Do any of you like old video games? - 02/19/2024

 Do any of you like old video games?  Have you ever searched for the Princess?

As I looked out the window the other day, it was spitting, snow yet you could see the sun peeking through the clouds.  It inspired me to tell you the story of “The Maroon Princess”.  It is an original story and there was a search.   She is very special to us.  As it was early when I was writing, I was thinking a glass of milk & a graham cracker would taste good as you read.   Don’t forget your favorite blanket, as it is chilly outside.  Do you remember the days that we were given graham crackers & milk every morning to enjoy at school.  They were also accompanied by a Bible Story.  I remember the Hill Top School like it was yesterday…  Marching outside on the playground with Mr. Lowell our music teacher.  He had us make musical instruments & mine was out of coconut shells.  They sounded like horses hooves to me.  What about those monkey bars!  Please excuse my ADD side track trails.

Have you ever been through a time of seemingly huge spiralling life-changing moments.  Within a month my world changed in magnanimous ways.  I went from being mobile on my feet to needing a cane, but quickly needing either a walker or wheelchair.  Though in some ways it was not something that was unexpected, it certainly was not expected so soon.  My praise is that we had about a month to adjust to each step as it swept swiftly into our lives.  I say “our lives” because it involves a lot of adjustment for both people.  Jamie continues to be a wonderful husband & caregiver.  If you stop & think about it, there is a lot captured within that last statement.  My heart realizes that for others these changes have come instantly, so I know we were blessed with a time period to adjust.  It truly is all about counting your blessings wherever you are on your journey and I certainly have had more blessings than I deserve.  Thank you Angela Wade for the use of Aunt Lanie’s cane.  Then finding a transfer wheelchair, I could use when things changed rapidly.  You & Joy had it in place when I arrived home from a long but blessed day at the Regional with the special people chosen to work in those positions.  I needed to concede that the long walk down the hall was just not possible for me anymore.  Thank you Mary-Anne Greenlaw for searching for my quad cane & a walker while on a trip to Halifax!  Thank you to Jim Brown, Sandra Brown & Sandra Hanson for an upgrade in the walker when my left leg went rogue and I needed it.  In nature, a chameleon changes his colours to suit his environment for protection. As a Christian, you don’t change your colours with your environment, it seems your true colours are revealed within the changes you are presented with.  God is the one who provides the protection, mercy & grace.  As I like to say, it’s all in your perspective! One gift I have been blessed with, is typically being able to see God in most situations.  He surrounded me\us with good supportive people who have stepped up to help with so many things, as they have occurred on this cancer journey.  If I try to name all the people, I know I’ll forget some and I do not wish to offend anyone by forgetting a name.  But I do wish to say THANK YOU!  You each know who you are.  On the journey I am currently on, you get to see the Hands and Feet of Christ in full action, as you are humble and blessed by Gods goodness, mercy and grace as each day unfolds.  Sometimes we need to look at these times in a special way, as God is taking us through the Refiner’s Fire to help us have more of His Divine Reflection.  It is indeed these very trials that give us the ability to help others.  If life was easy all the time, we truly wouldn’t appreciate the blessings we have.  The trials give the stark contrast we need to give the blessings the real, heartfelt, gratitude they deserve.  As I’ve said before, God’s blessings can look very different than earthly blessings.  I love when He reveals the depth of these blessings, but we have to be willing to look through His eyes at times & not from our perspective.  Have you tried looking from His perspective lately?  I assure you that His rainbow effect is magnificent on the heart, mind & soul.  After all, in Genesis 9 God did seal His promise with a rainbow. 

Oh yes, now back to our treasured “Maroon Princess”.   I had a “Magic Bullet” & it decided after many years of faithful service to not accept creating the new mixtures of the health smoothies I needed to blend & drink daily. Have you ever tried to drink your veggies?  Hum… I seem to think the smoke & electrical smell were a good warning sign of our Magic Bullets stress.  Do you ever not listen to God’s warnings?  True confession, yes, that has happened to me MANY TIMES!  Spiritual warfare is real! 

Once I asked my counselor, Michele, “Do you know who the first sumo wrestler was?” 

Her shocked face was priceless, when she responded quizzically “Who?  Me?” 

As counseling sessions can go deep, God usually gave\gives me something funny before I stepped into my counseling sessions.  He’s pretty cool like that.  He can give us the “Heavenly ice-breakers”.  You know, the Titanic kind!  How would you like to be my counselor?!?!?

