Living from your heart

Once again I offer to you a piece from www.lifesupportsystem.com.

Confucius said, "To practice five things under all circumstances
constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of
soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness." Sincerity and
earnestness are vital components of character. Part of it is to
simply say what you mean and mean what you say!

"I adore you," the young man said to his girl. "I need you; I
can't live without you; I love you."

She pushed him aside saying, "John ... I don't want to get
serious."

John replied, "Who's serious?"

Like Tennessee Williams might say, he had all the sincerity of a
bird hunter's whistle. Saying what you mean and meaning what you
say is vital, but there is another important part to living a
genuine and whole life: that is to LIVE what you say. Make
your actions and your words the same. Living what you say is at
the heart of sincerity.

Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong was a superb jazz musician who also knew
how to entertain. Satchmo used to say that what he played was life.
He believed that his whole life, soul and spirit was to blow that
horn. When he made music, it came from his heart. And it spoke to our
hearts. Any life can be great when it is lived fully and sincerely
from the heart.

Let your whole life, your whole soul and your whole spirit sing
in harmony. It is a matter of saying what you live and living what
you say. For when your words harmonize with your actions, you are
living from the best part you -- from your heart. And the sincerity
of your life will forever touch the hearts of others.

Poetry for Cats

I was straightening up a book shelf tonight and found this book which had gotten behind some others. The title of the book is Poetry for Cats. It is described as "The Distinguished Anthology of Destinguished Feline Verse." My daughter took this to her English teacher in high school, and she used some of the poems on a test to see if the students could identify the author by the style of the poem.

The photo of my cat doesn't quite suit this poem, but it will do. Besides, I love this photo of her.

Sitting By the Fire on a Snowy
Evening

by Robert Frost's cat

Whose chair this is by now I know.
He's somewhere in the forest though.
He will not see me sitting here
A place I'm not supposed to go.

He really is a little queer
To leave his fire's cozy cheer
And ride out by the frozen lake
The coldest evening of the year.

To love the snow it takes a flake:
The chill that makes your footpads ache,
The drifts too high to lurk or creep,
The icicles that drip and break.

His chair is comfy, soft and deep
But I have got an urge to leap.
And mice to catch before I sleep.
And mice to catch before I sleep.

by Henry Beard

Some other titles include "The Cat's Tale" by Chaucer's cat, "To a Vase" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cat, and "She Walks in Booties" by Lord Byron's cat. I was just looking at Barnes and Noble to see if this book was there. I didn't find it, but he has some interesting looking titles about cats. I might have to buy some.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Sarah and I went out with friends of mine from church. The Holiday Inn Riverfront has a buffet every year, and this year it was pretty decent. Way too much food, though. On Friday morning, Sarah and I went up to north Florida to visit my cousins. When I blogged about my cousin's cabin, Sarah was intrigued by it so we decided to make the trip.

Better than seeing the cabin was visiting with my cousins. Sarah hadn't seen them since she was very young, so it was a good time of connecting and renewing acquaintances. Their lives are busy, but they live in a country setting, quiet and peaceful, which is so different from the everyday busyness that goes on around here.

Going into the holiday season brings a little sadness. I remember the first year after my husband's death, we sort of went through the motions of the holidays, feeling rather dazed. The next year I thought it would be better, but it was worse, I think. The numbness had worn off, and the realization of his absence from us was felt even more. Even now, there is a wistfulness as we move into the holiday season.

I used to have big parties and have lots of friends in during the holidays, but I hadn't done much of that in recent years. So Sarah said, "Mom, let's have an open house this year." So, we're going to. I look forward to having the laughter of friends in the home.

We made a list the other day of whom we would invite and then a list of what we would have. Sarah said, "Mom, just make the stuff that we used to have." So, there won't be an updated menu, but I don't think anyone will mind.

I did something that I haven't done in a long time. I went to W**-Mart. I had decided when the new Publix opened, I would shop there, even if things were more expensive. I would go in, get what I needed, and not be tempted to look at all the stuff. I miss the W**-Mart of old when we would go and see friends there that we hadn't seen for a while and talk and talk.

I must say that I stayed with my list, and I wasn't tempted by all the stuff that used to draw me. Maybe I've grown up, or I'm just too tired.

The bell ringer was out front from Salvation Army. That's a good thing I can say for the store. Inside the store Christmas music was playing. I guess they've decided to say Merry Christmas again. I was a bit bothered by the music though. They were playing the beautiful Christmas hymn, "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming." I thought that it was rather out of place. Such a beautiful hymn, but it seemed so out of place. Perhaps someone heard the words and it made a little impression.

So it's off to begin preparing for the open house. I wish you could come.

