There is a balm in Gilead

I missed you yesterday. On Thursday, I did some volunteering at the ballet. I ended up with some really bratty kids (and I am a very tolerant woman). I mean one of the 14 year olds went into a dressing room and SLAMMED the door. I was so over it. By the time I got to my car literally sloshing in rain and ice, my head was beginning to ache. I went through a drivethrough, picked up some lunch, ate it and relaxed as I had a pending hair appointment. Now any woman knows that getting a hair appointment this time of year is tricky. Since my hairdresser is right up the street, I drug myself up there. They were all so nice, and the shampoo lady gave me the most incredible neck message (those help). I still felt awful and went home to bed and that was IT for Thursday. On Friday, I tried to get up but I couldn't. I was out of commission virtually all day until the late afternoon when I had to make four long roundtrips out in Friday afternoon messy traffic! In the cold! I was really in a bad mood by the time I reached my last destination. I popped into the waiting room - a few of us gather there intermittently on Friday nights. I was glad to see one of my friends who I had heard had been in the emergency room for some sort of attack! The ER doctors couldn't diagnose her problem so they called it anxiety OR Alzheimer's. (wry laugh) They gave her medicine for both. She still wasn't herself but was hanging in there. I looked on the chair beside her, and it was loaded with plates of cookies. Someone asked her about them and she said I've been BAKING. We were all amazed that she would have gone to all that trouble having been sick, anxious or suffering from Alzheimer's. (Sorry I'm not usually sarcastic.) Anyhow, as I started to leave, she handed me a plate of cookies and said the chocolate ones may not be good. I couldn't believe it. Is this woman not amazing? She feels like the dickens, and she is baking for our little group! It really put me in the spirit.

So many of you are struggling through difficult circumstances, a difficult year.......I tried writing last night something about healing.......something comforting.......a balm for the wounded. I just couldn't make my writing come together. What kept sticking in my mind was a hymn I sang in my grandparents' small church as a child. I can still see my beloved grandmother up at the organ playing this along with the pianist.

Here is an excerpt:

Refrain:

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin sick soul.
Some times I feel discouraged,
And think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again.

Here's a link to the music if you care to hear it.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/i/tisabalm.htm

God bless you all!