A Hero to Many…

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…especially to me. Although I am proud of him all the time, he is always willing to go the extra mile. I love him and he loves me and that’s the way it will always be.

Subject: Employee of the Month – February 2016 Importance: High

Congratulations to Detective A A for being chosen by staff to be the Employee of the Month for February 2016. You are being recognized for displaying great perseverance and determination in a missing person’s case that was originally from Oklahoma and involved a juvenile female who had started an on-line relationship with a 28-year-old male from Thornton.

Upon speaking to the juvenile’s parents, Detective AA obtained information that the mother and missing female were speaking over Facebook messages and verified that she was at a location believed to be within the City of Thornton. It was first thought that the juvenile was at the house of the mother to the male suspect. Upon speaking with the parents again, he had the mother ask for landmarks around where the female was staying and found out there was a 7-11 near the residence she was staying at. It was then (he) figured out that the (suspect’s) mother’s residence was near a 7-11. Upon initial contact at the residence the female occupant refused to let officers in and her story didn’t match up. After that a message from the juvenile was sent to the mother stating the police had been at the house she was located in and a search warrant was executed. The missing female was found inside the residence and reunited with her family.

Congratulations again on your well-deserved recognition.

Pattie Kay’s Day

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PKBSt Patty’s Day is here again and that means only one thing… Yes, I’m gonna probably going to wear green and No, I’m not going to have green beer, but I am going to be thinking about my old friend all day.

It was in 3rd grade when I moved to a new elementary school across town that I met Pattie! My last name began with an ‘A’ and hers began with a ‘B’ so of course we always sat next to each other in class because in those days everybody was seated alphabetically. I often wondered about the people whose names begin with ‘W’ and they had to sit in the back of the class. Could they see well enough? Hear well enough? Somebody should do a study of people with A, B and C last names to see if they got better grades!

Pattie lived a little north of town and I lived even further north of town. I think the development she lived in was called Holly Hills and I loved it!!! Beautiful brick homes with and manicured lawns. The best part was at Christmas time, the whole neighborhood had the same decorations in their yards; it was a perfectly decorated winter wonderland… with no snow (south Texas). All the people living in Holly Hills put up big candy canes and lollipops in their front yards and they all had lights around all the roof-lines. It was beautiful, uniform and perfect.

Truth is I always used to envy Pattie, she had her own room, she was tiny and petite, pretty, an only child and it was always quiet in her home. We were also in the Girl Scouts together, my mother was a troop leader and we often did things together.

I left Texas just before the end of eighth-grade and moved to many different places but I never forgot my friend Pattie. Every year without fail, when St Patty’s Day rolled around, I would think of her; I wondered where she was and and how her life turned out.

In 1997 ‘Classmates’ had been around a few years and I joined. I searched what would have been my graduating class of 1974. Pattie was on there and I sent her an email. Months past, months became a year and I never heard anything from her. Then about a year and a half after I first wrote her, I got an email. She’d been without a computer for a while and had just gotten back online. It was the rebirth of something wonderful. We exchanged long emails and we had long talks on the phone. It was one of those weird things that you can be friends and not see each other for 30+ years and just take back up where you left off.

However, now our conversations were deeper and more meaningful. We shared are joys and sorrows of where life’s path had taken us. The grandiose life that I had a imagined Pattie lived, was just that… in my imagination. She, like a lot of us, had many wonderful moments and good times in life fringed with heartache and disappointments. The deeper conversations got, the more it became clear that our childhoods were also even more intertwined than we knew. My childhood perception of her perfect life behind the lollipops and candy canes was not reality.

So we stayed connected, sometimes months between calls and e-mails but always at Christmas, my birthday and always, always St Patty’s Day . One year on my birthday I got a card and inside were several pictures of the candy canes and lollipops in Holly Hills. On the back Pattie wrote, “Here Trish thought you’d like these.” Not quite as my childhood eyes remembered but a great gift just the same.

