A Very Lucky Man.

Many years ago as a young man I worked at a "state school" attending to the needs of the "boys"
. 
These were people who had been sent to, given to, awarded to or sentenced to live a life in a place that is not often spoke of nor recognized by many members of our society.

I once asked a member of this community who had lived there from the age of 11 to at that time 86 if he ever thought of leaving it?

He answered this way...

"Why would I ever want to? Everyone, Everything I know are within these walls. 

All my friends are in here, those
who care for me and love me are here.

My enemys are out there, those who don't want me, don't understand me or even try to care..

Why would I ever want to go outside these walls?   These walls are not my boundries, these walls are my guardians. And I would have it no other way."

I sat and thought about what he said and I started to say "But it's so much better out there! But as I sat there and watched him look out his window enjoying life as he had always  known it, I got to thinking and I asked myself.  Just What is out "there" that makes it so Great?" Distrust, Stealing, Murder, Wars, Hatred, Bigotry, Racism and many, many people who put themselves before others.  A world where what is expected of a person in many cases are guaged by their "worth".

Later our government decided that we could not "afford" the cost of keeping these institutions open.  It didn't matter what was the "best" for these people who had depended on us to take care of them.  Now it was the needs and wants of "us" not "them" that was more important. So we sent many of  them out into the streets of "our" world to fend for themselves.

Years later I watched a man walking aimlessly down a street in the city where that State School had been and for a second I thought it was him.  I circled the block and by the time I got around to the place the man had been,  he was gone.

I realized then I had to know. I went back out to the school grounds and
wandered the cemetary until I found him.

He was still home... He was still safe.. Within his walls of protection... A very lucky man.

Someone Kept His Promise.. Now I'll Keep Mine...

After thirteen years my daughter has been given a new outlook on life.  Yesterday at the Children's Hospitol in New Orleans, LA a amazing group of Doctors were able to reverse a terrible wrong that should have never had to have been.

Samantha and her Brother Clint both had a rare liver disorder which didn't allow the bile that their bodies produces leave their bodies in the normal way. 

Thirteen years ago I held in my arms a baby who was in agony from the itching that the disease produced.  At that time I felt so helpless and angry that she was having to go through this.  I even asked at that time that if need be for God to let me take that agony from her and that if he would I could find ways to endure it so that she would not have to. 

Fortunately, the doctors found an alternative by attaching a stoma just abovet he liver which would release the bile into a bag attached just above her waistline like what her brother had done. The itiching stopped immediately but brought with it the need for the bag to be ever present.  For thirteen years she has endured this need and all of the tribulations that it brought with it.

Even though it was the doctors who physically made this happen, I know that a miracle was given to us from above.

Now my Grand Daughter who is now my Daughter has been allowed the chance to live a "normal" life. 

So now I will fulfill a promise I made thirteen years ago.

Lord,  I am Yours... Show Me Your Way.  

 

  Some, will see a raindrop under the leaf....
  Others, will see a hole within the leaf...
  Then both will look at the picture again...
  And hopefully will see....
  What the others saw...
 
  It all depends....
  On how you look at things...
  And be willing to look at them...
  In a different way.....

  Thus the the 'Power of Suggestion'....



Photo by me....

There is truth in the old belief that if you tell a teenager that something is not possible, they will do everything they can do, to show you wrong.
 
What is sad is that they don't realize and we tend to forget is that we once had that same determination.

And they have every right to do so.... just as we believed we did.

I met a man yesterday for the second time. 

 The first time, we hardly spoke as I drove him to pick up a rental car from us while his car was being worked on. He had sat quiety reading his bible as I drove and it was I who started the conversation by asking his proffession, being the nosey old cuss that I am. He just said "Oh, I work for God, I have a small church and a little ministry over here on this side of town" and had given me his card, and that was that,  or so I thought. 

For some reason that night at home I looked up his Church's website.

 

This man and his wife, for over the last 45 years has served as Ministers for the Lord... Within that time for the last 20 years they have ran a program for the homeless and less unfortunate. Each day they opens their doors and their hearts for those they don't even know.

