December 13, 2006

  • If I were Santa…

     snowy Christmas house

    “If I Were Santa Claus”
     
    If I were ol’ Santa, you know what I’d do;
    I’d dump silly gifts that are given to you,
    and deliver some things just inside your front door,
    Things you have lost, but treasured before.
     
    I’d give you back all your maidenly vigor,
    and to go along with it, a neat tiny figure.
    Then restore the old color that once graced your hair,
    before rinses and bleaches took residence there.
     
    I’d bring back the shape with which you were gifted,
    so things now suspended need not be uplifted.
    I’d draw in your tummy and smooth down your back
    until you’d be a dream in those tight fitting slacks.
     
    I’d remove all your wrinkles and leave only one chin,
    So you wouldn’t spend hours rubbing grease on your skin.
    You’d never have flashes or queer dizzy spells
    and you wouldn’t hear noises like ringing of bells.
     
    No sore aching feet and no corns on your toes;
    no searching for spectacles when they’re right on your nose.
    Not a shot would you take in your arm, hip or fanny
    from a doctor who thinks you’re a nervous old granny.
     
    You’d never have a headache, so no pills would you take
    and no heating pad needed since your muscles won’t ache.
    Yes, if I were Santa, you’d never look stupid.
    You’d be a cute little chick with the romance of a cupid.
     
    I’d give a lift to your heart when those wolves start to whistle
    and the joys of your heart would be light as a thistle.
    But alas!  I’m not Santa.  I’m simply just me;
    the matronliest of matrons you ever did see.
     
    I wish I could tell you all the symptoms I’ve got,
    but I’m due at my doctor’s for an estrogen shot.
    Even though we’ve grown older this wish is sincere;
    Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year.

November 20, 2006

  • I got this in an email and as I do so often, I am posting it to share with you.

    IAm

October 31, 2006

  • 1 John 4:18
    There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

    Enjoy the day everyone!

    Harvest-time hugs!

     

October 20, 2006

  • Hey Pumpkin!!!!

    Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin.    God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you.    He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff– including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.     Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see.    This was passed on to me from another pumpkin.    Now, it is your turn to pass it to a pumpkin.    I liked this enough to send it to all the pumpkins in my patch.    Happy Autumn!

    hey Pumpkin

October 9, 2006

  • A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

    got an email that made me think so I’m sharing it so we can look for these moments to make a difference to someone in our own lives…

    THE CAB RIDE

    Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. When I arrived at 2:30 a.m. , the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, and then drive away.

    But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself.
    So I walked to the door and knocked. “Just a minute”, answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.
    After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80′s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie.
    By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.
    There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.
    “Would you carry my bag out to the car?” she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.
    She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.
    She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing”, I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated”.
    “Oh, you’re such a good boy”, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”
    “It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly.
    “Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice”.
    I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “The doctor says I don’t have very long.” I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
    “What route would you like me to take?” I asked.
    For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.
    We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
    Sometimes she’d ask me to slow down in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
    As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now”

    We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.
    Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.

    I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

    “How much do I owe you?” she asked, reaching into her purse.

    “Nothing,” I said
    “You have to make a living,” she answered. “There are other passengers,” I responded. Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.

    “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,” she said.

    “Thank you.”

    I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life

    I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift?

    What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

    On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life.

    We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.

    But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

September 26, 2006

  • Life Keeps Rollin’ Along

    I’m at one of those busy points again.  Mostly good stuff, just keeping me from having a lot of time at the keys.

    Hoping and praying all is well with you my friends.

    hugs to ya

August 25, 2006

  • This is from an email I received.  Having lived in Germany, I can hear the way some of these words are being said and it makes me smile to recall the thick accents used to speak English to those of us who were Duetshe challenged.   I did learn to converse politely, enough to order in a restaurant and do my shopping and meet new folks, but I’m sad to say, I’ve lost most all I learned since it was so long ago and I have had no one with whom I could keep in practice.  Though Shawn was in Europe 11 of his 20 years of service in the Air Force and was married to a German for 16 years.  So he could help me if I got stuck trying to say something, but there’s really no place to use it here.


    Anyway, read and smile.  The English language is in need of some help… I’m just not sure this is the answer.


    European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.


    As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.


    In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.


    The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.


    There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.



    In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.


    Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.


    Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.


    By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w”with “v”.


    During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.


    Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.


    Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.


    If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.


    and so I did.

August 16, 2006

August 14, 2006

  • I know God uses email now.


    “Be obedient, no matter how much the Master’s plan doesn’t make sense to you.”


    I got this pic with this caption on a day I was disgruntled with the Lord about something and trying to figure out where to go on an issue.   sigh  Doesn’t take a 2×4 across my head, does it?


    I hope you’re listening to His still, small voice so that He doesn’t have to get someone to send you this.   Then again… maybe He just did!  heh heh

August 7, 2006

  • Something to ponder…

    I saw this on a bumper sticker…


    “Freedom of religion means all religion.”

    Thoughts?
    I’ll stop back and update when I get a few responses… I have several points of my own, but I know others will have a number of ideas about this that I have missed.


    UPDATE: My thoughts were running another way when I initially posted this. So I am loving the new avenues of thought and entertaining them to spark more on this at home. I was talking with Shawn and he, having lived in Germany over seven years and other parts of Europe another four, was taking me down the path that some people think that even if we say we have freedom of religion, it can’t truly be. He mentioned that there could be a religious group that allows, stealing (or murder as we see it, i.e. human sacrifice), for example, as a part of its doctrine, for some reason. If this were the case, the religion would not be allowed to practice this freely here, in this country, due to it being against the law. Then we talked about the laws of the land and the fact that Christianity would be, then, the religion that might be able to be free here, as the country’s laws were made, based upon the biblical guidelines within Christianity. Then some might try and argue that Christianity was a ‘State Sponsored’ religion. In Germany for instance, there are religions there that are free to gather and believe what they choose, but there is a portion of the taxes, possibly 30%, that is divvied out to one of two, Catholic or Protestant, whether or not the person practices either of them or not. That led us to the topic of the reason that religious freedom is even a part of our founding documents. This was due to the founding fathers having not had that as a ‘right’ in the country from which they came. That suppression of their freedom to believe led them here, so it was important to them to have this as a part of the legal language and foundation upon which our country was being laid.


    The train of thought I had at the onset of this was much different. I thought of a warning I’d heard years ago admonishing Christians to take care in pressing the judicial system to allow things be posted or setting precedents in court. The reason was simply that whatever Christians have decided legally in the courts means another religious group would then be allowed to do as well. Where most of our nation would not be offended by the content of a Christian’s display, some religions (Satan worshipers for an example) might post things that were a part of their rituals and practices that would be more than offensive, even scary, to many people who don’t practice what they do. I know that the courts of late have had a number of suits brought to remove ‘offensive’ things like those nasty ole Ten Commandments, but there is really nothing truly offensive in the words, only ideals with which the person here or there disagrees. Whereas a sacrifice on an altar or some lewd scene may very much offend most of the population. So this is where I was at the start of all this.


    Thank you for all the comments, come back by with more if you think of something else to say. This has been great.