Fiddlesticks!

I try to keep a positive attitude at all times. But, sometimes I run into a real downer. It's as if I'm just cruising along, happy as a fat tick, and then I just get slapped in the side of the head with the ping pong paddle of life. When that happens, I have a very hard time trying to push myself up and be a happy camper.
When the people you love the most disappoint you, time after time, it's hard to forgive and forget. It's really hard.
But, you know, that has to be the way that God feels about all of us. We disappoint Him, time after time, but His unconditional love is there as our constant.
So, listen up, ME. Buck up and continue on. Life always gets better and there is a silver lining in every Life Cloud.
Life is a blessing. We can't know how much until we live another day. We have to take life a day at a time. Sometimes there are roses and sometimes there are thorns. Ouch!

Great and all powerful Lord. You have given us so much. We get disappointed when life doesn't turn out the way we want it to. We are fair weather believers, after all. Remind us that you didn't promise us blue skies every day. Help us to look on the bright side. Life does have its rewards. Your steadfast love endures forever.

Hello. How the heck are you?

A New Year has begun. My number one goal, this year, is to renew old friendships.
These days, in the rush of living, it is really easy to walk away from those folks who were once-upon-a-time our close friends. But, because stuff happens and our circumstances change, friends fall by the wayside.
Today, I spent a couple of hours with a former work colleague. I hadn't seen her in over a year, but we made time this morning to see each other. We had such a great time. I loved it.
This afternoon, while walking through a nearly deserted department store, I spotted a woman that I hadn't seen in years. Actually, I couldn't remember her name, but I knew that I had once known her. So, I walked up and re-introduced myself.
She seemed genuinely glad that I had taken the time to say hello. We chatted a few minutes about "old times" then we went on our separate ways. Brief but nice.
My take on this whole thing is: Life is too short not to speak to everyone we know or once knew.
Life is much more meaningful if we share it. I am going to make the effort to let people know that I remember them and care about them.


Great God: Thank you for allowing us to share our lives with others. We have such abundance that keeping it all to ourselves is selfish. Thank you for friends.

Christmas Letters

I plead guilty. For several years, in my youth, I mistakenly sent out family-themed Christmas Letters. For some reason, I thought folks actually cared to hear about the good, bad and the ugly that had happened to my family over the year's time. I was wrong.
Every year, when we receive Family News Letters, I cringe. TMI. The truth is, your good and your sort-of-good-friends, don't want to read about your bad news. They stop reading when they hit the part about your unsuccessful gall bladder surgery. People do not want to share your misery. They might have empathy or even sympathy for you, but they really don't want to hear about it.
Likewise, if the letters are unbelievably Pollyanna-ish, no one is going to want to read past your astonishingly cute description of "Susie, our miniature cock-a-poo, can read lips" story. No real family is perfect. Bad things happen to all of us.
The point of Christmas Greetings is to wish your friends and acquaintances a Happy Holiday and a Healthful and Prosperous New Year. So do it. Email a card, send a card by snail mail. Call friends on the phone. Say Merry Christmas in person.
Just stop sending those letters. (But, I do appreciate the photos!)

Good Lord. You never promised us a perfect life. We have to take the good, along with the bad. Our abundant life comes from knowing that you are always listening to us and hearing our prayers.
We are truly blessed.

The Christmas Song

Mel Torme' wrote the Lyrics to The Christmas Song. While listening to it and other Seasonal Selections, the other day, I realized that I had never eaten a roasted chestnut. I have no idea what one tastes like. I wonder, if like peanuts, you can't eat just one? My maternal grandparents lived on Chestnut Street, but I don't remember ever having chestnuts at her house. She was a great cook, but she never roasted chestnuts.
I know a lady named Eve. I hope I get the chance to see her today, so that I might wish her a "Merry Christmas, Eve." Yesterday, I spoke to Carol and wished a "Merry Christmas, Carol."
It's the little things that make a Christmas memorable.

Dear Jesus: Happy Birthday. We are so glad you came to visit us on Earth.

Let it snow......

We had our first snowfall of the season this week. It was a beautiful sight. The snow was deep enough to cover everything in sight. It was a total blanket.
I find that I like winter weather much more than I used to. The older I get, the more I appreciate a good dose of snow and cold.
Snow slows everyone down. It's fairly difficult to race around over the speed limit in a decent snowfall. Folks try it, but generally only once. The risk of slipping and sliding is a big deal. Wrecks happen.
Snow makes everything it covers look clean and pure. The nasty brown and grey of a winter lawn and the bleakness of bare trees are made beautiful and shiny, with snowflakes everywhere.
We don't have school age folks, that we are responsible for, living here now, so we don't have to worry about "snow days". Our days of dressing kids for outdoor "snow day" play are long gone, and we no longer have to entertain bored youngsters home bound and away from school.
I've retired from teaching, so I don't have to worry about lengthened school years, to make up for "snow days". If schools have to make up lost days until the middle of June, I don't care.
Snow is very relaxing. It's a blessing. I love it.

Dear Lord: Thank you for giving us a chance to slow down and consider your wondrous works.
Help me to appreciate all kinds of weather. Our ever changing world is amazing. I am truly blessed, in so many ways.

FOMO

Psychiatrists have coined a new type of Phobia. They call it FOMO. Apparently many Americans are experiencing it. Notice, I am not saying that many of us "have" it, because I'm not sure the disease truly exists.
FOMO, the acronym, actually means, Fear Of Missing Out. Doctors say that many Americans have a need to constantly check their Facebook or other Social Media pages, because they fear that they will miss out on something important. Holy Toledo, I thought I looked at my Facebook Page because I was interested in what my "Friends" were doing. I wasn't aware of any fear that I had.
Realistically, we all get "left out" of a lot of things in life. In my 68 years of life, I'm sure I wasn't invited to every one's birthday parties in grade school and, guess what, I didn't get invited to Prom when I was a Sophomore in High School. Most recently, I was left out of a party at work.
Big deal. Life is full of events, and we all don't get invited to all of them. Tear yourself away from that Facebook Page. Live life and quit worrying about what you are missing on that screen.
So, the lesson here is..... and I am quoting my five year old granddaughter, a mega-"Frozen" fan....."Let It Go!"

Dear God: We are so blessed, but many of us fail to open our eyes and see what you have given us.
Life is such a gift. The world is such a wonderful place. We thank you.

"On Broadway"

My new screen saver at work is a black and white photo, circa 1965, of the main street in my home town. It's a winter scene. Snow is on the pavement and sidewalks. Cars are parked diagonally on both sides of the street. And, it's Christmas Time, because across each and every intersection, along the whole length of the mile-long business district, are stars, garlands, shiny tinsel and hundreds of lights.
I love looking at this dated picture of the Christmas decorations in my small Midwestern town. It's been a highlight of the Holiday Season. Seeing that photo gives me all kinds of happy remembrances of Christmases all those years ago. Every time I sit down to my computer, I think of some long ago event that shaped my life today.
Those lights remind me of shopping trips to Kresses and Montgomery Ward, with my mom and much older sister. They remind me of my Girl Scout Troop singing Christmas Carols in the second floor window of Little's Department Store. They remind me on going to Midnight Mass. I think about all of the gifts I begged for and just had to have.
I'm reminded of all the different cars we had growing up, and riding in them, up and down that lighted main street.
For many years now, I have lived in a large metropolitan area that has a world famous display of Christmas Lights. People travel from all over the country and abroad to see the fabulous Plaza Lights. I agree that they are a truly spectacular sight.
However, I know that I would trade them, in an instant, for a view of the "not so famous" lights on Broadway, in Pittsburg, Kansas.