Today marks one year since my mother-in-law died - hard to believe…  She was a wonderful lady whom I loved, and I miss her.  There are surely others of you out there who are observing a similar anniversary - my heart goes out to you.

This week, all across our great country, young people are going back to school, but I like to think of ‘em as going forward to school!  For example, there are many young men and women who are leaving home for the first time and traveling across the country to a school and brand new, huge, important chapter in their lives.  Please join me in lifting them in prayer as they try and mesh with a pot-luck roommate, perhaps sharing a room for the first time, shraing a bathroom with strangers from all walks of life, etc.  While excited, remember that many grieve having to actually leave the comforts of home and the security of parents.  And parents… I know while you take a couple of deep breaths of relief from the day-to-day grind, you grieve, missing your child.  Perhaps you fear for their future, etc.  Please folks, let’s lift one another during this transitional time - we all need each other, and certainly we need the strength, guidance, and comfort of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

Ooh, how do you deal with the unknown - it can be so scary!  Why is it that we typically fear the unknown?  Heaven is unknown, and yet we, Christians, don’t seem to fear Heaven - we look forward to it!  We do seem to fear death, but not Heaven.  Perhaps it’s because we are of Heaven.  We’re not living, or even dying, human beings - we’re living spiritual beings dying to get home to Heaven!!!  It’s the journey that’s unknown, and that can be scary.  But the Lord says ‘Fear not, for I am with you always’.  I wonder if the best way to deal with the unknown is not to, but rather to simply deal with the known (here & now), leaving the unknown (future) to our Heavenly Father…  Sounds good to me!  (I just wish that was easy to do, huh?!?!)

I know it’s been two weeks since I’ve blogged, and I’ll try not to wait that long again, but I find it’s so easy to just pick up where I left off.  Our loving relationships are like that - when we are (someday) reunited in Heaven, we’ll just pick up where we left off!  The only difference is… we won’t go back to the way we were (isn’t that a song?) - instead, we’ll go forward (together, hand in hand) to the way it is meant to be - loving… perfect love - like we’ve never known before.  I know it’s hard not to look back - believe me… I know, but it’s so much better (healthier) to look forward - I guess we might as well, huh?!?!

Today would have been Yvonne’s and my Silver Anniversary!  I can’t really think what to wrtie, but I wanted to write something… 

I’ve been to a few weddings since Yvonne died - in fact, I’ve been in two of ‘em, and I cringe everytime I hear the minister say ’till death us do part’.  I mean… I just can’t believe I’m no longer married (in the eyes of the law).  See… (pun intended), in my eyes, I’m still married and today, I’m gonna celebrate our 25th anniversary and nobody can stop me!  Yvonne and I didn’t just love each other to death - we love each other infinitely!!!  That’s what we always said to each other.  We didn’t say ‘I just love you to death’ - we said ‘I love you infinitely’!  See the difference?  Today, please consider telling your spouse that you don’t just love ‘em to death - that you love em infinitely!

So many people are looking for more (than they’re gettin from their spouse).  I propose that ‘more’ is available from their spousal relationship if they would love ‘em more - I’m talkin about goin all the way!  When you’re only willing to love someone to a point - to death - that just aint gonna cut it, but when you love someone, and keep on lovin ‘em infinitely… now, that’s somthen you can hang your hat on!

One of the most quoted scriptures during weddings is of course the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians.   It teaches that faith, hope, and love… these three, and the greatest of these is love.  Have you ever wondered why love is the greatest of these three?!?  It’s because after you die, you no longer need faith and hope, but love… ah, love… it just keeps goin infinitely

Today, in honor of my 25th, please read (preferrably with your spouse) the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, and pay special attention to what love is not.  Perhaps you may best understand what love is by understanding what it is not.

Love, Hatch

I just wanted to invite you to ask me whatever you’d like (as it relates to grief, of any kind)…

i was thinking about something the other day…  I have survived a year since my wife died.  But let’s take someone a quarter of my age - i figure they’ve survived longer - it’s all in how you do the math.  Let me explain…  You’re probably saying ‘no… you’ve both survived a year’, but in my thinking, they’ve survived longer (at least to them), because whereas I’ve survived 1/48th of my life, they’ve survived 1/12th of their life, which is quite longer - see???  Now… that’s how I see it…  So… to that twelve year old, I would encourage him/her to realize they have in deed survived - it’s time for them to try to thrive.  Now, they may have fully survived and are ready to thrive whereas I may not be finished (fully) surviving, but I, as the adult, know they need me to lead them in knowing how to move on towards thriving - problem is… I have to be careful not to get ahead of myself or I’ll fall forward - flat on my face!  Boy… it really is a balancing act, huh???

This weekend, I’m having an estate sale at my parents-in-law’s house in Little Rock.  (I don’t have to be there for the sale.)  It’s weird though - imagining strangers going through their things - I couldn’t watch that - no way.  It’s hard enough being home, just thinking about it.  ‘Course, the really hard part was going through the house, getting everything that I wanted, or needed, for myself.  I may have mentiioned this before, in an earlier ‘entry’, but the very hardest part was when I finished going through the house (where they lived for forty years - that’s a lot of stuff).  Yeah, that last ‘walk thru’ - turning off lights, closing curtains, locking the door, and driving off - knowing that would be the last time…

I feel sorry for people who aren’t the least bit sentimental.  On the other hand, being as sentimental as I am does tend to make it tougher - cleaning out, moving on…  I was talking to a friend the other day, and I was saying how… you take a chest of drawers for example, one that’s been in the family a long time… you don’t need it - you don’t have a place for it, etc., but you hate to sell it - you hate to part with it - you hate to say ‘good bye’ to it, a mere thing… but it’s more than that - much more - it’s a link to your loved one.  So… whatdya do???  Since a chest of drawers is for storing things, it doesn’t make much sense to store something that is for storing things now, does it?  I like to think of it as trading it - trading it for something special - perhaps something that you wouldn’t spring for yourself…  For example, instead of thinking of it as selling these things, I’m thinking of it as trading these things for something - something special, like perhaps a nice new camera, which could be used for documenting memories - how ’bout that?!?! 

How wonderful to be free to worship God in our own way, whenever we wish - now… that’s freedom!  And it is wonderful!  Too bad it’s not free, huh - never was, never will be.  We got it, and we gotta keep it!  We gotta pass that forward to the next generation/s!!!  Yeah, it’s definitley worth fighting for, and thank God for all those brave men & women who do just that - carry on, with Godspeed!  Bless you, and God Bless American, home of the free and the brave!!!

I am sooo sorry I haven’t written in so long - I was out of town, and then I had technical difficulties!

You know… I feel like it’s been too long since I’ve heard from my wife, or her parents (kind of like it’s been too long since I’ve written on this webiste - though it’s very different).  I’m like… Yvonne, come on!!!  It’s been long enough already - come on out!  Where are you?  Your parents too - where are y’all?  This isn’t funny anymore.  I mean… don’t you sometimes fell like… i just can’t believe they’re gone!!! 

So… how do you go forward when you wanna keep looking back over your shoulder, hoping they’ll be there…  What works for you - how do you do that?!?!  I know we shouldn’t keep looking back - we should look forward, but to what?!?!  We’ve gotta create a new life worth looking forward to - we have to!!!