Spreading love, joy, peace, faith & unity

Archive for June, 2022

Who’s Your Best Friend?

At a memorial service last weekend,
175 friends and family gathered
From all over the USA to honor
My friend, Phyllis Wasick.

Phyllis died over two years ago
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Folks couldn’t celebrate her long life (88)
At that time; travel & gatherings shut down.

So now, as travel and gatherings resume,
We were able to gather together
To praise and celebrate our “Best Friend.”
I say that collectively intentionally!

Here is Phyllis with her daughter, Lisa
This was about a year before Phyllis
Went to be with her other best friends
Who had gone on to eternity before her.

At the memorial celebration of life
A few of her best friends were asked to speak.
It was not a “open mike” – that would have been crazy!
Everyone would have wanted to talk!

When asked, “Who was Phyllis’ best friend – really?”
The answer was, “The one she was with!!”
She made each one of us feel special.
She made each of us feel important.

She lived a life of love and inclusiveness.
She was a true friend to all and a servant, too.
She worked at the Food Bank, the church,
The library, and was a treasured Book Club member.

At the service, her great grandchildren
Gathered up front, led by one of her grandsons,
And they sang, “You are my Sunshine!”
Yes – the world was brighter with Phyllis in it!

So, who is YOUR best friend?
How would folks answer that about you?
Do you make each person you are with
Feel special, appreciated, and important?

It is a wonderful quality to posses.
I used to tell Phyllis, “I want to be you
When I grow up!” I am still growing –
And improving – with the memory of

Phyllis Wasick tucked deep in my heart!
Who inspires you to be everyone’s
Best Friend? It certainly was a lesson
Jesus taught every day of His ministry!

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=JTjUDJXTC6A&feature=share
Click on that link to hear a piano rendition
of that song with the lyrics for you…
Sing along!!

Psalm 133:1

“1 How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”

A friend encourages unity and interdependence. No divisiveness lives in a true friend.
Jesus was a friend to all ages!

A best friend cares about you
A best friend is a good listener
A best friend is someone you can confide in
A best friend knows how to keep sharing confidential
A best friend is supportive and trustworthy
A best friend loves you just the way you are
A best friend keeps in touch

Be a best friend to whoever you are with!
Maybe I can emulate my friend Phyllis-
With the help of God’s grace living in my heart
And the Holy Spirit within to guide me.

You can, too!

Jesus is my best friend!
And He helps me be more like Him every day…
Phyllis does, too!

Thanks for visiting my blog today.
See ya tomorrow (God willing).
Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Aging Gracefully, Bible Lessons, blessings, Faith, Family, friendship, God, Jesus, Life and Death, Living in Harmony, Love, relationships, Serving One Another

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Come Visit Us in Montana!

If I had space in my WordPress photo gallery, I would show you a series of photos of this place in Ennis, Montana where we are blessed to live. BUT, to add more photos, I have to erase older photos. The program tells me I am at 100% capacity! How does Derrick Knight manage to post so many beautiful photos of his garden on https://derrickjknight.com every day without running out of space? I need to discover his secret!

Meantime, what I did was put the photos on a Facebook post – and give you the link here so you can go there to see where we are inviting you to come visit. I hope you will/can check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/jan.beekman/

I’ll put one here as a teaser – hoping you’ll click that FB link and go see more, OK?

Bob & Jan love company… and now that my hand is better and I can be a hostess again, I hope you will consider a trip! We are just one hour from Yellowstone – and the entrance (nearest us) to the park is open now – and the road that takes you to Old Faithful is open, too… following those terrible floods a few weeks ago. Beekman B&B is full July 2-6, but after that, July is clear on our calendar!!

Our kitchen windows with the gorgeous lilac bush

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. It’s our daughter’s 35th anniversary this weekend… DeDe, the one who lives in Switzerland. We look forward to visiting them in the end of August.

Meantime, my devotional today in “Mornings with Jesus” encouraged me to “Find a quiet place. Write down any problems that surround you. Thank Jesus for being bigger than those problems.” It is not hard to find a quiet place here… and it is easy to live gratefully for daily healing of my broken finger and hurting hand, and to thank God for the beauty of nature and the peacefulness of this place. Come see for yourself!