In 2006, we finally got together. Pattie came to Seattle we had a fabulous week together, we took the ferry to the islands, we toured Pikes Place market, we went to the glass museum, we shopped, and we talked… long talks.

The next year in 2007, a friend whose daughter had just moved to Texas, and I went to see Pattie in Seabrook/Kemah. She was living there and loved the laid back beach life, loved the people and breezy atmosphere near the water.

Pattie and I talked last in December 2007; she said life had been hectic, she had lost her mom earlier in the year.  She told me when things settle down would have a long talk. It was our last Merry Christmas to each other.  March 2008 came and I sent her birthday greetings on the  17th but heard nothing. St Patty’s Day past; I tried to call, I tried to e-mail, but could not reach her. my birthday nothing, Christmas 2008 nothing.  Then it was St. Patty’s Day again…2009 and I had not heard from Pattie in over a year.  I knew something was not right. I searched the internet, went back to ‘Classmates’ left her message, left messages with others that I knew she stayed in contact with…. nothing. After weeks of searching, I found her obituary online. Gone… far too soon.

Heartbroken but eternally thankful for the time we had reconnected and the fabulous week we spent together in Seattle.  We changed, but had not changed.  Our path crossed for a second time in life and we could see more clearly, with adult eyes and no misconceptions about what formed our bond.

So, here it is St Patty’s Day again… but it is really Pattie Kay’s Day and will be forever to me.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

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I’m going to put my two cents worth in on this latest controversy about the presidential candidates. Yes, I think this locker room talk is disgusting and has no place for discussions in running for the Office of the President of United States; but lest the current set of outraged critics forget… we lived through Bill Clinton and his sexual escapades in the 90s. This is NOT the first ‘too much information event’ that has come from the Office of the President. During that time, I also had to quickly change the channel because of Bill’s dallying around the Whitehouse. Ever try to give an explanation to a 5 year who asked about oral sex and what the president was doing with a cigar that was bad?

Just imagine what he might get up to (in the halls and back rooms) if Hill-babe is busy running the country.

Toss them all out!!! Can we please find a honorable, honest, decent human being and leader for this country?

Sadly, I wonder if there are any left. Surely none that want to subject their families to the media vultures and social media firestorm that spread lies and rumors that quickly become ‘truth’ to many after being repeated and shared through the ether.

I wish it was over. I am sick of the process, the talking heads, the candidates and power hungry. I wish they’d get over themselves and go away.

As I said before we are going to get what we deserve for turning this process into a game of fools. I fear the mighty will fall if we don’t wake up soon

Raindrops and Tears

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A grey rainy drizzly day and I’m all tucked in my nest reflecting on the the year nearly finished and season ahead.

Mindlessly I switch the TV to a movie, ‘My Sister’s Keeper.” It was loosely based on a story about the family who conceived a daughter to save their older daughter who had leukemia. In that family everything turned out well. In this movie they delved deeper into issues and conflicts of that decision.

There are so many sides to the issue and although I could empathize with the mother in this movie, I could see how she had lost her way through this familiar battle.

When you have a child at deaths door, you never want to give up. You are the warrior. You will do whatever it takes to fight for your child. You will stand guard. You will search for every medical intervention. You will stand your ground with nurses and doctors. You will repeat your child’s story over and over until someone hears. You will stay up nights and listen to their every breath. You will not care what the establishment thinks of you. You will never give up hope because the alternative is to painful to face.

This mother had to face the fact that shear will, endurance, strength, love, and denial would not keep her daughter alive.

The tears begin flowing like the rain outside. Not only because it was sad that the daughter died but because the mother, try as she might, after all the years she spent caring, watching, battling, it was not enough. I felt her struggle, her defeat, her helplessness, her loss.

But what about those RED CUPS?

