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Merry Christmas to All Including…

Merry Christmas!  It is a thing we say to one another, wishing each other the very best during the December Holiday and Celebration of the birth of Christ.  But if you’re like me, everyone is included in these good wishes.  We don’t always know what each other believes but we have love in our hearts so we say to everyone.

Oh I know there are those that want to keep it “pure” but I am not that person.  I don’t have enough info about my fellow Man to know who is who and what is what.  I am only required to have good will in my heart and to be giving as best I can.  So that’s what I do.  I acknowledge and respect that not everyone is me; and I don’t require anything in return, but it’s nice when it comes back.

This year I have been hacked so many times.  This is not a career move I am talking about; these are thieves, robbers, crooks.  But I will still wish them good will (maybe they will stop stealing from me).  And there is this…  one day when each of their lives is over, God will ask them what good they

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Something to Think About

It didn’t come to me all in one “think” but in bits and pieces. It was a slow sort of melding process. First one ingredient and then another and another. Like this…
I was listening to two of our sons discuss the fighting in the world and the power grabbing… Like many people, they both believed that it fed only the top shelf and everyone else suffered. Then one of them said, “To stop it, we’re going to have to have an enemy from the outside… One that causes the entire world to need each other and forget the differences to survive instead of argue and disagree, sort of like Terminator, the movie.” That sentence was step one; and, I tucked it in the back of my brain.

Then I was reading the Bible one night… Revelations to be exact…. Chapter nine, the part about locusts devouring everything. Now locusts could be really big, I thought; as big as the walking tanks from Star Wars. It might actually happen not as a natural event, but built through technology… Giant locust looking tanks that kill and destroy. That was the second thing I tucked away.
The last thing was the

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Theft

Theft.  The very word makes one feel violated.  And when it actually happens it will feel so much worse.

You’re not a stupid person.  You are not careless…  You check accounts and lock doors when you leave home.  Yet as careful as you are and as much as you practice good habits; there are persons who practice just the opposite, which is how to steal.

Fraud is rampant right now.  These persons who steal are liars…   On  your email, your phone, hard copy, everywhere.  So, open nothing you do not recognize.  Take no “friend” on the Internet that you do not already know personally.  Verify everything before action is taken.  Think you’re safe?  No you are not.  Can’t make friends with the online services?  Get help!  Ask for help.  Do it.  Do it now.

Theft.  These people are thieves and liars for a living; they work 24/7 and tell themselves that this is a legitimate career.  They come home after “work” and prepare a dinner just like you…  But the ingredients are bought with someone else’s hard earned cash and it might be yours.  Change your passwords often!  I know, it can be a pain in the behind to do this… I often

“It Takes Two”

“It takes two…” I have no idea who first said this. It does fit a plethora of situations. It takes two to make a couple; it takes two to make a baby; it takes two to be married… But how about, It takes two to be one.

Sounds crazy at first thought but think again.  When two people marry, they are individuals who are each a person coming together with another.  They each have distinct qualities and different personalities.  Those first years are all about learning how to blend those differences together into one finely oiled unit.  The marriage of differences is capable of creating one very admirable unit called a couple.  So I think I am saying that while it does take two in the beginning; the two can become something better as one.

You’ve seen a good couple before, right?  Some have this fun interplay together with humor while others are great at raising kids or volunteering together at their local church.  We see the way they look at each other and we just know this is not two but one.  And this oneness doesn’t just “happen”.  They clearly worked to have it!

May we all make an effort to be

Pandemic

In March of this year, 2020, illness began to sweep countries, beginning with China.  It was all encompassing.  People dying by the hundreds.  Persons ill by the thousands.  It seemed to come out of nowhere like a flash flood taking souls to God and suffering to everyone.  In my home country of the United States we saw a rush on food stores and pharmacies for supplies; larger cities like New York City had hospitals struggling to find beds for patients as they also brought in doctors to take extra shifts.  Wear a mask became the catch phrase… That, and “Social distance please”, which no one in the USA wants to do… We’re all about hugging.  This, while all along the president of our country tried to tell us that it was no big deal and just chill out.  That was the beginning of it all.  Then, it got worse.  And now?  We all know that many months later, that illness called COVID-19 is still with us with no cure as of yet.

