I want to note this as an encouragement to myself.  I'm at one of those rough places in life where it's just difficult to know what's best.

Yesterday, after church, M stopped me just outside the front door.  She is someone I relate to ... quiet ... a lady who watches everything but rarely comments ... willing to pitch in anytime, but always without fanfare.  Frequently over the past 15 years our eyes have met and we smile at each other as we sweep the room ... her from over there, me from over here.  I admire her life.  It has been a good one.

It was extremely unusual for her to stop me ... and hug me.  She doesn't even come up to my shoulders, but she is not at all frail ... just petite. I leaned down to hug her back and she whispered, "You have grown up to be a strong beautiful girl."  The words meant something to me, but I played it down answering, "It's nice to be seen as a girl here in my mid 50s ... ." I smiled at her when she told me that she is in her mid 90s ... she said "You are still a girl and you are stronger then you've realized, but now you know."  How did she see that from over there?  That's all she wanted to say.  That was something I needed to hear.  Sometimes church happens out on the front porch in the  blazing Sunday heat.