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Really, who is even upset about this? I keep hearing from the side that thinks it is ridiculous (as do I) but I’ve yet to see anyone who has complained.
Hey this is such a “non problem” it is hard to believe it is not a joke. I know lots of conservatives and lots of Christians and NONE of them give a hoot whether there are snowflakes on the dang cups.
Honestly, this a prime example of a “First World” non-problem that someone thinks it deserves attention. I looked up “who complained” and it looks like it started with some self-proclaimed conservative blogger. Someone who does not speak for me, nor do I think he speaks for conservatives, or Christians, or liberals. He’s just a person with an opinion.
I’m not at “War on Christmas” and yet, I don’t send Christmas cards via our business. ((Horrors))) I send Thanksgiving cards because it is a truly American Holiday and we have so much to be thankful for. I REPEAT; we have so much to be thankful for!!
Sadly, it is not just this issue, but so many other unimportant things that people are complaining about that is wrong with America… again, I say really this is worth all this uproar?   America has some issues because we are made of humans…many different kinds of humans with vast differences in our backgrounds and experiences, but we are working it out day by day. We humans are fallible and we are changing and growing, so give each other the benefit of the doubt. Be more accepting and understanding.
Every day I see things that I could take offense to, things I don’t agree with or believe in. And yes, there are some things important enough to speak out about; speak out about respectfully. However, if we don’t stop doing this, taking offense to Every, Little, Thing, and if we don’t try understanding and accepting our differences, we will tear apart everything that is good in America.
Better than our faults, there is so much right about America it could fill a library. We have people from every race and nation on the globe; freedom of religion; freedom of speech; we are generous; we are fair (to a fault); we have the breadbasket of the world within our borders; we have opportunities; we have mountains and oceans; vast plains and beaches; lakes and rivers; cities and farms; grocery stores and food banks; homes and shelters; buses and cars; and by gosh coffee shops, with hot coffee in red cups.
In this month of Thanksgiving, please give thanks for it all.

BEAR

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I love my little piece of paradise; it’s nestled in the tall trees, across the road from the river, at the base of Mount Si.

My yard is mostly wild, but some landscaping with flowers, bamboo and fruit trees. There is a little pear tree that produces, maybe, one pear a year and a crabapple tree that produces a bounty of tart little apples consistently year after year. Not eating apples for us humans, but over the years I have enjoyed watching the animals as they wonder through the yard enjoy the bounty from this little tree…rabbits, and raccoons, opossums (shudder), deer and the elk.
 

For a few years there was a deer with two fawns that would wander through and eat the fallen apples, after they were gone she’d try to reach for the ones on the low branches. One day Chris went outside and moved slowly towards the tree. Amazingly enough, the deer must have known what he had planned, because even though she moved away, she didn’t go far. Chris shook the tree lightly and a few apples fell. She moved back in with her fawns and ate them as Chris watched nearby. He moved closer, and she stayed closer, as he shook the tree again. This scene repeated itself many days over the next few weeks. Deer eating what had fallen to the ground, and patiently waiting as Chris increased the supply.

 Once the elk group, almost too small to call a herd usually 13 -20, came through the yard. There was a bit of a battle over the apples. Some of the larger elk could reach the apples on the low branches and the ones on the ground were being eaten by the others. When the large elk could find no more in the tree, he soon decided he would dominate the ones one the ground. He lowered his antlers and chased the others away. He’d go back to eating, then chase intruders again as they got close. Occasionally another elk would get a few before he’d get around the tree again.

Just a little side story here too. The elk eat my garden as well. They love daffodils, roses, bamboo, bulbs of any kind which they pull up by the roots and tomatoes. I resorted to having a patio of flowers and potted tomatoes but that did not deter Mr. Elk who we once caught on camera with his head and huge rack learning over onto the patio to get the newly ripened cherry tomatoes. Sigh… but the way I see it they were here first and they give me much more pleasure than they take.

