🦃🦃 2022 November FROM MY PERSPECTIVE
Aint Daisy
was busy reading a story book to one of her grandchildren. I saw it was one of my favorites---BIG PANDA
AND TINY DRAGON by James Norbury. This
book is an adventure these two friends have.
It is full of companionship, courage, and gentleness. So much can apply to our lives and how we
treat each other and how we deal with what life tosses at us. As she read, I could hear her telling me and
others bits of wisdom she’d acquired through the “adventures” of her life. In fact, she could have written this
book. She came to a little conversation
Big Panda and Little Dragon were having.
It seems Little Dragon was distraught about something and said, “I can’t
explain how I feel.” Big Panda responded
with, “That’s O.K. Words are not
adequate for all things.” She stopped
and asked her granddaughter, “Have you ever felt that way, little one?” The child looked at her then hung her head
saying, “Yes, I feel that way today.”
Aint Daisy gave her a little hug and said, “I truly know that
feeling. A few times, I’ve jess sat and
watched the leaves on the tree move as the wind blew and listened to the birds’
calls and crickets’ chirps. It made me
feel better. ‘Sometimes,’ as Big Panda
said, ‘words just don’t take care of how we are feeling.’ But, the sounds of nature can do the
job. All we have to do is jess listen
and not think.” ‘More wisdom from the
Lady of the Holler with a little help from James Norbury, Big Panda, and Tiny Dragon.
I sent a
message to a dear friend: We have been
friends for so long I can’t remember which one of us is the bad influence. She called me laughing so hard I couldn’t
understand what she was saying. It
sounded like, “You are!”, but I can’t be sure.
When I was
teaching, there were some students who seemed to have their mind on something
else. This caused me to want to treat
them like a glow stick---slap them and shake them until the light came on.
We are into
the month this whole nation has a holiday about being thankful. I have so many things for which to be
thankful. The most important one
is: so much seems to be out of control
in this nation, but there is one entity who has not relinquished His control,
and I can count on and believe He never will.
Thank you, dear Lord for your persistence and promises.
I have a
friend who teaches Sunday school to some young boys. She went around the room and asked each one,
“What are you thankful for?” They gave
the regular replies until she came to the one who always spoke what was in his
thoughts. It was like a greased sliding
board----from the brain to the mouth and out.
He sat up straight and said, “I’m thankful for mom not making creamed
okra anymore. That stuff was more
slippery than snot, and I had to swallow it; well not really, because it went
down faster…..”. My friend interrupted
him before she lost her breakfast. She
was so glad he was the last one and the dismissal bell rang.
I remember when Daddy had to start taking the drug coumadin. Being the chemist he was, coupled with his
character, his sense of humor shined through.
Mother was all concerned about the correct amount he was to take. He ran out of the pills one day; she got very
concerned. His reply to her fretting
was, “Oh, Mamie, just sprinkle 1 teaspoon of DeCon on my oatmeal and that will
take care of it. Make the measurement level; no heaping, that’s too much.” Mother was
horrified and Daddy couldn’t stop laughing.
Brenduhh and I were riding in her car.
We saw sign at a gas station giving the prices of each type of
gasoline. Also, within the price boxes,
was the price of Malboro cigarettes, which were a lot cheaper. She turned to me and said, “I think I’ll get
some Malboros and try them.” I looked at
her and said, “You don’t smoke. Why are
you going to buy some Malboros?” She
exclaimed, “Well, I can run them as fuel cheaper than I can gasoline.” Everyone
has the right to be stupid. She was abusing that right. The “stupid” part brings to mind what John
Wayne and Daddy said about it---“Life is tough, but it’s tougher when you’re
stupid.”
It was an early morning light breakfast.
I was only interested in having some toast, but knew I needed to have
some protein, too. I put some peanut
butter on one of the slices, and placed both on a little plate. I took it to my chair in the living room, sat
it down, and went to get the cup of coffee.
Jada, our sweet cat, was close by just nonchalantly sitting all pretty
close to my chair. I returned to find
tongue marks on the warm peanut butter and a cat trying to get the stuff off
the roof of her mouth. I wondered, “Can
cats have arachibutyrophobia?”
I was needed quickly upstairs by one of the kids. I rushed up the stairs only to be told, “It’s
o.k., Mom. I took care of the
problem.” Then the phone rang; I
answered it huffing and puffing. It was
my friend. She asked, “Are you all
right? You’re huffing and puffing like
you’re out of breath.” I told her, “Oh,
I just rushed up the stairs faster than I usually do.” She said all surprised, “What?! You ran up the flight of stairs?” My labored response was, “Well, it was more like a sloth vs. a turtle in a
race.”
My friend gave me a delicious recipe for little cinnamon rolls. She knew how I loved the ones she makes. I got right to the making of them and called
her the next day to tell her about them.
“Oh, I’m so glad you made them.
Did you put the left-overs in a sealed container so they’d stay fresh?”
she inquired. There was a
longer-than-usual pause on my part, and then I said, “Umm, what left
overs; were there supposed to be some?”
I have two
special needs children. They truly have been a gift. They see the
world through different eyes-a different interpretation. They don't fudge on the truth very
often----they tell the cold truth. Sometimes it's difficult to accept the
cold truth they tell, but you can believe what they say; it's not tainted with
others' lies or misconceptions, and it gives you either a wake-up call or
insight.
I don't
mind my body being larger. It gives the observer more to look at---like a
seascape instead of a puddle; like a flower garden instead of a single flower;
like a box of Twinkies instead of one sitting alone on a counter lonely and
unappreciated, needing to be held.
I kept
telling my friend a certain fella had a lot of SWAG. She didn't agree,
but kept listening.
As he kept talking, I kept thinking, "Yep, he has a lot of SWAG."
I shared it with her, again. She emphatically told me, "Trudy,
he does NOT have swag!" I told her, "Oh yes he does. Just
listen to him chatter on about stuff I know he has no understanding of.
SWAG, my dear friend, means Stupid
Wild Ass Guessing."
She didn't argue any more.
