Prayers

July 13 2024
The patio was covered with mud from the hurricane. Filly got the broom, the hose and the cleaning solution and started to work. She had gotten up early to do her walk/jog, but decided to do the work on the house first. It was a time consuming job because the mud had come all the way up to the house and was stuck in each of the little groves on the concrete textured patio. Filly worked on it for two and a half hours, from seven until nine thirty am, and then stopped because the later it got, the hotter it got.

She put the hose down, and got her dog repel spray, and put a bright white washcloth under the faucet to get it wet and then wrapped it around the freezer square, in case she got hot, and also brought a cold drink from the fridge. The upstairs ac was working well and the AC guy was supposed to arrive sometime soon to try to fix the other ac that was not working.

Filly called her mom to see if she had gotten the fudge sent from Colorado, for her birthday. Gratefully her mom answered and had been looking out at the rain that was happening in North Carolina, dropping the temperature and giving much needed water to plants. Her mom said that she had gotten the fudge and loved it. Then they started talking about this and that and her mom wanted to read her a card that her friend Connie had sent her.

The card said that the seven years that Connie had been local friends with my mom were “golden years”. She said that she and her husband had never connected as beautifully since then, with any other couple as they had connected with my mom and dad. What a compliment! Mom told Filly that Connie told her own husband that she had seen mom, before she ever actually knew her, and wondered who that lady was driving the big old red station wagon, with five stair-step little girls inside, who got dropped off at Catholic school. She had wanted to meet “that lady”.

Mom said that Connie’s husband, a jet pilot, had wanted to take lessons to fly a private plane and that was how he met Filly’s dad, who was a private pilot instructor. The two men had become great friends and apparently so had Filly’s mom and Connie. They had stayed friends over the distance, for more than fifty years. Both ladies had lost their husbands to plane crashes. Both had raised their children conservative Catholics and both were devout, active and full of gifts. Filly loved that her mom had been able to connect with Connie and had heard from her on her Birthday. (she thought it was amazing that Connie told her mom that Ninety is the new fifty lol)

Filly remembered her mom playing tennis with Connie too, both were pretty athletic. As she thought about tennis, she saw a video pop up on her phone with a scene of Michael Jackson, if he had played tennis, and it was hilarious. She had sent it to her mom but did not know if her mom could see it because she was not on X. They talked a bit longer. Filly’s mom was incredibly interesting and brilliant to talk to. Filly got to catch up on her mom’s friends Ellie and Elisabeth and on others including her sisters. Filly’s mom knew and remembered everyone in great detail.

As she walked and talked, to her mom, Filly could see broken branches everywhere and fallen trees and could hear and feel the heat of the generators running to keep people somewhat cool in the heat of the summer. Half way through the walk the wash cloth had already dried and the heat felt oppressive. But the heat was not something new, and it happened every summer that way in Texas. Filly thought she might get in the pool when she got home but then she remembered she was going to a baseball game later in the day and had a lot of cleaning and unpacking to do from her trip. Her mom had to go and the rain was still going in NC. So they hung up.

Filly let her mind wander and also had to decide what class to try to sign Tater up for as Tater now wanted to do “arial silks” which was about hanging in the air. Filly thought it was fine, except she wondered if the outfit that this class required was different from ballet, tap and baton? She could not afford another whole outfit just so that Tater could take a different class. So she waited to do some more research and find out what was the required outfit. Tater had enjoyed the class and said she liked to “free flow” dance. Filly had taped her doing some free flow Tap and it was really cute.

Filly thought about how when they were talking, Mister, said that he might want to take a hip hop class, but when Filly agreed that he could, he backed out. Then Tater changed her mind and said she wanted to take music theater. So Filly had no idea what would happen next with the classes. She let her thoughts go on to other topics.

As soon as she had gotten home from Colorado, Filly had put away her make up and her clothes from the trip and they were in a box in the closet. The videos she had brought from the cabin were stacked on the kids “Dr. Seuss” table. Their home still had no internet so the movies would come in handy. But Filly had internet on her phone, (AT&T) but her husband did not (Verizon). Not sure why. Her husband had been out back when she left, turning off the Generac so he could change the oil, and then he was going to go over to the neighbors who were borrowing a small generator, and was going to change the oil there too.

