May I Share JOY With You Today? You May Think JOY On The 44th Anniversary Of My Brother Ricky Going To Be With Jesus In Heaven? Yes, JOY I Chose To See In This Day.

You never forget one that you love even though it has been 44 years today that they left earth to go to heaven. He was young no doubt about that 22 years old just at the cusp of his life. I was a senior in high school and his death was a big thing in our community. We had a newspaper reporter come to our house and interview my mom. It was sort of like the movie Perfect Storm but way ahead of that time. My mom actually still has the Coast Guard report they gave her. On Good Friday when others were preparing for solemn masses (we were of Catholic faith) to reflect on the death of Jesus and then the glorious resurrection on Sunday we were faced with waiting to hear from the Coast Guard to get further details of what happened.
See, they somehow thought my brother was from another city in the state in which we resided in and there was a little blurb in the newspaper that they were looking for the family of him. You do not need to know all of the details today I think I have shared them with you before. The gist of the story 7 onboard the boat and only 4 life preservers. The 4 that had the life preservers were the survivors. They told my mom that they heard his voice while they were in the water waiting to be rescued to a point then they stopped hearing it. With me & my sister attending an all girls Catholic high school, the school presented us with a beautiful memorial mass along with the big Catholic mass of the resurrection at a local church I think that is what they called it. There were a lot of people that attended that mass. Since there was no body to bury my mother ordered a beautiful tree at the Catholic cemetery and had a placard made to be below the tree.  Let me tell you about the beautiful banner the school made to be a part of that mass and then it was presented to us. It actually hung from a piece of driftwood. Our school actually had property that went down to Lake Erie. We were not allowed to go down to the beach if you did and were found out that was serious to the nuns. Meaning some sort of reprimand. It touched my heart the banner said, "Dream Deep for Every Dream Precedes The Goal." I actually had that printed on the front of our wedding invitations when I got married and we also had that banner displayed at the wedding mass.
Wow I did not mean to go down that trail. Maybe someone needed to hear about the importance of dreams. So, with me working from home now (I am most blessed to be able to do that) I got up early enough to run to a local grocery store this morning. I got there and they changed their hours to open an hour later. At that time I would already be working my schedule at home. I thought to myself why are they catering to the hours of the people not working instead of people that are working. I know that was wrong to think and a it selfish too. I had to go to another local store. You need to know that because it is part of the JOY story ok. After work I felt Holy Spirit nudging me to go to that store and get an Easter lily plant. He knows I love flowers. As long as I can remember I don't recall this particular store having a buy one get one free on Easter lilies. They did and of course I was double blessed with 2 nice plants for me to embrace the fragrance that comes forth when they bloom. I love flowers and at one time when I had a house I would save the bulb and plant it outside because it would grow the next year and so forth. Oh guess what? The heirloom curly parsley seeds soaked for 24 hours in water (like the directions stated) and I planted them this afternoon. So excited to see them spring forth. I am already seeing little greens springing forth from the flower seeds I planted a few days ago.
This is very interesting, at times when I am ministering with a person did you know Holy Spirit will give me an image of a flower and I speak it forth with the words that come forth for that person. Sometimes it can be a tight closed flower or a flower that blooms right before my eyes. I love when that happens because it is a word just for that person but He knows I can relate to flowers. I told you people, He is a very personal friend to me and knows me and how I operate. Listen to His voice and He will show you hidden treasures not just for you but for others to minister to them. Will you open up your heart and dreams to Him this very day, the choice is truly yours.
Not the best picture but here is the banner I spoke about today:

I had a couple of early morning dreams today I told you JOY was in this day. You know what still is inside of me? I often think I would like to interview the survivors of the fatal boat accident and write about it. It used to come to me more frequent and I even asked my sister at one time if she would like to work on that too, she declined. I tend to suppress it but just today I was sharing that with someone and they said they would buy that book if I wrote it. Is it a fancy whim or a Holy Spirit nudge. If a nudge it sure has been around a long time as it comes and goes. Sort of like the tides of the sea. I do not even know how to get in touch with them or even if they would allow me to interview them. I am feeling to share more with you at this time. The day my brother left , he left a note for me and my sister on our dresser. Sort of a take care note and to take care of mom. My mom tells us of the day he left and pulled out of the driveway that she saw him and it was as if he was looking to keep a memory stored in him. Bless my mother in a mighty way Lord for her love and praying heart too.