Mental Meanderings

I've been weighing the benefits and detriments of taking what I call my anti-cancer meds.  So many physical ailments come from taking them.  For the lack of quality life, I find myself wondering, "Is it better to have 5 years with a pain free active life or 10 years with constant pain and tribulation."  Big thing to ponder.  In my search for information, I ran across a couple of really good quotes.  Both of them are by Marisa Weiss M.D., Breastcancer.org president and founder, breast radiation oncologist, Philadelphia, PA.

“Running, walking, eventually inching down that path to old age is a welcome goal for any woman, especially one who has had breast cancer. ”

“Menopause is a wake-up call to a new phase of your life, and so is breast cancer. Two wake-up calls can be more than most people can handle, but what's the choice? You sure can't go back to sleep. So get up and decide what you're doing today—and on into the years ahead. ”

On a lighter note...in the evenings after work, I've been cutting fabric to get ready for several projects I'm starting.  Two small ones and one larger one.

The first one is a pincushion.  Believe it or not, I don't have a good pincushion and there is a really cute one in a Piece in the Hoop book that I bought a few weeks ago. 

The second one is a hot pad type thing that goes under the hoop if you want to iron something while it is in the hoop without removing it to do it on an ironing board. 

The last one is something for a guy at work.  He recently lost his mother to cancer and asked me if I could embroider a towel for him with his mother's name, birth date, and death date on it to remember her by.  I told him I would but gave it some additional thought and came with a design for a quilted wall hanging.  When he came to me asking what color towel he should get, I presented him with the wall hanging idea and he was very excited.  8-) 

I'll be working on these projects this weekend. 

Keep Clifford in your prayers...his sister (one of nine brothers and sisters) also has advanced stage lung cancer (which she has been battling for the last year).  She is on her second round of chemo.

Here is some Max for today:

"Hydrate your Soul

By Max Lucado

Don’t deny your anger. Don’t dismiss your loneliness. Your restless spirit. Your sense of dread. Don’t let your heart shrink into a raisin. Hydrate your soul. Heed your thirst!

Not everything you put to your lips will help your thirst. The arms of forbidden love may satisfy for a time, but only for a time. Eighty-hour workweeks grant a sense of fulfillment, but never remove the thirst.

Religion pacifies but never satisfies. Church activities may hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him. And drink of him often!

Don’t you need regular sips from God’s reservoir? I do. I step to the underground spring of God and receive anew his work for my sin and death, the energy of his Spirit, his lordship, and his love.

Receive Christ’s work on the cross, the energy of His Spirit. His unending, unfailing love.

Drink deeply–and drink often!

Jesus said, “…he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35"


By Grace Alone -

Teresa

Quilt Finished!

I finished the quilt today!  Whoo whoo.  It turned out really great.  This is only the second quilt I've ever made so perfection wasn't a goal.  8-)

I got to play with some of the quilting stitches on my new machine.  There is a stitch called crazy quilting which was a lot of fun.  I used it around the edge of each of the stars and around the edges of the white squares. 

Tom has been very patient letting me sew and have fun with it.  He seems to enjoy that I am enjoying doing some type of hobby.  That makes me a very lucky woman.  8-)

I've ordered a couple of patterns that should come in this week that will give me something to work on next weekend.  I also have a quilt pattern that is called a pineapple pattern that I may try to make also.  Lots of fun for future sewing.  It is very good to be engaged in living again. 

Here is some Max for today:

"Do I Applaud What Is Right?

by Max Lucado

The summer before my eighth-grade year I made friends with a guy named Larry. He was new to town, so I encouraged him to go out for our school football team. He could meet some guys, and being a stocky fellow, he might even make the squad. He agreed.

The result was a good news-bad news scenario. The good news? He made the cut. The bad news. He won my position. I was demoted to second string. I tried to be happy for him, but it was tough.

A few weeks into the season Larry fell off a motorcycle and broke a finger. I remember the day he stood at my front door holding up his bandaged hand. “Looks like you’re going to have to play.”

I tried to feel sorry for him, but it was hard. The passage was a lot easier for Paul to write than it was for me to practice. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15 NASB).

You want to plumb the depths of your love for someone? How do you feel when that person succeeds? Do you rejoice? Or are you jealous? And when he or she stumbles? Falls to misfortune? Are you really sorry? Or are you secretly pleased?

Love never celebrates misfortune. Never. I like the way Eugene Peterson translates the passage: “Love. . .doesn’t revel when others grovel, [but] takes pleasure in the flowering of truth” (MSG). J.B. Phillips is equally descriptive: “Love . . .does not gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it shares the joy of those who live by the truth.”

You know your love is real when you weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. You know your love is real when you feel for others what your heavenly Father feels for you. Remember, love “rejoices whenever the truth wins out” (1 Cor. 13:6 NLT).

Excerpted from A Love Worth Giving
W Publishing, 2002"

By Grace Alone -

Teresa