The Amazing Treasure of Recall, The Energizing Magic of Daily Memories!

If you follow me on Facebook you've likely seen this image before. It's what I see each morning as the sun rises.

For me however, it's not just a bunch of trees, a backyard cabin, an old gazebo and a brick sidewalk! Rather, treasured memories of a once vacant lot with which I would surprise my wife.

It would be her well-deserved reward for relocating so soon after our first new build, located on a former wooded lot in another city, with a story of its own.

She had designed that home, decorated it, dreamed of precious memories as she hosted friends. Then, only a few months after its completion, I would change vocations entirely. Relocation would become necessary in only 3 short years.

With that change came much risk and a serious reduction in salary. We cashed out and purchased a smaller home.

It was a new one, however the veneer was no longer brick, but vinyl, the lot no longer wooded, but level. Sufficient landscaping only for a Certificate of Occupancy. She would have work to do to make this a home for the three of us.

Three more years would pass until blessings caught us up on our loss, and the call to build again sounded in my spirit.

Too much to share in one post, as we have truly been blessed. This view however erupts anew every morning causing such memories to resurface.

The labor of friends, numerous planning conversations with our now deceased dads, both who always helped with constructing our dreams.

The pergola over the rear patio, built from logs milled by a former student, now covered with ornamental vines.

The broken ankle that friends helping with that pergola heard "snap" as LaDonna tripped, off balanced while carrying 2×6's needed for its construction.

That night, miraculously healed as we prayed together!

The nine sided gazebo that should have been eight, sadly when finished, no longer accommodating a standard cupola.

Her dad and I had mistaken LaDonna's well-placed stake, intended only as a marking for the middle of the yet built sidewalk.

The backyard cabin, later built to accommodate her dreams and provide my large fireplace, long before we could ever conceive of affording a second home in the mountains.

Oh, and a second, tiny cabin also erected once the grandchildren were born. LaDonna thought it absolutely necessary!

Her creative eye had noticed a hack of waste lumber in the yard of the sawmill that had provided timbers for the aforementioned pergola.

We passed there often as we returned to our favorite a BBQ restaurant, just a few blocks up from the first home we bought as newlyweds.

That smaller cabin would be followed by a tree house, an handmade seesaw, and a zip line as well!

Now at age 77, all those memories require maintenance, our backyard "park" no longer the favored spot in the minds of our digital age grands!!

However, these memories make all of it worth the investment of our time, talent and resources..along with the grateful praise offered the One who has so prospered our lives!