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{Straight From the Heart}   *Stones*  11/2/00
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Straight From the Heart
http://www.storiesfrommyheart.com
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We have a wonderful story today by Maria Carey, a new author to our list!  Be sure to email and let her know what you thought of her story! Let's give her a warm SFTH welcome!
Michael
P.S.  The website has taken on a new look!  Come check out the changes at:
Straight From the Heart
http://www.storiesfrommyheart.com
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Stones

By Maria Carey

I used to receive rings from her starting around age 15. The rings
always seemed to have stones that were missing. She thought that by
closing the prongs with tweezers that this made the ring look all right.
 I never said anything about it but I didn't think so.

She was a difficult woman to love much less like. She could be very nice
sometimes and that wasn't often. She could be very mean and she was very
often.

I was very afraid of her even when I turned 40 years old. She had such a
presence, though she was just a few inches over 5 feet tall. I saw her
make some men cower even. I was even more afraid of her when she was
angry. She might do anything when she got mad.

Our relationship didn't really exist. I really thought I hated her
because of the things she did to me. I then prayed a prayer to God and
let it be. I told Him that I didn't hold out any hope for our
relationship. I told Him that the relationship was useless. I also told
Him that only He could fix it. I then left it in His hands and continued
on with my life.

My life after I left it in God's Hands went on pretty well. Except for
one thing, it didn't include her. I did the obligatory things and no
more. I didn't attempt inclusions or invitations into my life. I kept my
immediate family as the nucleus of my life -- she was not a part of it.

One-day fate intervened. She wound up in the hospital at death's door.
That was the beginning of a new life and another chance but it was also
a reprieve. The end would come about a year and half later.

Where were all the missing stones from the rings? I don't know.

Stones. Big, old, huge stones- while other families gave their children
many good things that nourished, I always felt as if I got stones from
her. These stones would keep me, to a certain degree from accomplishing
many things. These stones would weigh me down and almost sink me. These
same stones would make me a fighter too.

I was never happy as a child. I mean there were times that I was happy
but it never lasted. I never cared much for turmoil. My early life was
such turmoil. I lived in a state of panic. I always dealt with chaos on
a daily basis. When there wasn't turmoil to deal with there was usually
some sort of fall out from the times before. When I left home I was
carrying the stones with me into my adulthood.

Those stones were in everything that I said or did. As I got a little
older and began to really think about my childhood, I began to realize
something. I had a choice: I could live my childhood over and over again
or not. I could be unhappy and blame that childhood and her. I could be
mean and spiteful and blame her. I could live a very unrewarding life
and blame her. I decided right then and there to bury those stones' one
at a time. It wasn't going to be easy either but I knew that I had to do
it.

I decided to be a better person than I could have been. I wish I could
say that I did this all on my own but I didn't. The day that I accepted
the Lord into my life was the real beginning of burying the stones. I
had attempted to do this independent of him with limited success. The
real success occurred once I accepted Him and His way of doing things.

She had her reprieve for a year and a half. We mended our fences
starting with the very first visit to her bedside. We began to share
many wonderful conversations and I learned many things. She had watched
many friends, die of what she referred to as "The Curse." I soon learned
that she meant AIDS. She was a very true, loyal and faithful friend in
their time of need. She physically became nurse and confidant to many
that lay dying. She never did it for thought of reward. You see many
other friends had fallen by the wayside except for a few. She was a part
of that few. A contradiction was she. She could be so giving to friend
or stranger but not to her own flesh
and blood.

I remember listening as she told me all about the people that she
nursed. Some I knew and some I didn't. They were from all different
walks of life. Some were brilliant wonderful people that were always
busy and always in demand. Some were just average folks. Some were just
poor souls with no family that needed someone to hold their hand and my
mama was there.

I told her that although I wasn't God that it seemed to me that she
probably had done her life's work. I said that I thought it was now time
for her to repair family relationships. I expected a huge argument or
reprimand when I said this but I didn't get one. She smiled with tears
in her eyes and agreed. That was the real beginning of the healing of
our relationship. Our relationship would heal and would last until the
very day that she passed away in October of 1996. I was there as were my
two brothers and my sister when she passed from this world.

