Lesson 96: #1 Amazing Grace

Time for a blog post, I guess.  I got a few emails asking where I've been.  It's always nice to know you're loved.  Eloise has had an emotional couple of weeks, hitting a few bumps on the roadway of my life.  Sometimes my path is a superhighway and things just seem to clip along at top speed, and other times my road is like an Erie side street at the end of March---full of potholes.

The past week has left me examining the age old question raised by Job--why do bad things happen to good people?  Many in my community are suffering over the accidental death of a toddler leaving us wondering aloud this very question.  I also happen to be reading a novel titled Sarah's Key.  The story is about the holocaust.  With those things coinciding in my life, Eloise's heart has been heavy.

We turn to God at times like this looking for some peace and He always delivers.  If you don't believe me, give prayer a try and also a chance.  We live in a fast paced society and sometimes you have to give it a minute to work.

We've grown impatient as a people, embarrassingly so.  I know I have, as many a time I have sighed and rolled my eyes at the ten second delay in turning on my flat screen TV.  Oh, the suffering I make standing in my warm living room waiting for The X Factor to come on.  Or how about being five cars back in a drive through line?  I hesitate speaking for us collectively, yet I can sense that many of you, like me, have grown anxious and edgy at the slightest delay.  What always makes me feel better is remembering God's grace.  Grace is that eternal pardon freely available to all of us who are truly undeserving of the good that comes to us.  It's simply amazing.

That is why I posted the above video.  Yes, those are my hands.  My Mother's Day ring, my ichthys bracelet, my HUSKIES sweatshirt, and the pile of toys in the corner of my living room are dead give aways that you are seeing the real Eloise in the flesh---even if it is just my hands.  Amazing Grace is and always will be my favorite song.

In fact, this post can round out the list for Top 5 Favorite Songs of Eloise that I started for you this summer.  Here is the complete list in reverse order, in case you've forgotten them:

• #5--Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding
• #4--Time of Your Life, Green Day
• #3--The River, Garth Brooks
• #2--Beer Barrel Polka, Andrews Sisters----OK, OK, just kidding, the post was getting a bit too serious for Eloise, although I do like that catchy tune--"roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun..."
• #2--Broken Road, Rascal Flatts
• #1--Amazing Grace, any version but among my favorites are by Chris Tomlin & Leann Rhymes

The words are in my heart, and I sing them when I am happy or sad.  I sang this song to my babies, hours after their births while I held them in my hospital bed.  I sang this song standing next to the caskets of both of my grandmothers at their funerals.  It is a timeless song with meaning that lasts for all time.  Knowing me as those of you do, full well know that I can't carry a note in bucket (or even a bathtub).  I always had the yearning to learn to play that song on a piano, as if playing the song would make it better than singing it.

The thought of playing the piano crossed my mind many a time in my life.  It was one of those things that was in my heart and never left it, but the timing was never right.  When I was younger there was school and activities and friends that used up all of my time.  As I got older there was family and work to fill in for the need to learn something new.  But in time, a piano found its way into my house, because God knew I was finally ready.  It came in His time as all things that are meant to be do.  The deal on the piano was too good  to refuse, plus I always wanted one to display my framed photos on, so we handed out some Ben Franklins over to a family friend and made a space for it on the living room wall.  

Over time, Ellen, my middle child, took an interest in it and has been taking lessons for five years.  She is quite good.  For me, the piano has intrigued me and I began picking at it myself.  "Heck, Eloise.  You can do this, too!  You're never to old to learn!" I told myself, and I began to figure out the instrument on my own.

It was no surprise that Amazing Grace was the first song I wanted to learn and it took me a long, long time.  For you musical-eared blog readers, you'll certainly hear the mistakes, but I am not embarrassed in the least.  For a 40 year old who taught herself, I don't think it's bad at all.

I found that singing the song and learning to play it on the piano wasn't enough.  I'm a working mom and encounter my share of hectic mornings, which in turn leave me crabby throughout the day.  One particular morning last fall, which I blogged about in October of 2010 if this sounds familiar, was the morning I left my house in a grouchy rush and realized that I had forgotten to apply my deodorant!  I had no time to drive home to remedy my mistake.  Given that I work in a high school, I was certain the nurse had some of those sample sized sticks they hand out to the kids when they need them.  Well, my Huskies must have been a-smellin' like wet dog last fall, because there was not a stick to be found.  Instead the school nurse gave me a couple of squirts of her perfume.  One breath in of the heavenly scent and I fell instantly in love.  I asked Nursie what the scent was.  "Amazing Grace," she replied.  It is a scent I've worn every day since.  It's what I smell like--the sweet smell of Amazing Grace.

About a year ago I bought the 8 ounce body spray.  I apply a few squirts a day and the bottle is just about finished.  I won't go without it though.  The new one is already on it's way (Eloise is an on-line shopper).  It truly is the best $25 bucks I ever spent because it reminds me of God's grace every day of my life, simply by breathing in and out.

But it isn't just the scent that gets to me---it is the packaging of the Philosophy Bath Products that really reaches me.  The bottles and tubes are simple in style, and have cool names for their scents like:  Amazing Grace, Pure Grace, Inner Grace, Falling in Love, and Unconditional Love.  Each scent is defined, and the outside of the bottle reads like a dictionary definition.  Eloise is a lover of words, so they had me at hello on this one.  Take a look at what the outside of the Amazing Grace bottle reads:  

Amazing grace:  how you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain. and so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one big gigantic test followed by one big gigantic lesson. in the end, it all comes down to one word. grace. it's how you accept winning and losing, good luck and bad luck, the darkness and the light.

tHE ABOVE WORDS IN BLUE ARE COPY AND PASTED FROM THE philosophy PRODUCTS WEBSITE.  YOU WILL SEE THAT THIS FONT STYLE HAS CARRIED OVER TO MY OWN PARAGRAPH HERE, AND BLOGGER WON'T LET ME CHANGE IT FOR SOME REASON, THEREFORE i HAVE TO USE THIS FONT WITH NO CAPITAL LETTERS WHICH GOES AGAINST MY GRAIN AS A TEACHER.  SERIOUSLY, NO CAPITAL LETTERS AT THE BEGINNING OF A SENTENCE?  SOCIETY TELLS US THAT IT IS A "STYLE."  ME AND MY TEACHER PEEPS SAY IT IS JUST PLAIN WRONG.  

forget the no capital letters here, and reread the words in blue again.  In the end it does all come down to grace.  Grace does not get us a pothole free path, but it certainly helps us right our carts again when a wheel comes off.  we have to accept that there will be darkness with the light.  sometimes god's teaching comes in reverse of how we traditionally think to teach (lesson, then test).  Often we receive the test, and only after it is over with, do we begin to see the lesson.  So readers, here endeth mine for tonight.

with grace,

eloise