Update. . .

May 13, 2023

” Great is His faithfulness, His mercies are new each morning.”

-Lamentations 3:23

Some of you followers of my blog may recall that last August during a routine eye exam, my ophthalmologist discovered a tumor in my right eye and referred me to the top eye cancer specialist at Cleveland Clinic. I saw this doctor and his team this past February for the first time. He did a battery of tests and concluded that the only way he could positively determine whether this tumor was cancer or not was to do a biopsy. However, he also determined – due to the thin shape of the tumor – that he could not do a biopsy without further damaging my eye. So, he instructed me to come back in 3 months to see if the tumor had grown or changed, which would determine his next steps.

This past Tuesday was the 3 month mark. As before, my loving daughter Rachel drove me to this appointment ….a feat all in it’s own, as neither of us is the least bit familiar with Cleveland. Columbus, no problem….I could easily get myself around anywhere. Cleveland, however, induces panic at the mere suggestion.

Again with the battery of tests ..minus one….yay! I still had to have the worst one, however, the ultrasound. One of the doctors on my team informed me this time that this particular ultrasound is many, many times stronger than your typical ultrasound used to see babies in the womb or other body parts. Which pretty much answered my question of why I had a 3-day headache after the last one. Perhaps it also speaks to why my brain felt “fuzzy” the next morning….with all those sound waves pummeling the poor old thing.

Their conclusion: very hopeful news. I’m not out of the woods yet, but it is very hopeful. The tumor has not grown at all….the most important “marker” they said. In fact, the only change noted was a slight decrease in pigmentation…..which, I thought was a good thing…as in, hey, it’s going away. Not so fast ‘grasshopper ‘. The doctor then told me about a man who had sat in the very same chair that day…who had the same thing, and his had gradually grown and lost pigmentation until it was “creamy white”….signifying melanoma (cancer). However, he re-emphasized that my tumor has not grown at all in these last 3 months. So, the lead doctor said he is calling it “benign” unless it proves otherwise. So, I have to go back in 6 months to have it all checked again.

The most important part of all this? Peace. Yes, did I mention that when I totally gave this issue over to God right before my first visit in February, He, in turn, blessed me with complete and total peace about it. I know, without a shadow of doubt, that He is in total control of my every waking moment and that nothing touches my life without His permission. And because I am one of His children and He loves me dearly, everything that comes my way has a purpose…..ultimately a good purpose….for His Kingdom.

This “new Peace” that He has blessed me with is not something I just conjured up or am using willpower to achieve. It is truly part of His supernatural work in me that only He can provide. I know that sounds like “hogwash” to you unbelievers who might be reading this….as the Bible itself tells us that those who refuse God’s free gift of salvation will react. I assure you, however, that it was NOT part of my nature to be inwardly peaceful and worry-free most of the time. This is truly a wonder-filled, deeply cherished blessing from my Heavenly Father.

Great is His faithfulness!!!!

In His Classroom …

February 11, 2023

If you or someone you know works in a field that requires a license, you’re probably very familiar with CEU’s…Continuing Education Units. For instance, we nurses have to acquire a certain number of CEUs every 2 years in order to keep renewing our license to practice nursing. You have to attend several seminars or read a book and take a quiz. The purpose is to attempt to keep you current and learning new things within your profession. This happens to be the year that I need to renew my nursing license, so, I will find myself in a ‘classroom’ of sorts real soon. I’m also in another “classroom”, though …God’s classroom, as He has reminded me via my recent visit to Cleveland Clinic to see the eye cancer specialist there.

As you can well imagine, I was truly hoping for a very definite and positive outcome, especially since I’ve been so very blessed to have many, many people praying for me. I believe strongly in the power of prayer. However, if I am being totally honest, deep inside my heart, I had a feeling I really didn’t want to acknowledge . I have come to believe for sure that God is using this experience to “plant seeds” for the Kingdom. I had gradually come, therefore, to feel as though if he gave me a real quick and clear cut answer on Tuesday, it would have been too short a time in His “classroom” to get much ‘prep work’ done for the planting. There wouldn’t be enough time for me to learn all that I believe He wants me to learn nor would it be enough time for me to plant deep enough seeds in my “sphere” of influence….seeds that would truly take root and grow. He is, after all, the Master Teacher who always knows what’s best for each and every one of us, His pupils. And as many of you know, sometimes we learn the most when we go through very hard times that tend to stretch out for longer periods of time than what we might like.

