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October 11, 2013 by Karin 2 Comments

This Is What It Looks Like

31 days of Good Deeds 31 Days of Good Deeds

(click here for the series)

~ Day 10 ~

I watched her as she shuffled around the kitchen.

She reminded me of my mom.  I guessed she was probably about the same age.

The kids ran wild that evening.

Tunes from the guitars, keyboard, and drums rang a distant memory of the days my warrior wore his rock star hat.  Voices belted out Three Doors Down, Sarah McLachlan, and Buffett. Food and joy overflowed.  There is just something about music.  Music speaks to hidden memories and connects us without words.  Just the lyrics and the melodies blanketed the room.

I saw her eyes glisten as she smiled into the young exuberant crowd.

Her eyes met mine as I bounced my squirming two-year-old in my lap.  Baby girl clamored for hands full of candy corn.  I obliged.  These nights don’t roll around too often.

She slid into the chair next to me.  As her fingers stroked the strawberry blonde wisps on baby girl’s head, she told me her story.  The music faded to a framing mural as she began,

I don’t have any family.  I was the baby of my family.  They are all gone now.

Her blue-green eyes sparkled with memories of decades gone by.

My birthday is next week.  I’ll be 83.

Yes, just like my mom.  I looked into her eyes and pretended for just a moment that I could have this conversation with my own mom.  Memories intact.

I moved a few times and came here about 15 years ago.

I’ve been alone for a while.

I nodded, sliding closer.  The crescendo of notes wrapped around us as a beautiful voice began,

in the arms of the angel…

Songs catapult us from memory to memory like rabbits scurrying down a hole… only to pop up somewhere else.

My baby found this to be the ideal moment to squirrel candy corn after candy corn.  I was riveted.  How did this dear soul come here?  What story brought her to live with these new friends of ours?

She went on,

I fell one day.  It was a Thursday.  I lived alone, you know.  No one found me… until Sunday.

The doctors told me if it had been any  longer I wouldn’t have made it.  I was dehydrated.

I stared into her alert eyes.  Three or four days.  She lay on the floor in her kitchen for days.  Hour upon hour… alone.  Afraid.  I could only imagine what the scene must have looked like.  I thought again… of my mom.  Four days alone, desperate, and in pain.

She smiled gently,

When I woke up in the hospital there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a note.

In this note, they told me I was going to come live with them.  I knew them through church, you know.

I still have that note.

That was six years ago.

That’s what it looks like.  All the stuff Jesus says.  Do good.  Help others.  Be kind.  Give.  Others before yourself. 

This is what it looks like.  It can have so many faces, and stories, and eyes, and hands… but, this, is what it all comes down to.

love the lonely

Our new friends didn’t tell us about her story.  As far as we knew, she was a kindly grandmother who lived with them and their children.  They never told us.  She did.

This kind of giving captures me.  I had to know.  What brought them to this step?  To this offer?

So, we asked.

Our friend, soft-spoken and humble, replied,

Yea, well, that’s what we are supposed to do.

That’s what we are supposed to do.

One step in love gave this one beautiful soul with the sparkling eyes… a home.  No… it gave her more.  The most.

A family.

Psalm 68:6

God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

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Filed Under: Compassion, Faith, Family, Good Deeds, Love, Together Tagged With: obedience, the lonely

October 5, 2013 by Karin 2 Comments

Give Love, Get Love

31 days of Good Deeds 31 Days of Good Deeds

(Click here to see the series)

~ Day 5 ~

This.

Give love.  Get love.

Happy Weekend…

Matthew 22:39

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

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Filed Under: A Day in the Life, Compassion, Good Deeds, Together Tagged With: give love get love

October 4, 2013 by Karin Leave a Comment

How To Really Be Brave (one for the kids)

31 days of Good Deeds 31 Days of Good Deeds

~ Day 4 ~

I remember her face.  I even remember her name.

Katie.

I didn’t know anything about her, but I remember the way people treated her.

She appeared awkward and shy.  It was mostly the boys, but there were a few girls, too.  The ones who weren’t picking on her stood back and laughed.

I just watched.  I mean, what else could I do?