Thanks for visiting JanBeek

Tell me what you’re doing this lovely weekend…
See ya Monday (I’m taking a day off tomorrow)
Hugs,
Jan Beekman

Category:

blessings, blogging, Fishing, flowers, friendship, Gratitude, happiness, Love, Montana, mountains, peace, Travel, trees

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Be Upbeat

Too many downers
Try to pull us asunder
Let’s be resisters

Let’s just be upbeat
Just look on the sunny side
Let’s resist darkness

Find good in others
Let’s shine light in the darkness
We need your sparkle

Photo by JESHOOTS.com on Pexels.com

“When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.”

Psalm 94:19

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The world needs your cheer
Be excited for today
Be inspiring

You can lift others
Out of their pessimism
Make joy contagious

Faith is the power
That helps you stay connected
To joy that abounds

So, just keep the faith
Keep letting God shine through you
He’ll keep you upbeat!

Cheers!

What are you feeling positive about today?
Share your good news!
We all need your smile.

(My good news is that my hand is healing.
The swelling is going down.
I was able to get my watch on today…
It fit over my hand for the first time
since the fall and broken finger April 20th.
The fingers are learning to bend again.
That’s my good news. What’s yours?)

See ya tomorrow (God willing)
Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Bible Lessons, contentment, Faith, God, Haiku, happiness, Living in Christ's Family, Love, music, optimism, Poetry, relationships, Serving One Another

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He’s the One!

Robert E’s the One🥰

Oh, he stole my heart away ♥️

I’m so very blessed 😇

Happy Father’s Day 🥳

I thank God for who you are 😀

For your precious love ❤️

Bob & I met in the summer of 1958 at a hometown dance. We had many mutual friends because he came from his little town of Hughson, CA in to the bigger town of Turlock (about 15 miles) to church every Sunday. I didn’t go to that same church, so I didn’t meet him while I was in high school.

That summer after my freshman year in college, I returned home to Turlock and attended a dance at the War Memorial building. It seems like all our mutual friends decided it was time for us to meet.

“Fine to meetcha!” he would say each time we were introduced. “What did you say your name is?”

It took two weeks after that introductory dance for him to call and ask me out. And it was three and a half years later when I was graduated and teaching, and he was stationed at an army base in Germany, that we married and I went to Wurzburg to join him.

Here’s the guy I fell in love with in 1959

I don’t have a photo here of us in Germany, but it was a magical 9 months. I got a job teaching on the army base … a darling first grade. And when we returned to the states, I resumed my teaching career and Bob finished college.

His job at Shell Oil in San Francisco lasted only a year or so. Then he went back to college and earned his teaching credential. Bob taught at Hillsdale High in San Mateo for nine wonderful years. During that time our children, Ty & DeAna were born.

Bob with De (3) and Ty (5)

We moved back to the Turlock area in 1969 and our kids attended school in Modesto while I taught in Ceres & Hughson and Bob returned to his roots: beekeeping. The rest is history!

I just want you to know that I thank God every day for the love Bob & I have shared these 60+ years – and the gift of family God has given us.

Our “children” – Ty & DeAna

I pray that you other moms & dads out there can look back as I do, and feel enormous gratitude for the person God gave you to be co-creators… may your children honor you this day, dads.

Thank you, Dear Lord, for telling me,

“He’s the One!”

He certainly is! God bless you, Bob!

Thanks for being such a great father!

Happy Father’s Day!

Love ❤️ JanBeek

Category:

blessings, children, Family, God, Gratitude, Haiku, Love, Poetry, relationships

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He Left Us

This post from Father’s Day two years ago is worth reposting. Today’s celebration will commemorate my dad and Bob’s pop with a visit from our friend, Scott. What are YOU doing today?

Category:

Love

Yellowstone Flooding

Today our little town of Ennis and the neighboring tourist town of Virginia City, Montana are overrun with tourists who can’t get in to Yellowstone because of all the damage to roads and bridges because of the flooding.

This is a train bridge washed out by the flooding. Roads and bridges, houses and places of business have collapsed under the siege of rushing waters.

The Yellowstone River and the Gallatin all are washing away Yellowstone National Park’s infrastructure. It is so sad.

