2019 March FROM MY
PERSPECTIVE
Recently I had a friend tell me they hadn’t done much that
day, and they felt very guilty about it.
They, also, seemed a bit discouraged.
I asked them, “Did you make your bed?
Did you wash any dishes? Did you
make someone smile? Did you say, ‘God
bless you’ to someone? Did you
pray? Did you smile? Did you eat something you enjoyed? Did you make coffee and drink it? Did you breathe? Did you feel your heart beating? Did you tell someone, “Thank you”? Did someone tell YOU, “Thank you.”? Did you think of a loved one? If you can answer, “Yes” to 90% of these, you
did something today. She told me, “There
are yeses to all but 2 of them. I seem
to have been very busy; I’m exhausted.”
I saw this recently.
It makes a lot of sense. “Worry
is a conversation you have with yourself about the things you cannot
change. Prayer is a conversation you
have with God about things He can change.”
I’d like to add, “Wisdom is knowing which one will bring positive
results.”
“I've made plans to
return as a spirit when I die. “You know
when I'm gone I really won't be, don't you? I'll visit often and you'll
know," I told my daughter. She
replied, "I know, Mom. You'll HAUNT the hell out of me." I told her,
"Well, someone has to. Ahhgrahhh, a mother's work is never done."
It was rainy with loud
thunder in central Illinois. A male
friend of mine posted a picture of him and his sweet dog, Betty. He said, “Someone is a bit afraid of all the
thunder.” I replied, “It’s a good thing
you have Betty.”
It was a very busy, needful school
morning. I'd made some toast, got
sidetracked due to a child's needs, and ended up burning the toast. I took it
out of the toaster, buttered it, put it on a plate at my place at the table
with the intention of eating it as soon as possible. Another need was
announced, so I tended to that one. When I came back, the toast was gone and
the plate was in front of Guy, my beloved. I told him I'd be glad to make some
non-burned toast for him. He said, "You're busy with what is more
important than more toast for me. Besides, I like burned, buttered toast."
I looked at him and asked, "Since when, big boy?" He smiled and said,
"Oh, since 5 minutes ago." THAT WAS MY BELOVED GUY.
Y’all probably don’t know about the word
“whipper snapper”. Well, you probably
never thought of it, either, if ya didn’t get smacked with your daddy’s
belt. Daddy didn’t go to that level
often, not that I was an angel, but when he did, that belt came flying out of
his belt loops faster than I could blink.
First, he’d smack his hand, then my butt was next. Just two licks (that’s what they’re called)
did the trick of convincing me of the 11th commandment---“THOU SHALT
NOT BE STUPID AND DO THAT AGAIN”. So now
you know where the term “whipper snapper” came from………….the lightening speed of
my Daddy’s belt, to be placed on my buttocks 2 times, as it left his pants’
belt loops.
It was raining pretty hard and splashing onto the porch at
Aint Daisy’s. So, we sat in the living
room where there were pictures of many people in her family. She displayed them proudly and had a story to
tell about each one. “Those stories I
tell are verbal history, chile. Not all
you read in history books is true, and a lot of simple, interesting information
is left out. Listen to your elders as
they talk about their experiences of their life. Ask them what was going on around them when
they were your age. You’ll learn a
lot…more than what you’ll read in a history book.” I still remember the stories Mother told me of
her childhood. They aren’t written down
in books…they’re verbal history.
My hairdresser, Cathy, has a 4 year old granddaughter who
says anything she thinks; she has no filter.
Cathy told her, “Abby, you make me smile.” Abby replied, “Oh Grannie, you make me
laugh.” Cathy continued, “I never know
what will come out of your mouth. I love
you so much.” “Grannie, your teeth come
out of your mouth. I love you so much.”
True friends do not “abandon your ship” when things get
rough. They grab an oar and help you
row.
Conner, age
6, was watching his dad work on the family car.
