J's Cafe Nette

Archive for December 1st, 2008

I have been scarce around the computer for the past five weeks. We have a new puppy and I’m working on training her to be a good dog, but it sometimes gets frustrating when she goes outside and comes back in, goes into the bathroom, scoots and pees on the floor. The one good thing is it’s tile and not carpet, but she doesn’t like rain and it’s been raining over the weekend. We finally put an umbrella over her and it seems to have done the trick. Our goal is to have her completely potty trained by January 1. We’ll see.

I’ve had old age ailments bothering me also. The usual back problems etc. For the past week and a half I have had excruciating headaches every day until it put me in bed Saturday and Sunday in a quiet, dark room.

No amount of nasal spray, tylenol and motrin would take it away. I finally bit the bullet and called the allergist last night and was prescribed a Z-pack which was made in Mumbai, India. I was also told to get a sinus flush system. I’m not sure that’s the right word, but you put water in a provided bottle, put in a saline solution, put the nozzle in one nostril, squeeze gently and the water and gunk comes out of the other nostril. You repeat for the other nostril. She told me to do this everytime I feel a sinus infection coming on.

My nose is clear, I barely have a headache right now and I think I’m on the mend. I have made an appointment to see my allergist next Monday and on the twelfth I see my regular doctor for my every 3-4 months exam for diabetes. Hopefully my triglycerides will be coming down to manageable levels, as I have tried very hard to watch what I eat.

Sue was laid up for six weeks with a broken foot and just had the cast removed in time for her husband to have the bursis sac removed from his elbow on the dominant side. Never a complaint from her, though. She’s a real trouper.

Things are pretty quiet around here and we want to keep politics off the page at least until the new president takes office and makes a big mistake, or more likely, Congress goes off its rocker.

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving and will have a very Merry Christmas even if you get no gifts. The biggest gift of all was given to us all on the first Christmas. No toy or gadget will ever top it.

We will be giving to our children and grandchildren and to families who wouldn’t have food or gifts for their small children if not for the help of others. How I wish people would treat every day as Christmas for these people.

Send a card of thanks to our military; it means a lot to them. I had the address and misplaced it so maybe Sue has it and can give us the information. If you happen to be at an airport and see a military person in uniform take the time to shake his or her hand and thank him or her for serving this wonderful country to keep us safe every day.

If you feel so inclined, send a note to President Bush and thank him for keeping our country safe from terrorists for a bit over seven years now. You don’t have to agree with his politics, but we can’t doubt the fact we have not been attacked since 9/11/2001.

Send a note to the future President Obama, and wish him well in his administration. Let him know you will be praying for him just as we should pray for all our elected leaders.

I heard a sermon last night about King Solomon’s son ascending to the throne when Solomon died. His mother was a pagan and worshipped other gods. Within five years of his taking the throne Jerusalem’s Temple was robbed and the goods taken away. Instead of fighting for what was God’s the new king substituted the pure gold for bronze.

Ask our new president to fight for the gold and not settle for brass. And we should all do the same.

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This was delivered to my email box from dear friend and rather than just forward it I thought I’d share it here (by the way, I think many Dads would qualify too) (author unknown):

Invisible Mother……

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.

Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’

Obviously, not.

No one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.

I’m invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?

Some days I’m not a pair of hands; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated sum a cum laude – but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going; she’s going; she is gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England ..

Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in.

I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself.

I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe ..

I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription:

‘To My Dear Friend, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work:

No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names.

These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.

They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.’ And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees’

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place.

It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.’

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life.
It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘you’re going to love it there.’

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right.

And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

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Even those who have little sometimes have the biggest gift to give…as told by Johnny Cash.

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