THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES!

While I'm pausing to ponder this entry, you can click the link back to Thankful Thursday- Serene Sunday, 12/20/18 entry as I finally added pix.
Vintage signs take me back to "gentler times"---times at Dang-Dang's grocery in downtown Clarksville. The colorful metal bread sign that hung on the Commerce St. screen door entry---not sure if it was Colonial, Little Miss Sunshine, or Tastee Bread??? But.....as the door slammed, Dang-Dang could look up from the back meat counter and greet each customer, most by name.

More memorable than the bread sign was the Coke one that hung above the red metal coke chest where we could put our nickel in and retrieve our 6 oz, bottle of coke by dragging it to the end of the the "rails" and opening it with the bottle opener on the front. 

I would have to stand on tiptoes unless the stool was handy. Ice Cold Coca-Cola---always the "pause that refreshes." 

More later---I have to keep pausing for "life."

SABBATH SNAPSHOTS: People who make a difference

4/22/12 In our lives we have family members, friends, neighbors, even service industry folks who make a difference. That’s what I saw as I looked through my photos from this week. These plants reminded me of such people. I am thankful for each in my life.

Bloom from my “heritage” snowball bush---originally from my grandmother, Mama’s, childhood home in Hampton Station KY. She took a cutting with her when she married Robert Davenport (my Dang-Dang) and moved to Clarksville, TN. Mama was my spiritual mentor.

A Magnolia tree given by Nancy R., a former Longreen neighbor, in memory of that same grandmother. A real essence of sweetness comes from her memory tree, just as pure sweetness emanated from the very core of her being 

A snapshot from my Wednesday “walkabout” with long time friend and walking encourager, Ellen. We walked in my “hood” this week.

Honeysuckle where I park for my “local” library---there the librarians bless my heart with their recommendations of “good reads” and big smiles. The distinct smell of the honeysuckle had childhood love of libraries and other memories flooding my mind.

Dear friend Ann’s, son Brad, (in sunglasses) has always been a generous supporter of the university. I know how pleased she is with his continued generosity in Memphis-- from education, health, and church to the arts.

A single dogwood bloom on the tree outside the track area beside hubby’s office at the university—a man who puts up with me. Enough said.

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Mama………….

7/28/10 ………..that’s all the name she went by when I was growing up. At least it’s what my family all called her, even Daddy, though she was his mother-in-law. Margaret Louise Hooper Davenport would have been 105 ten days ago. I know that because it was Sunday, July 18, and Molly was in the beach house researching her family tree at ancestory.com. She did “dig up” lots of interesting data. A 1930 census showed the ages of everyone in the “farm” household. Aunt Cora Mae Hooper, age 21, was living with them at the time. She even found a copy of my granddaddy’s signed WWI draft card. Dang Dang was 5 years older than she. They married when she was only 14. He was a tall, strapping corker and she was diminutive with a quiet, gentle spirit.

That info wasn’t on ancestory.com but I know it to be true. Compiled data can only give us so much information. That in itself is fascinating. But the real stories come from the hearts of those who know and remember their loved ones.

For sure, Mama was a loved one, especially by me. She was my spiritual mentor---though neither one of us had ever hear of that term. Nowadays it’s described as one mature Christian sharing his life with another in a one-on-one relational experience. The mentor invests, his God-given wisdom and resources of time and energy with the “mentoree” thus empowering him/her to align his life with Christ.
Our relationship wasn’t that formal but she shared much godly wisdom with me as she allowed me to “see” Christ in her, the hope of glory.

She lived Christ and found her joy in Him. I was just blessed to be alongside for all those years, especially during the summer when I got to spend a week at her house. I couldn’t wait to go to Mama’s---just to be with her. Mama might have been short in stature but she was the spiritual giant of my life.

October 7

10/7/09 My grandfather, Robert William Davenport (aka “Dang-Dang”) was born on this day in 1896. I remember his funeral, August 5, 1965. I remember because there were so many flowers and at least ½ the population of Clarksville, TN, or so it seemed. A giant of a man to me with a gravely voice and a generous nature. He let me fill a sack with goodies every time I came to “his” store, Davenport’s Grocery at 3rd and Commerce. As a child, so I’ve been told, I always asked him for a “heavy” sack----the kind that would hold more, I imagine.

My grandmother, Margaret Louise Hooper Davenport, (aka “Mama”) died on this day in 1981. Small, petite and soft spoken, my first spiritual mentor. At her funeral I remember my mother telling me not to cry or I’d get her upset and “we” didn’t do things like that.

My precious niece, Allyson Leigh Adams, died on this day (1995) as well. She was only 18. Tall, slender and absolutely gorgeous. A real dancer too. I’ll never forget that morning walking out of the hospital in Owensboro, Ky---the closest one to where her wreck occurred. I seemed to be in a vacuum screaming for the world to stop and take notice, though no sound came. How could the cars keep driving by and people kept moving as if nothing had happened? It was surreal because something so life altering for all the Adams family had just drastically changed and no one was even taking notice. Our lives would never be the same. You’re probably thinking I should have named this entry, “Morbid Moments.” And it would have been that if that were the end of the story. But God……and the community of faith and family and friends rallied and prayed and fed and soothed. Bus loads of Tri Delts from UK lined the church walkway and sang their love song. Cars pulled over. People came out of their businesses and stood in quiet respect on Virginia Street as the long processional of cars followed the hearse to Riverside Cemetery.
Throughout the years her memory has continued to be honored with memorial services, a playground built at the Methodist church in her name, a stained glass window in the preschool area and a tree on the lawn of the ΔΔΔ house on the UK campus.

Deaths of loved ones can “rock” one’s world. Their funerals become images often recalled for years. How grateful I am for the Rock in my life, the One that is immutable. He offers hope---that blessed assurance shared by believers. If I didn’t have that faith, October 7 would cast a pall over my life each year when it rolled around. But God……..His Word reminds us:

"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
"In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
"If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)

His Word---It’s what gives us a future and a hope.