Blessings in the Furnace

Pindo Palm in our front yard
https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/trees-and-shrubs/palms-and-cycads/pindo-palm/

To say it's been HOT would not be news because much of the USA has been enduring it for weeks now. I start out this post with thoughts about how we are coping in this 'furnace' of summer in Central Florida. 

To make the best of it, we try to do our outdoor activities in the morning hours, sometimes finishing those tasks with sweat dripping off our noses and running down our backs ..... 🥵 We then come in to take our showers, and spend the remainder of the day indoors with the blessed comfort of air conditioning. 

Gratitude 🙏. Are we thanking the Lord for the 'ordinary' blessings He supplies to us every single day? It is disturbing how our current culture has relaxed, even outright neglected, to voice gratitude to both God and each other. As one of my praying girlfriends said the other day, the Lord loves to hear our thankfulness. People like to hear or read it, too.

This is Hodgepodge Wednesday for those of us who like to answer Joyce's questions/writing prompts. Here are my responses:

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 613 

1. On July 29th 1957 The Tonite Show premiered with Jack Parr as its host. This marked the beginning of the modern day talk show. Do you watch any daytime or late night talk shows today? 

We watch a fair amount of FOX news throughout the day/evening when we're not tuned into old movies and westerns, as well as local news.

Do you have any thoughts on the hubbub surrounding the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, or are you more in the camp of 'who is Stephen Colbert? 

Yes, I know who Stephen Colbert is but we don’t watch any late-night shows. We turn off the TV at 9 pm and head for bed. Sage people have said of the social scene that "nothing good goes on after midnight." I would add that not much good is aired on TV after about 10pm.

2. What's the best part of your day? 

The best part of wakin’ up is Folgers in your cup! 🤭 

One of the best parts of my day is when Gary brings me my morning cup of hot coffee. We sit in the pre-dawn darkness with our coffee mugs listening to quiet instrumental music and plan our day. (although often Gary tells me he's "going to do nuthin'", that is seldom the case)

3. What's something your generation does that you actually dislike? 

Setting a poor example with personal grooming. Let's just say I'm not a trend-setter nor much of a follower of popular or current fashion. (I will leave it at that)

4. When you cook, do you clean as you go, or clean it all up once you're finished cooking? What's the last thing you cooked/baked in your own kitchen? 

I clean as I go when it's practical (when a pot doesn't need stirring or other close attention). Gary does the majority of our cooking, but I do the baking and other things on occasion. 

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

By the way, the above is a link to one of many recipes available on the Internet for a very quick and husband-pleasing cookie. Gary loves these.

5. Sum up your [our] July in ten words or less.

Hot weather, decluttering, medical appointments, reading quietly in air conditioning

 6. Insert your own random thought recent ponderings here.

Hold on. This will be a little heavy, but I hope it will be of some help to those who may be needing these insights.

Yes, as mentioned in question 5, I have been doing more decluttering. To be fair to myself and Gary, since neither of us like clutter, I have been doing more 'purging' as opposed to 'decluttering.'

To elaborate on that: the years are adding up since grief barged into my life, turning my world upside down. A couple of years after that event, I emptied my house of nearly all the furniture, and trashed, gave away to family and friends, donated, or sold the kitchen stuff via consignment and FB Marketplace my knick knacks, hobby supplies, and those things I just did not need any longer nor would have the space to store them. 

But even with that said, I still brought a few pieces of furniture, all of my clothes, my files and office necessities, sewing notions, my cast iron pieces, and some Christmas decorations.

a "keeper" --
one of several miniature room boxes
made by Sister years ago

I also kept things of Tom's that I just did not know what to do with and wasn't ready to explore that issue yet. About a dozen Bankers boxes were stored in closets.

Gary, too, eliminated some of his things. We have managed to get along just fine within the square footage of his floor plan, which is less than what I had. 

In this month (July) the time had come when I felt I could handle the emotions of opening up those boxes to see if I could reduce the number of contents. And I did.

Yes, a random tear was shed here and there, but for the most part, I was mildly surprised how the grief has lessened over time. I thank the Lord for that. One cannot be at peace and live a meaningful life if grief is the focus of every waking moment. 

Grief is a very interesting experience that I don't wish on anybody and yet if we submit it to the Lord, He matures us greatly through it. I am listing here some of the lessons I've learned (and in no particular order):

~ not everyone grieves the same, so don't judge how people handle it

~ grief brings out surprising emotions and responses in ourselves and others

~ all sorts of things will trigger the emotions, such as music, photos, memories, material possessions

~ moving on with your life helps but does not erase all the hard feelings

~ some people seem to want the grieving to be sad forever

~ some people don't understand that even with the comfort of the deceased being in Heaven, their physical absence from the here and now is a huge adjustment both emotionally and practically

~ along with the death, it is not uncommon to lose some living relationships, too

But to also address some lessons learned with a more positive bent:

~ God is true to His promise that He is with us in that "valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm 23:4)

~ God heals the brokenhearted [He restores us] Psalm 147:3

~ God supplies everything we need (Philippians 4:19)

~ God enables us to survive and even thrive after the devastation of grief has come (Philippians 4:13)

~ God has good things in store for us, more than we can possibly imagine (Jeremiah 33:3)

~ in God's economy, no experience is wasted. He uses all things for good in the lives of those who love Him, who yield to His purpose for them (Romans 8:28)

To wrap up this post, I return to my earlier thoughts on gratitude. We all, every one of us, have countless things for which to be grateful, and those things all come from the very hands of God. We please Him greatly when we intentionally thank Him. 

Until next time, grace and peace. 

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To answer these questions on your blog, link up here:

http://www.fromthissideofthepond.com/2025/07/hodgepodge-questions-volume-613.html