star-quiet
Christmas memories
and timeless thoughts

I think of a collage of words and photos from different posts, or perhaps reflections to develop more.  Much begins here.  

Examples are:

all the year has held still holds

a hard year a good year

years go by
and some things
have not changed
rather have grown
stronger

Years and years ago, when I was a graduate student in education, I had courses in research.  I surely feel I reached my limits with math and science, though as I spent lots of time in study, I gradually grew in these areas.  My gift was being able to integrate material from a wide variety of sources.  Illness changed the course of my life, yet also blessed me in the long run.  My parents grew up in an economic depression, and they did not expect life to be easy.  My mother’s parents had both died before I was born.  I think I am like her mother, my grandmother Grace.  My mother said things like, “God works in mysterious ways.”  Dad said to me once, “Everything will be OK in the end.”  They modeled service.

I have stayed in touch with former professors, friends, and colleagues.  They supported me in times of loss.  Believed I could achieve.  And when one chapter ended, encouragement for the next.  More gratitude.

Some of my major lessons were that being flexible and able to adjust to change are important for happiness.  I learn slowly, hopefully well, over time.  “Deeper Places.”

Many ways to create, grow, make a contribution.  I could not have imagined blogs back then!

For health reasons, I did not drive for most of the summer.  I waited to feel stronger again.  Karl drove us to many parks, and I am enjoying sharing some of his photos again.  My mother did not drive, and she used the bus system in Milwaukee for work.  After my father died, she knew how to navigate for volunteer work.  She taught English at a church to people new to our country.  How she loved this work.

Greenwing Drive retention ponds
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
July 17, 2018

With a grateful heart,

Ellen Grace Olinger