Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

It is rather ironic that today is not only World Kindness Day...but also a Friday the 13th day.

Since starting this blog (a decade ago) and doing all kinds of stories on a Friday the 13th month… year after year…we have grown pretty accustomed to this day with all its superstitions, dark legends, myths, and fallacies.

Yet kindness…stories about kindness never grow old or tedious from the beginning of history on….

The first universal act of kindness in scripture…after the creation of this world in which we live…is God’s act of kindness providing man and woman a home in it…and not just any home…but a home with a garden that is more beautiful than the mind can imagine and our needs met more bountifully than we could possibly fathom.

We’ve all heard the story and we know it doesn’t end well…yet kindness still exists in this world because the irony of the Garden of Eden message is God is already part of whom we are inside each of us …because nothing exists outside of God…the world, the universe… God, you, and me…we are all one and the same.

The world is God’s self-expression. It is God’s essence realized and experienced. Since gathering enough courage to start this blog post ten years ago…I completely understand these concepts.

What wakes me each morning is the idea that I get to discover new ideas and thoughts every single day…the blog has become my self-expression, my passion…my world, my universe…my special time with God.

Another new epiphany hit me this World Kindness Day….

The root word “kin” from kindness challenges us to see others as our own kin. This brings us full circle with Christ’s most powerful commandment:

John 13:34-35

Dear Reader:

You might remember Monday my stomach was doing circus acts …flipping, flopping, and flapping all day. I needed something in it…but something soft and easy to digest.

Then I remembered the Chick Fil-A advertisement for their new mac and cheese entree….I hadn’t been there in months but some sweet tea and a bowl of mac and cheese seemed to be a good option.

I had forgotten how organized this franchise is…the workers directing traffic, taking the orders, telling you which car to follow, etc. were in ‘military precision.’ In fact I told my mobile waiter/cashier by my car…that their company should write Biden and suggest (that by the next election) the election committee use Chick-fil-A employees to count votes. They are unbelievably organized!

As I was waiting to circle the building…I noticed that a bird nest had gone up in the hole in the bottom of the “F” letter and a little bird had flown in with some food to share. So sweet.

It was while I was circling Chick-fil-A that I remembered Ann Graves had recently recalled one of her favorite funny anecdotes from an earlier blog post.  Something that I had witnessed several years ago while circling Kentucky Fried Chicken. I started chuckling in recollection. Here goes.

It was sprinkling one day as I circled Kentucky Fried Chicken to pick up some cole slaw for a family gathering that afternoon. The lady in the car in front of me had her windows down and I could hear her screaming before I even saw her….while I finished circling the lot to get in line to place my order.

Obviously she was somewhat inebriated (to be kind)…she had mistakenly braked in front of a large trash can disposal that was a few feet before the ordering stop.

Thinking she was ordering her food there…(she was holding the swinging slit open with one hand and yelling inside the trash can) I heard her loudly complaining “What’s going on in here…are y’all closed…I don’t see no lights on…for the third time I said I wanted two big buckets of chicken and some sweet tea.“

When still no one answered …she began beeping as loudly as she could and screamed “Well…keep your damn chicken…I don’t want nuttin’ from this here place anyways… it’s dark and stinks to high heaven!” With that she slammed on the accelerator and screeched by the ordering station and receiving window.

I placed my order and when I got to the window…a young boy was shaking his head and asked me about the lady in front of me that just flew by with her middle finger extended at him.

When I told him what had happened…he was doubled over with laughter and called his manager to come hear the story again. The elderly manager finally caught his breath and said,”All I can say is… “That lady was one chicken short of a bucket.” 

Don’t we love living in the South…wouldn’t want to live anywhere else!

So until tomorrow…Reach out emotionally to friends through calls, texts and emails…just talking through situations and finding humor amid uncertainty brings us strength for another day. Togetherness is everything.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Happy Veterans Day!