While she was walking she got another call from the family member who wanted to give an update regarding the gold bar scam. Apparently the FBI had tracked the stolen Gold to New York where it had been melted and had been used to buy land. The FBI had said that now the scammers (using the fake three man team of pretend Microsoft person, and pretend Bank of America person and pretend Treasury dept. person) were continuing to trick many people out of their hard earned retirement funds and had been very successful and had shifted into getting their victims to get diamonds instead of gold bars (to safekeep their investments).

Filly had just read the book about Reacher being underground and the facility blowing up and nothing was left except Diamonds. The diamonds were coveted by many in the fiction industry, in the book, and in real life. Diamonds could be transferred easily because they were not really easily traced.
Filly was glad that the FBI seemed to be making progress and it sounded very encouraging. She had already prayed that the people responsible would be caught, and she trusted that God would help the good prevail and what was stolen, be returned.

Filly also was grateful that the heat from walking, meant she was seriously burning calories. Now that she had hung up from talking to her mom, and the others, and was walking alone, the walk seemed boring lol.

Filly was beet red when she arrived back on her street. She went in the door, put away her things and went straight into a cold shower. It felt amazing. She noticed that when her hands, feet and neck were cool, the rest of her felt cooler. She also noticed, with regards to comfort, that the solid cotton and solid nylon underwear and tops she had recently purchased were not causing her any allergic symptoms like the little plastic tabs had been doing for years. The seemingly permanent rash around her shoulders and chest was finally gone.
Filly was thrilled to have found that fruit of the loom brand, though not sexy, was in fact perfect for people with sensitive skin. Natural fibers were best, but the nylon covering every piece of elastic, keeping it from touching her skin, was almost as good…only hotter and less absorbent. Filly wished she had paid more attention to the way clothing was made before. She could have saved herself years of discomfort. It as not just about the look and the fit and the cost, it was about the feel for one as well as her personal goal to support only organizations who were doing good things.

Much of what Filly bought was from Goodwill. But when she went to North Carolina, Her mom had a favorite store that she wanted to go to. The man who ran the store was openly gay and was outspokenly pro abortion. Filly did not comment back when she learned this, she just listened. Because her mom liked the man and liked his creative flair and his clothing quality and varied selections, Filly just prayed for him. She prayed in a silent way, that he would realize that ALL ways that expressed life were valuable, not just his chosen way to express life.

Her mother also did not agree with him, philosophically, but had said to Filly that the best way to teach was by example. By being loving, a person taught love. Not just love of those who agree with you but perhaps love for those who strongly oppose you. It is easy to love a nice person who agrees with you, her mom had said. And by the way, most of the people in her mom’s immediate environment, in fact, did not share many of her views, but her mom just stuck to her principles and tried every way she could to continue to set a good example of tolerance and love. To support her mom’s way of showing love, Filly purchased two tops from the man at the store. They were beautiful, (and expensive but great quality) and normally she would not have purchased from someone who openly argued in favor of something she opposed, but because of her mom, she did.

Filly thought about all of this as she got on her Hang ten shorts after her cold shower. Solid cotton, Black with thin white vertical pinstripes. She did not pull them up to her waist because she did not like the fabric bunching at her waist. She kept the low, slung around her hips. Not falling off low… which to Filly looked Ghetto. But lower than they were made to be worn.

She put on her favorite mustard colored thin cotton V necked T shirt passed along to her from her sister. It was baggy, it was cool, it was cozy. Then she went back upstairs where the AC was working so hard to cool, and she got under the thin quilt on Taters bed, and went to sleep.

She dreamed about being in a place where she was figuring things out. In that place, she was scratching off the dirt from something. It was like a piece of something. The dirt obscured the view. She scratched it, in her dream, like the girl in Divergent scratched the glass when she broke it, saying it was not real. When she scratched it more, underneath was the word Prime.

