Wishing all God's richest blessings as we enter 2011

Swing by my new Aimless Musings (with purpose) in 2011.  A New Beginning!

The memories . . .

The goodbyes and the hellos . . .

Mr. Ricketts’ poem, “Looking at Another Year” is in his book of poetry, My Window on the Mesa.

OLD LANG SYNE

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
and surely I’ll buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

According to happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, of the University of California, Riverside, life circumstances account for only 10% of happiness. Half depends on our genetic “set point,” which is kind of like the weight our body bounces back to after that crash diet. And about 40% of our happiness is influenced by what we do deliberately to make ourselves happy.

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

- E. L. Doctorow

January 2011 issue of Scorpio Tales - SOON!

Lone Star will still be on Austin - only one door down from the corner

Farmington friends – newsletter at the printers (thank goodness for Lone Star Printing!) and should be ready next week . . . and in the mail shortly after . . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from old memories of bitterness, rancor and hate, cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past—have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time. Cut these months into thirty or thirty-one equal parts. Do not attempt to make up the whole batch at one time (so many persons spoil the entire lot this way) but prepare one day at a time.

Into each day put equal parts of faith, patience, courage, work (some people omit this ingredient and so spoil the flavor of the rest), hope, fidelity, liberality, kindness, rest (leaving this out is like leaving the oil out of the salad dressing— don’t do it), prayer, meditation, and one well-selected resolution. Put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cupful of good humor.

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR, FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

I grew up listening to the Mills Brothers; think my mother had every LP they ever recorded.  I love their music and love the memories that surface.

Whatever harm I may have done
In all my life in all your wide creation
If I cannot repair it
I beg you to repair it,

And then there are all the wounded
The poor the deaf the lonely and the old
Whom I have roughly dismissed
As if I were not one of them.
Where I have wronged them by it
And cannot make amends
I ask you
To comfort them to overflowing,

And where there are lives I may have withered around me,
Or lives of strangers far or near
That I’ve destroyed in blind complicity,
And if I cannot find them
Or have no way to serve them,

Remember them. I beg you to remember them

When winter is over
And all your unimaginable promises
Burst into song on death’s bare branches.

Fisk University opened in Nashville in 1866 as the first American university to offer a liberal arts education to “young men and women irrespective of color.” Five years later the school was in dire financial straits.

George L. White, Fisk treasurer and music professor then, created a nine-member choral ensemble of students and took it on tour to earn money for the University. The group left campus on October 6, 1871. Jubilee Day is celebrated annually on October 6 to commemorate this historic day.

There’s no substitute for the love of language, for the beauty of an English sentence.  There’s no substitute for struggling, if a struggle is needed, to make an English sentence as beautiful as it should be. – Harper Lee

Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things . . . as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value. – Teilhard de Chardin

Richard Foster writes that “prayers arising out of the context of the family are perhaps the most common expression of Praying the Ordinary.”

Foster prays

Almighty, most holy, most high God, thank you for paying attention to small things.  Thank you for valuing the insignificant.  Thank you for being interested in the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.  Thank you for caring about me.

In Jesus- name. — Amen.

My thoughts  -  as the Year 2010 comes to an end and we enter 2011 - a Blank Sheet – a New Year – a New Beginning -  I’m thinking of the many blessings in my life.  Most especially I’m thinking of the people I love and who have shown love to me – as I continue on This Journey.

There are countless folks who have influenced my life and have inspired me to want to be a better person: my husband, parents, children, grandparents, neighbors, friends  - and sometimes people I met – perhaps only one time and can’t even name – who gave me inspiration and made a difference in my life.

The marvelous folks in our adult Sunday School Class (the Sharers) immediately come to mind as people who truly Live Life and who enrich mine.

My dear dear friends from childhood and school years and young married life – and now – OLD married life . . .  God has truly blessed me with Good People throughout the years.

I am very grateful for all.

Whoever I am, whatever I have become (and am becoming) – in any good way – is mostly because of the influence of  people who exhibited love and warmth and caring and who live lives of worth.  These folks certainly make me want to be better – in every way.  Thanks – to the human angels who have crossed my path and those who continue to bless my life.

God bless you.

You are ever in my prayers.

Looking forward to a New Beginning!

The Year of our Lord

Two Thousand Eleven