My response to Michele was, “Yes, you.  You REALLY should know this.” Those of you that know me, can imagine the tones I interjected here.   

Bait & trap set but would she finally step into it?  Seriously, how would you like to be my counselor?!?! 

Slowly, she honestly responded that she didn’t know and asked, “Who?” 

I gleefully responded, “It’s Jesus Christ!  When are we going to learn to NOT wrestle with Him, as He wins EVERY time.”  Then I proceeded to share a story of me, yet again, wrestling with God to Michele.  She & I have been on grand roller coaster rides together.  She hasn’t thrown up once, so she is a keeper.  We’ve been together off & on since 2010.  Another “spirit medal” will be awarded to her someday. 

Ok, time for another true confession… there have been times that I have wrestled with God for many days, but that is a story for another time.  If you are honest with yourself, I am sure you can relate to those long sleepless nights that are followed by many long days in a row.  Maybe you are there now.  Just know that God is right there with you.  My good news\blessing is that during my daytime wrestling times… I sometimes get some stellar cleaning done and I don’t even remember doing it!?!?  Of course I have misplaced a few things during these fitful cleaning spells. 

Well you have heard me refer to myself as the “Holy Spirit Wild Child” and have stated that one day Jamie will get his reward in Heaven for stepping into all my spontaneous “God Stories” without complaint or question.  Well I now have a palliative care doctor.  Can you guess what her name is? 
Dr. Wildish!  I kid you not!  God definitely has a great Holy Divine sense of humor.  We are blessed to have her & totally love her.  Another phase of the journey begins.  This has been a rich blessing that has opened many doors, as now I can receive the needed Extra Mural Services too.  They come to the apartment to see me!  Thank you to Jordan King for gently opening this door with and for me with the beautiful Christ-like love, mercy & grace you give so freely.  You see you are given a Breast Care Nurse Navigator who follows you throughout your cancer journey.  Jordan has been a rich blessing from the beginning with me.  She has loved me through even my “hot mess” moments with such beauty & grace.  Now you might say God has my “Dream Team” in place as we continue to navigate this journey.  Thank you to each of you for your love, prayers & support, as you are part ALL of this team.

Back to our beloved, “Maroon Princess”.   It was around the time of my birthday and the search was on!  We had been searching and researching prices, and motor power, watching reviews, over and over.  I was boggled by the information but I was making a financial investment in my health, and wanted it to be perfect.  Next confession with ADD it is HARD to make decision.  Besides that I am not good at spending money and want a bargain.  Black Friday sales were coming up and I knew I could find a deal.  I am not a person who enjoys going out in a group to wrestle with shoppers, but I can enjoy indulging in the on-line adventure at times.  David-Joy Seeley stepped up to the plate and volunteered to help with the search.  This was a BOLD generous move considering that with me, the adventure is similar to a video game like Super Mario Brothers or The Legend of Zelda.  I am thinking of you Jessica L Matthews & Lindsay Sander as I reveal those game names.  Joy & I had a grand day planned to go on this on-line search adventure.  By the way, she is a master at research!  Seriously, if you want to hear God laugh, just tell Him your plans.  The night before she was supposed to come over, she didn’t feel like herself & decided she shouldn’t come over the next day.  It was a wise choice on her part as she got very sick- we’re talking COVID kind of sick!  Her intuition spared me from getting very sick.  Her wisdom & discernment were spot on for this one! 

So you might still be wondering who or what is the Maroon Princess?  Meanwhile back to the story…  Oh the on-line texting to cheer her on as she was recovering was flowing.  You can guess my SURPRISE that in her texting responses she continued the search for my blender even though sick!  Oh the conversations continued about finding the perfect blender,  just the right height, so it would sit on my kitchen counter & still fit under my cupboards.  One of the requirement was to also find a blender with a glass mixing jar so to not have the toxicity of the plastic.  With the overwhelmingness of all the choices, she sent me a chart with only four blenders that actually met the needed requirements I was looking for. I was so grateful because it simplified the choices and made it so much easer.  I am sure, God was smiling down at our texting conversations, as there is typically humor incorporated between our exchanges. 