I was only in 7th grade.  It was a big school and we all know that junior high isn’t a confidence builder. It’s a tough age.  Those middle years.

Most of us just watched.

We watched while they poked and picked and laughed.  I knew Katie was in the slower classes, but I didn’t really know much about what that meant back in the early 1980’s.

I felt sorry for her.  I wished they would just leave her alone.

I see now.  Instead of leaving her alone… I wish someone would have not left her alone.  I wish someone would have stood next to her.  

I wish I would have been brave.  

I wish I had stood next to her.

This story is for kids like Katie.

I pray my kids will learn to stand.  Not watch.

stand together   Thank you, Joan, for sharing this beautiful story…

One summer day while doing some gardening in the front of my house, there were several children playing out in the street.  A little red hair, freckle-faced boy came along and wanted to join them.  Most of the kids started laughing at him and calling him names.  He started to cry, and I was going to go over and say something to the other kids, when I noticed one of the boys who was playing picked up the ball.  The red-headed boy sat on the curb and just cried.  The boy with the ball said something to the other boys and then walked over to the red-headed boy and sat down.  Since they were sitting on the curb right in front of my house, I could hear what they were saying.  This is what I heard…

The young boy with the ball put his arm around him and told the red-headed boy not to cry. But, the red-headed boy said, “They called me ugly and won’t play with me.”  The boy with the ball wiped the tears from the red-headed boy and said, “You’re not ugly. God doesn’t make anyone ugly.”  Then he hugged the red-headed boy and said, “I will always be your friend and we can play ball together.”  

I had tears in my eyes and went into my house and got each of them an ice pop.  I lived there for a long time, and watched those two boys grow up to be best friends.   Amazing.  That happened over 30 years ago and those boys, now men, are still friends with families of their own.

May we learn to defend the weak.

May we learn to stand.

God doesn’t make anyone ugly.

 

Psalm 82:3

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

 

(Day 1 is here)(Day 2 is here)(Day 3 is here)

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Filed Under: A Day in the Life, Community, Compassion, Friendship, Good Deeds, The Good Stuff, Together Tagged With: for the underdog, stand up

October 3, 2013 by Karin 2 Comments

For The Ones Left Behind

31 Days of Good Deeds 31 Days of Good Deeds

~ Day 3 ~

We hear these stories too often.  The ones about warriors lost.

The times I have looked upon sleeping children and slumbering babies, and prayed hard for their daddy to come home… unharmed… are more than I can recall. The times imagined into stomach sickening fear of the knock at the door have been more frequent than I want to remember.

The truth is… it is real.  For too many of us.  We have lost friends, spouses of friends, and neighbors of friends. Some of us have lost… everything.  We have lost too many close to our hearts, and always in our thoughts.

The truth is… there are many we pass every day for whom the dread and the imagined nightmare has become a reality.

left behind

A friend who lost her husband in Iraq eight years ago marks the milestones by keeping his memory alive for her children.  She is a warrior.

Many faces around us are struggling just to make it to the next moment.  Their families have sacrificed… everything.

This story is from the wife and mom of military men.  It reminds me to open my eyes and look around. Thank you, Beth, for sharing your husband’s story…

Beth and I returned home today from an FRG training course in Kansas City, Mo. We were standing in baggage claim at O’Hare airport waiting for our bags and we saw a female standing across the conveyor. She had a stroller with a child, a car seat, and two very large suitcases. You would think, looking at her, that she was just waiting for her husband to come help. We watched for a minute as she struggled with all her bags. Beth then looked at me and I said, “okay,” and walked over to offer my assistance. She accepted, handed off the bags, and we walked out. She asked if this was my home post or if I was traveling through. She then mentioned her husband was a Marine. She asked me what I did, so I told her as we walked out to the curb so she could wait for her ride. I set the bags down, she thanked me, and I told her, “not a problem.”
She looked me in the eye then, and told me her husband was recently killed in a training exercise. This was her first time traveling. I was stunned. I said, “I’m so sorry for your loss, Ma’am,” and walked back to baggage claim.
I believe that Beth and I were there to see her struggles and to be there to offer assistance. It was God’s will. My one regret is not asking her husband’s name, so I could say a prayer for him. So I will just have to say one for all the fallen.
~ SGT Stiff
A prayer for all the fallen… and the ones they leave behind.
A prayer that we, like Sgt. Stiff, open our eyes to see the struggles of those around us.
A prayer that our hearts and hands may help to carry each other’s burdens.
Galatians 6:2
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
(Day 1 is here)
(Day 2 is here)
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Filed Under: Community, Compassion, Good Deeds, Military, Together Tagged With: open eyes to see, the warriors left behind

March 18, 2013 by Karin Leave a Comment

When Your Day Is a Bust, and You Are One of the Lucky Ones

It’s been one of those days.

