Service – showtunessal

Bus stop miracle

In my mind today, I have been thinking of all of the miracles around us. Every day I begin my morning with the readings from the Bible: verses from the Old testament, verses from the New testament, and Psalms. They always speak so loudly to my heart. Ironically and mysteriously they always line up with my life. Is this because I am cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? Am I a raving lunatic? Something inside me tells me that I am very lucky. Something inside of me woke up when I was diagnosed with ALS. It sent me on a journey to find the way, the truth and the life. I began to read so many things to try to figure out what this earthly life is really all about, and not if, but when I die, what happens? The verses today speak of a man who left heaven to be among us in the suffering world we call home. Crazy, right? There is historical basis and evidence that the man lived and performed lots of miracles. He only got 33 earthly years before death came for him, but for the first time in history, death was not victorious. You see, death is of Hell, not Heaven. Death can no longer be proud. Face it. Everything, from the universe, the solar system, the planet, the beings on the planet, the oceans, the sky, the water cycle, the complicated life forms within forests that are so much older than us, down to the last blade of grass is all inexplicable. Inexplicable. Do you hear me? Not one single human has the ability to understand or to create what we already have in motion. Yes, we are learning tidbits, just like the genetic fixer shot. But we do not have the ability to infuse a soul into a being. Even if I did not have ALS, I would die one day. It is just part of the cycle of life. We desperately try to get as much as we can out of this earthly life, but there’s more. The people that have the abilities to do these wonderful things hopefully have the good of all in their thoughts and hearts. I know that when I take my last breath, it will be just a breath away from eternal life. I will leave this earth headed to heaven. You see it, death was conquered. If you are of heaven, then you will be there in a nanosecond after your last breath. Every electrical pulse within you that helps us to live this earthly life will be jettisoned back to our maker. Remember students, energy can never be created nor destroyed but changed. Today, so many can see only the trees, not the forest.

This morning, I listened to my Flash Briefing and they have a genetic fixer injection. It is so promising. It can possibly correct muscular dystrophies, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. This is so great. Then, I think about how something that has potential for so much good could be used for evil. It made me think about Brave New World. This summer I have sold my soul to the local public library. Much to the chagrin of my family, I have volunteered to do two classes a week with the local children this summer. Hey, I’m not dead yet! This has been such a fruitful season, even though it’s been hectic. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I get to be with children and adults and talk about art and writing. It’s been so successful that many adults are like, “Can you do this when the kids go back? That way we can enjoy it!” I’m telling you, it has been such a wonderful, wonderful experience. The other upside is that I am getting to use the posh conference room with my book club for adults at the public library. We have first dibs on the conference room with the big cushy chairs with wheels and the huge executive table. Stuff like in the oval office! The name of the book club is called Turn the Page. And yes, students, I love Bob Seger. Selling your soul to the public library gives you some perks. We meet on the third Wednesday of the month. This is also one of the wonderful parts of my life in this season. This group of octogenarians and septuagenarians sprinkled with several other age groups is just absolutely amazing. They are so valuable. I learn so much from them every time we have a book club meeting. This will be our fifth year! These people have lived a life. They see how the world is and how it has changed so rapidly, ignoring the traditions and virtues that were passed down culturally from grandparent to parent to child. Generational love that extends across time. All of these wonderful book club members have this and they share so much. Our culture today is toxic to those who are the most vulnerable. If you look at it, in a way, we are institutionalizing our children from the cradle to the grave. I am so grateful that these people I meet with are able to still live independently. They are just treasure troves of knowledge. Several are veterans of different wars, discussing things within the same group. It’s great! One of my star pupils is Vernita. As we were discussing our book this month, Brave New World, she told the group that she didn’t understand why Ms Sarah had wanted all of us to read this book until she got about three chapters into it. She said, “Bingo! This stuff is happening today.” Sadly, it is. Separate and destroy the nuclear family and you can take down any culture. You will destroy their children. Look around you. We are so tied up with trying to make heaven on Earth that we are losing something much more precious, and that is living in the moment, absorbing the beauty of nature, relishing the love of family, and sharing such wonderful lives that grow so much fruit for those that will come after us. I am asking you, students, to care first and foremost for your family, your community, your friends, the gift of your station here on this Earth, and the ability to know that love conquers all. The station of your life has a lot to do with the choices you make. We are all such fragile human beings created with a light or an electric pulse, however you look at it. It is part of something so much bigger. Something so much stronger than where you were born or who your parents are. God did not create you to be destroyed but to be redeemed. The devil is the destroyer. God wants you to be with Him one day.

