A Wise Woman Told Me

A wise woman told me just the other day, four things that she has learned over the years.  They are simple things, but if you do them, life will be just a little bit easier for you and your family.

 

1. Just get started.

2. Use what you have on hand.

3. Clean up as you go.

4. AND, I can’t remember the fourth one!!!!! 

 

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH .  I told DH that I was going to call her and ask what the 4th one was.  He’s not sure she’d remember, and I kinda agree with him.  She might not.  But then again, she just might.  It’s funny because the day she was here and told me this list, we couldn’t remember #3 for a while.  Now, I can’t remember #4.

 

Who is this wise woman?  “Grandma” Irene Halhead.  She’s in her 70s and still very active in our community.  She’s planning birthday parties, baking goodies, and making blankets.  I’ve been making a point to do things with her this year.  Although I don’t call her and make arrangements often, she calls here once a week or so.  She’ll pop over and offer to fold laundry or do dishes.  Most of the time now, I just tell her that we should just visit.  Besides, just this last time, everything was caught up or very manageable.

 

I have come to love and appreciate this woman over the last four years.  Her home was one of the first homes we visited when we started attending the Baptist church here.  Even “Grandpa” Ted, claims our children as “like our own grandchildren”.

 

I know that my family is not the only ones that feel a special connection with Mr. and Mrs. Halhead.  They have touched this community with God’s love.  They live that love every single day.  They are missed in church, if they are ill, or away visiting their children.

 

She’s said to me a time or two, “I’m not going to be here forever.”  They are getting on in years, both of them.  And I’ve said, to her, “I hope and pray that I’m as active as you are when I’m your age!”  She just gaffed and said that she wasn’t that old, or wasn’t that active or something. 

 

I love how she is honest with me if she’s not doing well.  I’ll ask her and she’ll say, “Medium, about medium.”  And I know, because I can see it in her walk and in her face.  If she’s anything less than medium, she stays home.  The “medium” days are getting more often and I can see how tired she is.  When she’s having a good day, she’s laughing and teasing Jason and bouncing the kids.

 

I didn’t start this post as it has turned out.  I started this post to talk about the 4 things she told me the other day.  To expand on them and tell how they work in my life.  How I’ve been learning them too.  But it’s turned into a memoir of sorts.  So I guess, I’ll have to write my original intentions at a later date.

 

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,