I’ll be Home For Christmas like so many of you. But hope is on the horizon as a vaccine is near. I read a book in November 2019 called As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner about the flu epidemic in 1918 coinciding with World War 1. I closed the book and was very thankful that we conquered that one. My mother, who had the flu as a child, told us many stories about losing many friends and family members to the flu.
We traveled to Hawaii in February 2020 and had a wonderful time staying at the Hale Kola, military bases and a B&B. Then March rolled around and the country closed down taking drastic measures to save lives. I took walks and bike rides with friends in the neighborhood where people seemed friendlier and more eager to smile and say hello. I could no longer volunteer playing the piano at our local hospital so I began posting music on Face Book and Instagram. We took trips in our trailer to Picture Lake National Lake Shore, Door County and lastly to New Orleans to see our foster daughter, Donna and her family.
Larry and I both have been volunteering at Humble Design Chicago where our daughter Julie Schuerr Dickinson is the Director. To learn more about Humble Design and what they are doing for the homeless, see www. humbledesign.org/chicago@humblechitown. This has been a great way to help 4 families a week get on their feet. Larry also volunteers at Conference Point in Lake Geneva and occasionally at Habitat for Humanity. While purging our home from unwanted items, Larry came across an old bread maker which has been a source of pleasure—waking up to the aroma of fresh sourdough bread. He has become a wonderful cook. As a result, I must get more exercise time in with a former teacher Rose Blake and her Get After It program. Face Time and Zoom is now how we communicate with friends, family and online church.
Our son Aaron’s 2020 art schedule was completely canceled, but he began selling his pastels and oils online. His work came to the attention of Kelly Clarkson, an American Idol winner and afternoon talk show host. By zoom, she interviewed him and showed his work to the American audience on TV increasing his footprint in the art world.
Deb, who continues to give private piano and voice lessons, also teaches at Headwater Academy in Bozeman MT where student enrollment continues to grow. She loves her exercise-dance classes and playing tennis.
I was happy to get published in Chicken Soup for the Soul/Laughter is Good Medicine edition this past year. This is a fitting edition for Larry and I since even in this pandemic we always find time for humor.
We think of you my friends and how you have made it through this difficult year. “Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you” (1 Peter 4:12).While our nation bleeds from so many deaths, racial tensions and untold political divisions, we have hope as followers of Jesus, to demonstrate a better way to live
Why I Believe the Christmas Story-Day 1
Many think that the Bible stories were passed down like the game telephone where the message changed from one person to another— therefore full of inaccuracies. But God entrusted his word to the Jewish people who were meticulous in not missing a (Jot or tittle as they would say). So begins Luke 1 written by Luke, a physician. He said,”They were handed down to us by those who were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seems good also to me to write an orderly account—so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” Not only do we have Luke’s story, but we have the accounts of Matthew, Mark and John whose foundation lies in the prophecies of the Old Testament, a beautiful picture.
Love Sue and Larry
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