After having the classes with the children on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we usually go down to a little mom and pop coffee shop called The Bus Stop. A little history lesson is that The Bus Stop was the original bus stop in our little town, and it has now been refurbished and repurposed. This is our little dive. We were there last Thursday. I was rolling around the downtown area and going to another little mom and pop shop to purchase something. Another good reason to do the library activities is that I get to be with my grandchildren and lots of other children. As my oldest grandchild and I were going back across the street to meet the others at the coffee shop, I had a man come up to me, and he wanted to pray for me. Now, we were getting ready to load up the mystery machine AKA my big blue handicap van. He asked me if I had a moment, and I always do if someone wants to pray for me. He said, “I recently have been given a miracle. I have been woken up to the spirit and power of God. I almost lost my son. God brought him back to me.” He explained that he had been raised Christian but had never really felt or understood the power until he almost lost his child. He said his life was a wreck. His marriage was a wreck. He said his children had suffered from their broken marriage. After his son was given a miracle, he has been urged to share and to pray for others. He said, “When I saw you cross the street, I thought to myself, that woman could barely breathe. She rolls in a wheelchair, and God said, ‘Go pray for her.'” The first thing he asked me as he approached was, “Do you believe in miracles?” Now remember, we are trying to load the mystery machine. I have two grandchildren with me, me and my ALS awkwardness, and my 82-year-old mother-in-law. He wanted to speak to me, and I answered him. I said, “Yes, absolutely. You can pray for me.” He had told me he was inside of the coffee shop trying to write about the miracle of his family. We talked for at least 30 minutes and probably even more because we began to pray for each other. My family had loaded into the mystery machine while he and I had our moments of prayers and thoughts. Miracles.

The last two days of my readings have been about miracles. Today was the one about the little girl that everyone thought was dead and Jesus told the man, “She will live.” Recently, I heard about a little girl who was in a similar situation. She was about 12 years old. Her wonderful young mother has to do everything from being the father and the mother and everything in between. She survived a broken marriage, and she fought her way through school. She became a teacher. All of this while being a single mom. Family and friends have helped her through this season. Tragically, the same Thursday I was talking with this man about miracles, she was in a car accident. She survived. Her son survived but has lots of injuries to his legs and many surgeries ahead of him. Her young daughter, around 12 years old, did not. Also, one of the students this summer at the library has a terminally ill brother, and as he talked with me, he let me know that his brother is enroute to heaven. He is now at the doorstep. How can these families survive this gut-wrenching grief? Here is where belief in God gets really hard. So many precious mothers lose children. It always makes me think of the man that performed so many miracles. His earthly life ended with his mother at the foot of a brutal crucifixion. Precious blood pooled around his feet. The precious blood was poured out for all. And then you think about the agony of Mary having to watch a child being tortured to death and then you really get how Mary’s heart felt. How this father felt. How this mother felt. But thanks to the sacrifice of that man of 33 years, because of that the little girl who’s just entered heaven was only away for a nanosecond. Death is no more for her. She is of heaven. What does it take to get through the travesties of human life? Faith. Is it explainable? Not always. Will you know for sure or can you understand totally? Maybe. I hope it doesn’t take cancer, ALS, losing a child, or any type of terminal diagnosis for you to understand. Don’t ever forget that there are angels above us and among us that help us through these times. Don’t ever forget that there is an advocate in the Holy Spirit to help us with our journey each day. Don’t ever forget that there is a son of God and He did come to Earth. Don’t ever forget to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and especially above all things. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. If you do these things students, you will be part of the body of Christ. If you do this, before you know it you will be back with the Father who has all the answers you ever thought to ask and even ones you didn’t. Miracles.

