Campaign Trail (Part 1)

Today was spent campaigning at an early voting spot. Tomorrow’s agenda looks the same and of course Tuesday will be a long day. I’m well aware of the record number of people voting this year, but today I observed American citizens pouring in to cast their votes. I vote absentee for every election so I don’t have to wait in the lines and I’ve never been so glad until today. I would place the average wait time just over three hours for those coming to the polls early. One voter informed us he had waited in line for four hours. Reminder, early voting has been open for a few days now and these are work days. I’m not sure what to expect tomorrow and Tuesday.

For those who don’t know my dad is running for city council, so I have been campaigning for a while. I’ve worked in previous years for campaign stuff as well. I hope my dad is happy that he at least got one of his children interested in political things like he is. Anyway, when you do these things you can expect to have people honk and cheer for your candidate and sometimes receive fingers and booing. City council is a smaller scale but people wave a lot for my dad’s signs because of the rep our council has on the news here and the desire to have someone new. It’s cool when people tell you they’ve studied up on him and he has their vote. I thought it was funny to get the thumbs down for the first time today from a driver. I don’t take things personally, but it was it dawned on me it was not just an issue or candidate that I was for…it was my dad. He has a hater! haha

You meet others out campaigning for different things and it can be fun even when you know the signs contradict. One lady today from a neighboring city apologized she was not able to vote for my dad since he was not running in her city. Within my mind I informed it was okay because I did not vote for the candidate she was promoting either, even though I did have the option as he was running for a higher position that includes my district.

Awkward moment of the day: I was stared down by some dude as he rode by in the back of a cop car. It was caged in but the window was open. He was actually leaning forward in the seat with his face against the caging as he slowly rode by me.

A Joyous Journey

The following is a poem my cousin wrote for our grandma and read at her funeral. The words are so very fitting for Grandma.

A Joyous Journey
Kerri Bree, October 18, 2008

In honor of Ruth DeHaven

A woman of true virtue

is who I remember you to be…

Faithful and sincere

with a great love for the Lord,

Devoted to your husband

for nearly fifty years.

A loving and caring mother,

all six I know would say,

A bounty of both grandchildren and

great-grandchildren, with a glorious legacy.

Kingdom-minded

I know you were indeed,

Thank you for caring

about where I’d spend eternity.

Singing and praises

constantly on your lips,

Thanksgiving and joy

overflowing from your heart.

A joyous journey

truly your life has been,

To know the love of Christ

and be satisfied in Him.

The Lord has now called you home,

forever with Him to be.

I count it joy and not loss,

for I know this is not the last of you I’ll see.

A Letter to Grandma

Dear Grandma,

We celebrated your life today. The funeral home was packed with people who love you. The services were beautiful and only admiration was spoken of the life you lived here. After seventeen years we laid your body in the earth beside Grandpa’s. It was beautiful out. The sun was warm and the air was cool. Colorful leaves are beginning to blanket the grass. It was the perfect time of year for you.

Thank you for all that you have been. Thank you for putting God first in all you did. Our lives are a product of yours. There was never a day in my life that I doubted your walk with God. I didn’t know until today that you had had a heart for underprivileged young girls and had spent a portion of your young ministry working with them. It’s a passion I share. I want to invest my life in underprivileged urban youth. I will.

We will miss you and will long to be with you again, but we are glad these last years have closed for you. We know they were with reason, but they were long and it was hard to see you fade from us over the time. We are happy you are with Jesus and Grandpa now. See you soon.

Love,
Rebekah (Becky)

Here's to Hindsight

I just finished reading this book and enjoyed it. I found it very relatable in many ways as Tara shared her life’s journey thus far. I liked the raw stories of everyday struggles and how similar her over-analytical thoughts are to my own. With her love of New York her words were like finding my own thoughts written on pages.

In the close of the book she writes a letter to her former self. There’s a challenge in it that she would charge herself with if she could have only seen how the pieces would fall together, and the challenge is just as important to the current and future self. “Learn to enjoy changing and being corrected, because those are good things, and they will serve to shape you into the person you are going to be for the rest of your life…be careful of your actions today, because they are slowly writing the story of your tomorrows.”

I was also inspired by her lyrics,
And all today’s uncertainties, and all of my impatience
Will just be flecks of color
In the picture that He’s painting

Life's Worth

It’s been a long journey with my grandma's Alzheimer’s. I remember picking her up for church back in high school when we were becoming concerned for her and didn’t feel comfortable with her driving. I remember flying up north with her for a cousin’s wedding. Her memory was already failing her in so many obvious and sad ways that were only heightened as she was removed from her daily environment, but sitting a seat behind her on the flight I listened to her proudly talk to another passenger about us family and the wedding she was headed to. I remember my mom and her siblings talking about the need of putting her in an assisted living facility and it wasn’t going to work out for her to stay in Melbourne, and being relieved that she was actually going to one in Clearwater shortly before I would be starting college in that area. Eight years have passed since that move and they have been filled hard to comprehend moments as her mind has distanced her from us. The biggest question of course has been, “Why God?” Some patients go quicker than others, but it’s hard to understand the reasoning in someone living so long after the mind appears so useless. I would visit and just hope she somehow knew I was there, but while I looked at her physical face she seemed so absent. These last years, I couldn’t help but pray after every visit, “God, please take her home.” It’s different than an individual suffering from other diseases. I don’t believe the pain of other situations is easier, but I can understand purposes that can still be fulfilled on this earth. I’ve always believed attitude is everything and it can be a strong testimony to others as one endures suffering. It’s hard to understand how their testimony can live through them when they can’t communicate it any longer. It’s hard to walk in and watch my grandma fidget in an agitated manner without being able to fill my own head with possible “wills of God” for her state. It hit me after my last visit. I was headed up to Indiana for this summer and with the uncertainty of plans for after that point I didn’t know if I’d be back down to see her again. I finally realized I don’t have to know the answer because I know there IS an answer. I know Who holds it and I know only One needs to hold it. Maybe the answer is simply in the rest of us being able to live out that understanding-God is my answer. The answer may be in the family’s testimony or may be any other number of things, but what I no longer think knowing the answer is important in my life. What is important is being able to lean on my faith that nothing is without purpose. God does not waste lives or portions of lives. All is worth while.

I left Clearwater Saturday; her vitals remain stable although more than a week has passed since she had any nourishment. Hospice tells us each patient is different; it all depends on her heart. My mind was with her Sunday while I sang at church.

There is none like You
No one else can touch my heart like You do
I could search for all eternity long and find
There is none like You

I understand this song describes how nothing else can compare to God in our lives, but truth of that found a new meaning in my state of mind. “No one else can touch my heart like You do.” The remaining hours of my grandma’s life ride on the strength of her heart. Nothing can touch her heart like the Source of life. “I could search for all eternity long and find there is none like You.” She has God within her, however poor her quality of life has been (by our human minds’ standards) these past years, there is nothing more in this world that can give her life greater meaning. Put aside all the questioning, her life in this moment holds just as much value in Him as my own. Because of God’s sovereignty I can trust that fact.