A Tribute to a Gold Star Soldier

A Tribute to a Gold Star Soldier

Katherine King, 5 Blue Star Mother

"Our flag does not fly because the wind blows -it flies with the last breath of every soldier who died defending it."

Unknown

Gold is a precious metal, the finest and the best.

It symbolizes wealth, beauty, and riches that only some can possess.

To see its color is magnificent, particularly in the sun.

But even on dreary days, gold emerges and reveals the beautiful rays and the strength of the sun.

In spiritual terms, gold is pure, a healer, and a symbol of faith.

Its  beauty, Its preciousness, means that no one can disgrace.

Gold is powerful, and beautiful, and symbolizes victory.

The shine of gold embodies the love of God himself, because it can last for eternity.

Golds scarcity shows that only a few can possess its shine, its goodness, and its uniqueness.

To be gold it takes fire, tenacity, and grit. Strength of Character and the will to never quit.

Real Gold never fears the fire,  but rather runs towards it.

Gold is the color that a soldier receives, when he rushes to the values in which he cleaves.

The value to serve, honor, and protect the country that he loves best.

He gave the ultimate sacrifice, he gave service until his last breath.

Gold is the perfect way to see, that this soldier, this brave guardian gave his life so that we can be free.

So you see gold is the standard this soldier came to be, when he gave it all for the cause of liberty.

The Gift of a Four Leaf Clover

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Four Leaf Clovers

“You look like a four clover leaf.  Lucky to have and hard to find.”

Dharam Singh Rathore

Do you have a four leaf clover?

Do you believe in the lore of luck that the clover brings?

If you were to find a four leaf clover would you make a wish or two?

Can there be four leaf clovers in our life?

Could those clovers be grace, hope, and love and most of all faith?

Grace to help you move through each day with an attitude of forgiveness and doing what is right..

Hope that springs eternal, even when things seem grim. 

Love to guide your soul, mind, and spirit in positive and interesting ways. 

Most of all faith and confidence.  Conviction to embody the best of all that you can be. 

Make your life like a clover, a really rare leaf to find.  

They are the most precious, the most difficult but the best leaf to find. 

As I look over this writing that I wrote well over 8 months ago, I really do see that these little musings are a gift to my future self. I hope that they are a gift to someone else as well.  Tonight, I am sitting in one of my son’s kitchen on a military base.  There are clearly military exercises going on at the moment because the tank fire is literally rattling the windows.  This little bit of excitement gave me pause to think about faith.  About bravery.  About being four leaf clovers to those around us.  This past year has taught me a lot, some of those lost values have been faith.  To believe.  Hope, to know that it springs eternal and patience, to know that God has a plan.  To top it off, prayer.  A much needed daily respite that adds to the recipe of life.  Those brave souls training as I sit here in the kitchen are training in the rain and wind for what day very might well be war.  I can take a lesson from these moments of life.  

Recently, our music player was playing pop hits from the 1940’s.  First, pop and the 1940’s does not always come to mind as pop music, but I digress.  The lovely song “I’m looking over a four leaf clover” came on the speaker.  What a delightfully upbeat song.  This brought to mind, as you would guess, four leaf clovers.  How many of us when we were kids were told to go and search for the four leaf clovers so that we could have luck?  Many times in the summer time we would walk barefoot in the fields of clover searching for the coveted leaf.  I remember finding the clovers and rejoicing because I was the lucky one!  What are your odds of finding a four leaf clover?  A quick google search shared that your chances are about one in ten thousand to be exact.  A rare find indeed.  Here is a little tidbit gleaned from research as well.  The odds of finding a five leaf clover are one and twenty four thousand!  Celts believed that the four leaf clover had magical powers of protection to ward off evil and bad luck.  They would literally carry a clover in their pocket for protection.  Of course, Saint Patrick of Ireland also used both the 3 leaf and 4 leaf clover in teaching about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  To find one was truly a gift.  How does a four leaf clover relate to our everyday life?  We should strive to be that rare and hard to find gift in our unique and interesting ways.  Being a pianist for many, many years you encounter one overarching theme with musicians.  My music professor used to say, “There can be only one pianist in the room at a time.  They don’t share very well.”  In my experience that has been typically true.  Until one day I met one of the most selfless musicians I had ever encountered.  She was our church pianist.  She had the most beautiful soft touch.  She wrote beautiful music, she had a beautiful soul.  When we came to be members at this church she wholeheartedly encouraged other pianists to play as much as they wanted.  Her philosophy was that the way a person plays is a direct reflection of their personality.  Hers was soft spoken and beautiful.  Another pianist's touch was a bit more forceful and firm.  When she was asked why she shared her bench so willingly she responded with, “We have musical gifts to share, it would be a shame for me to hog the bench and not let others hear their musical style.”  This pianist, dear readers, was a clover.  A rare find.  A pianist one out of ten thousand.  How can you be a clover?  Think about those four little leaves.  Grace, hope, love, and faith.  Find a small moment each day to encompass these values.  I am quite sure you will be that lucky leaf that is indeed a unique and precious find.  