Sarah Anderson Alley

Sal the Miracle Gal

Dedicated to Jason, Amber, Kim, and to all those out there who have cried out for their children.

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.

Plautus

Political, Material, and Self

Look at my prayer spot. The amaryllises are back! Thanks be to God.

“We live in a post-Christian world that puts its eggs into three basic baskets: political, material, and self.”

In my mind today I am try desperately to figure out how to go forward. I read recently about how as humans in a post Christian world we put things into three categories: political, material, and self. What do we really worry about in this modern life? I guess I’m not so modern in my thinking because it is easy to get swept away into the fray of chaos which we live in now more than ever.

I have always been proud to be an American. So proud until I learned of all of the growing pain of this country. We have done a lot of good but we have failed on so many levels. I was never enamoured by political parties of any sort. I tried to figure out which party would be best for all. Which political party would serve its constituents the best? Political parties in my thoughts were to keep the country going and doing the best it can for each of its individuals. I remember George Washington warning of the evils of political parties from my textbooks. We just have such a hard time listening. In my small little mind, I have always thought the government was there to work for us: the people. I didn’t think it was there to define what a human was; all it was to do was to clarify that we all have inalienable rights and yes those come from the Creator. You are supposed to keep God out of things political. When God is the creator of all things, it seems kind of silly to try to keep him out of it. We did not need government to tell us how or when we should worship. That goes with our inalienable rights given not only by government supposedly but from God. Remember free will? The free will to choose what we believe without fear of being tarred and feathered. God is gracious enough to give us the choice because he knows if those choices are not made with a heart a willing heart then it is a moot point. You do have to believe something or you will fall for anything. I used to love to teach The Bill of Rights. We have these rights: speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition. This is just the first amendment. It did get me in a lot of trouble because my students would then petition the cafeteria and post things around the school. The lunch ladies were not too happy. I had to explain to them that the students were just exercising their right and we understood their hands were tied by the food services they had to use and the rules they had to go by given from the government. The students wanted to get their point across. They did. Right now the political party thorn is wedging deeper and deeper into our American culture. I keep hearing George Washington warning us and then I hear on the news of more and more unrest. I know I’m just a retired teacher with a lot of time on my hands in a wheelchair but if things do not work, can’t there be change? Just this morning I was listening to the news for 5 minutes. That’s all I allow myself. A 5-minute briefing of what’s going on in the world. Something that jumped out at me was in Germany they have a Christian Democratic party. The ideals of this party are based within their faith. You don’t believe in them; you get out. Do the Germans have an oppressive Christian Democratic party that is leeching all of the life out of them? I don’t think so. The ideals of Christianity are constantly attacked. The ideals that we tried to live up to as Christians are very good ideals. We need to live up to them. If we did, it would help save a lot of grief. If everything was created with the widowed and the orphaned in mind and the protection of those most vunerable in our little communities then so much goodness could come out of it. We tend to do this anyway without the legality of the government. We are constantly fighting poverty the best that we can in my little corner of the world. This is what needs to be fought: Poverty. Ignorance. Greed. Change, it’s hard. There are good things out there with our political affiliations but there’s also a lot of bad. It is time that we change. It is time that we say we want a party that is affiliated with our ideals and beliefs. The country cannot be a theocracy but the political parties can be affiliated with such. This is the segue for all of those hurting and wondering what’s going on in our country? How many more people would be apart of a democratic party if it was called the Christian Democratic party? How about a Christian Republican party? I think there will be millions. I am not ready to give up my ideals about faith just like so many others out there. I cannot be a part of taking lives. It states thou shalt not kill in bold black and white. We have created ways to make money while punishing or subjecting others. This is wrong. Corruption is everywhere. Restorative justice. Redemption. These things sound so familiar. We have to make changes for the greater good of all. Are we a post Christian society? I don’t think so.