When I find myself in cemeteries where military tombstones and markers are in abundance…like the cemetery in Laurens where mother, daddy, and David lie…I feel such strong emotions for these men and women who ‘cut no corners’ when it came time to serve… and gave their lives for our freedom today.

One of my favorite local authors has always been Margot Theis Raven. When Carol Poole and I were doing workshops… especially for Georgetown County… we “lucked up” and found ourselves presenting at the same teacher forum she was. We excitedly told her how much we loved her children’s historical books…they made social studies for elementary and middle grade students come alive.

Some of her books included:

…and Carol’s and my favorite book for Veterans Day…America’s White Table. If you aren’t familiar with this story…click on the slide presentation.

*America’s white table – SlideShare

I don’t know how many times Carol and I set the table for this lesson on patriotism and sacrifice….but it was a lot. It was hard to get through the “demonstration” without breaking down and crying.

On the particular presentation in Georgetown where we got to see Margot Raven in person…she was not alone. While presenting her book at a Veterans dinner in Washington, DC she met her future husband and that day we all ended up together… we got to meet him too.

The presentation was titled: “A Five-Corner Hero.” It all started with a story Raven had heard from her parents about kindness and sharing…coming full circle.

There is  a story of a little girl with a piece of paper that had four corners. The girl treasured her four corners until she met a friend who only had three corners. When the friend asked for a fourth corner, the girl reluctantly gave her one corner from her paper. The girl thought she would have only three corners, but then noticed her paper now had five corners — two were in the place of the corner she had cut out to give to her friend.

Raven concluded with the statement “Sometimes, what you lose comes back… in abundance.”  

*If you look at the title picture…you can visibly see how cutting one corner off a  4-corner square or rectangle now leaves you with 5-corners.

Margot then went on to introduce Vietnam prisoner of war Air Force Colonel Thomas Hanton...whom she had met at the luncheon in Washington, DC.

…After arriving at the prisoner of war camp ( where he would endure torture for nine months)…Hanton looked at what he had and found a way to boost the spirits of other prisoners, Raven said.

Using dead mosquitoes, Hanton created an American flag on the wall in the prison..

“He had time and there were plenty of mosquitoes,” she explained.

Hanton was punished when guards discovered it, and the wall was whitewashed, she continued.

“Three days later, (Hanton) started a new flag,” Raven said. “That’s what you do when you’re a fifth-corner person.”

Raven encouraged everyone in the audience  to be” five-corner people” and to look for heroes among everyday people.

Carol and I were so happy when we heard later that she and Colonel Thomas Hanton were engaged and then married…living in Mt. Pleasant.

But then as I researched her story again for a Veterans presentation a few years later ..I was forced to pause in shock.

I  discovered an  obituary notice  for author, Margot Theis Raven. She died August 16, 2014 from Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

There was a memorial service at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Mt. Pleasant and a tombstone erected…today, however, her body is interred at Arlington National Cemetery. She is certainly deserving of that honor for all the contributions she made for Veterans everywhere with her book.

Today when you stop to thank a veteran…let him or her know  that they are a “five corner hero” to you.

So until tomorrow…Don’t forget the kindness lesson on how four corners become five corners when you give one away…

“By giving away all your corners, you will change the shape of what you are holding,” Raven said. Eventually, the paper becomes a circle, the shape of the world. Yes…each of you can change the world by your generosity to others!”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Margot’s last book was published just two weeks before her death in August of 2014…the story of a remarkable dog  in  WWI

*Ben, Thank you today for all you endured in Vietnam and since…we both are living with on-going health challenges, breast cancer and PTSD but mother didn’t raise any quitters…did she?

Quote from my brother Ben:

I’m often asked, “So where is God in all of this?” My answer is the same… that God is where He has always been-right beside you. Should He be busy, He has lots of angels ready to do His bidding. I’ve bumped into a few of them along life’s journey. I also ran into a few of them in Vietnam.”

