November 24, 2009

 Hi,  We have decided to add my blog site to my business web site.  Things are coming to life and we are excited about our future activities.

My son Stephen is helping me record an audio of my first book, "31 Spiritual Lessons I learned From My Dog."  

I am currently working on a Bible study teachers guide and "More, Spiritual Lessons. . ."  

Raylene

 June 26, 2010

A Life Well Lived

My Aunt Margie, my favorite aunt on my Dad's side of the family, died yesterday on her birthday. I guess it speaks to what an unusual woman she was; that she would be born, and die, on the same day. It just emphasizes that life is a cycle with a beginning and an end, but it's the in between time that defines a person.

She had been in bad health for many years. I remember as far back as when I was a Junior in high school and she was given three weeks to live by her doctors. That was thirty-five years ago!  When she received that diagnosis, she didn't just give up---her faith sustained her, her hope kicked into high gear, and she just kept on living!

In addition to her health problems, she experienced the loss of a child, which in itself is enough to crush one's spirit and wound the heart beyond repair. But not her, again her faith and quiet grace sustained her. She saw vows made to her broken and suffered betrayal that's unimaginable to most of us. "How did she respond?", you might ask? Ultimately with a forgiveness for all involved that transpires the human ability to forgive, it came from God Himself.  You almost got the feeling that it never would have occurred to her to react in any other way.

She lived all of my life in East Tennessee, so I didn't get to see her often.  I can remember when I was a child they would usually come about once a year for a visit at my Grandpa's house. It was always exciting when they came. Since I had never been out of Middle Tennessee, it seemed they came from a faraway exciting place! She could tell the funniest stories; just about the most ordinary of things.  She seemed to be a magnet for the hilarious!

She was very adventurous. Once for her birthday in her older years, she asked for a helicopter ride as her gift!  Another birthday, because she was such a big UT fan, she got to meet Johnny Majors, the coach at the time!

Aunt Margie was one of those people who weave through your life like a ribbon. The times I was with her obviously impacted me and added color and texture to my life. Everytime I think of her, it will be a happy remembrance, accompanied by a challenge, to live my life as well as she did hers.

She was a woman with a spirit of adventure, an unshakeable faith in God, someone who truly understands that we forgive ,because we have been forgiven, and a person of extraordinary strength.  I don't know about you, but that sounds like a life well lived to me.