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Saturday, February 28, 2009

Five People You Meet in Heaven

I just finished the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. It was recommended to me by someone, I can't remember who, and I have to say that I really didn't like it. I really enjoyed Tuesdays with Morrie and had high hopes for this one.

This book did serve as a nice break from Paradise Lost and 1984 but, I don't think I would recommend it to anyone else.

The style of writing was fine. It was engaging and I began to care about the character. I never fully made it to being involved in the story, it was too irritating. I really only finished the book to find out what happened to the little girl from the beginning of the story. What does that say about the story as a whole?

I find myself irritated with the story because the premise bothers me. It states that you meet five people in heaven who are supposed to explain your life to you and help you make sense of it.

Eddie is the main character who he dies at the beginning of the book and then it alternates between memories and what is happening in his corner of heaven. After he dies, we are introduced to a character that knew Eddie as a kid. This person explains an event that happened in Eddie's childhood and helps him to understand part of his life. This person tells Eddie that he will meet five people who will help him understand the meaning of his life and then it will be his turn to wait for someone to start the process all over again.

The different people Eddie 'meets' were interesting choices and drove the point home that we are all connected even if we don't realize it. Things that happen before we are born can help to shape our lives. Point taken.

However, I don't fancy a Heaven where I have someone else explain the meaning of my life to me other than God himself. I would rather hear it from the One who gave me this life and the One who called me home than any one in my life here on earth. Now maybe this has me so riled up, and I am, because there are people that I would NOT want to hear from and have no desire to 'understand' why things happened the way they did. I don't want to know how their point of view and I don't want to listen to them dissecting my life. I know that we are connected in ways that we will never fully realize until we see things clearly and in the light of eternity, I just don't agree with this little story about how we will come to realize it in the 'after life'.

I know, I know it is only a story. It is not meant to be taken literally. It has been pointed out to me that it is just a fiction book written to be read for enjoyment. Yeah, I got that. It's just that people read these books and assume that the author has some kind of knowledge on the topic that they don't have, so they believe it. Trust me, I have seen it before. People tend to believe the things they read.

Would you want to die and then 'wake-up' in heaven only to have to go through these interviews with people from your life, never seeing Jesus? Never laying eyes on your Creator? Never having Him give you the meaning of your life? I don't want anyone else's perspective on what happened in my life, I want His. I want Him to comfort me and show how things worked together for my good. I want Him to celebrate with me the things I got right. I wouldn't mind if the other people that were involved in my life were there, so long as the One holding my hand on the journey, was Jesus.

I think that too often we rely on people to give us the meaning and 'wherefores' and 'whys' in our lives. We look to another fallible person to give us answers to questions that they can't even answer for themselves. They can give us their perspective that is jaded by their experiences and emotions; but that is all they can give. They cannot give us the eternal perspective that we are craving.

We want to know that our lives matter. We can have some confirmation that our lives are touching other lives for the good or bad, but we will never know the extent of it this side of Heaven. The only One who sees the beginning from the end is the only One who can answer our questions. Why in the world would we want to go to Heaven and never talk with our maker?

I don't understand how this book is not more controversial. It surmises that Heaven is really about us and what we are feeling about our lives. It has the audacity to say that it matters more that we understand the significance of our lives and that we get that significance from other people and not from God; than God and who He is and what He has done for us and through us.

After I die, I won't be looking for any of you guys. No offense, really. I am just not going to be itching to hear what ya'll have to say about my life. I will want to see you and spend time with you, for sure, I just want to see and talk with Someone else first.

Just my thoughts on this book and now I can let it go. I think!


Friday, February 27, 2009

Random pictures











I was going to label these and then I thought that I would just let them stand alone. I put an earlier date on these so that I wouldn't have a ton in the next few days as I post the pictures that I took while I was pouting. :)

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Where?

Wow! Almost a month since I last blogged. I am woefully behind, I know. Life has been happening, really it has. I have the pictures to prove it. They are just stuck on the camera because I am too lazy to take out the memory card, put it in the memory stick thing, choose folders for all of them, and then erase them off the camera. Sad, isn't it? Soon, maybe this weekend even.