So, I was disappointed and yet not terribly surprised at Tuesday’s outcome. After all of the extensive testing, and there was A LOT …some of which was like something out of a science fiction movie….we still do not have a definitive answer as to whether the tumor in my right eye is cancer or not. Dr Singh said the only way he could know for sure is to do a biopsy, but he cannot do a biopsy because the tumor is so very thin that if he were to try to hit it with a biopsy needle, he would almost surely miss the tumor but damage other parts of my eye. The one good thing to come of the visit was the doctor’s assurance that this is NOT a recurrence of my Hodgkin’s lymphoma from 31 years ago. He said Hodgkin’s is never ever in the eyes. That was a relief. So, it’s back to the “classroom” where I truly believe with all my heart that God is trying to teach me how to deepen my faith and trust in Him. I’m working on His “CEU’s”…….or “CEULC’s”, Christ’s Ever-present & Undeserved Loving Care Units, that He blesses us with as we hike the rocky terrains of life.

My singular task in this “classroom” sounds simple…….”wait patiently for the Lord; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the Lord!” – Psalm 27:14

We all know, though, that nothing worth having comes easily. God is constantly using various means to refine and shape us into His image; and for that we should feel very blessed; despite the pain and hardship that the Teacher might use to accomplish his good goals for us.

Truth be told, our life in its’ entirety is His “classroom” where he prepares those of us who accept His gift of salvation to live in everlasting splendor with Him in heaven.

I believe He is now teaching me how to achieve the thing that has been at the top of my prayer request list for quite some time now…….Peace. Not just a little peace… an overwhelming and abiding Peace that totally annihilates the “nervous Nellie” deep inside me who takes the reins at times, instead of relaxing in God’s everlasting arms. How do we achieve peace? By learning to trust and have deep faith in Him. How do we acquire trust and faith in someone? By experiencing something really big and scary and watching as they come to our rescue and help us get through it, not just once but over and over. He has been rescuing me over and over throughout my entire life but I guess I’m a difficult student and need more time in the classroom and a bigger and scarier “thing” for Him to lead me safely through.

I aim to make Him proud.

And He Comforts Us. . .

February 6, 2023

Our loving and gracious Heavenly Father does not make hollow promises … quite the opposite. In John 14:27 He said, “Peace I leave with you; my Peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” He has been fulfilling that promise to me .

In the 3 weeks since I received rather ominous and scary news from my ophthalmologist, the Lord has been faithfully working overtime to convince me of his love and care for me. That first week after the pastor and elders at church prayed over me and anointed me with oil, I truly felt an uncharacteristic sense of peace and calm, different than I’ve ever felt before. Family, friends and my church family have been “coming out of the woodwork” to show their care and support.

Did I ever open that “padlock” on the door holding back all the dark and scary thoughts that I spoke about in my last post? I’m not going to lie….a few have somehow slipped under the door in my quiet moments at home when I’m away from the constant busyness at work; especially as I try to get to sleep at night. Satan’s like that you know…….a slimy, slippery rule-breaker who cares nothing about padlocks or doors. He’ll do whatever he can to wreck your peace and cast doubt on God’s Word.

Tomorrow is my visit to Cleveland Clinic to see the eye cancer specialist for the first time, so, yesterday at church, folks were extra attentive and showered me with love and care. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I do not believe in coincidence. I believe 100% in God’s sovereignty over EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of my life. I believe it was HIM loving me and comforting me through my church friends yesterday. That’s one of the ways He works in our lives……through those around us.

