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Merry Christmas!  It is a thing we say to one another, wishing each other the very best during the December Holiday and Celebration of the birth of Christ.  But if you’re like me, everyone is included in these good wishes.  We don’t always know what each other believes but we have love in our hearts so we say to everyone.

Oh I know there are those that want to keep it “pure” but I am not that person.  I don’t have enough info about my fellow Man to know who is who and what is what.  I am only required to have good will in my heart and to be giving as best I can.  So that’s what I do.  I acknowledge and respect that not everyone is me; and I don’t require anything in return, but it’s nice when it comes back.

This year I have been hacked so many times.  This is not a career move I am talking about; these are thieves, robbers, crooks.  But I will still wish them good will (maybe they will stop stealing from me).  And there is this…  one day when each of their lives is over, God will ask them what good they

It didn’t come to me all in one “think” but in bits and pieces. It was a slow sort of melding process. First one ingredient and then another and another. Like this…
I was listening to two of our sons discuss the fighting in the world and the power grabbing… Like many people, they both believed that it fed only the top shelf and everyone else suffered. Then one of them said, “To stop it, we’re going to have to have an enemy from the outside… One that causes the entire world to need each other and forget the differences to survive instead of argue and disagree, sort of like Terminator, the movie.” That sentence was step one; and, I tucked it in the back of my brain.

Then I was reading the Bible one night… Revelations to be exact…. Chapter nine, the part about locusts devouring everything. Now locusts could be really big, I thought; as big as the walking tanks from Star Wars. It might actually happen not as a natural event, but built through technology… Giant locust looking tanks that kill and destroy. That was the second thing I tucked away.
The last thing was the

In March of this year, 2020, illness began to sweep countries, beginning with China.  It was all encompassing.  People dying by the hundreds.  Persons ill by the thousands.  It seemed to come out of nowhere like a flash flood taking souls to God and suffering to everyone.  In my home country of the United States we saw a rush on food stores and pharmacies for supplies; larger cities like New York City had hospitals struggling to find beds for patients as they also brought in doctors to take extra shifts.  Wear a mask became the catch phrase… That, and “Social distance please”, which no one in the USA wants to do… We’re all about hugging.  This, while all along the president of our country tried to tell us that it was no big deal and just chill out.  That was the beginning of it all.  Then, it got worse.  And now?  We all know that many months later, that illness called COVID-19 is still with us with no cure as of yet.

We are living through this while we are experiencing social unrest, economic upset, a particularly uncomfortable national election year; and then there’s all of our individual lives filled with

The primary colors of the spectrum are said to be red, yellow, blue, and green; from there, so many other beautiful colors can be created.  Color … When we combine color with some action that is meant to help others, the result is tumultuously good .  Here is an example of that.

Yesterday as I considered how I could up-lift and encourage, I was also having a bit of cabin fever from this house bound business.  I decided to go to the local Safeway, which happened to still be open.  I thought to myself how hard these employees are working.  True, they are fortunate to still have a job they can go to, but consider the long and exhausting hours they are working as they enforce the many new protocols for safety and cleanliness.  So, I elected to go to the flower center of our local Safeway Store, and purchase bouquets of flowers, then present them to the lady checkers. (What do we do for the guys, buy them a beer?  But I digress… The guys we’ll deal with later.)

I arrived in the flower center and began searching the bouquets and the profusion of color before me.  What was the best

Many people are filled with the news of the pandemic outbreak.  And yes, it’s something to consider and be serious about its outcome and impact on one’s life.  But it is not the bottom line.  The bottom line is what will each do to survive and thrive, not only for self but for the well-being of family, one’s country, and the world?  We must survive and thrive by moving into a New Age.

