DesertRose

The days are getting longer again, new growth is happening all over my yard, making plans for my summer garden, I'm anxious to get started. For myself there is nothing more rewarding than creating something, nurturing it and watching it grow to maturity. Sifting through the damp soil disturbing somnolent earthworms, it's a reminder that another year is passing when muscles scream after a day of pulling weeds and raking but it's a good weariness, satisfying no doubt.
I wonder if there is gardening done in Heaven or are they too busy creating beauty here on Earth.

Sunlight cascades over
the edge of my dreams,
my eyes open to
a new, brilliant dawning.

Stretching somnolent
muscle and tendon,
I contemplate my
reason for being,

as he rolls over
with a smiling yawn
his gaze tender
and bereft of guile.

The Lord in his infinite
wisdom made us
a perfect fit as
we embrace our morning.

Why is it that the wisdom we have gained over the years really doesn't matter to those we would share it with... I grin inside when our children tell us we don't understand and bite my knuckles when they persist in doing everything the hard way in spite of my telling them of my own experiences in similiar matters.
They act as though we know nothing of love, pain or suffering and at times even treat our wisdom of things with disdain, nodding their heads and pretending to listen. To watch them make the same mistakes we did because we thought we knew it all when we were young and our parents seemed imbecilic with their own advice. I wonder how they will feel when they want to share their wisdom one day, will anyone listen or will the cycle remain.

I've been trying to improve my golf game this fall because I didn't get to play most of the spring and summer. In brief I learned how to play about 5yrs ago but didn't play too much because my husband had rotator cuff surgery with a long recuperation period, so golf fell by the roadside.
The other morning my friend and I played starting of in 32* weather but it was sunny and to my delight with a few tips from her I made a birdie on the 4th hole, after that it was all downhill but the birdie is what makes you keep coming back to this confounded game, lol.

I belong to a ladies club that was started by a friend of mine about 16yrs ago. The intent of this endeavor was to bring other women together once a month who were alone or isolated in this rural area, to help each other cope and make new friends to boot. I can only imagine how tough it could've been having only a CB radio and your nearest neighbor miles away.
Well the other day some of us got together to take Xmas boxes to those who need them and it was an eye opener for me, on top of feeling sad was the overwhelming feeling of gratefulness. The poverty was apparent and so was a feeling of helplessness in my heart, we sang a few chouruses of two Xmas songs and left.To see the looks on their faces was heartbreaking and suffice it to say that I'm sure all of us were silently counting our blessings, I would even say we went home and kissed our loved ones, called a friend and got down on our knees to thank God for I know that without God's help I could've been on of those people today.

By the Editors of McCall's magazine, December, 1959

CHRISTMAS is celebration; and celebration is instinct in the heart.With gift and feast, with scarlet ribbon and fresh green bough, with merriment and the sound of music, we commend the day--oasis in the long, long landscape of the commonplace. Through how many centuries, through how may threatening circumstances, has Christmas been celebrated, since that cry came ringing down the ages, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11 KJV)
Christmas is celebration, but the traditions that cluster sweetly around the day have significance only if they translate the heart's intention--the yearning of the human spirit to compass and express faith and hope and love. Without this intention, the gift is bare, and the celebration a touch of tinsel, and the time without meaning. As these attributes, exemplifying the divine spark in mankind, informed the first Christmas and have survived the onslaughts of relentless time, so do they shine untarnished in this present year of our Lord.

Faith and hope and love, which cannot be bought or sold or bartered, but only given away are the wellsprings, firm and deep of Christmas celebration.
These are the gifts without price, the ornaments incapable of imitation, discovered only within oneself and therefore unique. They are not always easy to come by, but they are in unlimited supply ever in the province of all.
THIS CHRISTMAS mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion, and replace it with trust. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Find the time. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand. Flout envy.
Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate. Be kind; be gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence.
Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency. Express your gratitude. Go to church. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still once again.
These are but inklings of a vast category; a mere scratching of the surface. They are simple things; you have heard them all before; but their influence has never been measured.
Christmas is celebration, and there is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning—with the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself toward the core of life. Then, only then, is it possible to grasp the significance of the first Christmas--to savor in the inward ear the wild, sweet music of the angel choir; to envision the star-struck sky, and glimpse, behind the eyelids the ray of light that feel athwart a darkened path and changed the world.

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Chilly wind whips
across the dusty plain.
Trees bend in mute protest
against the strain.
Bluebirds wing their
way on to home.
Watching the
storm begin to roam.
Coyote lays
inside her den,
danger outside her
mind can ken.
I shut myself
in against the cold
listening as the
storm grows more bold.

The old woodstove blazes and
sharply snaps,
branches across
the window smartly tap.
The lightning cracks and
the thunder booms.
I'm grateful for these
warm, cozy rooms.
Skies open up
and silently weep
flurries of snow fall
in soft white heaps.
Mother Nature is
very old but
watching her
is a sight to behold.

To my two dearest friends down under I am planning my trip to see you next fall... believe me I'm coming and we'll meet and yuck it up a bit.

I just spent the morning helping to build trusses for a neighbor and I had fun. Acually I used to be a roofer and cabinet builder among many of the jobs I held sadly because I didn't graduate from high school but I know I impressed them, lol. For me it was more about helping to get their horses some shelter from the winter approaching. Right now I'm waiting on the laundry and hubby is out finishing up the painting on the house.
I know Thanksgiving is over but there are so many things I'm still grateful and thankful for but it's too long to list, simply remember that all my friends at Voicesnet are very precious and wonderfully beautiful.

We had just arrived home yesterday from hours it seemed of shopping and found a message on the answering machine...
To our dismay we learned that a very,very dear friend passed away unexpectedly yesterday morning after going to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. In the blink of an eye he was gone at the young age of 65!
Needless to say we run headlong sometimes into the fact of our own mortality and again we are reminded that we should seize the day. Life is unpredictable and very fickle so if you keep putting off all your dreams you'll have nothing to show but an empty slate.
I'm sure our friend had no clue his time was going to end so abruptly, I'm sure he had many plans to spend with his wife and kids and grandkids over the holidays. So call an old friend, makeup with someone you've argued with, kiss your kids, hug your dog and above all live, live, live! Fortunately our dear friend had a rich and satisfying life but he will be sorely missed. God bless you Corky