So that’s how it would go, year after year, the little apple tree providing food for my forest friends and they providing enjoyment for me. It remained my little bit of paradise.

Then a few years ago, I noticed another forest creature was enjoying the fruit from the crabapple tree. Not that I saw it but because it left a nice little surprise outside my door. I used my “super tracker” instincts which told me it had been eating apples. It was Bear!

Mr (or Ms) Bear was not as sweet to have around. Yes the elk ate the roses, but Bear turned over the trash and Bear came onto the patio and dumped an entire kettle of peanut oil. Bear once dragged an entire bag of fertilizer onto the edge of the lawn and ripped it open; must have thought there would be a nice treat inside but was disappointed I am sure. One great benefit from that is that the weeds and blackberries grow beautifully there now. All the same, my mind was set to be more cautious of Bear and when he might be around.

So time goes on and last year the deer arrived on schedule as the apples began to fall. After a warm sunny summer, the tree was full of apples. Everything was as usual in my little corner of paradise, until one afternoon I returned home and found small broken limbs and leaves covering the ground under the apple tree. My first thought was that the elk were here trying to reach the lower branches but really didn’t think much beyond that. The next evening I returned home and my little apple tree was leaning over on the ground, uprooted, main branches snapped and the tree nearly destroyed! What on earth? I went to my security cameras and there it was — Bear!!

He had climbed my little apple tree to greedily get every apple he could. He ventured out onto the little branches near the top; they broke easily under his weight of probably 400 pounds or more. Then as he continued to climb, he uprooted my little tree and it fell over. After which, Bear, ate all the apples off the tree.

Sad, but after all he is a wild bear; he and his ancestors were here before me and my apple tree as well. Saddest part of all was that even though we propped the little apple tree back up and sealed the open wound from the broken branch (actually half the tree as it was broken at the “Y” in the trunk), my little apple tree did not produce fruit this year. Therefore, none of the wildlife benefited from its free fruit. All because Bear was greedy (or very hungry) and wanted more and more…he wanted it all. I know Bear did not have the conscious to know his greed; he was after all just a bear but his actions destroyed the food supply just the same.

Now I come to the real reason I am writing this story. This morning as I left for work, I looked over at my poor little apple tree and wondered how many years it would take for it to recover and produce its tart little crabapples again. I thought about Bear and his actions and wondered if there was an analogy here, a lesson to be learned. Whether it be the fish taken from the ocean, the fossil fuels, the trees downed in the rain forest or the way money is used and wasted in running the country. Does there come a time when it is discovered that we have destroyed the very thing that provides our needs because of our desire to want more, take more, and use more? Is it time to rethink the giving and taking? Should there be more thought about not taking more than we need just because it there and recognizing that at some point there will be nothing left to give? There is a provision to use and share, however, there should be an awareness and knowledge that unless there is planning and conserving, next year the cycle may not repeat and continued benefit for all, will be lost.

Above and Beyond

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With all the negative press regarding law enforcement officers, I’d like to give shout of praise to one special officer my life.

All the police officers I know have huge hearts. They don’t always wear them so they are visible to all… Mostly they have tough exteriors but soft and sweet interiors.

This special officer is my son a LEO in Colorado. He is a detective and part of his job is handling elder abuse cases. Recently he was sent some information on an elderly lady who officers met due to call at her residence. When the officers were there they noticed the lady had a rotten floor in front of her doorway and wondered if Aaron knew someone that could help her get it fixed.

He made some calls and got a donation from Home Depot and he went over on his own time and repaired her stairs and her floor.

As he got to know the lady, he realized she had been living in this home in Colorado for 44 years and for the past four years without a furnace.

He found someone to donate a furnace. Because she had no furnace, her pipes had frozen and she also had no water. He also located a company to donate the repair.

Her roof leaked, he found someone to fix her roof.

Relatives that were taking advantage of her over the years, had left junk all over house he organize teams of volunteers to help clean it up.