Source: rd.com weathernetwork.com

My books are on Amazon!

The Quacktastic Adventures of Ellie and Lord Barks a Lot

The Case of the Missing Moo-Cow Bell

The Case of the Missing Bumbly Wumbly Bee

The Case of the Missing Wellies

The Case of the Missing Honk Honk

The Case of the Missing Ornaments

Clean it Up! Wash it Up!

Coming soon!

Appalachian Allegory

A Southern Novel

Check out my page on Patheos.com

Positive Pensees

The Gift of a Little Light

This picture was from a hike with my boys.  A little light goes a long way.

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of a Little Light

“When you feel alone in the dark, the moon is to remind you that you’re never alone.  It’s there every night shining just for you.”

J.M. Preston

There is a childhood song that goes a little like this:

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel! NO!  I’m going to let it shine.

Let it shine, Let it shine. 

Why is light a gift?

It’s a gift because it makes darkness fall to its knees. 

The light luminates the room.

It shines in the corners, the nooks and the places where some think there is no room for light to peek through.

Light exposes the dust, the dank and the dirty. 

Light exposes the beauty and all things that make life pretty. 

When you feel like you are staggering in the dark. 

Look for your light to illuminate the dark. 

A Prayer, a meditation and simple flickering of light. 

Will take your darkness into light. 

Growing up in the belly of the south, also known as the Bible Belt attendance at Bible School was a rule.  Not an exception.  Dutifully we would fill the pews with joy and sometimes a bit of boredom. The crafts were so amazing.  Macaroni projects?  They had them.  A staple of Bible School?  The music.  This Little Light of Mine was sung regularly.  There was even a piece played by the piano to signal us to stand up and sit down.  It was a well oiled Bible School machine.  As a child I remember the teachers telling us to cover one of our fingers as if a light was extinguished.  Almost like a candle.  After we talked about not hiding our light under a bushel and screaming “NO! I’m gonna let it shine!” was pretty great.  Why would you let your light shine?  Well, to be honest for a long time I was not sure.  As I have gotten older and had a little more life experience I would say our light is not only for us but for those who are in our sphere of influence or even those who are watching from a distance.  When I think of The Moonlight Sonata that was composed by Ludwig Van Beethoven I don’t dwell on its origin. He wrote it to his quite young crush.  Yeah.  Times were different then.  But rather, I think of the fact that many composers wrote by the light of the moon and candlelight.  That had to have its challenges and good bits and bobs.  If you have never heard the piece it is an absolute practice of genius.  A composer whose hearing was significantly failing.  A love unrequited and a dark room with no electricity.  Yet, through all of the obstacles a beautiful piece of music was composed.  When you can’t see light in your life do you just stumble around in the darkness or do you look to the light to bring you to the end of the tunnel?  Even in the void of space the stars provide light to dampen the darkness.  What are the lights in your life?  Your health? Your kids? Your friends? Your faith? That all important cup of coffee or in my family’s case that proper cup of tea to restore your normality?  If you want to know that reference, look no further than to the amazing work of fiction that is “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.  When life throws its arrows don’t hide your light under a bushel.  Let it shine.   Keep moving, keep forging, keep forgiving, keep working because eventually the light will illuminate the whole room.  Even if there is a full moon.  It is such a small exercise but go into your room, turn off all the lights and illuminate a simple match.  What do you see?  The murky darkness where you have to stumble around suddenly becomes illuminated if only by a little bit.  Keep lighting those matches if you will.  Light the match of hope, light the match of determination.  Light the match of kindness.  Light the match of self-care.  Light the match of a simple smile.  Light the match of a word of affirmation.  Wait and see, all that darkness will be inundated with light.  The darkness does not always go away but thank goodness for the light.  Light it, don’t hide it under a bushel and let it shine! 