“I don’t see PTSD as some sort of disease. Rather, in my case, fighting PTSD has opened doors and avenues of personal development that would never have happened otherwise. It may seem like a big price to pay but I know that I’m better as a person because of what I have had to learn about myself and the mysterious way God works. Amen.”

Monday morning the most beautiful moth landed on some morning glory leaves and I was able to get a quick picture of it…I texted Cindy Ashley and asked my ‘science guru’ if she knew what type of moth it was (just sheer curiosity)…she  knew right out of the gate… but researched for a whole day to verify it.

I told Cindy she was a true ‘life–time learner‘ …a retired science teacher still filled with curiosity and wonder!

I called Brooke to tell her that I took a picture of her sasanqua camellia to show Charlene at Flowertown Nursery…we found a match but it was from Southern Living and just had a girl’s name-Dianna.

I told Charlene I knew it wasn’t a girl’s name but something really pretty that had a special meaning for Brooke and me…Brooke had liked the name as much as the bloom.

I said it was something lyrical like ‘Dawn over light‘ or something similar… suddenly Charlene said she remembered Brooke and the birthday camellia and it had the word HOPE in it.

She reminded me that each floral company gives flowers a different nickname … she thought it should be called… …”Dawn of Hope.”  I called Brooke and told her …perfect..that is its name from now on.

On this Veterans Day…May we all look to a new dawn and hope for a new day.

Dear Reader:

Yesterday was the right time to pause and settle down…my poor stomach has been upset for a few days…thinking it was probably just all the tension around the election but I decided to pamper it and eat some soft foods and just be good to myself – to enjoy a relaxing day.

I was going to have a mini-me stay-cation day.

I fixed a soft egg for breakfast and then looked to see what my StoryWorth question was for this week. I read it aloud…“Did you have enough money growing up.”

I thought about that question for a few minutes before answering it.

Because of all the early personal tragedy that befell my family when I was so little (five) I was raised by so many wonderful extended family members those early years…aunts and uncles, close friends of my parents, and grandmother Wilson. (mother’s mother)

Like most small children money meant nothing to me…security meant everything. So  long as I felt loved, had food in me, and a place to sleep I felt “rich.” Then after our little family finally returned home together… soon after mother’s hand amputation…it was still security and love that meant the most to all of us.

Mother and I shared one bedroom in our duplex and the boys shared a room together. I didn’t get my first bedroom until I was thirteen after we moved to Laurens…when mother bought a three bedroom home.

In Fayetteville…we had been the “poor” relatives on that side of the family…while our cousins lived in spacious homes, their parents got new cars frequently, all of them had second vacation homes and took elaborate vacations…cruises to the Bahamas and Scottish dance camps in Nova Scotia.

The cousins were wonderful to us…always including us as family and spend the night occasions, etc. I am pretty sure my uncles paid for Ben and my camps each summer…but again it must have been hard on mother knowing that if daddy had not gotten ill and had gone in with Uncle Max as partner in the lumber company…it would have been us living a much different life…similar to my cousins.

In fact mother later told me (after she moved the family back home to Laurens) that her decision was made because the difference in the opportunity gap between my extended cousins family and us was increasingly widening with the success of the company. She didn’t want to feel like a charity case any longer.

She said she also wanted me to finally have a bedroom to myself (with the teenage years upon me) before leaving home for good. So sweet.

What I think mother overlooked was that we children saw this amazing parent, literally “single-handedly” raise us, provide us with all the essentials we needed in life- spiritual faith, work ethics, a moral compass, and some genetic grains of true “grit” to carry us through our own paths in life.

As fate would have it…it was mother’s role model that did become my blue-print for raising three children as a single parent too…and battling metastatic breast cancer. What a role model I had!

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I spent an hour or so on the deck in the sun and worked on giving the mums a much needed hair-cut – added some more plants to the deck and just took in all the beauty around me….