Then he organized donations for new carpet and new appliances,

All this was done over past month, he worked on his days off to help her.

Law enforcement is a tough job. Everyone should walk their walk a few miles to fully understand the challenges and rewards.

PS: I did not get approval to tell his story. He’d never seek accolades on his own. I’m claiming Mother’s privilege. 😍

~ Oh September

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Good night August and Good Morning September!

I Love September!  The last few warm days of Summer – cool crisp air in the mornings with that unique September scent. It reminds me of early morning walks to the school bus stop.

I love it because some of my favorite people were born in September – my grandmother, my Auntie, many of my “sisters” and me.

The new year is January 1st but September to me always seemed like a new start. Probably because it was the beginning of the school year and because my age ticked over another year but later in life I learned it is the beginning of God’s timetable for the New Year (Rosh Hashanah) which often begins in September. It makes sense now. It’s a time for a change, reassessing my life and purpose; turning my back on what’s behind and looking forward to the year ahead.

So Happy September everyone! Be blessed and enjoy

Views and Beliefs

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I am a person of faith and as such I am called to live by a certain set of standards. Anything below those standards is sin. Do I fail there? Yes, daily. Daily I am a failure and a sinner.

Now comes the difficult thing to explain to others who are respectable, responsible, moral, law abiding, loving friends, family and acquaintances who do not understand my views.

First of all, I do not presume to speak for God. He has set forth guidelines and commandments for living. These guidelines are for those who accept to follow. I do not believe I have to force these onto my neighbors, friends or family. These are not my rules but God’s rules given to his people.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. —Matthew 22:35-40.

So God’s commandment firstly, is to love him with all my heart, soul and mind. Secondly, love my neighbor… All my neighbors, not just my fellow believing neighbors. In that effort, “in as much as it is up to me, I will try to live in peace with everyone. ” Romans 12:18

In doing that do I agree with everything my neighbor does? No, not at all. In cases, where my neighbors’ lifestyle is contradictory to mine, I just do not engage. Where we have common ground, I enjoy and fellowship with them.

However, social issues that have been front and center the past few months appear to have forced a paralyzing wedge between my views and the views of some of you. Although, many are unaware because there is a fear to speak as the unspoken mantra is, “Accept this view. In fact accept and rejoice in it, or remain silent.” If not, you will be labeled a bigot.

So here is my view:

As a civil rights issue, equal rights to all, on a government level, I say let the government issue marriage licenses to all. If they are talking about marrying according to a state ‘ordained’ union then let the state do what the majority wants. However, I respect and honor the principals of God. So when it comes to forcing those views on churches or religious institutions, to go against their values, to perform God ordained marriages against their religious beliefs. that’s where I believe that freedom ends.

Why should they be demonized because they are holding their beliefs? Isn’t religious freedom one of the founding principals?

I have in my family, homosexuals and transgender individuals. I do not judge them, I do not force my faith or views on them. I love them, not whatever their lifestyle, beliefs or political causes may be. Hopefully they feel the same of me.

I do not even take a view of homosexuality as right or wrong. I do not have all the answers of what makes up the essence of who people are. My hope and prayer is that God has the answers and reasons for each of us; he knows each of us more intimately than we know ourselves and he is a just and loving God to all of his creation.

Now comes the paradox. I may find, among my believing friends those who will call me a heretic, and say I am living with a foot in both worlds. I am fallen away, not religious enough or simply misguided. I suppose by definition I could be one or more of those.

To them, I ask you pray for me, as it appears God has put in me a questioning spirit. I desire to be an example of God’s love as he leads me. My hope and prayer for myself is that it will all become clear and I will understand my own journey and trials one day.

I guess what I am asking is for the same respect all are asking; for tolerance of opposing views. I hear you and respect you; I ask only the same consideration in return.

