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 |  Fibro fog, pain, writing sandwiched in between. Quotes. Sermon notes. Encouragement. |
A Texas Sunrise  A friend, William Taylor, took this picture. He visits Surfside Beach with his dogs almost every morning, watching the sun rise while the dogs prance about at the water's edge. This is only about ten miles from where I lived in Lake Jackson, Texas. Sadly, I only visited this beach about four times in the six years I lived nearby. Each day is a challenge. A challenge to get by without thinking about the fibromyalgia pains. A challenge to stay awake when chronic fatigure wants to take over. And a challenge to navigate through fibro fog. I haven't been writing as much as in the past. For years, I wrote at least 500 words a day. Now, I'm lucky if I write 500 words in month. Sigh. For more information about what my day (or life) is all about with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pains, IBS, depression and everything else thrown in, check this out:
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| In the 1700s, the average lifespan was 34 years. Benjamin Franklin lived for 83 years. Shouldn't we be copying what he did?  "My Favorite Neighbor"  "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
| Black history month is almost over. Have you ever studied Langston Hughes? If not, I suggest that you do. Here's a sample of his poetry. Hold onto dreams For if dreams die Life is like a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. Langston Hughes |
| My mom used to sing a song about the word "can't". In our house, you were not allowed to say that you couldn't do something. She sang, "I'll never, ever say I can't. I'll always say I'll try." The other word that we couldn't say was "hate". We definitely were not allowed to hate people. We could hate their actions, but not them. We were allowed to dislike foods, but only after we had tried them. And even then, we had to try them again periodically, in case our tastes changed. I tried to instill these same ideas in my son's growing years. And, yes, I did sing the song to him.  ****In 1902, an aspiring young writer received a rejection letter from the poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Enclosed with a sheaf of poems the 28-yr-old poet had sent was this curt note: "Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse." The young poet rejected the rejection however, and went on to see his work published. His name was Robert Frost.***** We can't give up. We must always try.  "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
Today is Lincoln's birthday. Baby boomers used to celebrate it. We all had artwork of Lincoln's silhouette. |
Fantastic. A few days ago, my junk mail thought that it was time to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. Today, junk mail is wishing me a Happy New Year. |
| Something weird is going on. All of my junk mail - here, at Yahoo mail and at Google mail - suddenly thinks that we're back in the Christmas and Hanukkah season. How bizarre. |
| Sometimes it appears that fiction authors were actually modern day prophets. Big brother has been watching for a while now. History is constantly being rewritten. Words are being redefined. Good is considered evil and evil good. Not too far in the future, you will be crammed into small apartments in the city. People will own nothing. Farmers will be run out of the farmlands. And you will eat bugs and Soylent Green. Baby boomers aren't going to be around for much longer. You'll miss us when we are gone, and you will realize that we have been right about so much. We've tried to warn you. If only you had been listening. |
I watched Dr Ben Carson on C-span. If you can find his speech online, either to read or watch on video, I suggest that you do. Dr Carson is a brilliant man. He talked about the importance of making sure that you positively affect your sphere of influence. He's right, and I have heard multiple people talk about this in recent weeks. At church, we cannot be just pew sitterrs, even if we have retired from work. I have never seen in the Bible that we are supposed to retire from being an active Christian. Perhaps we have to do different tasks for the Lord as we age. I'm always reminded about a woman I knew in Texas. She was 86 years old and couldn't even make it to church most Sundays. But she prayed for her family, her friends and neighbors, her church family, and politicians and business leaders throughout the country and the world. She prayed for 4 hours every day. Then she wrote letters and cards to everyone for whom she prayed. Her ministry was so important to our community that even people she didn't know sent stationary and stamps to her. She was, after all, on a limited income. We are also not surpposed to be the equivalent of pew sitterrs in politics and real world issues either. Of course we should show up to vote. But we should also attend our local government meetings to hold those office holders accountable. We should find ways to get involved. Many of the problems surrounding us today are there because so many Christians prayed but didn't get involved. My grandma used to tell me to put feet to those prayers. When was the last time that you volunteered at a local school? At a homeless shelter? A soup kitchen? How about a women's shelter? Grandma also used to tell me that we are supposed to give of our time, talents and treasure. Dr Carson reminded us of the words of Benjamin Franklin. When asked what kind of government they had given us, he answered, "a Republuc, if you can keep it." Carson also reminded us of the words of Nikita Khrushchev telling the West that our grandchildren and great grandchildren would live under Communism without them ever having to go to war. |