The second category is material. Materialism. Consumerism. This is another thing we as humans worry about. Yes we should worry if we have a roof over our head. Yes we should worry if our children are not being educated. I think the material trap is part of the corporate world to keep us running for something to fill a hole that can only be filled by contentment. Contentment. When is enough for you to be content with your life? Is it when you finally move into that exclusive neighborhood? Is it when you finally have designer clothes and purses? Is it when you are driving the newest Cadillac? When do you become content? It’s certainly not after you receive the monthly payments on that Cadillac. It’s a trap. We feel like we need more. Most have enough to be okay. My father would always say we’re not trying to keep up with the Joneses. That’s exactly what everyone is trying to do. Every family cannot be a Roosevelt, Carnegie, or Rockefeller. The sad thing is we try so very hard to keep up. In this effort to keep up, we trade a lot of things that are very important. One of those things we have traded is our family structure. In order for us to have the things that we have we have to sacrifice by allowing someone else to raise our children. This is good if you can afford the best and people who have the best interest in your children. I am very blessed that family always helped with my children. My job was aligned with their schedules. It really was a win-win situation. So many people are not this fortunate. They lean on the institutions we have put in place so they can continue to work so they can buy stuff. As the corporate world boomed, the pay for the workers did not. Herein lies why we are so angry. The wealth generated by these corporations could have done more than they have for the American people they depended upon. I just keep hearing George Bailey telling Mr. Potter, “Is it too much to ask for someone to have two bedrooms and a bathroom with a decent roof over their heads?” That’s all anyone really wants is to be able to provide and take care of their families. We have got to get off of this track of wanting materialistic empty items. We want contentment. The only way my friend to get contentment is to be okay with what you have. To see all the blessings around you and to be glad for those blessings. It’s wanting what you have. What do most Americans want? They want to say the American dream is dead but I don’t think so. We all want to have lives with meaning spent with people we love. Some of the poorest people in the world are the most content. It is so sad that we have missed the mark so badly. There is no big surprise to the ending of each of our lives. We are going to perish from this world. I am with George Bailey. I think that everyone should have the chance to not be cheated and to live a decent life with the people they love around them. Capitalism can work if people reinvest in their workers and their welfare. Care if the bus stops are well lit. Care if the schools are safe. A book I read recently discussed how to go forward if corporations fail. Invest locally: community banks, farmer’s markets, and small businesses. Right now in my little burg we have amazing community support from First Citizens National Bank, Security Bank, Sonic, General Appliance, Independent Radiology, Ford Construction, Forcum Lannom, Lucky Liquor, and so many mom and pop businesses that are doing it very well. A big part of survival will be dependent on local farmers which have been crowded out by commercial farms. Animal husbandry does anyone remember that? Can we put the humaneness back in humanity?

Self. This is the busiest time of year for places to help you improve yourself. From gym memberships to diet fads and courses to help you be more confident and be a better version of yourself, you name it we have it. All of the ads and commercials you see want you to worry about yourself. You know when I worry about myself or what I need, I am a basket case. I don’t think we’re supposed to focus on self. What about me? What do I get out of this? This is such a sad place to be when you worry so much about your own little self. It is called selfishness. Have you ever met a selfish person? Everything is about yes you guessed it, them. They are so busy telling you of all of the ills of their life they don’t realize anything else is going on around them. It’s just their world and you’re just living in it. There have been simple iconic selfish characters in literature but the one that moved to me to this piece of writing was none other than Ebenezer Scrooge. Now there is a selfish guy. I really think old Ebenezer is a good analogy for corporations. Most Americans want just to be able to provide and work for their families welfare. Now that most women are in the workforce, I bet you there are several that would love to be able to live on one salary and be home with their children. This is not all women of course but the choice should be given. Our livelihood should not be dependent upon both parents working. It is not working for our culture. It is tearing apart the fabric of our families. People should not be looked down upon because they choose to stay home and care for their children. Women should be for women in whatever they choose. The rhetoric of the day has women at odds with each other. Remember those ads that tell you to be ultra independent: be self-driven and the master of your own destiny. We all have destinies but I don’t think those align with selfishness as ads will tell you. This huge wheel of existence has a lot of weak spokes. The people in the most powerful places drive it. Are they guiding it in our best interest as humans? Or has the power lulled them to sleep?