19 June 2015 at 8:31

Blessed

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Today, February 17,  it is 64 degrees out; the trees are blooming, the birds are singing and last night the sunset at the river was breathtaking. Once again I think how blessed I am.  Truly the best things in life are free.
The window washers came this morning and I took time to smell the roses!

The past few days I have seen in my yard; a small herd of female elk, Erkle (my pet elk), a deer with two fawns, the black bear on video in my trash :-), a wide variety of bunnies, and a family of raccoons.

I look out my clean windows to a gorgeous view of Mt Si and the cliffs are dotted with the mountain goats, there are eagles and hawks not to mention the Canadian geese, the robins, the stellar jays, the nuthatches and the black capped chickadees. There are herons in the marshes along the low areas.

Sunday we plucked two little frogs out of the pool and to be so small they sure have a loud song!

I drive 4 miles to the office and I pass pastures with horses, lamas, alpacas, cows with little calves, one pasture even has a group of Texas longhorns, I cross two branches of the Snoqualmie River and quite often I see the elk are crossing. As I drive past a large field of cows in the middle stands one lone coyote looking around…I don’t believe he could take any of them on!

All this surrounded by towering 70 ft douglas firs, cedars and evergreen trees. Blooming rhodies and azaleas, flowering plum trees full of pink blossoms and hundreds of tulips and daffodils…

and I say to myself… What a Wonderful World

Trish B – 27 April 2010

February 14th

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Valentines Day: Another one of those holidays people have intense emotions about, both good and bad; I do not feel strongly either way but observe with purpose.

My ‘Valentine’ is away again this year as it quite often happens. No big deal, I’m not heart broken, distraught or tearing my hair out because I didn’t get a hallmark card, roses and a big-hunk-of-love bear!

I don’t want any of those things. I get plenty of things I do want many times throughout the year because my valentine is a person who works very hard and he shares the fruits of his labor with those I love. My family, friends, and people in need. He took a trip to Israel with my Mother, 79, in tow and looked after her with saintly patience; he’s gives generously to help others make a house payments, pay for surgery, legal representation, needed transportation, provide firewood or buy groceries. He doesn’t just give funds he gives of himself. What precious free time he has, he’ll do consulting pro-bono, fix garage doors, help people move, make car repairs, drive little ladies to the doctor or across the pass to comfort someone with a sick family member, and together we are pros at hospital visits.

I didn’t get big red paper heart; I have Valentine with a real heart filled with compassion and love.

When he is in town, we spend valentine’s day sharing love with others; dinner with old friends, widows or those alone. It seems natural to spend this day sharing love with those around us maybe those who are feeling unloved and need to know someone cares.

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One of the sweetest Valentines days I can remember was three years ago. Mine was gone and I went across the street for dinner. I quietly read my messages and watched a little girl at the table next to me happily drawing the pink wild roses that were in the vase on the table. Her parents were in deep conversation about their day and I would occasionally glance over as she would finish one drawing and start another attempting to perfect her art. My dinner came, they finished theirs and left. As she walked past me I looked up and we exchanged smiles. I continued with my dinner and a minute later there was a tap on my shoulder and this beautiful little blond was beside me with one of her drawings in hand. She said, ‘Here this is for you,” and with that she skipped off out the door to where here parents were waiting by the car.

My heart melted and I was filled with joy! Yes, she had it! Spreading joy and love to others. Nice on February 14th but beautiful throughout the year.

Holiday Spirit Lost

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I am having a really hard time finding the holiday spirit. Where are the 300 young girls that were kidnapped? A few days of news and we moved on. How many people have been beheaded? Horror at the first one then successively our shock and outrage has waned. Planes shot down, planes never found; not even a scrap of metal. Worshippers brutally stabbed inside their synagogue. Children slaughtered. Anger, hate, anger, hate everywhere — I cannot be consoled by holiday lights and trimmings. The sorrow is burning deep in my heart.

We feed off the sensationalization of it all, but move on like it was yesterday’s a bad weather. Real evil exists in people and groups and they are actively plotting their next move. Real evil!

