I fell and broke my right arm. I am right handed and my cast is very heavy. I can’t leave my left side alone either because from my back all the way down to my toes, is taken over by that mean woman arthritis. So, it’s hard to walk, and my cast is so heavy it is awfully hard to do anything. But do I say “poor little old gal” and make it hard for anyone taking care of me?/ Not after I watched another lady have two casts put on, one on each arm. She really can’t do much, can she? After that, I read again the story in the Bible about Paul, when he was beaten and finally tossed into a cave and was bound in chains. He most surely had the right to say, “poor man am I,” He hadn’t done anything except talking to people about Jesus.

He , and Silas, a man who was with him, started to sing and praise the Lord. It was midnight and many of the other prisoners woke up listening to them. Can you imagine that? ,Suddenly there was an earthquake and the chains fell off them, The guards were yelling and screaming. They were scared to death that the prisoners would get away. Paul cried as loud as he could, “We are all here!” And that’s how Paul stood his suffering.

let’s take a long look at our Savior, Jesus. Who suffered more for who? You, that’s who! There isn’t any person in the whole world, from. every generation, that wasn’t invited. He forgave all of our sin that day. He was arrested, beaten by strips of leather with nails at the end, so no person could recognize Him. Finally, He was crucified, nailed to a cross and died, He rose from the dead on the third day, which we call Easter. To love him, to ask for forgiveness and know that He is the Son of God is all you have to do to begin your new happy life. Why don’t more folks accept His invitation?

So, now I am asked to suffer a little and I am blessed, My son lives with me and takes good care of my needs, One of my daughters comes over to give me a bath, and the other one does everything my son forgets. What else does a 96 year old widow neeed? It is quite difficult to type these days so my blog will be shorter for a while.

There was a tree across the road from our house. It was a lovely tree with big branches on it. Somebody had put a swing on one of them. I just loved that tree. It probably was the only tree in town.There were small trees planted by homes, but they were not big enough to swing on. I would swing and swing and while I was swinging I’d sing. One of the songs I sang was to the tree. I would sing one of the verses if I remembered them, but I doubt if you would enjoy them very much. I was only five or six years old, but I knew I loved trees.

Let’s look ahead about 35 years. My husband has died, I have thee children and need a job so I began sending letters to churches because that was my education. One called from the northwest and I accepted, but now I had to bring my children, dog and all my household things all the way from Wisconsin to the state of Washington and I had never driven very much. I thought that with God I can do it. I did it!

One day a lady from our church invited me to lunch. We talked about many things , but mostly I talked about moving so soon but we were very uncomfortable in the house I was renting. Adults and children were fighting in the streets and they would take anything left outside our home. She said they were selling a house and maybe they would rent it. She handed me some keys and told me to take the kids and look it over.

Trees! that’s all I saw when we drove in.It was so wonderful, There was a woods north of our house with tall northern fir about 150 years old and way over 100 feet tall! and the neighbor to the south of us had many of those trees in their property. The house we were supposed to look at had many of the trees on the property. The whole area was beautiful. But we were to look at the house. It was perfect for our little family. It had a fireplace, three bedrooms, only one bathroom, a nice sized living room, dining area and kitchen. All of us loved it, but even the two older kids thought it was way over what we could pay.

With sad faces we brought the keys back. The husband was now home and told us the price of the home and what kind of down payment we would have to pay. I knew I had the insurance money to pay the down payment but that was for the kids.The monthly payment fit. It was more than the rent we were paying now. It all sounded so great, but who was I to buy a house? I called my brother-in-law. He said he would come and see it. He put his stamp of approval on the whole deal! I bought the house!

All I could do was look at the trees. God is so good. I have lived here over 60 years now and still believe I am not worthy of such a gift! But today I am sad. A man and his wife bought the house in the eastern part of the woods. After the house was built they wanted to cut down nine of these big trees. I was sure the city would not give that approval, but they did. They are working right now. The men have the power , both in their hands and in the loud power tools they use. Soon, they will be done and I will be left to mourn that loss. I wonder why they didn’t buy a house that had no trees by it. To me it would have saved them a lot of money. Oh well, people do things for their own reasons. God gave us free will and sometimes we use that knowledge in ways we shouldn’t, don’t we? There is plenty of trees to dream over, and maybe i’ll sing a bit.