If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?
We have three beautiful and loving pets. A cat we call Cookie, a Yorkie named Lillie and a lab mix, Harper.
If I could teach and make them understand one thing it would be —“Please close the *”%’”* door!” All three of them have learned how to open every unlocked door we have in our house but, not one of them has the good manners to close a door!
If you could un-invent something, what would it be?
I would happily uninvent computer games.
If you are a grandparent I don’t even have to explain why. Last weekend I was at my third daughter’s house for the weekend her 14 and 12 year old sons never went outside. All they wanted to do was play games.
I know I am old fashioned, but I just believe being outside is good for the soul and body. No one was killing or destroying people when we played outside. We were creative and used our imagination and muscles to have fun. We loved to ride bikes, build forts, skip rocks and have expensive birthday parties at the skating ring.
In the summer we had to work in the garden. We picked beans, corn and all our own vegetables. We didn’t have to buy organic anything! After we finished all our chores my brother and I could go swimming in our Grandpa’s lake with our cousins.
I can just imagine what my Grandpa would do if we was sitting in the house playing games all day! Oh my!!!
Come up with a crazy business idea.
Just imagine you could walk into a square stand alone building made of crystal. The front glass doors open automatically when you walk up to the entrance. When you enter into the doctor’s business lobby behold, there is no waiting room! You are immediately greeted by a friendly and knowledgeable receptionist who escorts you straight into a prepared consultation room.
Your personal information and medical history doesn’t have to be discussed. No insurance card or payment information is necessary. All your information along with your photo ID was entered by the doctor’s office staff from the comfort of your home. No one asks you the same blooming questions again! The only question is ” has anything changed since we talked with you earlier?
Comfort and convenience for the patient is a priority!
Now isn’t that crazy!!
What is your mission?
Being real with ourselves and others in today’s society is extremely hard! My mission is to encourage, comfort and strengthen others by being honest and truthful about my own failures, triumphs, difficulties, miracles witnessed, challenges, outright pain suffered and mercy received in my 64 years. Speaking as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, step-mother, clergy teacher, healthcare director, and now as the caregiver to my mother who has dementia.
This is my mission to share comfort and hope.
Do you remember the lyrics of that song? I do! I remember the fear I felt as a little girl riding in the car while my momma chased after my waward father with my baby brother in tow!
Crazy insane people live like this!
How?
Crazy!!
My dad was a tall handsome man.
One of my very first memories of me and my dad together is of us walking in downtown Gainesville on the square. I had my tiny little hand wrapped around his one long middle finger and my short little legs struggled to keep up with his six-foot, four-inch stride.
I remember when I was a girl my daddy never had to whip me because just knowing I had disappointed him was punishment enough. I loved him so.
Daddy loved to play softball and he could slam out a homerun like it was easy. He enjoyed watching the Atlanta Braves and was a faithful Braves fan even when they were in a losing streak.
He was a hard worker, a loom fixer in the mill. He worked all the shifts first, second and third before he worked his way up to supervisor.
Daddy always had a side business going– buying and selling. Watermelons and produce, cars, golf-carts you name it. He loved to buy and sale and the money he made from it paid for vacations every year to Jekyll Island for his family.
Clyde Jackson wasn’t a rich man but he gave all he could when anyone was in need. He loaned money knowing sometimes he wouldn’t get the money back. He had a generous heart.
My daddy wasn’t perfect, like most of us he made many mistakes. He had his own personal demons he struggled with, but I know if he could come back and change some things he would.
No matter where I or my brother were at in our life, he always supported us. My daddy truly loved us unconditionally and for that I am extremely grateful. We disappointed him many times, but he never gave up on us.
Today marks the twenty-year anniversary of my dad’s death he has missed so much. In three months, I will be the age he was when he passed. There have been so many times I needed his advice. There haven’t been any more family vacations to Jekyll and for that my heart breaks.
A father is worth more than his mistakes in life. A father is worth the generosity and love he brings to those around him.
My family will tell you I have pitched many a “hissy fit.” I have been on the war path more than once and they all have said —“Lord, she done lost her ever-loving mind!!” It’s the craziness gene I inherited from the blessed Looney tribe!
Many years ago my oldest daughter and I went on a mission trip to Jamaica with Mark B Danzey and a bus load of other folks from Bethany United Methodist and Jefferson United Methodist Church. It was an awesome experience to say the least.