I long for peace.

On the Wings of a Snow White Dove

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White doves,  the symbol of peace, love, purity, gentleness and innocence.

That was Lovey Dovey.   We got her in 1998 from a young man who had been homeschooled and she moved to our home with our homeschooler.  She came with a mate and we built a dovecot beside our house for them to live.  However, the dangers of the wild are fierce and one summer evening while they were sleeping a hawk reached through the wire with his talons and grabbed her mate. He had also grabbed at Lovey Dovey but she managed to escape; her wing was injured but she was alive.

We brought her inside and nursed her back.  Her injured wing would always hang down but she could still flutter about.  She had a perch she would sit on as the boy did his schoolwork and she always was eager to coo in converse with anyone who would participate. The boy was particularly good at “Dovey Language.”

As time passed and the boy grew we spent less time at home, so Lovey Dovey came to live at the office.

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She was the calming force on many a tense day.  Everyone loved Lovey and would stop to say good morning or chat.  Over time everyone began to call her Birdie.

She loved the attention; people in the office would come and get her and let her sit at their desk while they worked.  She especially liked Howard.  Howard talked to her and even long after he retired, when he would come to visit Birdie would perk up at the sound of his voice.  It was love.

She was a fascination for children who would visit the office as she was so gentle; she would calmly rest on their fingers without a fuss and pose for photos with them.

Birdie had become the office mascot!

She was the star of a a video we produced for a Christian organization; as a symbol of God’s Peace.

Every year in November she would be posed in some elaborate photo shoot for the company’s  annual Thanksgiving card.  All in all she was a very good sport about it, although there were times things got a little crazy.  If someone had been taking pictures of me and Colleen as we cooed and tried to catch her attention to look this way or that, I am sure we would have made a comical video.

Birdie had been a little slow and quiet lately.  Getting on in years, she had been part of our family since 1998, but still last week she cooperated as we set her up for her annual photo shoot.

This morning we came in and it was apparent Lovey Dovey was going to leave us.  I picked her up and held her until she passed.

Even as she  passed there was a beauty and peace about her.  I imagined her flying up into a deep blue sky as if on her way to heaven.

She was all the things listed above and she was more; she was perfect.  Her wing was crippled, but she is soaring now.

Halloween – Love it, Hate it or in Between – You Choose

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It is that time of year again Autumn the season of Halloween and Thanksgiving; two diabolically different occasions.

I am not a fan of Halloween.  As a kid I remember dressing up and going trick or treating wearing one of those hard plastic masks. I even let my kids go; although with my youngest we’d dress him up and go to the mall it was more a big costume party.

However, even when I was little I had an uneasiness about Halloween.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist church in a small town and I still remember how terrified I was at six years of age, when they converted the Sunday School classrooms into a “House of Horror”.  The lights were out and one of the older kids took me by the hand to lead me through.  I was made to put my hand into a bowl of brains and eyeballs and guts.  I panicked and began crying until they let me out to the room.  Later they showed me it was just spaghetti, grapes, jello; didn’t take much to terrify me.

I have never liked scary movies, horror movies, satanic movies and during October –  yep,  that’s pretty much all that is on TV. I’ve never seen the Exorcist, or a Freddie movie, no Chainsaw Massacre, no Shining, no Omen and no Vampires… you get the picture.  I remember when I was a young adolescent watching Alfred Hitchcock and Twilight Zone or Night Gallery with Rod Sterling with my mother.  We would huddle on the couch, lock the door and I’d stay awake half the night seeing shadows in the dark!

So pretty much for me that was the extent of it.  Since then I have been guided by the knowledge that once something is in my mind it is nearly impossible to erase.  I just choose not to fill it horror, evil or demonic visions.  I believe there is enough real horror in the world without having to deal with someone’s vivid imagined horror and terror.