SUCCESS, Joy did it and she deserves full credit!!!!  She found the perfect one!  It seems that I am not as savvy at on-line ordering though….   I ordered the blender that she had found, which fit ALL the requirements!  When I sent Joy the big announcement that I had FINALLY ordered the blender… well yes you might guess that when I ordered it from Amazon that  led to yet another adventure.  Even though it looked like the exact blender, Joy ever so gently pointed out later that she didn’t think it had the glass container.  Guess what she was right!!    It was too late to cancel the order even though the error was found promptly by my personal shopping research assistant Joy.  That’s because orders ship quickly during Black Friday & Cyber Monday Season.  After calling Amazon, I was told that I would have to wait for it to come & send it back.  Amazon said I could just refuse the package when it arrived & it would get sent back to the restock facility.   In the meantime, I ordered the correct one directly from KitchenAid with help from a REAL person on the phone.  You heard me right, a REAL PERSON!!!  As we all know getting to speak to a real person is a gift.  God knew my limitations & sent in the Calvary.    We had a great time on the phone making sure everything was just right.

When my box arrived from Amazon, a nice young man brought it right to my apartment door.  I told him that I would like to refuse the box, as I had been instructed by Amazon, but the young man delivering the package said that he was new & didn’t know how to do that yet.  That sweet young man had opted to lug that HUGE box all the way up to my apartment…  I didn’t want to cause him any issues if he was new on the job, so I accepted the package.  Can you even begin to imagine how many packages he delivered during this package frenzy season?  We went through the on-line process & got the proper shipping labels & Jamie took it to the Stationary Stop to send it back.  They are always great there!Phew, that was complete. 

My next box arrived a couple days later from the KitchenAid Company.  After all Joy’s dedicated hard work, I REFUSED to have “the box grand opening” without her, as she still was recovering.   I joked with her & said when God’s perfect timing came, we could do a “YouTube unboxing together”.    My blender arrived on Dec. 1’st and “the great unboxing” occured on Dec. 6th!  Shocker Paulette does know how to wait to open a box.   My parents are looking down from Heaven & now do know that miracles come true!  It was worth every second of waiting to get to open it together.  We were like two kids.  Actually she was more Vanna White & me, Lucille Ball.  The picture above is one of my favorite pictures of us doing the “Great Unboxing”.    As you may have guessed after all the adventure of getting our cherished blender, that I named her the “Maroon Princess”.  She sits with honor on our cupboard & is used everyday!  Jamie has now become a professional too at making smoothies with “The Maroon Princess”. 

You should know that before I started looking for my blender that Joy brought over her blender to try some of the smoothies etc., that I was trying to drink for nutrition.  For me I again was like Lucille Ball in the chocolate factory playing & trying to figure it all out.  Joy had the patience of Job.  We really should have YouTubed our sessions.  Yes there was more than one! 

In case you are wondering the “Maroon Princess” got her name because the only 2 choices for this glass beauty was vomit yellow or beet colored burgundy.  When the unboxing occurred her brilliant, cherry-plum color and shiny glass jar we had searched so hard for, need a majestic name for all her beauty both in looks and function.  She sat so shiny and colorful next to my mother’s working 40 year old Kitchen Aid  Mixer and the sun gleamed through the window, glistening off her new untouched jar and base.  The set up and gratitude I felt looking at these two machines, needed honor.  I felt her smooth curves and glided her gently under the cupboard and was so pleased the crazy hunt for a blender had ended and she sat glorious.  Over the next couple days as I basked in this happiness, I thought she deserves a befitting name and came up with the “Maroon Princess”.  I texted Joy unveiling her name and she has been tenderly and affectionately known by all, as “The Maroon Princess”.   This combo Super Mario Brothers\Legend of Zelda game has come to an end as we have FOUND the princess. 

My question is, have you found my Lord & King?  The GREATEST news is God will truly meet you wherever you are on your journey.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16 (NIV)  If you are not sure where to find him, just bow your head & talk to Him… pick up that Bible… go to that friend… go the church He’s leading you to.  You will meet our Lord, King & Savior who is “The Prince of Peace”, Jesus Christ.  Jamie & I have FOUND He has been so faithful through it all!  It will be the greatest quest you will ever go on.

Are you willing to just stop, count & look for the blessings He surrounds you with daily?  Please try on God’s Divine glasses so you can have glimpses from His perspective.  Step into “your own God Story”.  Be excited to seek the beauty He has for you each day.  Who will you be a blessing to today?  Remember, there is NO deed to small.  A very special heartfelt THANK YOU to our niece!  A God Story for another day. 

May God continue to bless you each in just the ways you need.