A reprint from 4 years ago....

MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2009

I have a new normal!

Bible study today was a bit tear-provoking, but for another reason other than it being Timmy's birthday/funeral day. We got to hear Pete sing on the Come Worship Christ video again! In a foreign tongue, German perhaps. Loved to hear him singing once more...

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After Bible class six of us headed to our haunt of Longhorn for our repast. We all had something totally different than our usual, which really messed up Patti, the waitress who takes care of us weekly. I told her, "So much for using the pre-printed forms" she uses for us, jokingly. We are no longer predictable. Twila and I shared the prime rib sandwich, as I did with Chris on Saturday, perfect sized for us.

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Kelly T. asked me if I was going to the cemetery after lunch and I told her I was going Michael's for supplies for the ladies' group brunch. She was attending a funeral at Jax Memory Gardens so when I got done at Michael's, I drove over there, hoping to catch her before she finished working on her sister's gravesite, changing out the floral arrangement. I did find her and she joined me at Timmy's site. We spent some time together there as I waved to the guys coming and going on their carts and in their trucks. Even the mortician stopped by to chat with me, as usual, and we talked after Kelly left for her funeral. Damon is always quite nice to me, and expressed, in front of Kelly, that he had never experienced a funeral service quite like Timmy's. Nothing ordinary about it, and Kelly said, "Kim doesn't do anything ordinary!", truly lightening the moment. Damon said it was the first one and only one that had "satellite" worship set up. Timmy's funeral brought the most people ever to Good Shepherd, not before or since has our church been filled to overflowing!

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Damon asked how I was doing and asked about Justin and I told him our plans to have dinner as usual at "Taste Tomatoes" tonight. He made the comment that I had to go through a lot of stuff in a brief period of time and said he admired me. Great, Damon, give me a chance to explain how all this is possible----but he already knew how the Lord enabled me to survive and then to flourish under the adversity. Seeing these guys, "my boyfriends", at the cemetery, even the two who had to jump into the hole to lower the coffin, was a good thing to have happen today.

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Wednesday, the 14th, when Justin and I were at the gravesite for lunch, he had leftover windshield fluid which he put into my car while we sat there. Mike, the head guy of the grounds, stopped to say 'hi' and see if all was okay with my car. I explained that Justin had extra fluid and was putting it in my car, and Mike exclaimed, "That's your boy??" 

He couldn't get over what a big boy Justin was, even though we've seen Mike out and about other places. I told Mike we only put a balloon out so as not to break the rules about decorations, and he said, "You can do anything you want", but it's when other people follow suit that it becomes a problem. Of this I am aware, and I won't press the issue, I am sort of over that. What my sister-in-law, Mona, referred to as "a new normal", which she said I can use if I want to! My new normal is to visit there less frequently, not pile all sorts of memorabilia on and around the marker, not make the cemetery a destination. Take the flowers by when they are available from the church altar and ease on to other things. Eh? A new normal!

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I am listening to "In Christ Alone" on my computer and it is such a wonderful piece, peace.