Evil exists, I get that but I don’t think having the memory of it existing in my head is of any life changing or edifying benefit.  A personal choice.

So I take a deep breath.  Tomorrow is a new day, a new month and a new focus.  November –  Thanksgiving,  a season of gratitude and giving thanks.  I can grasp onto that.

Reason, Season or Lifetime

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Do you know the story; People come into your life for a REASON, a SEASON or a LIFETIME? I have found it to be true.

People that are in my life for a REASON come and go, usually in a short time and when they are gone, I am sometimes sad…sometimes glad. Afterwards, I think of them occasionally but usually do not make contact.

People who come for a SEASON, I have a deeper relationship with. They usually reveal a hidden truth in my life and always carry a special place in my heart. When the season is over whether a year or ten years, I always remember them fondly and when I see them occasionally, it always makes me happy.

People who come in to my life for a LIFETIME, well you now that is pretty self explanatory except to say they are the family that God gave me to replace the broken family that I had. They are always near and dear to my heart and even some I have not seen in 10 or 20 years. We call and write each and and stay in touch and when they need me or I need them they are always there. They are the family of my heart.

Life’s Clock

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Originally written April 21, 2013.  Little did I know that in few short weeks my life would be turned upside down and I would be looking at the reality that I could lose my son to a deadly illness.  Lesson, lived.  Remember we do not know what tomorrow will bring; live as if today might be your last.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I woke up this morning and heard a statement on a morning show that put me on a thought path that is just playing over and over in my head today.

The Statement was: (Paraphrased) The victims of last week’s bombing and the explosion in Texas had no idea when they left there house that morning that day would be their last.

Reporter Lee Cowan said, it …” serves as reminder that we don’t get to set life’s clock.” and that while we all think we have a tomorrow to say whatever we need to say sometimes tomorrow never comes.

Then as this theme is running through my head, I am working upstairs trying to catch up on accounting there is a movie playing in the background called “What If.” Similar thought and theme. We are all so busy with life and goals that we let it interfere with living and letting those we love know how much we appreciate them.

To that end. All my friends know that I appreciate you all. Hopefully at times along the way I have succeeded in showing you how much I care and love you; but please forgive me when I have failed to listen, put other things less important first and have done and said stupid things that hurt you. Forgive my humanness, selfishness and impatience.

I will try and hear more carefully what I say and watch more carefully in how respond. I pray that I will always be reminded that “I do not get to set life’s clock.”

Sadly Evil Exists

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Life for me rolls along and from the comfort my home I hear the stories of missing planes, planes shot from the sky, wars, suffering, children dying and suffering, people being beheaded, riots, anger… I want to believe there is good to be found in everyone, but I am beginning to see how that belief can become a fatal flaw.

It is distressing;  what can I do to help in the bigger picture?
Give, speak up, pray?  Sometimes I wonder if any of it helps. I don’t understand evil, but must acknowledge it exists and understand sometimes it takes fighting back to defeat it.  I am thankful those who step up to fight that battle for me (us).

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-blind-spot-for-sheer-evil/

Fatherless

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FATHERLESS

Celebrate your Fathers today,
Know that you are blessed
To have had a loving guiding protector,
That allowed your soul to rest.

To a girl without a Father,
Life lessons were hard learned.
Looking to fill that empty space
In a heart that always yearned.

Substitutes stepped in at times
With promises to love and protect,
But they always went their own way
and left a heart with reject.

I envied and I longed
For a Father to hold in times of need,
Offering comfort With his strong arms ~
In every word and deed.

Now I know, I always had a Father dear.
Present at every trial and turn, sending down his love;
Each time life’s journey overwhelmed,
He was watching from above.

Fathers Day, yet I have none on earth to call my own,
But in heaven I have a wondrous One.
And I will see my Abba’s face,
When my days on earth are done.

Trish 2014©️

Father’s Day – 15 June 2014 @ 12:45