My website is back thanks to the efforts of Nick Burd from Niteowl Creative who built my website in the first place and the help of my friend Greg Phillips from Sterling Mutuals who was one of my church kids at Dunsford United Church. I am truly grateful for both of them.

For many of us computer updates are a headache. They change things. Often we have to relearn how to  use our phones, ipads etc. once there has been an update.

As Nick explained to me, when you ignore the updates you leave your site open to hackers.

I ignored them. Someone, maybe he/she thought it was fun or felt powerful to hack into my website and completely destroy it. In the process the hacker infected many others in that particular website system. The results, my website has been down for over a month which is an eternity in computer time. Who knows how many people checked out my website during that time and found it down and lost interest in my writing.

Of course, besides the contacts who disappeared, repairs, especially in computer land are expensive. My dream of possibly putting out both a children’s book and a novel this year have dimmed. And the hacker’s fun probably has had far reaching effects that I will never know about.

The Good News, my website is fixed and I am grateful. I have learned an important lesson. I need to pay someone to keep it updated whether it fits my budget or not. Either that or use my time to learn how and to do it myself.

The Good News is, today I am posting my “Today’s Faith” article from the March edition of the Millbrook Times rather than writing a new blog. That is because I am recovering from a nasty bout of Covid that has dampened my inspiration. Tomorrow I will test again and have maybe have proof that Covid has left my system.  So here is my article.

The Necklace Is Not Finished

Smiles, scars, and the sacred beads that shape our lives.

My phone keeps offering me “memory” albums. Photos from years past. Smiling children. Tender moments. When I stop to look, memories flood my mind. Joy fills my heart. I smile. Occasionally, I pick up the phone and call a friend to share that joy.

Most of the time, the pictures don’t show the scars I have left after the tough times, the mistakes, the failures, the grief, and the hurts I’ve received. Yet my scars, like my joys, are beads on the necklace of my life — so many colours, shapes, and sizes, each one is precious. Together they have created the beauty of my being.

Each bead, each life experience, even the toughest, has contributed to the uniqueness of who I am.

What is best? My necklace is not finished.

This morning, as I awoke, I thought, today a new bead on my life string has  begun. The miracle of learning, of becoming, is still mine. Today is full of potential. All I need to do is open my heart, mind, and soul to listen for God.

My daughter texted: Did you enjoy the pictures and video I sent yesterday?

I scrolled up. There were two of my great-grandchildren — five-year-old Riley, wearing his wonderful smile as he showed off the special tracksuit we’d given him for Christmas, and one-year-old Lana, sound asleep in my daughter’s arms, an angel of peace and contentment.

I’m sure you have smiles and scars every day of your life too. Sometimes, we call them baggage, suggesting heaviness which we need to discard. Today, I wonder if instead, we need to cherish each bead. After all, every experience is part of shaping who we are.

Perhaps you might begin your day with these simple steps:

1. Give thanks to God for life — your life, all of it, the whole necklace.
2. Identify one thing you have learned from the joys and the scars you carry.
3. Ask for God’s help in recognizing the joys that will come to you today and the learning you will receive from every experience.

Your necklace is still being made. Remember, with each new day, your life necklace gains more beauty.

As St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:28 “all things work together for good.” I would add, With our co-operation, God brings goodness from every experience we have. Even our scars become beautiful beads in our life necklace.