Source: Operationeffect.org

The Gift of Three Choices

Three Choices....  a recent rainbow after a storm inspired this little writing.

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Three Choices

“When something bad happens, you have three choices.  You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you.”

Dr. Suess

Life is all about choices. 

We have been gifted with free will. 

Life is also about circumstances that will test that will. 

When something adverse comes your way what will you let that situation convey?

Will you muster the strength to rise above and mount up on wings like the majestic eagles that sail above?

Will you let it destroy and crush your spirit and your ability to forgive? 

Will you let the moment define you and crush your will?

Life is all about choices.  

Those choices can be summed up in a bundle of three.  

Let the situation define you, or destroy you or gloriously strengthen you. 

Being a mother of six is always interesting.  Particularly to girls.  Everyone’s perspective is different about raising kids.  I once told a friend, “Boys are easy, girls are hard to raise!”  She completely disagreed with me, she thought boys were the pain and girls were angels.  One of my girls' recently went through a particularly painful break-up.  The weeping and gnashing and renting of garments was acute.  The moping and grief food abounded.  Ice cream and ribs topped her list. She just could not understand why life had handed her such a painful card.  “Will I love again!”  This was one of the many phrases I heard during those first painful days.  My mother's heart did feel for her. As my husband and myself watched her suffer the grief of her first serious break-up he gave her some very wise words.  He told her that for forty eight hours she could wallow, grieve, eat all the grief food she wanted, cry, scream, curse the sky and wonder what could have been different but after that, she needed to make the choice to learn from the situation and what could strengthen her. The feelings will still be there for some time but you are choosing to get up and choose strength.  Choose to learn, choose to forgive the person no matter how hard because that forgiveness is for you.  Not them.  Forgiveness is strength.  Unforgiveness destroys from within.  One subject that is quite fascinating in our family is people who have served the United States in some capacity whether it is a Senator, a House of Representatives member or President.  One such interest amongst our family is that of the late John McCain.  He was most definitely an interesting and varied figure.  The most notable portion of his life was his time as a prisoner of war during Vietnam.  He flew many combat missions during this bloody war as a Naval Aviator.  One mission he was shot down, he fractured several portions of his body from the ejection of the aircraft, he almost drowned and he was captured by the enemy.  During that capture his shoulder was crushed and to top it off he was bayoneted by the enemy.  He received no care and was taken to a Hanoi prison where he was beaten and tortured.  Only after the enemy realized that he was the son of an Admiral did he receive minimal care.  After more torture he was put into solitary confinement for two years.  Can you imagine?  Never talking to a soul?  Alone with your thoughts for two whole years?  McCain was given favor because of his father’s position.  He refused the favor unless his fellow prisoners were released.  After this the abuse and torture escalated.  He was bound for several hours at a time and beaten.  He suffered from dysentery.  You would think at this point he would have given up.  He did reach a low point where he did consider suicide by the enemy stopped him.  In one last act of desperation he released an anti-US statement.  In later years he confessed that was one of his greatest regrets.  After a renewed sense of fortitude he started to refuse to give any other anti-US statements.  This earned him three beatings a day.  Yet he did not give in.  After over five years of captivity he was released to go home.  We can only imagine the pain that he felt both in his soul, spirit and not to mention his body.  Because of his injuries he was never able to raise his arms above his head again.  Yet he returned to serve in the Navy.  Later he had a pretty extensive political career.  During the time when the US was fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan he had a pretty strong opinion of how prisoners of war were in the US custody as enemies.  He knew that most likely the people that were captured probably did some pretty evil things but his experiences those decades before molded how he thought prisoners should be treated.  I would wager to say, with all of McCain’s foibles in his life he chose to not let the situation he so bravely endured define him.  Nor did he let the situation destroy him.  He took the reins and let the situation strengthen him.  Our lives will, God willing, never come to this place of extreme severity but hopefully John McCain’s lesson of the power of the human spirit can spur us on in a mindset of strength.  

Source: johnmccain.com

The Gift of a Work in Progress

I took this one morning in Asheville, NC.  My husband and I took a ride to catch the sunrise in the mountains. 

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of a Work in Progress

“Embrace being a work in progress.  Life’s about progress, not perfection.”

Unknown

Do you ever give yourself an unnecessarily hard time?

“You’re not perfect!”  You tell yourself from time to time.

You struggle.  You dwell on situations that you could have handled better.

You go over the words in your head forever and ever. 