I thought these days would become more infrequent as the kids get older.

I screamed so much that my throat hurts… and I feel like I deserve it.

Why, at the end of the day, is it so hard for us to forgive ourselves?

So much for the one good year goal.  All the days gone by in achieving the goal… washed away by tears of children today.

Great job, Mom.

One of those days.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day.

We celebrate that one around here.  The stealthy leprechaun visits and leaves a trail of treasure hunt.  The end of the rainbow brings a pot of overflowing craft supplies… and overflowing joy from little ones.

Then, the downward slide.

Projects, procrastination, perpetual whining.

The volcano of mama erupts.  Not once… but over and over.

I never knew it would be so hard… to hold my tongue.

I never knew I would fail at it so frequently.

I never knew I would hurt the hearts of little ones… for whom I would throw myself into a fiery volcano.

But it is hard, and I do hurt them.  And they forgive me.  And I forgive them.  But… I am not so quick to forgive… myself.

Maybe they won’t remember…

This day of Irish celebration… a bust.

lucky ones

I read something the other day.  Something about feeding His sheep.  The words drew me in… they reminded me of what it’s really like out there.

I, called to feed His sheep… spent the day feeding my woes.

With my full pantry.

With my full house.

With my full closets.

With my full belly.

With my full arms.

With my full heart.

Poor, poor me.

We feel quite helpless sometimes.

We watch the terror enveloping our world.

We watch our economy like a growing snowball… plummeting down the steep mountainside.

We watch as people suffer, and starve, and die.

We feel the pinch to our own purses.

We feel the tug at our hearts.

We feel the fear and the frustration.

We watch it all happen… and we feel pretty helpless.

Don’t you sometimes have the urge… to do something?  Just anything… that matters?

When you feel like the day is a bust, and the world is busted… don’t you just want to do something?

We did.  Today.

The day was a bit of a bust (in mama’s mind).  Things just didn’t go the way they were planned.

Then, the moment.  A moment of peace.  Eyes went to a face on the screen.

A pretty little face.  A little girl in a white dress with a big fluffy pink bow crowning her shiny dark locks.

She has been waiting 228 days.  Almost. One. Year.

For months and months she has waited for someone… anyone… to pick her.

She needed a sponsor.

Our eyes… captured by hers.  

Her birthday… the same as my oldest baby’s.

We are the lucky ones.  

It is St. Patricks’s Day.

I yelled too much.  Kids whined too much.  We planned too much.

We. Have. Too. Much.

When He called us to spread our luck… which we know is the nickname for blessing… we listened.

I can’t wait to write her!

Oh, she’s so sweet. 

I think she will be so excited to hear she has a sponsor on St. Patrick’s Day!

My own little one gleefully exclaimed as she pranced around the room.

We are the lucky ones.

We just forget sometimes.

Our new friend across the oceans just reminded us.  She is the blessing.  She just doesn’t know it.

Her name, of course… is Irish.

Not an Irish name.

Her name. is. I.R.I.S.H.

She is the one waiting at the end of our rainbow today.

 

John 21:17

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”  He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”  Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

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Filed Under: A Day in the Life, Compassion, Faith, Forgiveness, Motherhood, Patience Tagged With: lucky ones, one of those days, sponsor a child

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Meet Karin

Hi! My name is Karin Madden. Writer. Warrior wife. Mom of six pack. Homeschooler. German-blooded southerner. Welcome to the place where I explore what it means to grow stronger - spirit, soul, and body. I write to inspire and encourage - to remind you we are not alone. By being bold with grace and speaking truth in love, we can become who we are meant to be. I'm glad you are here.

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