Charity

Oh my students! Ms. Alley has been suffering from a fever these last few days. Spring fever! I have spent the last two days outside until dark. Monday was chilly but God had provided me with help to visit my favorite plant nursery and then gave me two days of cleaning and planting in my yard. If you know me very well, you understand what a gift of Charity from God this is to me.

To begin our adventure, my Aunt and Uncle Poe drove me to Yorkville, TN to my favorite Mom and Pop plant nursery Z’s Greenhouse. I’ve been buying the most unique and beautiful flowers there for a decade. I didn’t physically make it last year but a sweet garden fairy friend delivered and planted my Z’s treasures. Z’s ower, Debbie, started this little side business when hard times hit her home. One of my best friends mentioned would I consider buying plants from Z’s to help them out. I did and have been every year for 10 years. Debbie and Jimmy are some of the most charitable souls I know. I never left there without an extra plant or item just because they love me. Charity is so beautiful and such an important virtue. If you live in our little corner of West Tennessee, please consider visiting Z’s and buying a plant or two. She has had to scale back this season because of her health and her sweet husband is fighting cancer. Every day is a gift from God. You just can’t out give God, but it never hurts to try.

Gardening has always been a love of mine. Not being able to get down and dirty gardening has been so hard for me. My 73 year old newlywed Aunt Linda knows that. She now lives four hours away. She visits maybe once a month but knew she would not be coming back to see me for three months. She has spent enough seasons with me to know that rolling in my yard and praying on my deck amid flowers fills my soul and makes me so happy. She and her 85 year old husband decided this trip they were going to set me up with flowers to help me stay mentally healthy until she could come back in July. What charitable hearts these two love birds have. 🙂

Students have you guessed today’s virtue? Come on back row! That’s right! Charity. Christian charity is not just giving goods; it’s giving of yourself. It’s giving from your heart. It’s part of the first commandment: Love your God with all of your heart, mind, and soul. The second commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. When you love others like this you are spreading God’s love. Where in your life can you show charity? It could be in small ways. Those small acts melt the hardest of hearts. It makes me laugh to remember as a child I would pick wildflowers or weeds and take them to a neighbor who was wheelchair bound. That’s right front row, irony and foreshadowing! I would walk up to her front door before I started an adventure with a hand full of weedy flowers. I would knock and she would roll to the door. She took the flowers every time with such amazement and gratitude. She would then put them in a vase, put them on top of her tv in the picture window so I could see them, and enjoy them as if I had given her a bouquet of expensive, exotic flowers. That’s charity. I had no clue God was using me but he definitely used Mrs. Opal to encourage my heart. Students it happens that way. God uses us for the good if we let Him. Try to find some small way this Lent to serve others. Embrace the big charitable heart God gave you and use it.

Sal the Charitable Gal

Sarah Anderson Alley

Z’s Greenhouse and Nursery

TN-188, Yorkville, TN

Search Z’s Greenhouse on Facebook

Quotes of the day:

We are constituted so that simple acts of kindness, such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude, have a positive effect on our long-term moods. The key to the happy life, it seems, is the good life: a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to community.

Paul Bloom

Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these, they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Charity is a supreme virtue, and the great channel through which the mercy of God is passed onto mankind.

Conrad Hilton

True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense.

Emmanuel Swedenborg

The world calls for, and expects from us, simplicity of life, the spirit of prayer, charity towards all, especially towards the lowly and the poor, obedience and humility, detachment, and self-sacrifice. Without this mark of holiness, our word will have difficulty in touching the heart of modern man.

Pope Paul VI