We are our own worst critic, or so it’s been said. 

We can be judge, jury and sentencing of life’s varying happenings. 

But what if we take a moment and reflect and really take time to see. 

We are a work in process not a picture of perfection for all to see. 

To know that we can make progress and not stagnate in place. 

This is a gift that is truly a concept to embrace. 

Embrace the work in progress, strive to be better each and every day. 

Even if that progress is not a measurable amount for your eyes to see. 

You have made the step to understand that perfection may never come to be. 

Progress means learning and understanding. 

Perfection may never be had.

Embrace the story, the new chapters and find ways to be glad. 

So run to progress and embrace the concept in all of its glory!

Today is mother’s day.  I will be honest, I let it slip off my radar completely.  When I think of the grand job of being a mother of six kids, I think, “Wow”... we made it.  There was never perfection, there will never be perfection but rather, chances for growth.  Each day is not a production, but rather an exercise in faithfulness and practice.  I hope that I have imparted that to my children.  There is no perfect mom, no perfect situation, but rather a chance to learn to be better. To pray more, to be more faithful in your path.  Much like playing an instrument it is all about discipline and practice. 

When you are playing a piece of written music there are notes on the page that the composer wrote with the intent of melody, harmony, theme, tempo, dynamics and many other musical terms.  When you begin a piece you have a little menu on the top left corner of the page.  This tells you the key that the piece will be played in, the beats per minute, the time signature and the dynamic (or how loud or soft the piece is played in).  That is just in the first measure before even playing the piece.  After that there is the Treble Clef (the top) and the Bass Clef (the bottom hand) with their respective chords and finger patterns that bring the piece together.  The key signature can change, the tempo can change at any given moment in the piece.  There is so much cause for absolute perfection.  In college when I studied piano, we were expected to practice a minimum of six hours a day.  Each block of measures was meticulously practiced over and over.  In fact, my professor had us practice a block of measures ten times a piece, if there was a mistake we had to start back over at one until we could reach ten times playing that particular passage perfectly.  It was a practice of absolute dedication and routine.  The first few times this practice was put into playing it was honestly one of the most frustrating times of playing the piano.  You see, I have played the piano since I was seven years old.  I was good enough right?  The amount of years that had added up were 14 on this instrument.  Perfection was achieved, right?  The answer was no.  As my professor taught our class even the most seasoned pianist or musician can indeed learn more even after playing the instrument for many, many years.  This brings to mind how many composers of music in the past spent hour upon hour listening to their pieces, fleshing them out, making them sound the beautiful pieces we know and love today?  Now that I have played the piano for 25 plus years the lens of time has lent itself to a great respect for the art and after you have practiced the piece over and over perfection may have been achieve technically on the piece but then you can bring your own artistic interpretation to breath individualistic life into what was written on paper hundreds of years ago.  So indeed, perfection is not what we should long for, but rather progress.  Progress means we are still learning.  Progress means that we are of the mindset that we can always bring a little more to the table of life, the universe and everything.  That young woman who sat in the practice room hour upon hour playing portions of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin over and over until she thought she would scream.  Now, she realizes that this progress was all part of the grand recipe of life.  Keep working, keep learning.  Keep making that progress.  You will not only enhance your inner self but you will be an example to others.  “Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be.”  C.S. Lewis. 

The Gift of Squiggles the Twenty Three Year Old Wonder Cat

Squiggles, the really old deaf wonder cat.

Positive Pensées

The Gift of Squiggles, the Twenty Three Year old Wonder Cat

Kathy King

A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.” Earnest Hemingway

I wrote this last year... and today Squiggles once again pulled a kitty, "I got this" out of her old and tired kitty hat. I hope you all enjoy.

Twas the day after Christmas and all through the King house.  

There were mounds of dishes

An abundance of feral eaters and left overs by the pound.  

There were piles of trash because the feral eaters were here.

There were even a little bit of libations to give a little extra cheer. 

As they lazed in their food comas and took a lot of naps. 

One of the King kids decided to go out. 

He went out to work off some of the copious amounts of food. 

The King kid ran, lifted weights and tried to do their best by putting his muscles to the test.   

To make up for the feral eating that they had been eating,like they had been in a food eating contest.  

On a nice and sweet whim the King kid decided to get his mom some fries because he knew she loved them. 

He came down the driveway, and ran to the door, and when he found it was locked he decided to ring the not so trusty, yet weird doorbell. 

