Two in One

Once again I am sharing my online friend's post. Joe's writing always touches my heart, makes me think and reflect, and encourages me. Be sure to scroll down after Joe's story to read mine.


                                                  NOT DONE YET

                                                 By: Joseph J. Mazzella

Life is full of miracles.  They surround us every day.  One of these miracles happened to me recently.  I was filling my car’s tank at a local gas station.  It was only 10 A.M., but I already felt tired.  It was a cloudy, gloomy and rainy day and I hadn’t slept well the night before.  After I had paid for the gas, I turned my car towards the main road.   I looked right and left then my brain sent the signal for my foot to push on the gas pedal, but nothing happened. 

Shocked, I shook my head to clear it and gazed down at my foot. Just as I did, though, a semi-truck roared past my car doing 60 mph.

My weary, bleary eyes hadn’t seen it when I had looked just 2 seconds earlier.  If I had been pulling out when I should have been my little green car would have been smashed, and I would have most likely been killed.

I sat there for a long time quietly thanking God for sparing my life before pulling out on the road and heading home.  This time both my brain and foot worked perfectly.

As I looked back on that moment later, I still couldn’t understand it.  Did God prevent my brain’s signal from reaching my foot?  Did an angel grab my toes to keep them from pressing on the gas?  One question kept coming back into my mind as well: why?  Why did I get this miracle?  Why did God spare my life this day? 

Finally, I felt the answer forming deep within my heart and mind.  I heard the words coming from my soul saying: “You still have more to do. Your work is not done yet!”

Richard Bach wrote: “Here is the test to find if your mission on Earth is finished: if you are alive it isn’t.”  Wake up each day knowing that your mission isn’t done yet.  Wake up each day knowing that you still have more to do.  You have more love to share, more people to help, more kindness to give.  You have one more day to be the miracle God meant for you to be.

~ ~ ~

U-Turn 

   

by Constance Gilbert

I'll always remember May 30th, 1980 I was driving with my son into town to pick up my paycheck. Part way there I stopped in the left-hand lane for a red light. Within seconds I heard "Turn around NOW!"

The light turned green... at that moment I made a fast U-turn in front of oncoming traffic and headed for home with no attention to the speed limit. As I parked, the disaster sirens began blaring. We ran to the basement and waited.

If I had ignored that command, my son and I would have been in the direct path of one of the three tornadoes that devastated our city.

As we waited, my son said, "You really scared me when you did that Uy. How did you know the tornadoes were coming?"

"I didn't. I just heard a voice command me to turn around. At the time I didn't think about who it was, I just obeyed. But I know it was a message from God."

With a huge hug, he replied, "I'm glad you did."

Why me? I had a son to raise, and God had plans for both of us.

~ ~ ~ 

Kind Words

We've all experienced a moment that "made my day": a kind word, a smile, a thank you, a surprise, etc.

Yesterday my moment came in a letter from a dear friend who I have known for nearly 70 years. While writing to her, I was listening to cellist YoYo Ma and the NY Symphony Orchestra play the debut performance of a piece written specifically to highlight Ma's unique talent and skill.

Because my friend has a master's degree in music, I knew she would understand and share my delight with YoYo Ma's performance. So I made comments regarding the music as I was hearing it throughout the letter. This new composition touched my heart and soul. I watched it a second time after I finished the letter.

Her return letter read:

"...where you described the music. I thought to myself, you not only edit writing, write stories but also review music in the most beautiful and descriptive manner..." Wow!

These kind words, what we used to call warm fuzzies, were also a reminder to me to be an encourager... to fulfill my personal mission statement:" To encourage spiritual joy through the written and spoken word."

In Florence Littauer's book Silver Boxes: The Gift of Encouragement she writes, "every time we open our mouths we have a choice to make- to encourage, uplift and give hope OR to undermine, discourage and judge... words are powerful whether positive or negative, they can never be taken back. One little comment can lift up a person's life; the wrong words can also ruin it."

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "The only gift is a portion of yourself." Littauer calls that being a silver box with a silver ribbon and led me to collect a few silver boxes to remind myself that anyone can give encouragement, and everyone needs it at one time or another. Encouragement motivates and inspires. Encouragement is simple. It has no boundaries like age, gender, cost or time.

All that is needed is the desire to make someone feel special... to be a verbal cheerleader, a planter of seeds of hope.

Selah ~ never a discouraging word...

Connie, writer Liz Curtis Higgs' "Official Encourager"

Guest Post

THE FACE IN THE MIRROR    

          By: Joseph J. Mazzella

     Bend! Push!  Lift!  Toss!  Bend!  Push!  Lift! Toss!  I was slowly shoveling out my driveways,

porches, and pathways from five inches of freshly fallen snow.  My new snow shovel was

working well but my body was feeling its fifty years and my bad back was feeling more like

eighty.  Still, I had shoveled out from deeper snows than this before, so I kept at it.  I breathed

in the frosty air and hummed a few songs as I worked.  After about forty minutes the job was

done and I stretched out my stiff and sore back.  Then I did something I hadn’t done in years.

I fell back into the snow and made a snow angel. 

       Suddenly, I felt five again and I laughed as I walked back into the house.  I think a part of me

expected to see my five-year-old face staring back at me when I looked into the bathroom mirror,

but it was not to be.  There instead was my unshaven, fifty-year-old face with its salt and pepper

hair and deep set wrinkles.  There were lots of laugh lines but some pain lines as well.  When I

looked a little closer, though, I saw the five-year-old twinkling in my eyes.  It was good to know

that he was still in there and that on the inside I remained both ageless and forever young.

      Elisabeth Kubler-Ross once wrote: “Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms,

you would never see the beauty of the carvings.”  My own face has seen a lot of windstorms

over the years.  It has suffered a lot, learned a lot, and loved a lot.  It has also grown kinder, more

compassionate, and closer to God.  I think I prefer it to its younger versions that I can still see

in the pictures on my walls.  Every time it smiles I love seeing it crinkle up and love seeing that

eternal five-year-old still shining behind those eyes.

     Our lives will always line our faces and our souls will always shine in our eyes.  All we can

do is fill them both with all the love, laughter, and light we can.  May you do so always.