So until tomorrow…

” Always remember…Some people are so poor…all they have is money.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Sly and the Family Stone…”We Are Family”…now that brings back some wonderful memories…I must have played that tune hundreds of times as both a teacher and a workshop presenter over two decades at least.

I would give out post cards to the students or teachers…depending on whether I was in the classroom or presentation room at a school…the post cards  given out to each participant..started with…”Name, Town, County, City, State, Country, Continent, World, Planet, Constellation, and Universe.”

While the peppy music played…I would toss a beach ball globe  to the first participant and they had to stand in the middle of a circle dancing to the music as we all sang together “We are Family.”

Then the first participant tossed the ball to the player holding the Name card… He/she shouted out their name and  stood beside the first player and danced together  …then the ball was tossed to town, then county, then state, etc. until all the participants were dancing around the first “world/globe” student…each filling in the correct personal response connecting them to the universe.

The idea, of course, was that we are all connected in this universe…in every sense of the word…we are all family.

I think, right now, that is the most important thing we need to remember. Everyone breathing on this planet is part of the universe of life and as such…family. We are all related as human beings.

We must remember during this transitional time…that we have much more in common than we do differences….we are all “possibilitarians” in the sense that we want every possible opportunity to be made available for our generation, our children and  grandchildren, and so on. We all want to keep the ‘American Dream” alive.

We might disagree on how to achieve some of these goals…but by working together and letting our voices be heard… compromises be reached…together we can achieve family unity.

Personally…I will have to say that these past few days have brought my family closer together …texting, emailing or just poking fun at ourselves. ***Pulling together for shared beliefs…and especially consoling each other over Clemson’s first loss of the season. 🙂

When the going gets tough…family is everything. And the nice thing about family is that it can come in all shapes and sizes, all forms of gatherings…defined only by care, kindness, compassion, and love.

We all have “extended” families outside our own particular family units… as in our church family, our community and town family, our state family, American family, and world family.

So until tomorrow…Let the healing begin. “We are family.”

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Look what I found putting the Halloween part of fall back up…my silver pumpkins…how could I have forgotten them? At least I found them now, before Thanksgiving, and not Christmas!

And speaking of family…I babysat for Eva Cate and Jake Saturday night…so we were together playing, dancing, and building…as well as consoling…sorry Tigers…you played your hearts out even with so many players injured…so proud of you! You did “Believe in Yourself.” As you can see Jake is doing quite well – as he proclaims…he’s got some “moves”…and Eva Cate is the queen of Legos!

Brooke…that beautiful camellia bush you gave me for my birthday two years ago…is blooming for the first time! And it is gorgeous!!!! Going to call Flowertown Nursery where you got it for me and see if Charlene remembers the name of it…it was an exquisite name, too, I remember. (but just not the name?)

Dear Reader:

The idea behind this blog came about, indirectly, from a sign that was put up at the entrance to my neighborhood a couple of days ago. I was stopped at the stop sign I (at the end of the street) waiting to pull out and I happened to glance at the sign.

It caught my attention because I couldn’t figure out what it was trying to say initially. I know retired teachers can still be a pain when it comes to reading, writing, and for me spelling…but this was too funny.

The sign read…E  State Sale. I kept saying it over and over in my mind until bingo! Someone was having an Estate Sale. I thought to myself…well…at least they broke it down and it would have worked if it wasn’t written as two separate words.

When mother died I, too had an estate sale.…Lassie helped me get the furniture priced and cleaned…ready for customers. She did a terrific job I remember.

The “shabby chic” chair in the title photo was one piece of furniture I knew I should keep…because of the history of it belonging to some great aunts who had passed it down to mother and her sister…and they passed it down to me.

Every time someone would casually mention that they knew someone who could re-cover the chair…I always fell back on the same response…”You know I thought about it…but one lesson I have learned from the Antique Show…is that you should never re-cover anything…it loses it value.” 

It sounded good but we all know I just didn’t have any extra money around to pay for it.

