I now understand...

why people seek out Florida in the midst of the cold, short sun days of winter in the Midwest!




rejuvenation and rest

Taking a break...

in sunny Florida at the moment.

A paid-for-in-full-by someone-other-than-me vacation that had been scheduled for months.

I hemmed and hawed about going, but was reassured by not only my son, but others in authority that it was fine to go ahead with my plans, so here I am.

Yesterday I also got treated to a pedicure at a nearby Floridian nail shop...

which as anyone who has ever gotten a pedi knows, was fabulous!

But what wasn't so fabulous was what two of the three nail techs had purposely done to their toes...


why...who knows

My walk along Franklin Street...

this morning offered up a few Left For Me To Find Friday photos...

A discarded blanket for warmth...


A crosswalk "Robot" placed by a street artist...


And a hopefully "will be missed by its last owner" scarf that has a heart...


that will have to make a new start

The Lonely Glove Club

This week I have been shooting photos of lone gloves that have been dropped onto the ground in and around Chicago's Loop.


I feel so bad for them.


Abandoned.


No longer with their partners.


Alone.


Cold.


Wait...that is NOT a glove!

Nope, but I couldn't resist taking a photo of a lone Christmas slipper this morning!

oh so forlorning

“I just can’t check logical....

thinking at the door.” was how my son summed up his almost two hour meeting yesterday with Scott, who leads the college ministry at Harvest.

During his recent downward spiral, he agreed to speak with someone at Harvest and in reaching out to my church, Scott responded.

I furthered the discussion with him by asking...

“If you chose to obey God’s word and at the end of it all you have lived a good, loving, productive life and it turns out that God is not real...how horrible could that possibly be?”

His response...“I would feel duped!”

In a “played-out-in-my-mind-already” perfect scenario, he would have felt the hand of God on him yesterday and made the decision to walk in His light.

But that is not where he is at.

Yet.

In remembering what I have control over and what I do not, I will just pray that Scott planted a seed during their discussion and there will come a day...

when he chooses to walk His way!

that is all i can do or say

"Have you been reading....

your book?" my sister Wendy inquired at the beginning of this week.

After days and days of just getting by, she knew that I needed to be filled.

I picked up my Pastor’s book, which I had purchased before Christmas and I started reading, with pen in hand, underlining sentences, bracketing entire paragraphs, turning back corners on key pages, all with the mindset that “This will be good for my son to read – there are so many lessons for him to learn through this trial!”

Then I realized that I needed to be reading for me, and only for me, for this trial is here in our lives at this time for lessons to be learned by not just my son.

but for me and my family each and everyone

Day Ten

Seeing blessings as we walk down this path and to that I say Amen!

Day Nine

Still somewhat lost...


but praying that thru the fire he will be refined.

Day Four

Snowy alms for the poor...

“What doesn’t kill us...

makes us stronger.”

Here at Susan’s Snippets I write about life.

Most of the time it's my life and emotions that I share.

I find it cathartic to write stories, read your comments and know that there are others that on some level enjoy my blog.

At the beginning of this new year, my writings are interrupted by life’s circumstances, circumstances that I am unable to share.

And because I wear my life and heart on my sleeve, I choose for now, to be relatively quiet.

As I recently told my son, the photographer, “As an artist work thru your pain with your camera.”

I am going to take my own advice and instead of writing, I will post a daily photo.

So here is today’s - a card that we received at the office last year, which was atop a pile of papers on my desk when I walked in this morning...

an in-my-face reminder that there is so much to be thankful for.

prayers please especially for my son whom I adore