Let’s start with shock.  Of course we are all surprised that life is changing so dramatically.  One day we’re going to work, making a pay check, and then heading home to relax.  Now, we work from home, worry about whether the paycheck will even show up in our bank account, and have more family than we ever hoped to have because the kids (all ages) are also home going as crazy as you and making it tough to work.  At all.  It’s tough to consider, but this is our new life (at least for the foreseeable future).  It’s time to be the creative people we all are, and find the new ways to thrive.  Americans as well as Europeans and all others are making an effort to find

I am thinking that I should get back to work with writing, which I pretty much dumped after the death of our third son a short time ago…  Almost five years to be exact.   At that time, I had a manuscript almost finished to publish, had a possible publisher that I liked and who liked my work, and well…  Our son died.  There was the actual event, family arriving to support one another, planning the service, his burial, and then back home where I proceeded to just sit.  I continued all the daily things like laundry, Bible study, laundry, meals, I taught music a little, more laundry and then more meals.  Hubby and I  finally got a little dog to help ease the pain; and it did give us some peace; but it didn’t make me go back to work. I would start putting down words and end up staring at the page while I continued to sit.  When asked if I’d finished my project or how much I’d accomplished, I was known to have used that dog as the reason I couldn’t write.  The real reason was that I myself needed the encouragement to do it, to go back

There was a woman who had a coffee date with someone whom she thought she knew well.  (Hmmm….   Is that an opinion?)  After polite greetings to one another and seating themselves, the conversation began.  It wasn’t long before her friend’s finger was in her face, as her friend told her what she ought to believe and what she should think.  The woman was  surprised to say the least.  (Like I said, she thought she knew her friend.)  The woman’s reply was, “I’m not sure how I feel about your finger in my face”, to which  Mrs. Finger Pointer excused herself from the table of politeness, and made a joke of said friend’s comment by sticking all of her fingers in her face and letting said friend know that pointing at people was just what she does (whether a public place or private); and, basically that anyone who know’s her should simply get over it.  Whether this was F.P.’s true intent (that all should accept her actions) remains a mystery; it was not joy she had communicated that day.

I am still to this minute hoping that Mrs. Finger Pointer was perhaps embarrassed at having her finger in the face of a

I often see the following added on one or so Face Book posts now and again…  “No Words.”  And, each time I’ve seen it, I’ve wonder, “If you had no words, why are you telling us you have none?  Just say nothing at all.”  Then one day I found myself posting the same thing… I read a column that was shared by a friend and what did I say?  “No words.”  And, as I hit Enter, it occurred to me that I had just said the thing I thought was unthinkable.  Why did I do that?

Why indeed.  Did I need to make a statement in spite of myself?  Was I feeling needy in some nondescript way?  Did I just want to type something (I am a pianist… Maybe that was it!).  I couldn’t understand myself.  Often, I think we all say things, when  saying nothing is really more appropriate. And then, a remark grabs us by our heart or just pushes our buttons.

I had that happen recently and what I’ve usually done is to say nothing, or try to find a positive spin.  And when that No Words moment came yet again, the spin I chose was good for others

Keep it clean.  As a child, that meant I was approaching potty mouth and my mother would go for the soap.  (Needless to say, I cleaned it up… Who wants to eat soap?)  As an adult, I’ve learned that the meanings to “keep it clean” are endless, because there is always a plethora that has to be cleaned!  Clean up the house. Clean the children (on multiple fronts, mind you).  Plus, somewhere in there I have to make sure I get cleaned up…  Hair, body, face, and all!   Now, because I’ve tried to be responsible,  add volunteer organizations, office and clean-up favors of all sorts for friends.   Clean, clean clean… But I digress.

No matter what needs to be cleaned, one thing remains true for this writer:  To  clean means that, first, a bigger mess than the one in existence will come to pass before the task is done.  Crazy?  Far from it.  In the middle of that procedural mess is order.

Picture cleaning the kitchen cupboards.  Say that I have removed everything…  So cups, plates, bowls etc, are removed from their home and placed temporarily all over the kitchen counter.  There is now, no room anywhere for anything on