| "Pity the man who has a favorite restaurant, but not a favorite author. He's picked out a favorite place to feed his body, but he doesn't have a favorite place to feed his mind!" - Jim Rohn "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
Remember 9/11? For days, weeks afterward, we WERE NOT divided by race, gender or political parties. We were AMERICAN. Period. Will we ever be that united again? |
| Did you know that the swine flu only killed one person, but the swine flu vaccine killed 30 and paralyzed 450? Yep. That was a vaccine that President Carter had rushed to production in 1976. People always use the polio vaccine as an example of why we should be embracing vaccines. Sure. But did you know that Cutter Laboratories, the company that produced the vaccine made a horrible mistake in the first version of the vaccine? Yep. They injected 120,000 with the vaccine with live polio virus in it and infected 70,000 of them – crippling 164 and killing 10. Don’t get confused. Big Pharma didn’t make vaccines out of the goodness of their hearts. They are scheduled to make billions upon billions of dollars. You may not be paying for the vaccines, but they are not free. And they have not been fully tested. It usually takes as much as 15 years to create vaccines. And that’s the normal type of vaccines. These are different. And we don’t know the long term effects. But we can be sure that Big Pharma – since the 80s – is not responsible for injuries or deaths due to vaccines. That’s where the vaccine court comes into play, but most people don’t even know it exists. We also don’t know about settlements because the vaccine court puts gag orders on each and every settlement.  "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
| Homicides in: •Los Angeles increased by 30 percent; •New York increased by 40 percent; and •Chicago increased by a staggering 50 percent. Omaha, Oklahoma City, and Memphis all experienced a more than 50% increase in homicides during the same time period. Some so-called experts don’t understand why all crimes haven’t increased. Ummm…property crimes decreased because people spent much more time at home in 2020, and routine burglaries usually skip occupied houses. When shops are closed, there's no shoplifting and fewer larcenies. DUH!! We’ve also had… Increases in domestic violence. Increases in financial problems. Increases in isolation. Increases in alcohol and drug abuse. Increases in social unrest. And increases in suicides. Worldwide. For the sake of our country, urge your mayors and governors to allow businesses, churches and schools to open up. The number of covid deaths is not what they’re claiming. Remember way back last spring, Dr. Birx told us on live TV that when a person died from cancer or heart problems, and yes, even from accidents, if he/she tested positive for covid, the death was recorded as covid. They told us this was happening. And so did loved ones who had people die. The CDC website had had deaths listed as PIC – or pneumonia, influenza and covid – all lumped together. (Further, if you take time on the CDC website, you’ll discover that they admit and no one ever dies from flu. They did from “complications from flu” – usually pneumonia.) The inventor of the PCR test has been saying for the past year that it was not designed to test covid and that most of the test results would be false positives. Sure enough, the CDC and WHO finally admitted the same thing. As many as 90% of tests recorded as positive were likely false positives. So, following that….the people who died from cancer, heart attacks, car accidents…who supposedly tested positive for covid and were, therefore, counted as covid deaths could have been false positive cases. As many as 90% could have been false positives. They should never have been counted as covid deaths in the first place. But now that we know about the possible false positive tests, those deaths should absolutely be reclassified to show the real reasons people died.  "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
If you’re going to be passionate about something, be passionate about learning. If you’re going to fight something, fight for those in need. If you’re going to lose something lose your inhibitions. If you’re going to gain something, gain respect and confidence. And if you’re going to hate something, hate the false idea that you are not capable of your dreams. —Daniel Golston "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
Did you know that our stupid government paid NIH $4,658,865 to tell them whether or not drinking more results in more trips to the ER. Surprise. Yeppers. It does. You know....I would have gladly told them that for about 1/4 as money. You know what else? Bob Dylan, songwriter of the 60s is a sculptor. Our State Dept. paid him almost $85,000 for a statue outside the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique. It turns out that every time our government builds an office in a foreign country, they earmark .05% of the cost of the building for a sculpture to sit outside for the government employees to enjoy. Or ignore. The higher the cost of the building, the more they can spend on art. Hmmm. |