Shout joyfully to the Lord!

Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

A few years ago, on Thanksgiving Day, there was a column in our local newspaper by Joan Beck, a columnist for a Chicago newspaper. I always looked for her columns becasue they were so refreshing. She dealt with issues of the day, but not in the way of some of our columnists today. This particular column was titled, "For All Things Great and Small, we give Thanks on this Thanksgiving Day.

I'm going to put excerpts of it here. If you would like to read the whole text, e-mail me, and I'll send it to you. I love the way she uses alliteration in her essay.

Our fathers’ God to thee, author of liberty, we say thanks this day for homes and homecomings and homilies and Holmes, for holidays and holograms and hollyhocks, for taxol when it saves lives and tax reform when it’s real, for thesauruses and tyrannosauruses and all the wonders your hands have made....

For amber and ambulances, and amniocentesis and amicus curiae, we are truly grateful, O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. So, too, for daylight savings time until it ends, and a new year when it begins, for waffles and wiffleballs and warehouse clubs, for loons and lofts and lollipops for licorice and libraries and lilacs and liberty, for joggers, and jigsaws, and jonquils and jazz...

God, who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, we are grateful for comets and comedies and comic strips and the Pacific Rim community, for hope and soap and kaleidoscopes, for mother and foster mothers and grandmothers and motherlodes and mothers of invention. Our thanks, too, for answered prayers and amazing grace, for herbs and heroes and Hemingway and the Heimlich maneuver...

For diapers and diamonds and dialysis, we give thanks, o God the omnipotent, for unicorns and universities and UNICEF, for cells and celery and cellular phones, for trips and ships and scholarships, for friends in need and angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God

Joan Beck, columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

In everything give thanks?

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I've been giving a lot of thought these last few days to things that I'm thankful for. On Sunday our pastor had a wonderful service. His message dealt with praising God.

After each section, we sang a capella a fitting song. We are to praise God for His great works. We are His great work, aren't we, fearfully and wonderfully made. "To God be the Glory" was the song that we sang--"To God be the glory, great things He hath done. So loved He the world that He gave us His Son."

Then we are to praise Him for His faithfulness to His flock. "Great is thy faithfulness, Oh God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Next we are to praise Him for His unique Majesty. There is none other like Him. "Majesty, worship His majesty. Unto Jesus, be all glory, honor and praise...So exalt, lift up on high the name of Jesus. Magnify, come glorify Christ Jesus as king. He is great, all sufficient, all powerful, holy.

The verse "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." But God, am I supposed to be thankful that my husband was taken so suddenly and senselessly? Am I supposed to be thankful that my little granddaughter was born with cystic fibrosis? But the verse says, "In everything." So thank you, God, even though I may not understand, You have a master plan, and You are sovereign over our lives.

I'm reminded of Corrie ten Boom, who wrote that while she and Betsy were in the concentration camp, they thanked God for lice...lice! Because of the lice, the guards would not come near them to do them harm.

Happy Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful day with your family and friends.

Did you see this?

I saw this comic strip the other day and thought of many of you.

Am I cute, or what?

I can hardly wait to get my hands on this baby again. Whenever I call David and ask him how Ella is, the classic answer is "fine." So I realize that I have to get my most descriptive narrative from her mother. And she is doing fine. She certainly looks like she's gaining weight well, doesn't she.

They're off to Ella's other grandparents for Thanksgiving, where she'll get to visit with her little cousin who is about nineteen months old. Then at Christmas they'll be travelling here to spend Christmas in Florida. I'm really tempted to look for a quick flight to Waynesboro before then, however.

Thanks for all your comments upon my return. I felt so out of the loop when I was gone and then didn't have my computer. I value each of you, even though I've never met any one of you. It is amazing how the internet has been used to create bonds we never would have known.

It seems so long

It seems like it's been so long since I posted. As I said in the last post, I went to Orlando to attend Women of Faith last weekend. It was great, as usual...16,000 women in the arena, laughing, crying, singing, worshipping together, and at times, it seemed like we all tried to go to the bathroom at the same time. Women of Faith has been going on for eleven years. I missed the first one, but when I heard about it on the radio, I determined that if they came near where I was, I wouldn't miss the next one, and I haven't. A group of 20 went from our church this year.

Back in April, I posted about Ben, a young man who was very ill with testicular cancer. Ben and his wife live in Columbia, South Carolina. His cancer doctor conferred with Lance Armstrong's doctor in Indianapolis, and Ben has since been since by this doctor. He recently had more surgery and is recovering from that. Here is what Liza wrote:
November 13
Dr. Einhorn has recommended one more surgery. It is not as risky, dramatic or extensive as the last 2 have been, so that's good. There is still teratoma left in the lymph nodes in his abdomen, so they need to be surgically removed. But, we are pleased because Dr. Einhorn called this the final step. That's the first time we've heard those words, so we are thrilled about that.