Intellectually I know that He loves me because His Word, the Bible, tells us so. However, I have not necessarily always FELT His love. This has been a recurring topic of conversation and prayer between God and I for quite some time now. Perhaps yesterday He felt like He needed to impress upon me even more the fact that He’s got this eye thing under control. Oh and “by the way, yes, Teresa….I REALLY DO love you”. I don’t know, but, after church, the man sitting at the end of my pew came over to me and asked if I was the Teresa they were speaking about in the morning prayers. I said yes and he briefly asked a few details. He made some extremely encouraging and hopeful remarks about what to expect and then added that he is an optometrist. An optometrist!!!! Really??!!! What are the odds?! He is a total stranger to me but NOT to God. Oh no…..you will never convince me that the one person in the entire congregation who would know exactly what I’m facing was merely a coincidence. Absolutely not. I believe with my whole heart that God used this precious man to comfort me and speak to me as God’s own messenger….”for such a time as this”. This man then stood and prayed for me right then and there. I almost couldn’t speak after that. Immediately several church women came over and also prayed over me.

To say I was deeply touched would be a colossal understatement. I cried all the way home… knowing full well that God had just spoken to me and comforted me through that very kind man and those women. I felt truly loved by God and my church family. Today he continued with deeply caring and loving text messages from more church friends. The love He’s showering me with overflowed until it leaked out of my eyes and made a beeline down my face. Doubt is having a hard time standing up to that kind of offense.

So, just as He is fulfilling His promises to me, I am fulfilling mine to Him by sharing with you all the ways in which He is shepherding and loving me through this present valley.

Yes….Jesus Loves Me………and you too.

The Elephant In The Room …

January 15, 2023

I believe most of us have probably heard the commonly used phrase “the elephant in the room”. Webster defines it as: “an obvious major problem or issue that people avoid discussing or acknowledging”. This unwanted ‘creature’ followed me like a shadow 32 years ago…scaring away friends, making me feel like a leper and generally isolating me at the worst possible time. He or one of his close buddies has recently made a reappearance and I’m going to ‘expose’ him now, in hopes he will go back to his big happy mud hole and leave me to carry on with as much ‘normalcy’ as possible.

As part of my job as an RN, I frequently have to share upsetting news with patients after a round of testing. That can be challenging, as I am what is known in the world of psychology as an “empath”, which is just a ‘fancy pants’ word that means I feel other people’s emotions, especially pain and grief very deeply. Sometimes I have to bite my lip to keep from crying too if they become upset or tearful. As I get older, it’s sometimes harder to rein in that emotion and a few tears will fall without my permission.

This past Thursday, however, I was on the receiving end of bad news. I debated and prayed about whether or not I should share this. The answer that came to me was to go ahead and share … because I believe deep in my heart that God has gifted me with a love of writing in order to carry out this very type of ‘assignment’….so that I can share with my readers all the ways that our Almighty Father is working in my life. I had thought of waiting until I have more information, but then I realized that He is already orchestrating things that I need to share, with people who need to know what a gracious and loving Father He truly is.

Six months ago I went to my ophthalmologist for a routine check. I’ve never had any particular issues with my eyes. The doctor discovered a “nevus” or what he called a ‘freckle’ of sorts…in the iris (the colored part) of my right eye. It had not been there on my last exam. He seemed a bit concerned and mentioned that he had already had 5 patients in the past year who had the same thing and they all turned out to be melanoma – a very serious and sometimes fatal form of cancer. However, he also said that many people have these and they turn out to be ‘nothing’. The key, he said was whether or not it’s growing. So, he sent me home with orders to come back in 6 months to see if it had grown or changed. Sometimes being a nurse is a real burden because we know too much….things that prevent us from just forgetting about something like that.