As the years went by…it became Ruthie the doll’s chair… except for the weeks around Christmas when she is my angel atop the tip top of my Christmas tree.

As long as I am around she will continue to be my Christmas angel each year in honor of my friend, Gloria Houston, who wrote the favorite  children’s Christmas story: The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree. We became friends through Honey and later Brooke taking me to invited Houston celebrations and birthdays… and remained corresponding buddies until her untimely death… due to a rare cancer a few years ago.

So when I came across this Christmas memory by Archibald Rutledge, owner of Hampton Plantation, I understood exactly how Archie’s father felt in this sweet memory of Christmases past.

Francis Marion and the Ebony Chippendale Armchair

Growing up at Hampton Plantation there were always mysteries about the house that Archie couldn’t understand…one of these was a broken ebony Chippendale armchair located near the massive fireplace. For as long as Archie could remember…the left arm of the chair was kept in the closet of the living room.

When Archie asked about it…his father explained that at one time Hampton Plantation had served as headquarters for the famous guerrilla fighter and revolutionary hero, Francis Marion…the “Swamp Fox.”

“After one of General Marion’s exhausting forays, he fell asleep in that very chair when Redcoat commander Tarleton surprised him. Startled he jumped up breaking the arm off the chair.”

“Did Tarleton get him” Archie asked.

“Oh no..the colonel smiled…Marion used the secret passageway that led to the back of the house, jumped on his horse, swam the river, and escaped into the wilds of the Santee Delta.”

After a moment little Archie asked (still puzzled)…”Well Dad that is interesting and all…but what does it have to do with you fixing the arm on the chair.”

“Oh,” the father answered, “I always thought it would be sacrilegious to repair what General Marion had broken.”

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So until tomorrow…Mr. Rutledge had his story and I have mine.:)

What a week…it started last Saturday with the finger-gnawing Clemson-Boston College Football game….with a new quarterback…and an historical come-back …overcoming a large deficit to win the game.

Then before I could recover from that experience…the election…almost a week of more “political close games” and now the most important game of the season…still with the “new” quarterback (We love you D. J.!)…Clemson vs Notre Dame.

I am about at the point of crying out….”Stop! Have mercy…there is only so much a human can take.” Yet deep down…I know I will take it…and life will continue…hopefully more peacefully and serenely…only time will tell. Deep breath…release…and a nod at God.

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

*** This post was written Saturday morning for Sunday’s post since I will be in Mt. Pleasant babysitting and won’t be back until today-Sunday. So you will know how the game went by the time you are reading this and I will too…

No matter how it ended…I am always proud of my beloved Clemson team. Go Tigers! I love you!

Dear Reader:

We might think (and rightly so) that these past few November days couldn’t get any crazier…but all we have to do in the lowcountry is look around at every seasonal plant blooming at the same time to realize Mother Nature has crazy moments too.

Certainly one of the most unusual experiences about lowcountry pre-Thanksgiving fall days… is the diverse variety of spring, summer, fall, and winter plants partying together before the first “Big Chill.”

I moved my two natural poinsettias from the thick adjacent driveway foliage to the front porch. Both poinsettias have survived a whole year without any help from their owner…Mother Nature must take credit for their well-being

Several fall mums are having their second blooming and even the summer impatiens are continuing to bloom and glow.

Morning glories, blooming since spring, are happier now than when they first bloomed.

Come with me and take a stroll through the garden…see how a lowcountry November fall day can be filled with every type of bloom imaginable in this semi-tropical paradise…every plant is determined to go out in style before Old Man Winter makes its appearance.

The rose…sturdy, determined and trustworthy…still blooming and the butterflies are still grabbing the last of the nectar from the plants in the garden.

Lantana is the most persevering…love the lavender shade… and Dianthus, like its name “Rockin Red” is still dancing too.