It amazes me that people think that President Trump isn't bright. I've worked for big companies, I've worked for builders and architects and engineers, for plumbers - the ones who put bathrooms in hotels and high rises. I've also owned my own small business. I've been an avid reader all of my life and I have been a writer since I was a child and was first published as a teen. My own life experience tells me that Donald Trump is brilliant. When people say, "find out what rich people do and do that" they're talking about President Trump, not the crooks in our government. |
| November 22, 1963. The day started out like any other. I was in 6th grade. There were so many of us that we didn't fit in the elementary school, so we attended school in the basement of the junior high. There were 150 of us, split into 3 classes. Yes, we had 50 kids in each class, and we learned. My teacher was a HUGE guy. He was the first male teacher we'd had and he scared us all. :) We were like orphans in that basement. We rarely went back to the elementary school, although occasionally we did for some concert or something. And we never participated in any of the junior high activities. The only interaction we might have with junior high students was with the guys (and a few gals) who took wood shop or metal shop. Those were also in the basement. So was the rifle range, also mostly used by male students. The shop teachers were scary dudes with HUGE paddles with holes in them. We knew that only because sometimes when we were on the way to the restroom, we saw one of the shop guys being paddled. They never flinched. We were taking French, so our French teacher was at the front of our classroom that day, and our regular teacher was off somewhere when the first announcement came over the intercom that President Kennedy had been shot. Not long after that, the loud speaker squawked again and we listened as a news guy cried as he told us all that our President had died. Our French teacher said, "they cannot keep us from praying at a time like this" (because prayer had been outlawed in the classrooms) and so we all prayed together and cried. Then the girls all ran to the restroom so we could hug and cry together and sit on the floor. The boys all stood in the hallway hugging too and trying not to show emotions but having a rough time of that. I don't remember the ride home on the school bus that day. But I do remember sitting on the floor of the living room for days watching the news and funeral coverage with my mother and grandmother. Thinking back now, I wonder what my younger brother and sister were doing while we were so absorbed. After that, my mother bought every book and magazine that she could find about the assassination and the aftermath and she and I poured over them. That continued for about a decade or more for us. We wanted to try to understand how and why our President was shot. |
| You know how sometimes you just have to share a few words? A few minutes ago, a thought popped into my head that I had to share. We're supposed to soar, not coast. Isaiah 40:31 NIV - but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
| I love, love, love, the word ponder. Dictionary.com (isn't that YOUR favorite go to place for everything dictionary?) says that it means to consider something deeply and thoroughly, to meditate over, to weigh carefully, to consider thoughtfully. Imagine if we, the people who love to write, actually spent more time pondering stuff, you know, like life and love, and....politics..... But wait, we probably all spend too much time on politics these days. Or do we....??? Anyway, this is something I posted on Facebook today. Something to ponder. Look what's happening in Europe. Then remember that they are farther ahead of the USA in secularization. They have beautiful churches and cathedrals that are no longer used for worship. Back in the 90s when I was placing foreign exchange students into homes in FL, I learned that when they called themselves Christian, it actually meant that they weren't atheists. Most had never been inside a church and were quite surprised to learn that family life in the US would mean attending church, Sunday school and youth group. Today, French and German students would find that many Christians in the US have also never been inside a church. How easy it is for evil to take up residence in a country where Christians do not fellowship together nor are they regularly fed the Word of God. |
| I got a catalog in the mail recently. I flipped it open and the first thing I saw was a $2500 sofa. I knew right away that I had not requested that catalog. We often get catalogs and magazines delivered to the wrong addresses in our subdivision. They will either be for someone on our street with an entirely different address number or someone with the same house number on a parallel street. I did wonder which one of my neighbors might have won the lottery, considering the cost of the merchandise in the catalog. But when I looked at the address....my address has 4 numbers in it, and the address on the catalog had 3 numbers in it, 3 of the 4 in mine. The street name was the same, except that ours has an "e" on the end, and that street name did not. We're an avenue, and the intended recipient lived on a road. And you know what else? We're in Cincinnati, and the intended recipient lives in Batesville, Indiana! Seriously. And here's the kicker. I tried to give the catalog back to the mailman (sorry, he's a guy ) but he told me that he would just throw it away since it was just a catalog and not a bill or even a magazine someone had paid for. I told him that sometimes catalog companies also charge for catalogs, but he didn't seem concerned. |
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