Last Thursday was the 6 month check. He unfortunately found that it is definitely growing, and to the point that it is starting to distort my pupil. He talked again about the issue of melanoma but as we talked further and I reminded him that I had gone through Stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma 32 years ago, his vibe changed a little and he said it’s possible that it could even be something like that again……even though I was told at the end of my treatment all those many years ago that I was “cured”. He has referred me to the nationally renown eye cancer specialist – Dr Arun Singh – at Cleveland Clinic. I will have my first visit with him on February 7th. I may not have any definitive answers even then….time will tell.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid. Yes, I’m a born-again Christian who loves Jesus and knows without a shadow of a doubt that He will walk right beside me through whatever dark valleys I have to traverse….just like He did all those years ago. But I’m still human and none of us humans are perfect until we get to Heaven. My thoughts sometimes go to very dark places…….is this how my life is going to end?…….will I get to see my precious grandchildren grow up?…….will I get to be here to support my wonderful daughter in these trying years of bringing up small children?…….will I ever get to retire so I can do all the things I’ve been dreaming of forever?………will I lose my vision?…..will I still be able to draw and paint? Even stupid little things like the fact that I don’t know Cleveland at all, which scares me…..and having to travel there in the winter. I could go on and on…..but that would only make me feel worse. So, now that I’ve let all these dark thoughts out, I’m going to scoop them all up and shove them back into their deep ‘hidey hole’ and put a padlock on that door. I am praying daily for peace and to be able to keep the padlock on that door.

Since this isn’t my ‘first rodeo’, as they say, I’m going to draw on my memories from all those years ago and ask a few favors of those who are in my “sphere” of living….friends, family, coworkers and whoever else I happen to cross paths with. One of the worst things about going through cancer is the fact that many people avoid you because they either don’t know what to say, are afraid they’ll say the wrong thing or are afraid you will show emotion/cry in front of them and many people are uncomfortable with the show of emotions. This avoidance is at the worst possible time in someone’s life and feels like the equivalent of “shunning”. Those of us who are on this particular journey need all the support we can get and want nothing more than for things to carry on as normal as possible. So, in the spirit of complete vulnerability, I ask you to please continue to talk with me, joke with me, laugh with me, share the ordinary bits of life with me. Just carry on as normal….share a joke (clean please) or funny story. I promise I will not make you uncomfortable. Humor is SO HEALING and I will be looking for it everywhere. If you run into me, I will still laugh and tease with you and I won’t even talk about “the elephant” unless you want to. I am pretty much an open book and am willing to share whatever parts of my life might be helpful and comforting to someone else. As the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:4 ” He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others in their’s …”. He has comforted me through many, many rough things in my life and has been already using others to comfort me now. I see His loving “fingerprints” all over this situation in too many ways to even expound upon here. For instance, my massage therapist, upon hearing my news on Friday, immediately hooked me up with a dear person who has been through something similar and has even gone to the same doctor. That was comforting to talk with her. Then this morning at church, the elders and pastor prayed over me for healing and anointed me with oil………so very comforting. Friends and coworkers have told me they’re adding me to their church’s prayer list….so comforting. A chance meeting with an old friend and coworker already led to another dear old friend and coworker reaching out with love and support. Oh…..did I just say “chance”?! I misspoke. There is no such thing as “chance”. Our Almighty God and Father is sovereign over everything and everyone and in total control at all times. It was God who orchestrated that ‘chance’ meeting with my old coworker……and God who is comforting me in all these ways through all these people. I feel God doing BIG things in my life in order for me to carry out His plan for me……..to share His love with any and all.

I will gladly continue to share with you as He shepherds me through this valley.

Now go show some love to those around you…………..and get your eyes checked!!!!! 🙂

Out With The Old, In With The New… Sometimes

December 31, 2022

The word “new” can invoke different thoughts and images in each of us. It can encompass objects, experiences, relationships, places and so much more. Some people cling like barnacles to the past and everything associated with it and others are leaping like gazelles into anything and everything new they can find. I suspect most of us fall somewhere in the middle of those extremes. Since later tonight we will be ‘unboxing’ and pulling off all the plastic and bubble wrap on a brand new year, I decided to get a little head start by sharing something ‘new’ that I experienced yesterday. First, however, I must visit the past in order to give proper meaning to the “new”.

In my youth, our family budget had just about zero room for “entertainment”. For our family of four, a wonderful and frequent way to spend a Sunday afternoon was to pile into the car and “go for a ride”. These were not planned trips. In fact, it has since been a running joke, of sorts, because for whatever reason, my dad was never one to say “Would anyone like to go for a ride?” No….his MO was always something like……”I’m leaving for Wooster in 5 minutes or I’m going to Ashland to get razor blades…..anyone who wants to go along needs to be in the car”. We would all literally drop whatever we were doing and race to get ready and get to the car. We totally knew he wanted us all to go, but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to be a little more ‘congenial’ about it. Nevertheless, we all had a good time. I wish I had kept a diary in those days in order to recount all the places we went, but I remember well the good feelings and a sense of wonderment that I experienced.