Spring and Encore azaleas are happily blooming side by side

And the camellias are coming in right at the right time…just beautiful. Along with fall marigolds and mums the 2nd time around…

“Big Red” the geranium is still healing from the wind storms that tore off some stems but overall doing well… natural poinsettias are smiling in anticipation of the Christmas holidays soon arriving (or for some already here) 🙂

One of the prettiest plants blooming now is the rainbow colored coleus.

Semi-tropical conditions create multi-diversified beauty…visitors and newcomers to the area might complain about the hot humid summers….but about this time of the year…all the whining stops…and they remember why they moved here to begin with….so they wouldn’t have to shovel snow all winter. 🙂

So glad many of you enjoyed the Fannie and Horace the Mule anecdote yesterday…thought I would pick one out to close “shop”today…  one of my favorite Miss Effie anecdotes.

“When the Preacher Came to Dinner”

There was an on-going custom in a small Methodist church (in a little Georgia community) that the families in the congregation would take turns having their single elderly pastor for dinner each Sunday following church service.

One Sunday the hostess and her husband excused themselves to finish dinner preparations leaving their five-year-old-son, Wilbur, with the preacher in the parlor.

“I bet you can’t guess what we’re having for dinner?” said Wilbur.

“Well…let’s see…probably fried chicken…” guessed the preacher.

“Nope” replied Wilbur.

“Is it smothered chicken” guessed the pastor again.

“Nope” said Wilbur growing louder.

“Oh, I know..it must be baked chicken” guessed the pastor again.

“Nope” said Wilbur…starting to giggle now.

A glint of hope arose in the preacher’s eyes…”Is it…could it be…roast beef” guessed the pastor… licking his lips.

“Nope…I guess I will tell you now” grinned Wilbur.

He looked around the room and then shouted “It’s BUZZARD!”

The preacher’s face turned white and looked downright agasp...”Buzzard…that can’t be?”

“Yep it is, said Wilbur…cuz I heard mama say… “I guess it’s our time to have the old buzzard  for dinner.”

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So until tomorrow…

…

And that’s why I surround myself with them…it’s why I have a garden…so laughter is always blooming…in every season.

*Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*The first Saturday in November is National Book Lovers Day…after the week we have had…the best choice of relaxation is finding a marvelous story and getting lost in its pages. To leave this world behind for a little while and experience another life with new exciting “friends” in a hopefully memorable book. 🙂

No rest for the Clemson Loyal Fans! “Lord…give me strength.”

We have gone from the nail-biting cliff-hanger Clemson-Boston College football game last Saturday…through an interval week of nail-biting election reports (or not)…to the biggest football game of the season….against Notre Dame tonight…still without Trevor but “all in” for D. J.  ( “I think I can, I think I can”)

I am babysitting tonight at John and Mandy’s …the game is at 7:30….time to get ready to hang on for one more roller-coaster ride.

Thought to self….I wonder if I can order fake finger nails on-line?

Dear Reader:

Yesterday I must have been in-between “turn-overs of cares and worries to God” because I felt like I wanted to implode…the house had never felt so quiet…eerily quiet…like the calm before a thunder storm.

I gave myself another pep talk (among many) and ran some errands, fed the birds *including Sammy*, took all the cushions off outside patio and garden furniture in case it did rain…swept the porch and turned to go inside and sweep my “Happy Room” when suddenly it happened.

I balked and stopped. I just plain didn’t feel like sweeping any more…and then the most beautiful sound erupted…I was doubled-over laughing my head off…still holding the broom in hand falling down on the sofa.

I had just remembered one of my favorite Erma Bombeck’s quote/jokes: “My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.”  I decided right then and there …that was all I was doing.

That release of laughter was undoubtedly God’s greatest gift to me over the past few days…by the time I finished I felt like a new person again. The power of humor…so overlooked but one of the most powerful gifts God gave us.

