Looking Forward To New Opportunities, New Friend and Old Ones! 

Wrapping Up Friday The Thirteenth

Are you a superstitious person? I suppose we all are in some manner shape or form. I can't imagine what the world might be like if we didn't have axioms. Having been out in the world on two wheels for 45 years now I have a healthy respect for this particular day on our calendar. I don't think it's because of the date, though, I believe it is the result of what the implanted message that accompanies the date does to people's minds. If one wanders around fearing that something bad is going to happen, it probably will! My paternal grandmother used to say, "Don't go buying trouble, there's plenty of it around that's free." Nope, I don't know what that means for sure, either, but when she spoke the words they always seemed to apply to the situation. So there you have my opinion of Friday the 13th as a bugaboo. Personally I stay out of traffic and don't venture too far from the house. This has been a good thing today! I am now within 6,000 words of the completion of the new book. Last two chapters(actually a chapter and an epilogue) are all that remain to write. Tonight my mind is literally fried. My wife interrupted me a little while ago to have me assist in bringing the plants in from the patio to protect them from the cold. I was not happy about leaving my work. I asked her as I grabbed a cup of coffee on the way past the station in the kitchen, "Did I look like I wasn't working there? You can't just interrupt me because you feel the need to move the plants at 11:00 at night. I was writing. Do you think I just sit down and make up these stories? She answered, "Yes, that is exactly what I think you're doing." We both laughed long and hard. She thought I was laughing too much, maybe it was the degree of red in my eyes from sitting in this same spot the last 12 hours, or the mindless laughter I lapsed into following her comment. Something put it in her head that I'm not quite right tonight. And that is exactly correct. I thank God I don't have to preach a service this Sunday, there's not enough time to get ready, unless I don't sleep until Monday. But about these superstitions, I really wonder where some of them originated. Maybe they're a part of the collective human consciousness and we just don't know it. I am glad we have them, though. How else would we have ever learned not to walk under a ladder? And what about the breaking mirrors thing? How many people had to suffer needlessly before it was discovered that breaking a mirror brought on seven years of bad luck? It simply boggles the mind enough for one day, anyway. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

This is courtesy of the NASA Hubble folks. 

In Thinking About Those "Little" Things

Little things have a way of sneaking up on us. A lot of years ago I got married. My wife and I had a prenup of a sort. We made the agreement that "All of the big decisions that were to be made in our life together, I would take care of because I was to be the head of the house. In direct proportion she, in her infinite wisdom, assigned herself the task of making all of the 'little' decisions concerning our lives. I asked her after about ten years why I never seemed to have to make any decisions, to which she reponded, "That's because there have never been any big decisions to make honey." Am I blessed, or what? Life continues like that for us to this day. I know, you got the joke now, but what does it teach me? A lot! It's the constant little 'decisions' we make which keep every petal on the flower of our lives from closing. Every day we choose little things that have impact on who, how, where, and what we are. It's all those little 'things' that keep us growing, or not growing, depending on the choices we consciously make. The most important facet of one's life, in my opinion, is their relationships! We form them everywhere. I could make a long list, but you know what I'm talking about. For better or worse we have relationships all over the place. I've done a few funerals where the number in attendance was so small that lunch could have been a shared value meal. Then there have been the ones that even standing room didn't offer enough space and people were lined up all the way around the church with outdoor speakers to hear what was going on inside. The trip to the cemetary was accompanied by the police because it was so long. Somewhere in between the two is where most of us end up. The thought I would like to convey is "It is the little decisions of relationships that are determining, even now, how our passing will be mourned, celebrated, or remembered." Not to end on a morbid note, I would have to admit that we probably won't know or give a rip who shows up or doesn't show up. But, isn't there some personal comfort found in knowing that we have not passed this way, lived this life in obscurity, or in vain, so to speak? It's all the little things that give our lives shape and form, substance and reality. I don't know how you feel about this, but I know for myself that I have relationships that need tending in little ways every day. God bless you. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Many Thanks To Char For Sharing Her Winter Snowfall With Everyone! 

There's More On This Great Guy And His Bride A Few Weeks Ago In The Blog!  

Thoughts On How People Grow.

When it comes to people. growth happens in too many ways to list here. Let's take three easy ones today. Fast, Slow, and somewhere inbetween(there is another term for that one) . The mountaintop experiences(as some call them)are the ones that bring about rapid change. We alter the course of our lives in a heartbeat as the result of something, someone, or a combination of the two. People's "firsts" can become the bookmarks by which they can actually see the very moment that their life changed for better or worse. I can already see I'm only going to be able to touch on one of the three today.
Pick one in your own mind and jot down on a slip of paper an important first. I've already done this. Mine is "my first drink of alcohol." (Don't go getting Schitzy on me here. I do not belong to a group or a club or any other association with fanatics that don't believe in alcohol in any manner shape or form.)That just happened to be the first one that came to mind today! It has forever changed me and the course of my life. We can never go back not even for a second in time, so this excercise is for the sake of perspective. Looking at one moment in time that changed us can be a fantastic help in realizing the potential of tomorrow. It has to do with that whole "self image" thing. To "grow" is to enter into the art of becoming who, what, where, and how we would like to see ourselves at some point in our future. For me it has been 41 years since that first encounter with beer. It has been a year and a half since my last. In the "between" time I have experienced every shade of color that accompanies a variety of lifestyles. The one I enjoy the most and take the greatest pride in is the "where" of "who" I've become. Here's how the fast change took place. It was at the lake and all the guys, my dad and uncles and their friends were fishing from the dock and some a ways off shore. I became the "official" beer tender for the keg they had on ice. They were having so much fun that I figured I might as well do it too. I drank a little and then a little more, until my legs got wobbly and my head spun. They all thought that I was just about the funniest thing they ever saw. So I got a thing in my head and when I wanted to be accepted and enjoyed by people later in life I drank. I'm NOT placing blame on anyone else for my choices. The growth at that moment was mine, and the years that followed were mine, and today is mine. Nobody else is responsible for that spurt of growth at any early age but me. How about the one that came to your mind? If this were a group type thing we'd all sit back and discuss that incident we wrote down and the extent to which it had an affect on the life we have today. Sometimes when we dig around the roots of the tree of our lives we uncover new insights on why, where, how, and who we are. This, in and of itself is growth, and may very well be the enabling force we use to begin to thrive once more. Many blessing to you as you check your "new growth." In Christ's Love, Preacher.