My dad was a natural ‘explorer’ and someone who loved to see and learn about new things. He loved exploring many of the ‘back roads’ all around our area and therefore that is where we often spent those Sunday afternoons……riding through the wooded hillsides with me and my face or arm hanging out the window enjoying the fresh air and beautiful scenery. At one time, we even had an old red vintage pick up truck … vintage, even, for those days in the 60’s and 70’s. One of our great pleasures of childhood was getting to ride in the back of the pickup. Of course now I believe that’s illegal or some such nonsense. My sister and I loved it; such good memories of that old truck with the equally “old smell” whenever you rode in it. If you’ve never experienced it, I really can’t find the words to recapture it for you here, but it is a very treasured memory … I loved that old truck. If money were no object, I’d find one just like it…..well, restored, of course……to ride through these beautiful hills in on Sunday afternoons. Ninety eight percent of the time, these rides ended with an ice cream cone, much to our delight.

Fast forward 50 years or so to yesterday. On Fridays we get off early at work. I needed to go to Millersburg from our office in Mt. Vernon. During the summer I once decided to go directly from work to Harvey’s produce stand outside of Nashville and chose Rt 514 out of Danville for the trek. I had never been on that particular stretch of it before but I feel it’s safe to say it would give some of the Cedar Point roller coasters a run for their money. I really wasn’t in the mood yesterday for that extra Nascar-ish, gotta-keep-your-mind-and-eyes-on-nothing-but-the-road-every-second kind of driving, as I like to also look at the sites along the way. So, I decided to try Rt 62 out of Danville for the first time. From the office to Danville I take part of the same beautiful little township road I travel to and from work on. I’ll purposely not mention the name because part of the beauty of it is the fact that it’s less traveled than Rt 3 and therefore gives me a chance to dodge all the many deer without extra onlookers.

What a lovely stretch of road and one that I wish I had tried first when the trees were in bloom and the world was dressed in my favorite shades of green!! There were definitely some things I would like to go back and check out again…..what appeared to be an Amish general store-type place, an Amish furniture store, an interesting lawn ornament shop and a beautiful covered bridge. Unfortunately I couldn’t take much of it in in detail because the person in back of me was apparently on a mission to try to count the number of hairs on my head which greatly interfered with my ability to ‘rubberneck’.

When I came upon Killbuck, I understood in an instant why, over the years, we’ve heard of flooding being extra bad there as opposed to here in our area. It’s like a marsh all around it. And there, rather strange-looking, out in the middle of nowhere is a big factory called “Crow Works”. According to Google they make furniture for restaurants. I’d never heard of them and don’t know if they’re still in business or not. There was no sign of life in the middle of a Friday afternoon, but, I also know a lot of factories temporarily shut down between Christmas and New Years, so, maybe that is true of them as well.

Anyways, it was a beautiful route and one that I definitely recommend and will take again in the future, especially when all the color returns in the spring.

New doesn’t have to mean scary or moving out of your ‘comfort zone’. Sometimes it just means experiencing something old with new eyes or for the first time. I hope and pray all the “new” in your life this coming year is good.

From My Palette…

May 28, 2022

I haven’t done much writing in recent months but I have managed to work on my art here and there. For quite a long time now, I have wanted to do a series of post cards of our beautiful area and it’s well-known landmarks and am happy to say I finally finished my first set.

These are my renderings of 6 of the main landmarks for which our area is quite well known. I sketch the scene with a fountain pen first and then do the painting with watercolor.

Of course this set, like all my notecards and prints can also be found at my little corner of the internet at TeresaMillerArt.com.

