Author: bobbiemcgarey

Our daughter and I were talking on the phone today and she showed me a little gift from one of her patients.

A little angel painted on a stone. It made us both smile. It came from a woman who lost a daughter last year and she has taken to painting these and leaving them here and there around the city. A reminder. An Epiphany. A touch of love to be found by the right person at the right time. What a great thing. It came from a place of profound pain and loss but it makes her feel good that it might help someone feel better.

What a sweet random act of kindness. I can only imagine stories of someone who found one at the perfect time. Maybe I should write a story using that as the linking theme? Then I think how much fun to be watching for the angel to come. Maybe I should watch for that inbreaking of God at a place… a time when it is needed most by me. You know, I’m in the middle of my day and something is out of whack and there it is… that angel reminding me of God’s presence.

So today why don’t you look for that inbreaking of God’s Spirit with you. Keep alert.. It’s right there for you. Always

God Abide with you

@Bobbie Giltz McGarey

January 9,2018

Wow what a way to start the year. There were news reports stating that because of the wintry storm, bringing cold temperatures to Florida, the Iguanas, cold blooded animals, got so cold that they were getting stiff and unable to move and were falling from the trees. K-plunk. Most of them are not dead, just really really cold. Unaccustomed as they are to freezing temperatures they have no real coping measures. K-plunk

None of us wants to be so out of our elements that we freeze up and fall out of our trees. But, to be really honest, it feels like we are like that sometimes when confronted/challenged by something so new we have no frame of reference.

In one of my favorite movies, Moonlight and Valentino, a young woman learns of the death of her husband and everything slows down and time warps and she reels from the unrealness of it for herself. I saw this movie not long after my Mother died and could completely identify with that feeling of grief hitting. I felt like I was spinning, time stood still, the world around me was just out there, not a real part of me. I was seeing myself like I was in a movie. The feeling of Not-me-ness was happening around me was real. Even though my Mother’s passing was anticipated, it was still a surprise. It was a feeling so odd that you could say it was like Iguanas were falling out of trees.

Grief, loss, deep sadness takes us out of ourselves. Not that we disassociate with what is happening….it is that we are surprised to a point that we are thrown into a whole spin of what is happening.

And then…. then… then… the rest of the world seems to be getting back to it’s normal and your world is anything but normal, not when you lose someone close to you. It’s not the same. It never will be. It will be ok again, but never the same and we are encouraged to be gentle with ourselves. We will not be the same, but we can be alright. But we need not rush ourselves into that place. It takes different time for different people. Wait for it.

January 8, 2018

My granddaughter MaggieMae is learning prayers. At meals they hold hands and pray God is great god is good … Maggie has started saying God Is!

well that has become my prayer God Is.

it really covers most all theological issues

do you believe …God is

do you think God answers prayer… God is

do you need help…God is

see how many times you can apply this

in the meantime… God is

What are you wearing as Clergywomen to the Marches wherever you are?  Currently thinking a Purple stole

My granddaughter MaggieMae has stolen my heart.  Well, I suppose to say stolen means she has taken it… And no… I freely give it.

And it makes some things more urgent…Like working on this world she’s been born into.  The air she breathes -the water she drinks -the people around her- all wanting to be the best.

There are some things her parents can control.  Some things are out of their control. The best thing is that they are doing a wonderful job thus far.  There are new lessons to learn everyday.  There are necessary adaptations to routines.  There are some sleepless nights…

Adaptation is what let’s us grow and keeps us sane.   We can’t control everything and in parenting we gone to understand that releasing our grip on happenings will make for healthier parenting. It makes for much more gentle lives.

I once read, “You have to teach a child how to walk, and how to walk away.”   Aftet I stopped crying, my baby was only months old, I recognized the truth in that  saying.  (Men are just desserts)

O yes, I was a mess when they went to high school and college.  How did the time pass so quickly ?   But I let go.  They were several states away.

But as ageing adults we also have had to let go of parts of our selves no longer relevant.  That ice skater in me is retired.  That has to be ok.

God abides

I love you MaggieMae

bobbie giltz mcgarey

Bethlehem PA July 27, 2016

Friends, I am hopelessly and happily in love with my Granddaughter.  I am her Naani..hindi for your mother’s mother.  How great this is.

My nephew, whose birth I attended and his wife had a daughter on Sunday.  These two girls are almost three weeks apart.  Somehow in the great scheme of things I think they, along with a cousin just a year older, will be great friends.  Unique, giving loving friends.

My cousins and I are close as sisters.  I think the same will happen with them…

Our daughter, a continually amazing woman, is enjoying her time with her little one.  I think she is a marvelous mother already.

I want good things for her little family to continue.

Some time, not to be posted, I will write what I recall of Margaret’s birth. But so she can some day have what I remember.  So every year when her mother tells her the story… she’ll know what I remember too.

Hopeless,  I’m hopeless, and I don’t want to be any other way but in love…

God abide

Bobbie Naani

My granddaughter how can love grow with every breath   It does 

Martha Elizabeth McGarey Metzgar

I took this photo when Martha was in Med School in Tulsa.

Now she is preparing to have her first child with her husband Sean.  They live in Bethlehem Pa and it is such an exciting time.

Ok yes, as here mom I do remember all the ages she has passed through.  I look now at the one that she is now and flash on all the ages between the day she first was in my arms and now.  And you know what I see?  Joy  much Joy

Now she’s on the edge of all new joy.  We surround her with much love and God’s protective love.

not long to wait now.

God abide

Bobbie Giltz McGarey

I wake to the all too familiar sound  of the garbage truck across the way.  I’m a good 50 yards from it and after 5 years here I usually don’t hear it.   But wait, is that what woke me ?   Another winter sound I think… Scrapping ice from windshield!  I pause. I listen. Eracharrrahrrach like fingernails on a blackboard…

I mentally review the day asking after each task pops in… Do I have to drive to accomplish this?  Quickly I check the weather. Is it supposed to get above freezing? Sun? More precipitation likely?

I lie back on my pillow. A little Scarlett O’hara calls out in my head…” I’ll think about this tomorrow” (ok 6 minutes from now)  ” I’ll go to Tara!!!”  Or maybe back to sleep.

And then

New scrapping begins… I’m up. That’s all there is to it!

6:50 am is too early in January…

would you bring me some Coffee please?  I’ll wait right here. Thanks

God abides

Bobbie Giltz McGarey

We want to be part of that cuteness or beauty.  Both experiences call us to tears sometimes.  That overwhelming awe…standing in the presence of God.

Attention !

God abides

bobbie Giltz McGarey

@2015 ABQ,NM

Yes