CNBC reported on its website, “Some of the worst damage happened in the northern part of the park and Yellowstone’s gateway communities in southern Montana. National Park Service photos of northern Yellowstone showed a mudslide, washed out bridges and roads undercut by churning floodwaters of the Gardner and Lamar rivers.

In Red Lodge, a town of 2,100 that’s a popular jumping-off point for a scenic route into the Yellowstone high country, a creek running through town jumped its banks and swamped the main thoroughfare, leaving trout swimming in the street a day later under sunny skies.”

Look left and right in this next photo and see where the road should be/ used to be. It’ll take months, if not years, to repair this kind of damage.

In the midst of all this, though, we know we have a Protector who is watching over us. We have not heard of any lives being lost.

Yesterday’s devotional in my “In Touch” daily reading reminded me to BE AT PEACE. “We can have peace in the midst of uncertainty,” Charles Stanley wrote. “If He is our Rock, then we won’t be shaken by the events in this world or even those in our own life.”

Psalm 62:5-8

“5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
    my hope comes from him.
6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God[a];
    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
8 Trust in him at all times, you people;
    pour out your hearts to him,
    for God is our refuge.”

Today Bob & I are headed for Bozeman. It’s our nearest city, about 60 miles away. The sky is blue, the temperatures are perfect – in the mid 70’s – there is a slight breeze. Life is good. The hills are green. Our lilacs are in full bloom. God is good!

My heart goes out to those in Harm’s Way – war zones, flood zones, etc. – but I know “My Redeemer Liveth” and I can be at peace. I pray you are feeling God’s peace today, too.

May God bless you… and reassure you that indeed, He will bring us all to Victory! Enjoy this lovely reassurance from Nicole Mullen:

Have a blessed day.
See ya later.


Love, JanBeek
(and Bob, too)

Category:

Life's Challenges, Love, Montana, music, peace

Tagged with:

Be Fruity!

Are you a fruitcake?
Filled with fruits of the spirit?
Let me hear a YES!!

Do you grant to God
Permission to infuse you
With His divine gifts?

Photo by Trang Doan on Pexels.com

What are those divine gifts?
Do you have them memorized?
Are they yours – living fruits in you?

Each day as I walk down
the circular staircase
from my sanctuary,
I repeat my 12 step program:

Thank You, God, for the
1) Love,
2) Joy, and
3) Peace
that are mine!

Give me help, God, with
these Fruits of the Spirit
that I need help to exhibit:
4) Patience,
5) Kindness,
6) Goodness,
7) Faithfulness
(which brings blessings).
8) Gentleness, and
9) Self-control.

Help me
10) live humbly
with an attitude of gratitude
and
11) a response of generosity,
forgiveness,
12) Obedience and Integrity.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen

When you pray daily
Asking God to give you fruits,
Trust, my friends, He will!

Be fruity!

Oh, and don’t forget to
keep smiling, my friends.
Fruity people are happy folks!!
Be a fruitcake!

Happy and content is how God created us.
Let’s claim that idea!

Thanks for visiting JanBeek today.
See ya tomorrow (God willing) –
Hugs!

If you’re happy
and you know it,
you can be a little fruity
like Jack Hartmann
and sing along
with this song for
all kids and young at heart!

He’s a fruitcake personified!!

Category:

Bible Lessons, Faith, God, Haiku, Living in Harmony, Love, music, Poetry, prayer, relationships, Serving One Another, Spiritual Gifts

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All Are Welcome

I bet you choose love, too.

Today in church, the choir taught the congregation a new hymn. At least it was new to us. About verse three, the congregation couldn’t hold – they had to (simply HAD to) join in… and the message resonated with everyone there.

I was reminded of the slogan at Bloom in the Desert where we attended several different Januarys when we vacationed near Palm Springs, CA: “We welcome all who welcome all.”

Wouldn’t it be grand if all people could exhibit that level of inclusivity?

Aren’t those lyrics wonderful?
Did you find yourself singing along?

Hallelujah! Love is grown in this place! I am so happy to worship in a place where “All Are Welcome.” I just wish we could cultivate more diversity in our little corner of Montana. We came from California 15 years ago. Our community in CA was made up of people from many ethnicities. I miss that! Montana does have a large Native American population, though. I wish more of them would move into southwest Montana!