“Little Pitchers Have Big Ears”…..and Eyes

January 29, 2022

If you’re among the ‘older generation’, as am I, you might recognize that little ditty in the title. I remember my mother saying that off and on when I was a child. It pertains to the fact that children are always listening and watching the older folk around them…soaking everything up…both the good and the bad. This all popped up on my own internal “feed” this morning, as I was doing my devotions. As I turned a page in my Bible, there was an old yellowed piece of paper with my dear Mom’s handwriting. If you read my blog regularly, you will know that I am a romantic, sentimental old soul. As I opened the folded paper I was transported back to my childhood home with my beloved Mother. She had written the following poem and given it to me at some point…most likely when I was a young mother myself. She did not compose the poem herself and there is no author listed, so I cannot give credit, but I thought it a lovely and very meaningful one to share. To remind us all of the fact that there are “littles” around us who need to hear and see lots of GOOD and WHOLESOME things in order to grow into GOOD and WHOLESOME adults. If we ourselves do not model that for them, we should have no expectation that they can somehow “magically” end up that way. The importance of that responsibility lies with all of us, no matter how brief our time with them or whether they are our own children, our neighbors or just random kids we encounter in one way or another. They’re watching and listening. We must all be mindful of that.

“A Little Chap Follows Me”

A careful man I want to be;

A little fellow follows me

I do not dare to go astray,

For fear he’ll go the self-same way

I cannot once escape his eyes;

Whatever he sees me do, he tries

Like me he says he’s going to be,

That little chap who follows me

He thinks that I am good and fine,

He believes in every word of mine

The base in me he must not see –

The little chap who follows me!

I must remember as I go,

In summer sun and winter snow

I’m building for the years to be,

That little chap who follows me!

You Can Do It Yourself…But Should You?

January 16, 2022

This post is part PSA, part life lesson.

I am constantly learning new things. Since I generally love to learn, I love that about life…….most of the time. Learning new things can also be very hard at times and come with some degree of “blood, sweat and tears, as they say. The latest “new thing” that I learned also came with a LOT of frustration.

As the photo above suggests, this little tale has to do with batteries. I’m sure many of you will roll your eyes and puff up your egos when I tell you that I had no idea that the above said battery is what powers the all-important car key fob …..that handy little marvel that lets us in and out of our cars and, if so equipped, also facilitates remotely starting the car from inside the comfort of one’s home on a cold, blustery day. A little wonder of technology that I’ve only been blessed with for the last 4 years.

It was precisely this capability that I noticed was not working a couple weeks ago. Life has been very busy for me lately with a new job and I just kind of swept it “under the rug”. Something then triggered an old cobweb-covered memory of a time a few years ago when a former key fob totally “died” and I could not get in my car. This pulled the tripwire on my procrastination and I figured I better get on this before it happened again. Unfortunately a few years ago when this happened, I had not yet acquired this new little tidbit of knowledge and ended up being “relieved of” enough money to buy at least a dozen of these batteries by the dealership that I depend on for everything car related. In the words of my son-in-law, I “was had”. It’s ok….go ahead and laugh….I am …..along with being disgusted with their exploitation of my ignorance.

So, for you other ladies who, like me, might not be aware of this, when your car key fob starts showing signs of an impending ‘stroke’, you CAN fix this yourself! YouTube contains videos of any and all kinds of projects, step by step, including this one. In my case, however, my daughter and her husband showed me via FaceTime, bless their hearts. I will say, however, that my own experience was not quite the same slick performance that my son-in-law Wes so expertly detailed. In fact, mine ended up being more like a 3 Stooges routine; which is what many things I try do these days ends up looking like.

For starters, this size battery is apparently the most popular size of all, as it was the only one out of stock at the first place I tried…..of course. Luckily I found one at my second stop. The next issue was getting that sucker out of the package. I’m telling you, I cannot fathom why everything has to be packaged these days in iron-tight packaging that could withstand Armageddon. That combined with the arthritis that has been slowly stealing the strength and range of motion of my thumbs and hands in general has made so many packages almost impossible for me to open. This definitely fit into that category for me…even with scissors in hand! I’m not too proud to tell you that before this whole seemingly simple task was over, there were tears shed. It is no simple or easily acceptable thing to gradually lose the physical ability to do certain things you once did without a second thought. Aging is not for the faint of heart.