Usually when his dad works on something of that caliber, something goes
wrong. After about 1 hour, Conner ran
into the house and announced with the exuberance of a 6 year old, “Dad’s been
working on the car. It didn’t blow up!!” In another happening, he went running up the
stairs to his brothers’ rooms shouting, “Who wants a knuckle sandwich?”
thinking it had to do with food and snacks.
Never, never,
EVER store your CHAPSTICK in the same drawer as the glue stick!! I speak from experience.
Brenduhh
asked me over for some tea. She said she
had something important to tell me and it was a secret. I arrived and saw her putting her Tupperware
lids in the freezer. “What in the world
are you doing?” I asked. “I’m making
lethal weapons. They are the best
weapons because no one will ever find them.”
She has a point. She called the Hershey candy company telling
them they needed to recall all the MOUNDS bars because hers had an upside down
wrapper on it and all the others she looked at did, too. She said, “I bought a Mounds candy bar, but
the wrapper said, My Mounds bar wrapper says, ‘Spunow’. You need to recall all of them and put the
correct wrapper on them.” I told her to
eat it anyway; it would taste just as good.
Andy’s….: (Andy is a former
student of mine. He’s one of my
treasures. He says he’s lived a
full-life with all he’s done. He is
rough, but honest; hard, but tempered; protective, but kind and giving. He has shared many profound observations with
me. I want to share them with you. That is why I call this “Andy’s…”.)
“Life ain’t
never been easy, but, man, it’s worth it.
Find the good in today and make the day count.”
“Death is
nothing. How you live your life is
everything.” “I like the black
sheep, the odd ones, the ones who are different, the ones that think
differently than me…that make me see the world through their abstract mind. The
artist, the poets, the musicians, for they are the light in a dark world.” “I will be 47 in a couple days and I have
lived far from a perfect life, but I have definitely lived a full life. I went out last night with a young man for
his 21st birthday, and thought to myself ‘his life is just beginning’. By the time I was 21, I had already lived a
wild life. I actually and seriously didn't think I would see my 21st
birthday, and as birthdays came and passed, I decided God wasn't going to let
me die. Good or bad, here I am working
towards 50, feeling blessed to have made it this far. Lord knows I have felt
pain, I have suffered loss, watched friend's and family pass away like leaves
falling to the ground. But, I have seen some of the most beautiful and amazing
things in life also. ‘Watched friends find love, babies being born, grandson
growing up, beautiful daughter becoming a woman, and boys becoming men who I am
proud to call my friends.” “No
one's lived your life, no one has experienced the pain that you have, nor do
they or will they ever understand. We
may have the capacity to relate with someone else, but we will never understand
how “life’s garbage” affects someone else psychologically. So, try not to judge, be kind when you can,
if you ever need me I will do my best to relate and listen. I have lost too many to things which I have
lived through not to offer. Please know, I might not say what you want to hear,
but I will be honest.”
Some people can lie, cheat, treat you badly and somehow
manage to make it all seem like it’s your entire fault. There is a psychological term for
that----“manipulative psychopath.” The
street term for that is----“fu**in’ sh**head.”
FACEBOOK tells and teaches a lot. One of the many things it has told me is,
most of the users are not ready for a spelling bee, yet. It has taught me that drama can begin with
one innocent agreement or disagreement.
I was telling my friends, “Jesus plays SCATTERGORIES.” They were both surprised to hear that and
asked what made me think that. I told
them, “Well, Jesus said, ‘If you are gathered in my name, I’ll be there,
too.’ We pray together, we have
fellowship, and talk about our blessings while we are playing
SCATTERGORIES. So, He’s here right in
the middle of us playing right along.” I
don’t know why they were shaking their heads.
I was standing in the “15 items or less” aisle at
Kroger. The gal behind me had a full
cart of food and stuff. I looked at
her, then the cart, then back to her. I
said to her, “Math wasn’t your strongest subject in school, was it?” She grinned, and I saw only 7 teeth in her
entire mouth. I thought, “Dental hygiene
wasn’t either.”
