the chicken that crossed the road...

well...there was no chicken, only a turkey that looked more like a baby ostrich and a deer the size of a cow; both of which found it humorous to run out in front of my car yesterday and today. 

'what does it mean?!' (says rainbow guy. see youtube for extremely hilarious video)

no really...any Josephs to interpret?

the last two days I have been battling what seems to be my ump-teenth cold of this ridiculously prolonged winter.  glassy eyes, stuffy nose, sore throat (when is it that I get my very own prescription pad..oh yea, like 2 more years :(

I left work early yesterday afternoon and headed straight for the beach.  There is something healing about salty ocean sprays...and the black lab puppy (named Porter...how cute?!) that plays in washed up foam (which always makes me want a latte)

I also got to talk to my mom for a bit and hear her sweet voice.  The older I become, the more I appreciate the woman she is.  Her mother (my dear grandmother) is progressively loosing herself to Alzheimer's.  Its a strange thing to be this far away and know that the brunt of the care giving is falling upon my mother (one of seven children, might I add).

She joked yesterday that the stress of it all has led her to go up one dress size from my wedding three years ago to my sister's wedding next month.  I told her that when she and my pops move in with us, I will put them on a diet.  She changed her tone.  She said that she had been thinking a lot lately about the possibility (even the likelihood) of her having Alzheimer's.  She said that she didn't want me and my sister Beth to go through what she is going through.  She wants us to put her in a specialized care facility that can handle the illness.  I told her that if (strong if) the time came, my sister and I would be the specialized care facility. 

Being in the health care field, I know that there is a real need for such facilities.  I'm even at the place where I think it is time for my grandmother to have more specialized care than what my mom can provide.  Its such a strange dilemma.  Most societies today do not have an option.  Parents and grandparents simply move in with their children and grandchildren.  Most of me wants to live in this way no matter how difficult it may be at the time...even if grandma is a little crazy (what grandma is not?!)  I want my children to know their family, their heritage--the hurtles and sufferings that their family has gone through.  More than that, I want them to know that through sufferings and hardships, that God is still faithful, still true, and still good. 

Why does a loving God allow pain, loss, disease, poverty, etc.?  Is it because he is merciless?  Is he unable to overcome?

I don't need an interpreter of signs to answer these questions. Would I know what is good without knowing what is bad?  Would I know mercy if there was never a need for it.  Would I know abundance without knowing want?  or value life without having loss? 

What I am NOT saying in the above questions is that our God must create such 'evils' so as show such 'goods'.  I am saying that when we choose things other than God (i.e.sin; as in the beginning when both Eve and Adam chose knowledge over God) God's chosen plan is this: He takes that evil and makes a way for it to become good. 

from ashes to beauty
from death to life
from sickness to health
from suffering to rejoicing
from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh
from a knowledge of God to knowing God

and therein, lies salvation, brothers and sisters

My body may be sick and my heart heavy over my family, but my blessings out-number the curses because I know Him from who all things flow...(Col. 1:15-17)