The surgery will be scheduled for sometime in January, once he's recovered fully from the last one. It will be done here in Indiana and they said about 3 days in the hospital as opposed to 6 for the last one.

We are still waiting for the results from the blood test, to tell us his latest HCG level.

We have a lot to be thankful for with the holidays coming up. The end is in sight--praise God!

Nov. 15 HCG is 2.6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is what we've been waiting for since March! Halleluiah! Well, we're getting closer, but we're not there yet.

Continue to uphold Ben, Liza, and their families.

My computer is still not 100%, but it is better. I've been reading your posts, even if I haven't commented in the last few days.

Away for a couple of days

Hello all,
I'm going to Orlando tomorrow for a couple of days. While I'm gone, my computer is going to a friend's house for some repair. I went to install a piece of hardware the other day. There was a CD that had information that needed to be loaded, and my dvd drive wouldn't work. Oh, dear. Dan says he thinks he has one that will work in it.
Dan's a great guy. He works for V***n, and he works on computers at night after dinner. He's self-taught and reasonable. He used to not charge anything, but since computers have become so much more complex, it takes longer to do things on it and to it. He's still very reasonable.
I'll see you early next week. Have a good weekend

Just like Jesus

Some of you recall my blog about my friend, Eunice, whom I visited on my way to Virginia. Eunice is the dear friend who has befriended Sam and Butternut, the two neighborhood dogs.

Eunice had been very stubborn for a very long time about having a computer or even webtv so that she could have e-mail. She finally relented this past year. She has MSNTV...like webtv, but she can access the internet and read everything on her TV monitor. It is really quite the ticket. While I was there, I bookmarked some blogs for her to read, especially those who post photos of cats.

When she came back home to Bradenton, she had some problems connecting to her DSL. My friend, Peg, who was down from Chicago for a week, went over on Sunday afternoon to help her get it connected and working. They had to call V*** and talk to a technician.

When Eunice was finished talking with him, she said, "Thank you, Jesus." Peg thought she was offering up a brief prayer. Eunice said, "No, the tech person's name is Jesus, and he said that he's available 24 hours a day to help."

Isn't that just like Jesus!!!

"Lo, I am with you always, unto the end of the earth." Unlike Jesus, who was on the other end of the phone line with Eunice, He knows what we need even before we ask. I find that a most comforting thought.

More of Ella

Ella was three months old on Saturday. My, how she has grown from that little baby that came home with her mom and dad from the hospital back in August. Someone had asked me what the chest therapy was like. Every morning and evening David and Sabrina do "thumping" on Ella's chest and back. When the two of them are doing it, it takes about ten minutes. If only one does it, obviously it takes a bit longer. When I went with Sabrina to the CF clinic in Charlottesville, the physician explained that she does not have a buildup of mucous in her lungs yet, but they are having them do the therapy so that she will be used to it, and they will as well. When she gets a little older, there is a vest that they can use to do the therapies.

Sometimes she screams while they do it; sometimes she's placid as you see her here.
See, she does smile. One day while sitting on the couch with her, her mom picked up my camera and began snapping away. I miss that little girl. I can hardly wait until they come visit at Christmas and then again when I can go back and be Grammy again in the flesh. 

A Change of Pace

Once again, I'm posting here an article from lifesupportsystem.com Several of you have commented on other articles that I've posted here from the same website. This one is worth reading as well.


According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens a man noticed the
great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little
boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted
his time in such frivolous activity.

Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and
placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian,
"Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung
bow implies."

The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what
point Aesop was trying to make. The moralist explained, "If you
keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let
it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it."

So it is with us. Our minds and bodies are like the bow. When
constantly under pressures of everyday life, we can eventually
break. We need to loosen up; we need time to take the pressure
off and relax.

Former baseball pitcher Dutch Leonard might have put it a little
differently. He once said that the secret of great pitching is
not speed or the ability to throw curves. It's the "change of
pace." The average batter will soon learn to hit a pitcher who
continually throws the same kind of pitch. But it's hard to hit
against a pitcher who changes the pace of delivery. That change
of pace gives a pitcher the edge over the best of batters.

A change of pace likewise gives us an edge in life. Taking time
to watch the clouds, enjoy a breeze, take a walk, read or just
slow down is necessary if we are to be our best later. And a
regular day of rest is as important as regular sleep. It's a way
of taking the pressure off.

To be your best, make sure you change your pace. It may just be
the change you need.

Steve Goodier