Saturday, May 24, 2014

Memorial Day

What are you doing to honor this day?  Yes, it's a three-day weekend, warm weather has finally arrived.  The sunblock and flip flops are waiting by the door.  The pool's open and you're going to work on the tan.  Maybe later on you'll do some grilling and enjoy a beer or glass of wine.  After all, you've still got Sunday and Monday!

That's all true.  But while you're relaxing, can you take just a few minutes to remember those who can no longer enjoy those American liberties?  Can you salute them in your mind - the fallen heroes and those who still serve?

Say a prayer for my grandson, 1st Lt. Zack Chrismon, who's somewhere in the Middle East.  It's over 100 degrees and he's missing his loved ones while he risks his life for his family, for his country and his fellow countrymen.  Can you do that for me?  For all of us?

If you're sincere in your heart and mind and this link doesn't bring a tear to your eye, then I don't think anything will. Skip the ad in 3 seconds, watch and listen all the way to the end.  This is how it should be sung.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCavKL2zdjM

Monday, May 19, 2014

Happy Monday!

 Are you loving this spring weather?  Hot one day, cold the next?  Such a pleasant relief and not a bit boring, huh?

Without a 9 to 5 job to structure my life, sometimes I don't really know what day it is.  Friday is easy - it's the WEEKEND!  Saturday and Sunday are easier, everybody's out and about.  Monday, well, everybody's going back to work.  And then come Whatstoday, Whatstoday, and Whatstoday (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, in case you're wondering) and I don't have a clue!

But I do know today's Monday and I'm hoping you have a productive one.

Here's an excerpt from the final page of This, Too, Shall Pass (yes, I began with the end in mind), which is nearing completion.  Maybe another week or two.  Writing Before The Lake was fun.  This one is NOT fun, and I will be happy to be finished with it.  Sometimes the past is best left in the past but, again, sometimes it's important to shed the light of day on the darkness and that's what I've tried to do.  Hopefully, someone else will benefit.
With the stroke of a pen, a writer can tug a comforting smile from our lips, or trace a tear down our checks; he can make our hearts flutter with trembling fear or soar with joy.  Many a patriotic thunder found its voice flooding from the writer’s pen, as noted artists from the past have demonstrated.  A writer has the ability to spark imagination and to instill a curiosity that invites the reader to explore their own personal feelings, to evaluate the resulting emotions, perhaps to form an opinion as a result of the writer’s fearless exposure.   
Whatever it is that the writer would have us feel in his earnest endeavor to present to us the gift of his soul, it matters not whether we agree.  A writer’s only desire is that we listen – with open hearts and minds - and that we try to understand.
Now that I'm a Tar Heel again, I'm Feelin' It!  You? 

Click on this link for our native son who's definitely feelin' it!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qidv_uK-5Ig

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Wishing You Happy Mother's Day!

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.

Mothers all over the country will be celebrated with cards and flowers, gifts and lunches.  

Why do I feel like this is somehow backwards?  I have three children; Steve, Mark and Beverly.  They are all upstanding citizens who love their children and honor me all year long.  Isn't that to be celebrated? 

My mother made her own Mother’s Day dinner every year.  We all went home.  I don’t remember there being any gifts.  The only physical concession to the day was wearing the rose to church; a red one if your mother was living, a white one if she had passed on.  While I can’t pretend to know what she was thinking, I don’t believe she felt the least bit uncelebrated when we devoured the meal she made and gathered around the piano to sing her favorite hymns before we left.  We devoured the meal because she was the best cook in the world; we sang the songs not because we wanted to (truth be told, we were all eager to be on our way) – but because we knew it was the moment she waited for and we wanted her to be happy.  I believe she was feeling fulfilled. 

That’s how I feel – fulfilled. 

I hope your Mother’s Day tomorrow is everything you want it to be.  If you’re wondering what Mom wants for Mother’s Day, just let her know you’re thinking about her – tell her in person, over the internet, or through a phone call.  Just let her know you’re thinking of her.  That’s all she wants.  I know.  Because I am a mother.