It was then the neurons started pinging…a story about an election with a mule in it…Got it! Miss Effie Wilder’s hilarious anecdote about “Fannie Lamb and Her Famous Mule” from Miss Effie’s book- “Tales and Taradiddles.” *Please enjoy…especially you Pap…who loved it the first time years ago.

“Fannie Lamb and Her Famous Mule.”

One evening Fannie Lamb called Dr. Satterfield from her farm home sounding terribly upset. She said, “Doctor, Horace, my mule, is sick and I wish you could come and take a look at him.”

The tired doctor replied “Oh Fannie…it’s after six and I’m finally sitting down and eating supper. Give him a dose of mineral oil and if he still isn’t right in the morning…call me and I’ll come take a look at him.”

Fannie wanted to know how the mineral oil should be administered…” Come on Fannie Lamb, you’re a farm woman and you know these things…administer it to him through a funnel in his back end.”

So Fannie went down to the barn where poor Horace the mule was moaning and groaning. She reached up on the shelf where the medicines were kept…but instead of grabbing a bottle of mineral oil, she grabbed a bottle of turpentine and poured a liberal dose into a fox-hunting horn she was gonna use for a funnel since she couldn’t find one. She then proceeded with the procedure…until…

Horace raised his head with a sudden jerk and let out a scream that could have been heard a mile down the road. Horace reared on his hind legs, knocked out the side of the barn, cleared a five-foot fence and started down the road at a mad gallop. Since Horace was in pain…every few strides he made, the horn would blow.

All the dogs in the neighborhood knew when that horn was blowing it meant Uncle Bill was going fox-hunting…so they tore out following close behind Horace.

People who witnessed the chase said it was an unforgettable sight. There was Horace running at top speed with the horn blowing and the gold tassels waving from a most unusual position on a mule while the dogs barked joyously.

They passed by the home of Old Man Harvey Hogan, who was sitting on his porch. He hadn’t drawn a sober breath in fifteen years, and he gazed in fascinated amazement at the sight unfolding before him. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Old Man Harvey Hogan is said to now be head man in Alcoholics Anonymous in the upper part of the state.

By this time it was good and dark. Horace and the dogs were approaching the Inland Waterway. The bridge tender heard the horn blowing and figured that a boat was on the way. He cranked up the bridge.

Horace went overboard and drowned. The pack of dogs went into the water too..but they all swam out without too much difficulty.

Now it so happened that the bridge tender was a candidate that year… running against the sheriff’s position…but he managed to poll only seven votes…and these were all from kinfolks.

Those who took the trouble to analyze the election results said the people there figured that any man who didn’t know the difference between a mule with a horn up his caboose and a boat coming down the Inland Waterway wasn’t fit to hold any public office in the county.

So until tomorrow…as Miss Effie ended many of her taradiddles…Let’s hear a “WHOO-eee!!!” And let yourself go for it… with a little chuckle or a big belly laugh! It does the body and soul good!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Is there anything more beautiful than a golden ginkgo tree in the fall…my favorite!

Dear Reader:

I have to admit that yesterday was ‘not my favorite day.’ But it was a day that tested my faith and taught me that I was too quick to expect immediate solutions to my ‘worry’ prayers. It was a lesson in patience…don’t we humans really dislike ‘patience’ lessons… if we’re truthful?

Technology gives us immediate answers at the tap of a finger and a click on a pad…God is not in competition with technology…in His line of work…there is a reason for waiting time and patience. Two entities that strengthen human faith.

I was so emotionally depleted by evening yesterday…that I temporarily forgot about the blog post…it was very tempting to consider just explaining my exhaustion and most readers would have understood and life would go on.

But something stopped me….literally… a book… that fell from a book shelf… while looking for a novel a friend wanted to borrow.

I glanced at the title as I started to replace it (Trading Your Worry for Wonder)…and as I casually opened it..my hand lowered…I turned in the book to a ribbon marker left behind…and started reading. It was God’s response to my on-going prayers yesterday.

Did I ever need a God Wink ? This is what I read.