For now, I will relate to you why I haven't been blogging. I am having a pity party. Again. I know I have mentioned my thorn in the flesh before; well, it's back again. Alright, it never went away, it is just back in full force. And so is the whining.

I was doing well for about ten months when I started having symptoms. I ignored them at first, hoping that they would magically disappear. They didn't. Aren't you shocked? I was. Seriously, I can live in that river in Egypt better than anyone else I know. So, the symptoms just kept getting worse and I kept ignoring them. I did up a few of my meds; but not in any significant dosage.

Finally, last month I was the lucky beneficiary of the intestinal bug and my calcium plummeted. I could feel the symptoms getting worse and was able to hold them off for almost a week. Then, on Wednesday evening I crashed. I was having trouble breathing because my muscles were seizing up and this time it involved my chest. It was truly frightening. We spent the night in the Emergency Room where I received THREE bags of calcium! My vampire like qualities consumed their entire supply. I am just special that way.

I followed up with my doctor a few days later to find out that even after the massive amounts of calcium from the ER, I was still low. arg My doctor promptly gave me an rx for pain meds, something for the intestinal bug should it strike again, an rx for stomach acid from the massive amounts of calcium, and a standing order to go back to the ER if the symptoms return. Isn't life grand?

Now, I tell you that story so that you will understand my pity party a little better. -go with me here- I am limited. No, not mentally. Well, okay maybe a little limited mentally; but that's not what I meant. I am no longer able to do the things that I want to do. I have to 'take it easy'. I don't have endless stores of energy to draw on to do the crazy things that I used to do. Like roof our house. I LOVE roofing. It was so much fun! I can't do it anymore. I can't stretch myself too thin because I will get too tired and then start having symptoms.

ugh

I HATE not being able to do what I want when I want for how long I want. I hate feeling weak. I hate feeling dependant on someone else to help me do things that I used to be able to do. I hate being tired and then getting worried that I have done too much. I hate that my kids are worried every time I rub my hands together or stretch my legs. I hate taking pills, and I take A LOT of them. I hate that there is no cure and I will be like this for the rest of my life.

I HATE THIS

Okay, now that I have that out of my system let me say that God is teaching me some things through this and I hope that eventually I will learn them.

I am not a patient person when it comes to things like this. I want them fixed, now. God is teaching me to be patient and to wait.

I am not good at depending on others. I have always done them myself. God is teaching me to allow others to help and to train my dd to help others. And to help me. He is showing me that this is an opportunity to teach them the things that they will need to know anyway, they are just getting them a little earlier.

I am not a person that likes a slow, quiet life. I like excitement and fun times. God is teaching me to sit and be still and rest. (I am fighting this one!) I am having more nights at home than I care to and God is using them to, well drive me crazy! No, not really it just feels that way. ;)

I'm afraid that I haven't been too easy to live with for the past month. I have been a pretty big whiny baby. I'm done now; at least for a while.


ps pity party is over!

pps I still haven't found the bowls!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

I touched it

It is her birthday today and evidently it was just too much temptation having the cake sitting on the counter cooling off.

She came to me and said that they were softer now. When I asked what she had done, here is what she said...




See the smile at the end? Yeah, that is hard to stay mad at. :)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

My Top Ten

My Top Ten Reasons for Not Quitting Homeschooling:

10. I love learning and if they kids weren’t here, people would look at me strangely for buying all of those workbooks.

9. I would have no reason for my house to be a mess.

8. I would have no reason to have so many boxes of books waiting to be used.

7. What would I do all day long, if I weren’t reading or teaching something to someone?

6. Where else can my patience be perfected so perfectly?

5. I LOVE Hands on crafts!

4. School supplies are an obsession and my husband wouldn’t allow me to buy them just for myself!

3. I enjoy strange looks and comments at the store when we are out during the school day.

2. I can stay in my pj’s all day and no one will ever know.

1. I have asked, pleaded, begged, cried, whined, yelled to God and He won’t let me quit! ;)