We are living through this while we are experiencing social unrest, economic upset, a particularly uncomfortable national election year; and then there’s all of our individual lives filled with

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What’s in a Color?

The primary colors of the spectrum are said to be red, yellow, blue, and green; from there, so many other beautiful colors can be created.  Color … When we combine color with some action that is meant to help others, the result is tumultuously good .  Here is an example of that.

Yesterday as I considered how I could up-lift and encourage, I was also having a bit of cabin fever from this house bound business.  I decided to go to the local Safeway, which happened to still be open.  I thought to myself how hard these employees are working.  True, they are fortunate to still have a job they can go to, but consider the long and exhausting hours they are working as they enforce the many new protocols for safety and cleanliness.  So, I elected to go to the flower center of our local Safeway Store, and purchase bouquets of flowers, then present them to the lady checkers. (What do we do for the guys, buy them a beer?  But I digress… The guys we’ll deal with later.)

I arrived in the flower center and began searching the bouquets and the profusion of color before me.  What was the best

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Survive and Thrive

Many people are filled with the news of the pandemic outbreak.  And yes, it’s something to consider and be serious about its outcome and impact on one’s life.  But it is not the bottom line.  The bottom line is what will each do to survive and thrive, not only for self but for the well-being of family, one’s country, and the world?  We must survive and thrive by moving into a New Age.

Let’s start with shock.  Of course we are all surprised that life is changing so dramatically.  One day we’re going to work, making a pay check, and then heading home to relax.  Now, we work from home, worry about whether the paycheck will even show up in our bank account, and have more family than we ever hoped to have because the kids (all ages) are also home going as crazy as you and making it tough to work.  At all.  It’s tough to consider, but this is our new life (at least for the foreseeable future).  It’s time to be the creative people we all are, and find the new ways to thrive.  Americans as well as Europeans and all others are making an effort to find

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It lasts Until It’s Over

I am thinking that I should get back to work with writing, which I pretty much dumped after the death of our third son a short time ago…  Almost five years to be exact.   At that time, I had a manuscript almost finished to publish, had a possible publisher that I liked and who liked my work, and well…  Our son died.  There was the actual event, family arriving to support one another, planning the service, his burial, and then back home where I proceeded to just sit.  I continued all the daily things like laundry, Bible study, laundry, meals, I taught music a little, more laundry and then more meals.  Hubby and I  finally got a little dog to help ease the pain; and it did give us some peace; but it didn’t make me go back to work. I would start putting down words and end up staring at the page while I continued to sit.  When asked if I’d finished my project or how much I’d accomplished, I was known to have used that dog as the reason I couldn’t write.  The real reason was that I myself needed the encouragement to do it, to go back

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These Three Things

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, and compassion.  These three things are your greatest treasures.”  – Lao Tzu

One of the first things I do, after the day has a rhythm, is to open my Email.  Today one entry offered very sad news, news that breaks my heart. News that reminds me of Tzu’s quote.

A friend, Kay, has been moved to Hospice; and it seems that there is little hope of a recovery.  I am beyond sad; for this is a woman who has had compassion for many, myself included.  But more than that, she added the simplistic joy of teaching me how to grieve the death of my mother; and, she gave to me tools that I would use eight years later when one of our son died so unexpectedly.  Kay  understood the importance of patiently waiting on others as they wander through a grief process to find the light at the end of the tunnel.  Sitting here now and writing to  you, I wonder how many there are who can offer this to another…  Kay did.  What a woman!

 

Right now we all pray or lift up or whatever good thing we can from our souls to

What’s in a Word

“The only thing to fear is fear itself.” – These are the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address. What is the fear that Roosevelt described?  Could it be that it is the fear of ourselves that is the culprit, for we are the ones who allow it to grip our lives. Fear only lives if we allow it to live. We are the masters of our choices.

Recently several persons have discussed with me the subject of fear. They’ve believed me a strong person, and with that strength in mind, they’ve wanted to know what I myself fear? Further, what do I think fear really is, and can I help them eliminate fear from their own lives. (Would that I could eliminate fear from one’s life, including my own for I have had moments of fear.)

At the time that Roosevelt said those words, “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” the entire United States of America was gripped in the worst depression the country had ever known. This president was looking for a way to help the country find something beyond despair in this horrible time. He was hoping that we would stop thinking about