“Persist and don’t give up!” If you have prayed and given your worry to God..but yet it comes back a few minutes later, don’t give up!”

“Remember…the bigger or heavier the anxiety or problem, the more times you may need to give it to God until it’s really released. If the fear recurs, don’t say, “Well, this isn’t working.”

“Instead stop and give your worry to God again…but add “thanksgiving” to God for His help in advance. Each time you will get a little more victory. Your peace will increase until your mind is totally at rest concerning the matter.” 

” Rest means mental and spiritual tranquility, freedom from all worries. And that’s when the revelation is released on how to handle your particular anxiety”.

“When we fret and worry…it’s like wearing dark glasses. We shut out the light and can’t see what God is trying to teach us through the experience. But if we keep thanking and praising God we will see His loving hand guiding us …and it is this amazing grasp of divine connection… that changes our worry to wonder.”

When I woke up yesterday…like most Americans…disappointed in the on-going election process with no conclusion in sight…it felt like just one more exercise in waiting…and we all have had our patience tested while waiting in quarantine through the seemingly never-ending coronavirus.

Couldn’t just one thing happen normally on time…why was everything seemingly abnormal in the expected routines and traditions in our country?

After my personal pity-party…God let me sit a few minutes and stew. He let me know that this waiting time was especially allotted me to do a lot of catch-up correspondence (long over-due)telephone calls to check on family and friends with accidents and illnesses…gifts to be bought for loving friends and then mailed or given to them.

In other words, in mortal translation…God told me “To get off my “arse” and do something for someone else!”

It took me all day to accomplish these over-due acts of kindness…but God was right…it kept my mind off the politics of the day and on special people I needed to re-connect with…with no more delays.

So until tomorrow….

May we all learn to use waiting time in the best way we can…reaching out to others.

” Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh (Lesson learned 🙂

Dear Reader:

Another busy day yesterday…which was actually good…it kept my mind occupied with grandchildren and a lunch outing with my children….a lovely day.

I kept Walsh and Mollie’s children…thinking it would probably take a few hours for them to vote…actually half an hour. Walsh said it was the best-run voting poll (their children’s school) he had ever attended…all computerized and lines moved very quickly.

A couple of months ago… I realized that I was letting the craziness of politics influence my life negatively for too long…I had to look in the mirror and tell myself…I haven’t fought breast cancer for twelve years to lose my health to high blood pressure and stress over something I have no control over….so I turned it over to God.

Every time I overheard some upsetting political spew I started reminding myself of my ‘covenant’ with God…and murmured, repeatedly,  “Faith over Fear” until I calmed down again.

No matter how this election unwinds…my prayer is for peace, individual inner peace and collective peace among the American people. Unity over disunity…because way down deep we all want the same things for our future… our children’s and grandchildren’s health and welfare protected, along with senior citizens, creative ways to level the playing field for all interested participants in new diversified career opportunities.

To see America, once again, taking its role as a leader for human rights, advocates for a healthier planet for our grandchildren to live and breathe in and an acceptance of the diversity of races and cultures that has historically made this country what it is…great…a country of immigrants. Your immigrant ancestors and my immigrant ancestors. What a country they have made and will continue to do so with acceptance and  encouragement.

But most importantly…no matter the outcome of this election we must learn to take care of ourselves while extending kindness and generosity to those around us. Remembering…Love heals all. 

Life is about people…not politics…how we live our lives, how we make others feel, through hope, a helping hand, and living our life for others. Acceptance, love, and joy.

Today is the day to reach down to the center of our being and spread the light of the promise of tomorrow. We are that promise to others.

So until then…Keep Shining…

Look what made me lighten up yesterday…Doodle dropped off lemon squares for me…my favorite dessert…nothing can be so wrong with the world that lemon squares can’t fix it…at least deliciously temporarily! 🙂

While we had our first dusting of frost yesterday Mollie’s parents, Marcia and Bruce (NH) had their first snow.