That's Just the Way It Is

My Mother, bless her heart, had a matter-of-fact way of saying a thing was what it was. When she had done all she could to work a thing out and could see no other way to try to work a thing out, that is when she came out with those words. For instance, when it was time for school to start back and all of my friends would be going school shopping, my Mother and I would be so thankful when a neighbor or church member brought over a bag of used clothes.

It meant that I would have new clothes for school! My Mother had been reduced to private home-work by then, so often the people that she worked for would give her clothes for me. Some of the things were practically new. That is when I began running seams up the sides of garments to make them fit my 105-pound frame. The generosity of people kept me in new clothes year after year for my junior high and high school years.

After All These Years

Even now, I find myself having that same attitude of making it through until change comes by wearing my rose-tinted glasses of faith. Folk that don't know my story have often ridiculed me for having such an optimistic attitude, but I don't mind, well not enough to make me change who I am. I am who I am by the grace of God, and I proudly stand on that fact. The mountains, hills, and valleys that I have had to traverse have made these old battle-scarred and weary legs of faith strong enough to carry me the rest of the way home. Yes, have been made strong enough to keep my connection with the Lord through prayer, thereby ensuring my triumphant entry to that wonderful City of God.

Do you remember the pendant that I wear around my neck that says, "DEI Sub Numine Viget?" Those words mean, "Under GOD's Spirit, She Flourishes." That is the way it was:

• at the beginning of my life


• and when I fell from a two-story landing as a less than two-year-old and landed on my brothers back


• when a mean old teacher whipped me with three platted willow switches and my screams made another teacher come into that old one-room schoolhouse cloakroom and get her off of me at four years old because I wet my pants because she would not let me go to the outhouse


• when a car careened across three lanes and spun completely around going in the opposite direction, just barely missing me when I was seven years old


•  when I stuck a pen in a socket at eight years old


• and when I got straight, A's in my junior high class, and a girl wanted to cut my neck off with a razor in a fit of jealousy, etc.

That's the way it was then, and that's just the way it is now. In spite of it all, I know that "Under His Spirit, I Flourish." I know that He is able and that He will smooth out all of my adversities and level my mountains. I named some negatives that stood out in my life, but there have been, oh so many positives, a few of which are:

• being given a student loan and a small scholarship for college (first time student loans were given on the basis of need)


• having a Mother who instilled in me that I could and would be somebody because I had a God, Who loved me and came to my aid time after time regardless of the fact that the world would have me understand that I was not good enough


• the countless benefactors that came to my aid over the years until I could stand on my own two feet and even now


• coming to the realization that this life of mine is not all about me but about what I can do in service to the God of eternity.

That' just the way it is, y'all.

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,

Alma L. Grateful Stepping On Carr-Jones