While there we helped build school rooms and conducted daily Bible studies and nightly worship services. The culture there was extremely relaxed and laid back. No one seemed rushed and hurried. It was so different from the rush and go lifestyle we were use to living here.
I can remember a time when my life was lived constantly in a rush. I hurried from place to place stressing myself out over this and that constantly. I thought that was the way life was supposed to be. It’s not. Yes, we are to be productive and useful, but we aren’t supposed to be consumed by our work. We are not supposed to neglect what is important — time. Time with our children and family. Time alone with God.
How fast did my time with my children slip by? It seems now as though it was gone in an instant. I would give anything to go back work less and adore my children more. Time with my Daddy and my brother who are gone I realize now I should have savored it so my memories would be many.
My life is relatively calm now. I relish patiently ever minute I have with my family and friends. I appreciate each day and hour I am given to share with them. I finally realize life is not to be rushed or taken lightly for none of us are promised tomorrow.
Yesterday Memaw and I went to our favorite fast food lunch spot Chic Fil A. We placed our order and selected a booth by a window near the registers so we could people and car watch.
Memaw loves looking at trucks and cars and picks out the next one she is going to buy when she wins the lottery! I however, love people watching. I noticed the elderly gentleman wearing brown trousers with a plaid brown shirt wrapped with a black back brace. He slowly and quietly came in went to the men’s room then slipped right back out to his car.
I heard, then saw a young thirty something athletic man at the first register as he boisterously ordered, “I want a number one with extra pickles—tell them to put so many pickles on it that the manager will threaten to fire them if they put anymore!!”
Now he had my attention! He laughed and joked with the cashier then took his to go order over to the condiment station. This electric young man pulls out his chicken sandwich, unwraps it and begins applying various sauces to it. Different customers come up to the station and each time he joyfully interacts with them,
“Oh, excuse me I’m just going about my normal lunch routine. If I’m in your way I will be glad to move.”
I was amazed at the kindness and generosity he demonstrated. But I’ll be honest I also “occupationally profiled” him. I looked at Memaw and said,
“I wonder who he sells cars for?”
Oh, yes I went there, but at the same time his energy and joy was electrifying!
I thought to myself I know some who would be annoyed by his lively personality, but I actually enjoyed it. Uninhibited —- he seemed to be enjoying life and sharing his joy with everyone around him.
I am blessed with people in my life like him. I love being around them. Whenever I leave them, I am wearing a smile and my heart feels lighter. God bless the joyful. God bless the kind and tender hearted!
May we all strive to share more joy!
I had never cared for peanut butter.
Never liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Nope, give me a banana sandwich instead.
One Fall Friday night as elementary school girls will do, I went home with my good friend Camie. We were playing in her bedroom when she goes into the kitchen and comes back with a bag of Hershey Kisses and a jar of Jiffy Peanut Butter and two spoons.
Camie proceeds to screw off the lid of the peanut butter; unwraps a Hershey Kiss and drops it into the jar of peanut butter. She took a spoon and digs the Hershey Kiss out of the peanut butter making sure her spoon is filled with a heaping helping of peanut butter and the Hershey Kiss. She pops it into her mouth. “Yummy” she says, “You want some?” “Hum, I guess,” I say as I follow her lead and I drop a Hershey Kiss into the peanut butter and fish it out with my spoon. It is then and there I fell in love with peanut butter. Oh, my word. The taste was awesome.
Now I still won’t eat a peanut butter sandwich, but I love some peanut butter on sliced apples. When they came out with the crunchy peanut butter, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I can eat it straight out of the jar. But I especially love to take about two tablespoons of it and heat it in the microwave then spread it on sliced banana. Now that is some good snack food. Yummy!
We meet people at times who we may not care for. Their personality or their way of doing things just doesn’t always agree with our way of thinking. But just like my friend Camie introduced me to a new way of thinking about peanut butter sometimes God wants us to grow and give others a chance also. We all have different talents and gifts and we should love and appreciate the differences in each other. Jesus was different from the teachers and the church rulers of his day. All twelve of the disciples each had unique independent personalities.
Are we willing to reach out in brotherly and sisterly love and support to those around us today? Are we will to be a source of encouragement those who are different from us and our group of friends? Are we willing to learn new ways of learning and growing?
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12; 30,31
May we all be willing to learn to grow in the same love and compassion Christ demonstrated in His ministry.
For Real, Elaine?! 