Why, Do I Believe?

 Chapter 63
Autumn in Canada, where most people think only polar bears live...
Simmy was working on her dream and she was settled, in her heart.
Sometimes, when life has been just plain difficult for most of your life, you just need to get settled, in your heart. 
She had been writing and writing and writing and telling her life... she peeked out the window just before she went to bed and spotted her roller blades sitting at the bottom of the stairs. She shook her head, ready to berate herself for 'not being perfect,' but she was, most assuredly, tired of berating herself. Shouldn't she be able to give herself a break seeing as she had been concerned about turning on the oven so the homemade sandwich bread would be done perfectly for the men in her life, her husband and sons. She had  the thought, earlier in the afternoon, that she should spoil them today and make them the sandwich bread.
"They'll love that," she thought, with a smile.
So, after trying to do a few simple things for a young man in Boston, she had gone outside to ponder the meaning of all the possibilities of even doing this for the company. Well, it wasn't for the nominal gift. It was more for a 'Collins' need to know. Yes! She was likely one of those people.
"I just need to know," she thought.
The phone had awakened her after another restless night. She'd answered and her girlfriend, since grade 7, had informed her of a contest on the radio. The winner would get $10,000. Simmy joined the other hopefuls but she didn't win the money. It sure would have helped as business hadn't really taken off this year yet and she really wanted to pay for her sons' wedding this coming summer.
"Don't lose sight of the dream," she whispered encouragement to herself.

http://elsweddings.blogspot.com/

Genesis To Genius

Chapter 62 (cont'd)
Autumn Monday turned into autumn Tuesday. After a morning of creative genius writing, Simmy strapped on her roller blades and went for a 'roll stroll.' She spotted a Grandpa and grandson playing on a front yard. The Grandpa paused. The grandson paused,...
closely watching his hero.
Grandpa made eye contact with Simmy. Then...
"Go, go, go..." He hollered out some encouragement.
Simmy laughed joyously in the simple engaging of this moment.
"Thank you," she hollered back. "I love it! Cheer me on!"
After the invigorating exercise, she went for tea to Deborah's house.
The computer rang!
"Oh!" Deborah hopped up with anticipation.
"It's my daughter," she exclaimed excitedly.
A skype from Cairo... a Mom and daughter communication. Deborah pulled up a chair and included Simmy. Generous and sweet!
The after school kids came busting through the door shortly after that and the energy level cranked right up.
"Simmy," Rayyah jumped into the room and burst her arms up in welcome.
Then she hunched down and came towards Simmy holding out just one finger and touched her forefinger to Simmys' forefinger.
"The finger of God painting," Simmy burst out.
Deborah corrected, "Isn't that painting called 'The Creation of Adam?'"
"Oh, you may be right! It's part of the nine scenes from Genesis painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel."
Deborah got up to do her dinner prep and Simmy jumped up too.
"I need to go make dinner as well. I'll see you Thursday for that shopping trip."
Simmy was out the door and on her bike in a jiffy.
She lived just around the corner and was parking her bike in the back yard, when...
"Oh!" She exclaimed as she passed the wall of sweet peas and saw Sam on a ladder clipping the fragrant blossoms.
Simmy grabbed her camera and quickly caught a couple of shots before Sam threatened, "Don't take a picture of my cowlick and post it!"
"I won't," Simmy promised.
She held the photo up for her grumpy prince to 'okay.'
"See, you can't even see the cowlick. Every woman will be envious of me now. A man who climbs a ladder to pick his wife a bouquet of sweet peas."
Sigh
"So Romantic!"