Well what happened next was a bit of a shock, as his brother let him in and a bird flew in with a flap and a flop.  

The King boys chased the bird behind the china hutch.  

They got Squiggles the twenty two year old wonder cat to help in their hunt.  

This little kitty was deaf and really did not do that much, but when she smelled the bird she decided she would hunt! 

She looked like a kitty who was in her youth.  

She was a hunter!  She could do this with a crick and crack of her kitty hunting and sleuth.  

She saw the bird and she gave chase! 

That cheeky birdy flew away!

It flew on the Christmas trees and behind the house bushes. 

It flew and flew until Squiggles caught it!

Squiggles ran off with the bird like she was a young cat!

The King brothers gave chase to save the little bugger of a bird.

The King brothers managed to get the birdy from Squiggles kitty claws and placed the little birdy on the porch.

Squiggles the Twenty Two year old wonder cat continued to search for her trophy from her hunt. 

Why did they take her glory and her birdy hunt?

For a few moments Squiggles re-lived  her youth. A kitty, a hunter, a tiny yet mighty calico cat. 

Fly free little birdy, you gave us a laugh and you gave a gift to Squiggles the Wonder Cat. 

Today Squiggles, the really old wonder cat, decided she wanted to go outside.  We have been trading fevers and sore throats at the King Castle.  Fun times.  I came downstairs and in her 12 pack a day smoking kitty meow she stated she wanted to go outside.  We have been reluctant to let her out recently because, well…. She’s old. But, she does need to relive those glory days of being the mean old neighborhood kitty.  Seriously, I had a neighbor come to me once and ask who owns the mean little calico kitty that terrorizes everything.  Um……. we do.  So, after the meow that puts you on edge, I let her out.  A few hours later I came downstairs to Squiggles at the door with a chipmunk in her mouth and a very large tree leaf.  So… I am guessing she climbed said tree, got the poor chipmunk and proceeded to relive her glory days?  I felt bad for the little thing.  What can we learn from Squiggles, the really old wonder cat?  Well, keep going.  Be persistent, Be present and meow like no one can hear you. Either way this little shelter kitty that we got over twenty years ago is a survivor.  Tenacity.  She has it.   We need it.... let us learn from this little kitty.

The Gift of Doors Open

I sang this today.. with pollen on the throat.. The Impossible Dream... Dream... anticipate those doors opening...

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Doors Open

“Life gets very quiet before all the doors open.  I’m learning that what can feel like loneliness is actually grace.  Rest.  Find your strength.  It will all change soon.” 

J. Lynn

When doors open you are given a new pathway. 

A new vision. 

A new mindset. 

Even a new way to pray.  

Let the door open, even when you are unsure. 

The quiet, the loneliness pave a new way of grace. 

Enjoy the quiet time. 

Enjoy the rest.  

Store up your energy for what is coming next. 

Shore up your mind. 

Just listen and wait. 

Embrace the quiet. 

Embrace the change. 

Count your blessings each and every day. 

 

As I write this, it is still a quiet day around the house.  The kids are off doing military training, etc… 