Filly thought that this was because she liked the Reacher books and Jack Reacher loved “prime” numbers. Which was one of the reasons she believed he was analogous of a computer, though, instead of a person because he was so mechanical. But if the dream meant something, prime numbers did not mean much to her but the fact that the gold bars had moved up north did mean something… there was also prime minister….that was something “prime” which was more north across the border into Canada. Diamonds now instead of Gold…the prime minister? his wife? Which in the dream was “prime”. Interesting that the PM.s ex wife had “distanced herself from Prince Harry’s wife. She wondered why.

Those who exalted themselves would be humbled. Filly was thinking about how God was about to put power back in the city of Houston, Spring and The woodlands. God was in charge of the power therefore who controlled the power was not random. Blaming the service industry, was basically missing the point. What was God saying, Filly wondered, by limiting access to power for some of the populations?. It did not make sense to blame or demonize the “energy crews” who were doing all they could to fix the problem. On her walk she had seen that there were still trees on power lines everywhere and these required chain saw crews and lots of hours to remedy.

They got ready, her husband and Filly, and went to the game. It was great, and cool, even though the pizza was pretty cold and the cheese was hard. The Cheetos, and ice cream and whoppers were good. At the game, she was trying to find the place in Nebraska that matched the story she had read. She wanted to know how to help the police find clues to criminal behaviors. She had figured out that the place was not actually in Nebraska but was in Arizona, near Phoenix. The book she had listened to (on audio book) had described a very specific restaurant and bar…and when she finally found a town that matched geographically to what Reacher had described in the book, she figured out where it was in Arizona. She was ecstatic. Not afraid. It was like solving a puzzle. And it seemed to be “live” as in, still waiting for police to step in and offer “consequences”.

The phone rang again after the game and it was Filly’s daughter. She was talking about their mutual sister in law and how everything she touched was perfect. Like the cake she had made for her daughters birthday looked like it belonged on the cover of a magazine.

Filly’s daughter commented that she had made a red velvet “crepe” cake, and had put the icing on when the cake was still warm.. and all the layers starting sliding like a red sludge. She said that her friend Camilla, had said “oh wow, how interesting you are so creative” as the layers slid off onto the plate. Her friend has asked “did you use beets to get that red color?”

Filly’s daughter said she had laughed and said do not ask questions that you do not really want to know the answer to. That was when her own daughter Angel, had piped in and said “MOM, the other kids moms said that they cannot have Red 40 food dye. Then they asked Clara if she ever ate red 40 food dye and she said NO. Then I said Clara, don’t lie just tell the truth, we eat red food dye 40 all the time. And then their mom said that if they wanted to buy candy at the airport, they could have whatever they wanted as long as it did not have red 40 food dye…so they spent all their time looking at the ingredients of candy and it all had red food dye.”

Fillys daughter had told Angel and Clara that she had already packed them a snack and it was Nutella with little stick crackers but that if they wanted to get their own candy with their own money at the airport, she did not care. She told them that people think that red food dye is toxic, but being so overly paranoid and worried about what to eat or not to eat and about eating some specific food was equally toxic. Their family believed in having a balanced approach. They thought that a little red food dye would not hurt them. Filly could remember that same argument when she was a kid. And she was pretty sure that cherries that went on ice cream had that dye… and Filly love cherries.

Then Filly’s husband said that he had to go over to the church to see if there was power and to see if he could saw up the tree that had fallen in the parking lot. Even without power, the church would probably have their Sunday service. Gratitude.

By this time the AC guy had arrived and fixed the problem, no charge. Gratitude.
The workers from Austin Tx. that they had used before to do renovations, had driven all the way the three hours into town and brought supplies to fix one side of the fence. Gratitude. Her house was cool and the sun was not so intense, and there even might be rain later in the day. Gratitude. Her mom was cheery, full of goodwill, and happy. Gratitude. Her kids were all working and doing good things in the world. Gratitude.

Bible verse for the day randomly chosen…

“He that is of God, heareth God’s words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

Then answered the Jews and said unto him, say we not well that thou are a Samaritan and hast a devil?

Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father and ye do dishonour me.
And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.

Verily Verily I say unto you, If a man keep my saying he shall never see death.

Filly was grateful for God watching her six.