Remembering Grandpa

I'm sure you'd assume from reading the title that you are about to read about my grandfather. Well, no, that's not the case. My actual grandfather abused me. So, no fond memories of him.

But I've adopted another one! Grandpa Walton from the Waltons.

I used to watch the Waltons as a child but was so young, I barely remembered any of the episodes when I began to watch it from time to time as an adult. Recently, my son and I started watching it together. We have fallen in love with it!

And I, as I said, have adopted Grandpa for my very own.

But on today's episode, the very next one after Grandma Walton came home following her stroke and the extended hospital stay, we found out that Grandpa had died! ...

Sadly, on April 22nd 1978, the beloved Grandpa of the Walton children, and one of America's best loved actors, died just before the filming for the next season of The Waltons was due to begin. It has been nice to see that his memory was still incorporated into the scripts of The Waltons, and he was, and still is, often referred to by the Walton family members, in just the same way as a loved grandparent might be in any family. His photo is still around the Waltons set, and we often see flashbacks as family members recall specific incidents.

http://members.tripod.com/~StumpJ/grandpabio.html

Both of us cried and felt as shocked as I imagine most viewers did who watched it all those years ago.

So I thought I'd take a few minutes just to celebrate him. You'll see why I wish he had been my Grandpa instead of the one I got stuck with by birth (and my Grandmother's remarriage).

Grandpa Walton was full of life! He was always laughing and seemed so accepting of anyone who crossed his path. He was very in tune with nature and had a strong faith. He enjoyed life and every so often would take a day off and "go fishing". But really he just seemed to need time to reconnect.

I hope for his sake that Earl Hamner's real grandfather was as wonderful as this one.

I wish mine had been!

Enchanted

I've had an enchanted day!

Well, maybe not the whole day, but so much of it was magical, wonderful and special that I'm officially declaring the whole day enchanted.

I also drank a little more sweet tea than usual. Is caffeine magical?

The first wonderful thing just might have been scrambled eggs for breakfast. But then, I took an Epsom salts bath (tell me again why I don't do that every day?). My son and I spent time together in between my sessions with clients. Hanging out with him makes any day better! And later, we went for a walk and spent extra time connecting with the trees.

He agreed with me that when the sun went down for a few minutes, it felt like we were on the edge of an enchanted forest. I felt like my energy embraced the fluffy clouds and the spring green, mossy trees. I could almost feel myself sinking into the cloud bed and folding my legs around the thick tree branch.

My neighbor invited us in to give Jonathan a lollipop, and after taking a peek at her decor, I was inspired to change my living room a little. The way that I moved my chair makes it look and feel much more cozy! And it opens up the window to the balcony in a way I didn't even know was possible.

I'm sitting here looking out of that double window right now and I love my new completely unobstructed view!

What a great day!

My inner voice keeps reminding me about the tea. Yes, I have creating an energetic "decongestant" formula on my to-do list. I need to figure out what combo of symbols, hand positions and crystals would function as a decongestant so I could lessen my responsiveness to caffeine. Okay, mom :).

Still a great day, though! I'm grateful for it.

So that's what God meant!

I think I've posted here before that I've heard whisperings and felt nudges from God about ministry.

Which puzzled me because I don't think of myself as the type who would ever want to be a pastor, and that's what comes to mind. The words "healing minister" have always appealed to me but I just didn't know how healing would be a part of a pastorship.

So I decided to just let it hang in the air and wait for more information. I figured whatever I needed to know would present itself one way or the other!

And now, I think that has happened. I had never heard of being a spiritual director before! Even when I saw the blog page of one of the RevGalBlogPals, I thought it seemed like a neat idea and even something I'd enjoy doing but I thought it must be a Catholic thing since I'd never heard of it.

But recently, I found out that people from any faith tradition can learn to be spiritual directors and it looks like it would fit together well with my healing practice. I even found a training program that seems perfect.

So I am definitely going to look into this and see what happens...