Abandoned

Isn't it odd that when something catches your attention, you run into it again and again.

Yesterday, I was floating around in cyberspace and was drawn to a link to The Suitcase Project, which I found hauntingly fascinating. Long story short, suitcases found in the attic of an abandoned asylum, turned psychiatric hospital, held the stories of patient's lives before they were institutionalized. Some lived rich and full lives before they entered the hospital. All thought it a temporary situation. Most remained there until the end. Many were not even ill. They simply ran aground in life and had no one to help them get back on course. Go read some of the stories.

Then today, I went to see Belinda at upsidedownbee and there was Thrum Thursday post about Crazy, a book she read about the criminalization of the mentally ill in our country. And well, go read what she had to say. It's good, as always.

So, I've been thinking a lot about the people that get lost in life, abandoned by society. If the suitcase people lived today, they would probably be homeless. It makes me think about the value of the people that are put in our lives. There is nothing more important, after relationship with Christ, than our relationships with the people in our lives. We were created, after all, to be in relationship - with God and each other. It is a thing I need to remember as I stumble through life - I am not in it alone and that is good.

Speaking of....on Sunday I am going to pick up daughter #1 and we will travel to visit daughter #2 to deliver some needed bits of furniture for her new digs. And guess what exhibit is on display at a university library in #2's town? You guessed it....The Suitcase Project. Hmmm. Must figure out how to get them to let me go see it!

Random Ramblings

• Oxygen is showing the Olympic Equestrian events every evening. I really enjoy watching. If I had a "do over" in life, I might be there.
• One day you are cruising along down the road of life and the next day your world explodes and will never go together, just so, again. A co-worker is suddenly making decisions about what course of action makes sense to attack the malignant tumor that is growing in his five year old daughter's brain. Kind of makes EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM that me and all my friends deal with, well, not so big. My co-worker and his family have a positive and hopeful attitude. I am praying for miracles for them.
  
• I am working on turning my newly acquired 'extra' room into a studio. I have everything I need. Why don't I get motivated to unpack boxes and put everything in place? Maybe I am afraid of creating. I have what I have longed for, to have a place and the freedom to create, yet I am hesitant to run with it.
  
• I finally purchased a really good cantaloupe. Really good. That is one of my joys of the season.
• I must make a habit of taking my pooch out for long walks. We both need it. The weather is perfect. But I am in the mood to blog. Sorry, Abbey. Maybe tomorrow.
• I receive a daily email from Ransomed Heart Ministries (John Eldridge). A recent reading titled, The Power of Addiction, was taken from Eldridge's book, The Sacred Romance. Here is an excerpt,
  "This is the power of addiction. Whatever the object of our addiction is, it attaches itself to our intense desire for eternal and intimate communion with God and each other in the midst of Paradise—the desire that Jesus himself placed in us before the beginning of the world."

This really struck my heart. My life has certainly been touched by the addictions of others, the obvious ones. But I am asking God to make me aware of my addictions. The things that I run to instead of Him. Through the power of Christ, I can begin to run to Him instead of the temporary satisfactions that I seek.

These are just some of the things that are rambling around my brain lately.