{"id":7643,"date":"2016-01-24T22:50:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T03:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=7643"},"modified":"2016-01-25T07:34:06","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T12:34:06","slug":"birthday-week-2016-making-memories-and-treasuring-them-and-the-winter-storm-jonas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=7643","title":{"rendered":"Birthday Week – 2016 – Making Memories and Treasuring Them – and the Winter Storm Jonas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/a>\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

My dad and I share a birthday week each year. His birthday comes the day before mine. After all, I tell him, he will always be older than me. That joke doesn’t register anymore for him, because he doesn’t remember now that it was funny to us…before. Before Alzheimer’s.<\/p>\n

For most of\u00a0my years, even with living either overseas or out of state, we’ve celebrated our birthdays together. This year we traveled to Georgia for his birthday but would travel back home on mine. That was one of the many differences of this birthday week.<\/p>\n

When I captured this image (above) as he talked to one of his grandchildren on the phone, it reminded me of an older picture of him, from many years ago.\"IMG_0004<\/a>Dad was often on the phone, answering calls from people who needed his handiness for one reason or another. He was always happy to serve others and he was\u00a0quite good at it. I wonder, as his\u00a0strength and memory have faltered in the last couple of years, if he misses those days. So many phone calls…so much purpose in his life. It’s different now, for Dad. He often doesn’t remember even who called a few minutes earlier. For us, though,\u00a0his life\u00a0still has purpose.<\/p>\n

We have this season to show him love like he showed us for so many years. We are grateful for him…and for what we’ve learned from him. For the joy of just knowing him…and being in his life.\"Blog<\/a>\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Every time I visit, we go through his picture books to help him remember. We also make new memories together. I’m not sure how many he remembers, but I believe that he remembers that we love him<\/a>.\"Blog<\/a>\"Blog<\/a>Photo: Dad & his pastor, David Lyle, who visits him regularly.<\/p>\n

Dad and I\u00a0didn’t have my birthday together this year.\u00a0Dave and I\u00a0needed to get back home. This\u00a0would be\u00a0the start of a very different birthday for me. My computer crashed while we were away, so I wasn’t able to write for days. Then winter storm Jonas would wreak beautiful havoc on our city over the weekend. Family dinner with our kids was cancelled, as was the game night with friends I was looking forward to. No date night with Dave.<\/p>\n

The pity party for one was just getting started…and then\u00a0I came back to my senses.<\/p>\n

Before the massive snowfall, on the evening we arrived back home from Georgia,\u00a0we had our regular weekly gathering of our community group from church<\/a>. It was all the more special this week because\u00a0they\u00a0surprised me by remembering the day\u00a0– being with these sweet friends\u00a0lifted my heart so much.\"IMG_3105\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No matter how old we get, we have certain expectations about birthdays. Some may not like to be celebrated…and I’m not much for being the center of attention myself. Still, to be\u00a0remembered by friends and family\u00a0with gifts of words, kindnesses, time…it is really quite extraordinary…and it encourages me to want to be more like those friends and those family members.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for making this birthday, overshadowed by much travel and an enormous snow storm, one that I will treasure. It taught me the lesson all over again to take nothing for granted and all things as gifts from a loving God who lavishes good on us through all sorts of people and experiences.\"IMG_3173\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Winter storm Jonas shut down the rest of this birthday week. So beautiful and at the same time paralyzing.\"Blog<\/a>\"Blog<\/a>\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

I was reminded of a devotional from Streams in the Desert<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it.\u201d In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here and there by \u201crests,\u201d and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune. God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives; and we lament<\/strong> that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. How does the musician read the \u201crest\u201d? See him beat the time with unvarying count, and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not without design does God write the music of our lives…If we sadly say to ourselves, \u201cThere is no music in a \u2018rest,\u2019\u201d let us not forget \u201cthere is the making of music in it.\u201d<\/strong> The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!”<\/em> \u2014Ruskin<\/p>\n

This lament of a “forced rest” may seem strange to those of you who love to sled or play otherwise in the snow… I love the snow also.\u00a0My heart struggle\u00a0came with the\u00a0snow. It\u00a0kept me from being with others whom I wanted to be with and had all sorts of expectations in\u00a0that wishing…because it was my birthday. Right? Sigh….<\/p>\n

The snowstorm affected us all differently. For me, it was\u00a0that forced rest…a time to consider God’s goodness, in the quiet reflections of a snowy winter weekend. A time to reflect and a time to repent…of expectations misspent.<\/p>\n

I am so blessed…so blessed. Thinking of my dad, at the winding down of his life…dealing with memory lost, with strength waning…and yet he takes joy in the smallest of graces. That is a prescription for contentment for all of us.\"Blog<\/a>Photo Credit: Facebook.com<\/a><\/p>\n

We share a birthday week…and my dad, and this storm Jonas, reminded me of all the good woven into every situation of life…if we quiet our minds and look for it…it can be found.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3220<\/a>[Dave’s card to me…on this very different and blessed birthday.]<\/p>\n

As the sun sets on the winter storm Jonas, what did you take away from these days of a different sort? I would love to hear about it…\"IMG_3254<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 My dad and I share a birthday week each year. His birthday comes the day before mine. After all, I tell him, he will always be older than me. That joke doesn’t register anymore for him, because he doesn’t remember now that it was funny to us…before. Before Alzheimer’s. For most of\u00a0my years, even … Continue reading Birthday Week – 2016 – Making Memories and Treasuring Them – and the Winter Storm Jonas<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[810,957,1229,1324,1241,1705,2713,147,1265,903,317,795,761,887,1001,610,991],"tags":[958,2707,2709,2706,2710,148,7,2712,239,2711,2095,5,1723,697,1035,2708,2714,2705,4],"class_list":["post-7643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-good-gifts","category-alzheimers-disease","category-beauty-of-gods-creation","category-birthdays","category-contentment","category-conversations","category-dad","category-family-2","category-friends","category-grace","category-lessons-learned","category-love-2","category-redeeming-restoring","category-remembering","category-stories","category-thanksgiving-or-gratefulness","category-writing","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-assisted-living","tag-birthday-cards","tag-birthday-week","tag-cabin-fever","tag-dad","tag-family","tag-family-dinner","tag-friends","tag-game-night","tag-getting-older","tag-memories","tag-music","tag-rest","tag-snowed-in","tag-snowstorm","tag-streams-in-the-desert","tag-winter-storm-jonas","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-1Zh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7643"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7672,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions\/7672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}