God is so faithful. You can put things in His Hands and everything turns
out right. You just have to take Him at His word and trust.

Another little funny thing too, towards the end of my mother's life she
gave me a ring. It is white gold with blue sapphires in it. It has a
rather ornate setting, European perhaps. Probably turn of the century.
It has all the stones intact too! It is not worth all that much money
wise. It has been repaired countless times before I received it. That
doesn't matter because it has become invaluable to me. It happens to be
the last ring that she would ever give to me. One that had all the
stones!

You sometimes hear of bad relationships that God has healed...this is
one for the record books. God is just an awesome Being! I was by my
mother's side in the hospital as she passed and her eldest child never
loved her more. Poor thing had a terrible childhood. She had no love
from her own mother but she had love from her children. We were all
there at her side. I have never been sadder then at that last moment of
her life. I was also happy because I knew that she was leaving a sick,
weak and painful body for a new one in heaven. So I could make peace
with the thought of missing her. I was also happy because I had a mother
for that last year and half. A mother that was kind and gave me
blessings instead of stones.

I saw the bad stuff as stones. These stones were ugly, cold and hard.
The stones were burdens passed down from my mother to me. They were her
legacy from a mother that never loved her and made sure she always knew
it too. My mother could have no illusions about that even if she wanted
to.

At the last part of her life, she spent time repairing the relationships
with her children. Her legacy to us began to change. I don't know what
the others received as their legacy but I know what I received. I was
given many blessings from her. The blessings were real tangibles that
she would speak to me all the time during that last year and a half of
her life.

God took a very bad relationship and fixed it like brand new. I am sure
that she is with Him and that she is happy.

God restored what the locusts had eaten all those days of the stones. He
restored during a reprieve that lasted a year and a half. Thank you God
for giving my mother a reprieve so that she could leave in peace and I
could bury that last stone.

Maria Carey
mcarey@greenwich.lib.ct.us

Send Maria an email and let her know what you thought of her story!
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I am happily married with two grown children and am a self-taught writer. I started writing at an early age and then stopped for many years. I am starting again to write and this time I will not stop. I want to write true stories that end happily such as this one for His Glory. Pray much for me that I continue.

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Thought For The Day:

"Amid the greatest difficulties of my Administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance in God, knowing that all would go well, and that He would decide for the right."
(Abraham Lincoln)

Verse for the Day:

"Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you."
Psalm 55:22

Kid's Thought For The Day:

"You won't get out of doing the dishes if you break a cup.  You'll just end up vacuuming the floor, too."

Parent's Thought For The Day

"A grandmother is a mother who has a second chance."

Coach's Thought For The Day

"Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.  When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind."
Seneca (4 B.C. - 65 A.D.)

Deep Thought For The Day:

"Red meat is NOT bad for you. Now blue-green meat, THAT'S bad for you!"

  _
/_/\/\    MICHAEL T. POWERS
\_\  /    THUNDER27@aol.com  
/_/  \    "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
\_\/\ \   Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body I live for the Son
   \_\/   of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  Galatians 2:20 

Video Imagery (Michael's Video Production Business.)

"I thought of you first after my family sat down to watch the video we gave them. They loved it, to say the least!  Within thirty seconds my mom was crying and my dad did too.  They said it was the best Christmas gift we could have given them!!  You did such a beautiful job!  They were so surprised and so touched---they really, really, really loved it.  Thanks for helping to make it so special to us all.  My mom mentioned how the songs were perfect for the video too!  Thanks again!"
        
Kelli  (RKaGe@aol.com)    College Station, TX

Let me make you a video from your pictures or home movies!
Check out the web page for Michael's video production business!
 Video Imagery
http://members.aol.com/Videoimg/index.html

Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you?
 The Four Spiritual Laws
http://www.ccci.org/laws/index.html

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