Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement   Old Letters     Keeping old letters is my family’s custom. My mother kept many special ones from her sisters, mother, and grandchildren. When we read them years later, the letters blessed us with insights, information, and inspiration; therefore, I often kept ones from dearly beloved people. Since

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Dealing with Dread     Sometimes anticipation is unpleasant. Anticipating shots, surgery, disagreements, layoffs or worse can bring dread and anxiety. Somehow, life has a way of sprinkling in experiences that run the gamut from distasteful to horrific.  Sometimes the sprinkle arrives more like a downpour of hurricane proportions.

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Anticipation        Spirits can soar with delight when we are looking forward to something. We’ve had days upon days of delicious anticipation this summer. Visits from much loved family members gave us lots of delighted anticipation in advance of the actual visit. By the end of July, we

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Talents     With two strong, sure blows, the handyman pounded a nail into the wood under my cabinet to hold my kitchen tongs. With several swift strokes of her watercolor brush, my granddaughter painted a green tree to illustrate a picture for me to hang on my wall. 

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement     Going the Extra Mile     Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone going the extra mile? This week was a glorious example. My cousin’s daughter didn’t go a few extra miles. She drove 320 some miles round trip in one day to bring

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement   Trust     It gave me the hee-bee-gee-bees to watch the couple from a famous tightrope family work their way over a tight wire high above Times Square in New York City. I only watched re-runs later when I knew they had made it safely.  Most of us

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement.   Engaged     News that a couple is engaged to be married usually brings smiles and words of gladness. There’s something about a relationship when it culminates in the intention to marry which brings a sense of delight and hope to people. A young, engaged couple starts marriage

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Spinach or Church Did you ever see the cartoon, Popeye? A long time ago, many newspapers carried Popeye as a regular cartoon strip. This salty sailor summoned up his bulging muscles to right wrongs or fix problems. I’m betting a frantic parent thought up this comic character out of

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Good Friends Ah, what a delight and privilege to see old friends! Friends with whom one shares years and years of past history and lovely memories bring comfort and joy to our days. What regret we feel when an out of town move creates physical distance that makes the