So, I finally got the package open and the battery out. I then got the fob itself opened up…no problem. The problems started when I tried to get the old battery out. It was held in with 4 seemingly unmovable prongs. This combined with my increasing lack of dexterity had me starting to get frustrated. It had looked like Wes just popped that booger out, I kept telling myself; but every time I tried that, the backing of what the battery was attached to kept pulling away from the framework of the whole thing. After several futile attempts, I finally got a flathead screwdriver and just pried it out of there. I popped the new one in much easier. However, when I then tried to close the whole fob up, I could hear my car alarm out back start to go off, plus, I noticed that one of the little “buttons” with the icons on it was now out of place in the framework. So, I took it all apart again , straightened the button and tried to squeeze it shut. Again with the car alarm. I frantically turned that off and pulled the gizmo apart again. Now ALL the buttons fell out of alignment in the framework. This was the point at which the frustration and tears ramped up. I finally got it all to work but only after wondering why on earth it had worked so nicely for Wes but not for me. The story of my life, I’m afraid. Alas, I still ended up feeling some degree of satisfaction that I was ultimately able to fix this problem and replace this battery myself without paying an arm and a leg, as before.

This episode reminded me that actually, we really shouldn’t even attempt to fix life’s problems — big or small — all by ourselves; that there is nothing “weak” about needing help with that, especially when that help comes from our Heavenly Father. That is precisely what He is there for and wants us to do……to go to Him for help with all our issues and concerns, no matter how trivial they may seem. He truly loves us so much and wants us to fully rely on HIM, not ourselves. That can be a tall order for some of us who have grown too independent. Sometimes He finds it necessary to “bring us to our knees” with difficulties so that we will come to a place where we realize our own abilities to fix things are nonexistent. We then have no choice but to rely on Him. As my body fails me more and more, I am learning a “new thing” that can be very hard……giving up the control to God and trusting Him to use HIS methods, which may include other people, to help me fix it. Self-sufficiency in today’s society is touted as something to be ‘revered’, but in the life of a true follower of Jesus, it is a fallacy. Jesus is the designer and director of our lives from start to finish and none of us are truly “self-sufficient”. We just need to accept that fact.

So sometimes we can replace life’s “batteries” ourselves, but more often than not, it’s so much better all the way around if we swallow our pride and stubbornness and let God use His methods to help us instead.

Home For The Holidays…

December 28, 2021

Having just started a new job a mere 3 weeks ago, I haven’t had much time lately for my art. I did, however, manage to do 1 very important project….a secret project that I can now reveal. One of my main Christmas gifts to my daughter and her family was this painting I did of their home. I have to chuckle every time I think about it. When I do a house, I MUST have a really good photo to work from. In this particular case, I had waited too long to start this project so I was “under the gun” as far as time. So, on my way home from a shopping trip a few weeks ago, I decided to surreptitiously swing by their house to snap a couple photos so I could get started on the initial sketch. When I know I’m going to be passing my daughter’s workplace, I have a habit of texting her a “Hello” and a few words of encouragement. I did that on this day and low and behold, she texted back that she was home sick. I was instantly taken aback and panicked a tad bit because of my time crunch and my situation was such that this was really going to be my only opportunity to get the much-needed photo. I decided to proceed and hoped and prayed she wasn’t looking out the window. I stopped my car a little ways up from her house, to get the right angle, zipped my window down and took a couple shots before slinking on down the street. Luckily she never knew. I’ll always wonder, though, if her neighbors saw the crazy lady taking pictures from her car that day!

Enough With The Iris Already

December 4, 2021

About midway through these 4 piece watercolor collections that I have been doing, I start to get rather bored and ‘antsy’ to move on to something totally different. The same was true as I worked on these four iris paintings. So, I am very happy to be done with them today!

I’ve transformed them into both notecards and 5 x 7″ prints available in my Etsy shop at http://www.TeresaMillerArt.com. I can also do 8 x 10″ prints but I haven’t gotten those physically posted into my shop yet, as the whole process is all very time consuming. Soon.