It is a particularly quiet day at our house.  The trees are up for the holidays but in the words of the old story, “not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”  This is a time of change for a couple of empty nesters.  It is a blessing yet also a time of sadness.  We are waiting for the pitter patter of grandchildren running around the house.  For now we are happy when a college child stops in for a few days.  In fact, the college kids will be here in a few days.  The house will be full of energy, full of feral eaters and full of voices here, there and everywhere.  This gives us a sense of joy and sadness because the house will be quiet again after the holidays.  After reading the quote above this really gave great pause. There is so much in life that we take for granted.  We get easily annoyed.  We reminisce about days of old.  Rather than embrace the quiet and the journey to a new and interesting path.  We are in that period of waiting for kids to finish college and find their significant others and eventually we will have a quiver full of grandchildren invading our house.  Have we become so busy that we cannot handle the down time?  The quiet time?  The time when nothing major is going on?  I confess, I have been guilty of this a lot recently.  I shared in a previous writing that I have been a mom from a very young age.  In the times when teens were going out with friends, marching in the band, going on trips and doing all the various and sundry things that teens do.  I was a mom of a little one and attending school. I was whining to my older brother recently that I need to be busy, to keep myself busy so that life could seem as if it was still at the pace that we had when the house was full of kids.  He looked at me and said, “Enjoy the silence, think of this time as a gift that you were not given when you were a young mother.  Life will get busy again.  So just enjoy this time while you can.”.  Even when a gift is squarely in my life it took someone else to point out just what a wonderful gift was right in plain sight. My brother’s sage words hit home very keenly.  Take the down time, learn something new.  Learn a new song.  Write that story that you have always wanted to write. Spend time outside just enjoying the breeze.  Enjoy the peace until the next spring comes.  Think about Olympians, they train vigorously for years with much discipline to make their sport, their craft the absolute best reflection of their country.  They sprint, they run and they sacrifice a lot to make it to the Olympic Games.  Once that sprint is over what do they do?  They rest.  They support other athletes who are competing.  They slow down a little bit.  Being in the fitness world for over ten years I came into contact with many fitness models.  They would work out 6-8 hours a day in the months leading up to the competition.  Their food was so restricted that it almost looked like punishment.  Very little carbs, no sweets and water.  The day before the competition some of the gals would stop drinking water so they would not be bloated.  Competition day arrived and they showed off their muscles.  After the competition a lot of the girls immediately had a cupcake!  Others had that most important glass of wine.  While others just simply had a good meal and crashed.  They took a good bit of quiet and down time until the next competition.  My husband always says to me that we should ponder life like an Olympian.  We have times of unparalleled discipline and sacrifice.  We go to the competition or the task and compete.  We have an outcome, we take our rest until it is time to take the next sprint.  Those are wise words indeed.  Rest. Find your strength and embrace grace.  

The Gift of Sweaters

An early morning spring walk with a sweater!

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

“A sweater is like life, you get nothing out of it that you don’t put into it.”

Marilyn Monroe

The Gift of Sweaters

Sweater, Jumper, Cardigan, Jersey, it has many names.

It’s a source of comfort on both cold and warm days. 

A sweater can provide relief when you have the chills.

A sweater can be ugly, fashion, or have lots of frills. 

Sweaters come in many shapes and sizes and can have many themes.

But the function of a sweater remains the same.

To provide warmth when you are cold.

To be cold is unfriendly, frigid, and frosty.

To be warm is to be affable, amiable, and comfy.

In a world where people are cold from dark days.

Try to be like a sweater, it will make the world a better place.

Update: This morning I walked down the stairs and was instantly hit with frigidity! It is 24 degrees outside and our heat on the lower levels of the house decided..."Eh, I am not going to work." The main floor is currently 60 degrees. Brrrr! What did I do? I bundled up in a nice, warm, comfy, toasty sweater.

Today we woke up and our house was 66 degrees!  It is May, and in Georgia that is not normal. Outside it is windy and 46 degrees.  Now, me being a lover of the ability to just put on a sweater was giddy because no matter the season, I always run cold.  Always.  I also love fall and cooler temperatures.  Living in the South where the summers are like Satan’s Greenhouse, the air is soupy, the sweat is real, and the general sense of everything is swampy is palpable.  Pop up thunderstorms are the norm.  Cicadas are the song that is sung virtually all day.  Basically, it’s hot here!  Having said all that, why would a girl who always runs cold like cooler weather?  One word.  Sweaters.  Sweaters are like a hug from the Lord.  They are soft, versatile, they can be long or short, big or small, different materials, but they offer one great thing.  Warmth. I shared a quote by Marilyn Monroe because her words ring true.    What are we putting into our lives or into the lives of others? Are we checking on our neighbors, are we spreading positive words both in real life and online?  Recently, I read that belief in God is at an all time low. I believe that this is quite evident in social media, the news, in communities, and in families. I grew up in the Sunday School generation where we were taught the Golden rule.  Treat others like you want to be treated. There were other challenges that stemmed from that time, but I am quite thankful for the Judeo-Christian teaching.  If belief in God is at an all time low, no wonder negativity and rigidness is the norm.  Can we spread kindness and goodness to those around us?  Each time I want to embrace the cold I will try my best to be like a sweater. Who needs a spiritual sweater? Whose soul is indeed quite cold? Could you provide that warmth? Sweaters. They truly are a gift. 

My books are on Amazon!

The Quacktastic Adventures of Ellie and Lord Barks a Lot

The Case of the Missing Moo-Cow Bell

The Case of the Missing Wellies

The Case of the Missing Bumbly Wumbly Bee

The Case of the Missing Honk Honk

The Case of the Missing Ornaments

Clean it Up! Wash it Up!

Coming soon:

Appalachian Allegory: A Southern Novel