become.
 Hooray - as I sat typing, I received a text from my friend.  There has been concern that her husband's cancer had returned and, as of this morning, it looks as though it has not.  Hooray for another cancer battle being won!  I knew about their appointment and I think it was her storm that I was feeling this morning.  Hooray for all things wonderful and Hooray for divine help when things appear more grim!!