Garden of Memories

Chapter 62
The scene for the movie, was being filmed at the airport museum.
Sweethearts were being welcomed back following the end of the Second World War.
Beautiful young 'extras' had been hired and Simmy could hardly wait to see them dressed up in the period clothes. Those jeans would have to go and in their place the young women would be suited with thin- belted silhouettes made of tweed fabric in muddy greens, browns. One of the young women had sunglasses on her head that would be perfect for that era.
J.P. was giving instructions and the weather on a October afternoon was breathing a kiss of God approval.
"Did you get permission to use the B.C.A.T.P. (British Commonwealth Air Training Plan), Garden of Memories?"
J.P. nodded. "We'll piece together some names to give a 'face' to the individuals without doing actual close-ups of the individual stones. We'll use names like James Justice and Constance Lovelace for the poetic symbolism of this couple."
Simmy nodded, "Is that also a nod to Richard Lovelace?"
"Only between you and I, in this moment," J.P. grinned.
"A pseudo Viktor Frankl quote as well. You are on fire today," Simmy smiled.
"What is to give light must endure burning," J.P. quoted quietly.
"For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day, and from hour to hour, what matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment."
J.P. responded, "Yes, to be present in any given moment," he paused.
"...becomes the heartbeat of living in-step." Simmy finished the sentence.
"We may need to do more than wax poetic, my little writer."

Big Dream Big

Chapter 62
Simmy woke with the words of her best friend ringing in her ears.
'So, you're on to bigger things now that you've solved world hunger, huh?'
Although the statement had been made in jest, Simmy was being squeezed these days to think about, refine, her big dreams.
Offers were coming from companies who wanted to link up with her work. It was time to come up with a clearer vision.
What were those questions that Pastor Todd had put out there for everyone to chew on?
What do I care about most?
What is my holy discontent?
What do I love, passionately, to do the most?
What do I want to be remembered for?
When do I feel God smiling the most?
That's an easy answer, thought Simmy.
"I feel God smiles the most when I'm smiling the most!"
The only one listening was the cat.
Suddenly Simmy remembered something she'd heard a couple of times...
Your passion + The Worlds' Need= Your personal H.M.M.
"Everybody's got their own personal "Hollywood Midrash Movie" to make out of their life."
"Right Kitty?" Simmy talked to the family pet.

Wine and Friendship

Chapter 61 (cont'd)
Friday night, Sam and Simmy went on a bike ride around the neighborhood. They were nearing the house with the snappy chihuahua, when Simmy sniffed the air and thought... wine...
"I think I smell wine, Sam."
She turned her bike around and Sam followed. As she drove by the house, the garage door was open and a small group of Italians were gathered around a wine press.
Simmy brazenly rode her bike up to the door of the garage, got off, and invited herself into the group.
Anna didn't immediately recognize her because she was so used to seeing Simmy on her bike. Nick, her husband, stood back shyly.
After some introductions, the friend who was pressing the grapes tried to explain the process of wine-making in his broken English.
Sam seemed to catch on immediately. Simmy had studied the process, intellectually, but hadn't seen a 'hands on garage master' type of production before.
After a few minutes, Anna put a bottle of the homemade brew into Simmy's hands and they went on their way.

