Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Dreaded Task Beside staying well, thank you, God, I’ve discovered one unexpected benefit of this “Shelter in Place” we’re enduring. We finally summoned up the gumption to tackle the many boxes of picture slides my father took during the later half of his life. A daunting task. To date,

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Touch Small arms around your legs after a youngster rushes across the room to embrace you. The light touch of reassurance on my arm from a person I don’t see often but admire. The grip of a shoulder to bolster your knowing someone cares and stands with you. The

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Eyes A look into the eyes of someone can provide clues into that person’s mood of the moment and perhaps even reveal hints of heartaches or joys of the past. Sometimes, I wonder what it was like to have lived when Jesus walked the earth. Imagine the experience of

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement The Tulip Tree We picked up a beautiful flower lying with many other blooms on the ground in a wooded area. Craning our necks, we looked up to see a lovely mass of flowers blooming far above our heads on a Tulip Tree. What a spectacular sight. The tree

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Patches A rescued turtle living at the Virginia Living Museum is named Patches because the museum managed to patch his broken shell when he was brought to his new home. Unable to live in the wild any more, he enjoys good care, a healthy diet, and safety in the

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Sherbet The Virginia Living Museum found the perfect name for the unusually colored snake brought to the animal center. His name is Sherbet because of his orange and white coloring. The snake is actually quite pretty if you can use that word for a snake. He is a partial

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Faces Faces, the faces of people I love. Your faces that’s what I miss most in the midst of this Pandemic. I even miss encountering faces I don’t know at all, but had the privilege to see as I used to walk into a store or when I used

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Easter Resilience The Webster’s dictionary defines the adjective resilient as, “capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture.” Resilience, the noun, is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” With the historical coronavirus pandemic raging around us, our circumstances scream for resilience. We

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Spring Blooms I love the perky daffodils, cheery forsythia, and ornamental pear trees bearing lovely blossoms. After the cold and gray skies of winter, the appearance of first spring flowers always surprises me. The weather seems way too chilly for flowers, yet there they are in all their splendor,

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Coronavirus The TV news is enough to make us want to climb in bed, pull the covers over our head and say, “Wake me when it’s over.” How many young couples across the nation are experiencing the frustration of scraping eagerly awaited wedding plans? A huge disappointment, but everything