Contemplating the Heavens

Welcome to this month's Blog Hop hosted by Scrapworthy Lives.  If you are participating in the blog hop, you should have arrived from Pie for Breakfast.  If not, you can always go back to Scrapworthy Lives to start the hop.  :)

This month's topic is Contemplating the Heavens based on Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun." This is an odd topic for me, and I'm not really sure how to tackle it.  It has been a long time since I've read The Happiness Project, so I don't really remember what Gretchen Rubin had to say about the subject either.

For me, a not-religious person, I struggle with this issue every week it seems.  In the past months (and mostly the last week), I have thought a lot about these things.  I think anytime a loved one is diagnosed with cancer, it is natural to think about faith, death, and the heavens.  When Tim went in for surgery on Wednesday, I just kept asking the universe to "keep him safe."  And while I'm not religious, I operate from a place of gratitude, and am so thankful that he was safe and hopefully will be healing soon.

My father-in-law is one of the most deeply religious people I've ever met (and my mother-in-law as well).  Al is a retired minister, and until recently, he and Gladys spent nearly every day at their church, involved in some activity or another.  The thing I really love about them is that, as deeply religious as they are, they never pound you over the head with their beliefs or try to tell you what to think.  They are the epitome of my belief of true Christians.  They don't look down on people who don't believe exactly as they do.  They are accepting of other religions.  They have compassion.  They worry about those less fortunate than they are.  They operate from a place of true love.  They are amazing.  And while I am not a religious person, I am a spiritual person, and on that level we connect.

I feel very fortunate in the fact that my father-in-law actually performed our wedding ceremony.  He came out of retirement to marry us, and it made things even more special.  I still haven't scrapped the pictures from our wedding, but I absolutely loved the one of my in-laws. It will always hold a special place in my heart.

Al & Gladys at the reception

Next stop on the Blog Hop is...  Take a Picture and Remember This

If you would like to go back and see all participants, I've posted the full list below.

Scrapworthy Lives
Pie for Breakfast
Scraps & Sass
Take a Picture and Remember This
1200 Some Miles
Slice of Life Abstracts 
Mixed with Extracts
Your Memory Connection
Kiss & Tell Scrapbooking
My Creative Days in Beijing
Melissa’s Blog

Thanks for stopping by.