Deborah's Song

Chapter 62
Friday, five minutes before noontime, Deborah called.
Simmy answered the phone, "Hello!"
"Hi, what ya doin' this afternoon?"
"Well, I was thinking of going to some thrift stores to look for more books for the movie set library."
"Really? You were really planning to go out?" Deborah couldn't believe her luck. An afternoon out, with Simmy, scrounging through history was her most favorite thing to do.
"Do you want to join me?" Simmy tossed her hook.
"You betcha!" Deborah slung the response into a street language 'I'm down with that' cool talk.
"Okay, my little urban dictionary lingo princess, I'll pick you up at 12:30?"
"12:40, the kids are off to school at that time," Deborah responded.
At 12:45, Simmy pulled up to Deborah's in the Hummer. As Deborah jumped into in she asked, "Where are we going?"
"We could go to the two stores I took you to last time or, hmm, I know, I could take you to that other thrift store... you know the one I was telling you about? The one that sells stuff to buy Bibles for missions."
"Let's go to that one," Deborah responded. She loved trying the new thing.
Half an hour later they arrived, across town, at the Dutch Anabaptist thrift store.
Simmy and Deborah walked the perimeter of the store and looked at all the 'stuff;' and 'stuff' there was, loads of it.
At the glass candle holder shelf, Simmy, with an interior designers' eye for treasure, snatched a clear glass candle holder off the shelf.
Deborah exclaimed, "That's exactly like my candle holders, on my coffee table."
Simmy responded, "It's really nice," but didn't give it up.
Deborah wandered, like a child in a new candy store, looking at the treasures. Simmy entered the bookstore. There was a remembrance stamped on her soul from when she had been here last year. She sensed the memory and looked for the treasure. There was a song book section, quite a good one, hymnals, even a Spanish one.
She looked at the book shelves, searching... "Aha, 'Emma,' there you are." Perfect for the 1950's scenes they were currently filming.
Happily, Simmy went to check the fabric section. She found this lovely piece of 'suiting' that would look great as a throw for her winter decorating scheme.
Half an hour later, Deborah was getting antsy so Simmy asked, "Would you like to go to the German donut shop?"
"Yep," it was going to be a street lingo day.
They paid and got back in the Hummer after a heavily accented Dutch lady exclaimed about the glass candle holder and gave Simmy a sideways hug. She was one of the volunteers.
As Deborah got back in the Hummer, Simmy pulled the glass candlestick holder out of her bag and got in the drivers' seat. With one graceful movement she put it into Deborahs' lap and started the engine.
Blustering objections and then a simple 'thank you' made the sun shine brighter.
"What was that saying you said earlier?" Simmy asked.
"I'm pickin' up what you're layin' down," Deborah quipped with urban dictionary prowess.
"Would you like to come in for tea?" Deborah invited. I'll play you that song that just made me cry, at the 2010 Olympics. K.D. Lang sang 'Hallelujah' written by Leonard Cohen."
The laptop speakers weren't cooperating on the Olympic Youtube so she found the 2005 Juno performance...
The first lines were about David...
Simmy said, "He seems to be talking about King David and his affair with Bathsheba. Oh, but that reference is Samson and Delilah."
Simmy retold the David and Bathsheba story as she remembered it.

October Fest

Chapter 61 (cont'd)
"Bundesliga, Mother," said the young glazier.
"Darling, 'Bundesliga' means 'Federal League' or nation-wide league. Its' name suggests cross-border acceptance, in my opinion."
"Your favorites again?" Simmy asked.
"They're always getting injured, my favorites," he grumbled.
"Well, Ballack is still Captain, isn't he? Obviously, the league feels that world-class brawn must have some world-class brain behind it or they wouldn't give him that post."
"I liked Ballack and Klose," the glazier commented.
"Liked? Past tense? Come on! Klose the carpenter. Some of the things I've read about him, make him a 'big picture' kind of man. He wants to be called a European. He was quoted saying, 'I am more interested in what we do as a team.'"
"Yah, yah," the glazier mumbled picking up his caulking gun.
"I have a great idea," Simmy jangled. "Let's see if we can out-do the 19 day Oktoberfest at our house this year."
"Can we have beer?" Young glazier cheered right up.
"I have only recently understood my aversion to beer versus wine."
"Don't make that into a university lecture, Mom."
Simmy ignored that comment and continued, "I don't like that yeast smell- taste."
"Is that a new word? Smell-taste?" The glazier mocked.
"It messes up my head and I don't know if I should swallow or chew."
"You're weird, Mom. I don't know anybody who thinks like you do."
"Yah, yah, I know," Simmy waved the statement off like chaff in the wind. "I found this equation enlightening from Professor Paul Mangelsdorf of Harvard."
"1. Cereal + Heat= production of popped or parched cereals, Popcorn!
2. Cereal + Heat + Water= production of gruel or porridge, Grandpa's breakfast,
3. Cereal + Heat (and/or grinding) + Water + Heat= production of unleavened bread, crackers, yum or communion wafers,
4. Cereal + Heat (and/or grinding) + Water + Yeast + Heat= production of leavened bread, what your Dad has made peanut butter sandwiches out of for 30 years,
5. Cereal + Water (+ Sprouting) + Drying + Grinding + Water + Yeast= Production of Beer, a beverage you find tasty...
When I put it like that it almost sounds holy, just add this movie."
"Like I said, you think differently than most people, Mom."
"Don't mess up that caulking. If there's one thing I hate, it's a messy caulking job."
"My boss was hired expressly to fix up an awful job someone else had done because they just put new caulking on top of old."
"Never works to cut corners like that. It always shows."