True beauty

I am standing beside many others; many others. Most of them wives...well, all but the man in the large blue shirt. Not that the shirt was large, but the man was large and therefore his shirt was large enough to cover him and it did that well. We were in an elevator going down to the lower terrace to eat breakfast. Well, not really true either. I was going back down to take pictures of the torrential rain on the beach. There were many clothing options in the elevator and I would bet that all of us thought when we got dressed that we were somewhat, maybe, perhaps close to being as beautiful as we possibly could be. Showered, hair done, clothes chosen, earrings in, make up on and we were headed out to make our impact on the world in Marco Island, Florida.
Why didn't we just crawl out of bed and walk downstairs in our varied assortment of sleep wear?  Because we are proud and vain; we want to be beautiful. Sometimes we forget that beauty doesn't come out of the suitcase for beauty  begins in the heart.
Being beautiful isn't negative, God created a world that we call beautiful. We are beautiful and being everything God created us to be is true beauty. True beauty is more from more important than the arrangement of clothes in the elevator, it is in the eyes of the women. Laughter, smiles, non verbal words affirming that the morning was more beautiful than the sound of the rain on the roof. (It's really dry here and they desperately needed rain). Beauty is the beach; normally this time of day the beach would be crawling with shell collectors, walkers runners and children who couldn't wait to hit the ocean to play.  Right now the beauty of nature would have to wait.
True beauty doesn't need circumstances to bring a smile. True beauty sees the tiniest break in the clouds and makes others smile. True beauty laughs when the blue shirt in front of you makes it so you cannot see anything but blue. True beauty holds the door rather than walking out first. True beauty... is action not clothing or physicial features. True beauty is the laughter from within. True beauty makes others feel beautiful; even on a rainy day in Florida....

Laundromat and Inblessments

Laundromat and Inblessments
It's been many  years since I sat in a laundromat. Of all the things on my bucket list, going back to the laundromat wasn't there. However, since we are head long into Inblessments, the laundromat is necessary.  I am up north: my peaceful spot. Over 10 years ago I convinced Mr James Harry(husband) that we needed a cabin.  Of course my needometer was not simply for myself. My father many years ago had started the camp with that same idea: to bless others. I told Jim it was an investment. He seems to think that investments give you return on your money. So I have had to create a word: Inblessments.  The cabin has become a place we can offer to pastors, missionaries, people who need to get away or people that just need to be blessed.  They walk in and they walk out. The maid, me, then goes up north for a wonderful day of getting the Inblessments ready for someone else. We did have an old washing machine/dryer combo but the dryer never worked. So in winter, hanging the towels and sheets out to dry became a bit of a challenge.  So today, I am eating my salad at the local laundromat and feeling quite "local".  I am watching a gentlemen show his son how to do laundry... I usually just listen for my washing machine to sing it's cycle ending song. I have to go check here. And looking across the room, I watch 8 dryers go around and around and around. Laundromat are no respecter of persons. A grandpa looking man is folding clothes, a younger lady is loading a large machine, a seemingly college age student is sorting and the young man who learned which knobs to push a minute ago is sitting with dad, looking a mite bored..
This reminds me of life and the people we meet as we go about investing is what we call life. We can invest in them and expect something to come back from our investment, or we can inbless them and simply let God have the glory... now if only God would handle the towels and the bedding I would be blessed🤗... actually, reading the journal people write is is very humbling as to see how God works in a simply county cabin on a lake, when people slow down their lives long enough to listen to him talk to them and enjoy their families....that's another lesson I learned from my father....