Meet a couple of very talented brothers:

What can we
– as diversity-loving citizens –
do to encourage more of that
“We Welcome All” attitude
in our world?

Share some ideas with me.

Big hugs to you.
Have a beautiful Sunday.
Cheers!
Left hand is gaining flexibility
and strength every day.
Thanks for your prayers.
Keep smiling!!


I send my love to you.
See you tomorrow (God willing)
Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Belief, Bible Lessons, Giving, God, kindness, life, Living in Harmony, Love, Montana, music, peace, relationships

Tagged with:

Suck it Up!

Come on! Suck it up!
Surely, it can’t hurt that much.
On with therapy!!

You expect some gain?
Expect flexibility?
Well, stretch the limits!

Beyond comfort zone
Lies the land of Great Promise.
Let’s strive to arrive.

Photo by Vlad Cheu021ban on Pexels.com

I went to occupational therapy today. A compression glove should help reduce the swelling on this hand now that the pins are out and the hand can move again. But just wearing a glove isn’t going to get my fingers back to being functional again. I gotta work at it!

Darci, the therapist gave me a glob of silly putty. Do you remember playing with that when you were a kid? Rolling and squeezing the putty is the order of the day. It feels like I am rolling a bale of hay and trying to squeeze it! Ouch! The little finger (the one that was broken) and the ring finger next to it (the one that was taped to the broken pinky to give it stability) both are hyper-sensitive and stiff. Suck it up, Jan! You can do this! No pain, no gain, remember?

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

Have you tried putting on a sweater with just one functional hand? Or better yet, pulling your pants up single-handed? No fun! Can’t play my accordion. Have trouble cutting a piece of meat. Try folding the laundry with only one hand. Oh, brother, suck it up, Jan! There are a whole lot of people in this world worse off than I am. Think positively!!! Grab that silly putty and get to work!

I can do this!
Grin and bear it!!

“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.”

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.”

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
He enables me to tread on the heights.”

“Finally, be strong in the Lord
and in his mighty power.”

What kind of struggle do you face these days?
Are you needing to just “Suck it up” and do it?
Have you prayed to the Lord for help?
I’ll pray for your strength and tenacity…
You pray for mine, OK?
Thanks!

Have a great weekend.
See ya tomorrow (God willing).
Love,
JanBeek

Photo by Designecologist on Pexels.com

Category:

Bible Lessons, courage, Faith, God, Haiku, Life's Challenges, Living in Christ's Family, Love, music, optimism, Poetry, prayer, Serving One Another

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Patience & Tenacity

This title has been nagging at me
for the past few days.
Patience and Tenacity-
We all need them!

Impatience causes
Untold distresses for us.
Slow down. Breathe deeply.

Choose tenacity –
Hold tight to the task at hand –
Perseverance reaps rewards.

Healing progresses
On its own slow timetable –
Just like most progress.

Photo by icon0.com on Pexels.com

My hand’s not ready
To grasp yours firmly today.
It’s stiff and it’s sore.

But with some patience
And lots of tenacity,
That day is coming.

Photo by Swapnil Sharma on Pexels.com

Meantime, I can reach
With my strong dominant hand
And accept your help.

Tonight Bob & I had a wonderful dinner provided by our friends/neighbors. We had a lovely day made brighter by some sunshine and an ice cream treat to celebrate the good news: the pins are out – and my broken finger is healing in its socket perfectly! God is good!! Thank you for your prayers. I feel them!!

We went outside and took off our Montana winter jackets,
and enjoyed our ice cream in the soooo welcomed sunshine!

Yay!! We think summer
is thinking seriously
about staying around for awhile.

Patience, Jan!
Tenacity is the word of the day
for our prayers for warmer weather, too!

HOPE is the measure
of faith in His promises.
Hang in there, my friends!

Hebrews 10:23

“Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope
without wavering
for He who promised
is faithful.”

Have a wonderful rest of your week.
Each day it will be easier for me to post.
Meantime – easy does it!
Stay in touch, please.

See ya later, alligator!


Love to you,
JanBeek

Category:

Aging Gracefully, Bible Lessons, Faith, God, Gratitude, Haiku, health, Life's Challenges, Love, Poetry, Promises

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