Author Archives: trishsouthard

Sweet & Sour

28 Saturday Dec 2019

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Yesterday morning I opened the refrigerator, and suddenly the top shelf on the door collapsed to the floor. The plastic tray that held my pickles and leftover sweetened condensed milk gave way. Both glass jars shattered everywhere, spilling sweet and sour over my feet, the floor, the cabinets, and my soon to rush in 16-year-old Shitzu who lightning-fast found a piece of glass with condensed milk invitingly dripping off the edges. My quick hands removed the jagged and deadly morsel, much to Miss Daisy Mae’s chagrin.

What a mess.

As we move through the twelve days of Christmas, I’m examining my sweet and sour.

Examine the sweet, which may be good competing with the best?

What are the sours? What needs tossing out of my life?

Proverbs 27 verse 25 states, “When hay is removed, new growth appears.”

 

Stink Bug Attack

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Walking peacefully beside Shoal Creek, a creek I’ve walked beside for most of my lunchtimes the past five years, a giant light green insect landed and attached to my upper arm.

I could not shake it loose and had to scrape it off my hulking bicep with my plastic gym card.

I enjoy the path because two resident falcons often sweep past into the depths of the creek on the hunt for a mouse.

Where was my falcon friend when the stink bug attacked and would not let go?

Sin. It will attach to you, and it will leave a scar behind.

I’m looking at a 5-inch scrape that’s bleeding, and it will undoubtedly leave its mark at least for a while.

What Scares Me – Part 3

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Shoal Creek

Shoal Creek

Being cooped up.

I’m an outdoor girl.

Mothers Day or my birthday are usually a day of canoeing, hiking or horseback riding.

Studying for my big exam this spring I missed taking in the grape kool-aid (mountain laurel) air with honey suckle top notes.

The scent of flowers and birds singing all calm me.

My coursework of memorizing laws and regulations kept me from my daily visit to the creek to breathe in the fresh air-conditioner free air.

Stepping out for a few minutes this spring, a young gentlemen from the next building whistled out the mocking jay haunting melody making me laugh.

I must remind him of a much older Katniss Everdeen.

Getting out of the routine of being outside scares me. Spring seemed to rush by without me noticing.

Don’t be scared… go outside.

What Scares Me – Part 2

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Every day I like to do something that scares me.

Choosing faith over fear, I went to work at a friends firm in Austin.

It scares me.

I’m scared in a good way.

Praying all day I can stay razor-sharp and accomplish as much as I can for our clients.

I am not commuting or working alone.

You have not to do it in your unaided strength: it is God who is all the while supplying the impulse, giving you the power to resolve, the strength to perform, the execution of His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

In a nut shell my work encompasses being a tenacious problem-solver for each person I meet throughout my day and doing it with excellence.

The Office

The Office

What Scares me…

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My empty light blinks on. Pulling off the interstate as  my  two-year old daughter sings,  a  gas station is nowhere to be seen.

A rickety metal Sinclair sign  sends me 3 miles down a rutted back road in southern Indiana.

A deserted  gas station greets me as the car rolls over tall grass growing up between concrete cracks.

Gas pumped a twenty to pay and child on my hip,  two red necks approach swiftly, the smell of unkempt bodies and beer knocks my senses and a small brass bell rings as my back pushes open the dusty glass door.

Hank Williams sings from where I hope a cashier is waiting to save me, but no, the barely stocked store is  hauntingly empty.

God spoke to my spirit warning me and nudging me to pull over sooner, but I ignored His signals and the lowering gas gauge.

The odor sickens me as they  paw me and  desperation hit to think they were about to touch my daughter.

The garage door swings open and a gritty oil covered man reaches out toward me.

The Lord is an ever-present helper even when we ignore His promptings.

The two men seemed to vanish like rats into a rusty blue Camaro with a confederate flag covering the back window.

He had been under a car in the bay and was so sorry. “How can I help you Ma’am?”

For He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Psalm 91:11

Healing – Part 10

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Go to Church

Find a bible-based church that’s not so large you get lost in the shuffle.

“See and be radiant and your heart will tremble and rejoice.”  (first half of Is. 59v.5)

Experience the transformative power of God’s Word.

Sorrow is better than laugher, for sadness has a refining influence on us.

Ecclesiastes 7:3

Just soak it all in.

Rest.

Worship.009

Teaching.

The old.

The young.

Cry.

Church is a safe place to weep.

The deeper the sorrow, the less the tongue has to say.

The Talmud

Healing – Part 9

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Poetry

Pumpkins Rebecca Price Photography

Evening Pumpkins
by Rebecca Price

Spend time reading poems, writing poems and sharing poems with others.

The following poem is the favorite of Betty Flamm, the wise and beloved matriarch of our book club.

Betty’s godly presence guides, influences and brings us all up to a higher state of thought.

Mellowness

I like Spring, but it is too young.

I like Summer, but it is too proud.

So I like best of all Autumn;

Because its leaves are a little yellow,

Its tone mellover,

Its colors richer,

And it is tinged a little with sorrow.

Its golden richness speaks

Not of the innocence of spring,

Nor of the power of Summer,

But of the mellowness and kindly wisdom

Of approaching age,

It knows the limitations of life,

And is content.

-Lin Yutang

Take a dip at http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/blog-3/

A poem every day http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/every-day

Healing – Part 8

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Develop relationships with people in their 90’s.

They have walked through great and irreparable loss.

A seasoned perspective.

My Aunt Virginia almost 94, and a friend Frances, who is  94 seem to have a quick way of pulling me to a feeling of ease.

A beautiful sheath of lilies unfolds in my mind and the scent wakes me, when encouragement or advice comes from these women of distinction .IMG_1005

Show respect to the aged; honor the presence of an elder; fear your God.

I am God.

Leviticus 19:32 The Message

Healing – Part 7

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A well dressed gentlemen walked past me in the library.

His perfectly polished cordovan dress shoes were in contrast to a strong alcohol odor passing by and nauseating me.

Liquor seeped out of his skin on a Sunday afternoon.

I was just relaxing catching up on the latest periodicals, but another story began to unfold in my mind.

Sadness so unbearable some turn to old vices.

My old vice was candy, especially black licorice.

Blue after visiting with a grieving dear friend, I bought a box.

A strange calm arrived as I bite into the chewy, salty, tart sweet.

Perhaps this well-groomed young man had suffered a loss of some kind.

When the dark angst hits go outside and read the psalms beginning at 100.

Read out loud till you hit 107 verse 20.SONY DSC

He saved them from their distress.

He sent His word and healed them;

He rescued them from the Pit.    Psalm 107 v. 20 HCSB

 

 

Healing – Part 6

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The dove is missing!

For two days it bounce around my backyard without flying.

I fed it corn,  left water for it, and set up a hay bale to offer shade and protection from my door.

And now it is gone.

My hope became horror after I saw the feathers…lots of feathers, signs of a struggle.

Later while walking our small dog, fecal evidence betrayed our toy predator.

Our Shitzu was more Sun Tzu, a warrior bird dog, not a palace pet.

Mourn, rest, stay away from the kind of chaos that can attack us when we are in a vulnerable state.