He funds much of this by traveling throughout Louisiana and Mississippi teaching programs in small seminarys of these areas taking hm away from his own usually three to five days a week up to three weeks a month.

Yesterday, as he climbed back into my car, after being away for 2 weeks he asked me "So John, how have you been?" and we talked all the way back to where he was to pick up his car.  

 As we got out of the car he took my hand and looked me in the eye and said "John, you have a Blessed Day".

And I knew I had already had one.

I have a new friend in Lake Charles, Louisiana now... A friendship that I know will last a very long time.

And I think I know where I'm going to church this coming Sunday.
 Lord...Show me your way.

Ageless

With age.. tender memories tend to come back even more often. 

Thoughts of the good times visit you and as you think of them, you smile.

Memories are your own little reward to yourself for living a good life....

I had a dream last night or maybe a subconsious memory.

In it we were all sitting on their front porch while Grandma shelled her peas and Granddaddy read his paper.

A car went by and Daddy questioned who it was because he didn't recognize the car, so Bob and Bud jumped up and ran out to the road to see where it was going.

Wayne scooted on his belly over to Tippy and climbed up on top of him. 

Mom yelled at the boys asking them if they saw where the car went?

Richard and Bill were out by the old gas pump throwing rocks at a wasp nest on the side of the garage.

It all happened in just a second seems like,  but thats the way dreams work.

Like a flash in the pan.

Miss you all very much....See More

Megan's Journey


The way we see ourselves is very important because it is that image that helps to empower our hopes and dreams....

Who and what she will become, lies within those visions of herself....

May there be no limits nor boundries to what she can attain in life....
  
She has so much ahead of her...

May her journey through life be wonderful....

My Lucky Day....

I found this dollar bill folded up into 4ths several years ago on a sidewalk in Austin, Texas.         

I remember that upon finding it, I smiled and thought to myself "Wow, I found a dollar, this is my “Lucky Day" which changed my attitude for the rest of the day.  It wasn't until later that evening that I discovered its oddity when unfolding it and how lucky I truly was.  


So now, I carry  my "lucky dollar" with me in my wallet and keep it there to mind me how fortunate I am.

Since then, each day, I drop a folded or what I like to call  a "Unicorn Rolled" dollar to the ground over my  shoulder and I don't look back, not caring "who" is going to find it, but only the hope that someone will and feel "lucky" at least for a little while. 

Many people would say that "throwing money away" like that is silly and I have been asked "Don’t you realize how much money you have lost doing that?

My answer is... I haven't lost a thing , because I feel that if I can't afford to give a dollar away each day,  then I'm not doing something right and I need to re-think my attitude towards life and being lucky enough to be here to enjoy life.

So...If by chance... you ever find one of my "lucky dollars" along your way... I hope you smile and enjoy  feeling "lucky" for a little while.

Then maybe,  if you feel really lucky and share my feelings.  You will take that dollar, and drop it over your shoulder to pass its luck on to someone else...

Running Away To Alaska

One of my favorite stories that my grandfather use to tell me was that when I was about 4 years old he came upon me walking down the road heading away from our ranch/farm in Central Texas dragging a small suitcase.  He asked me "Where ya going boy?"

 I answered "I'm running away to Alaska, going to strike gold and then come back and tell everyone Nanny, Nanny, Boo, Boo!"
He stopped and watched me walk ahead. Then he pulled up beside me again and told me "Ya know... I don't think your going to get there before dark."

He told me, I stopped and thought for a second and then asked him, "Granddaddy, Can you give me a ride back home?"

Years later, I actually did make it to Alaska while in the Navy. I did pan for gold and I did stand up,  face what I figured at the time would be about where my home in Central Texas would be, put my thumbs in my ears, wiggleed my fingers  and hollered as loud as I could  "Nanny, Nanny, Boo, Boo".

 And I left there if nothing else "feeling" a little bit richer.

Bull Nettles, Cows, Horses and Memories...

The man walked up as I took a photo of the old sagging wooden house that sat along a back road in Central Louisiana. I asked for permission to take some shots and his answer was "Have at it! Shoot away, it's not much left to look at. 

As I continued to take my shots we struck up a conversation. He would explain what each building had been over its life on the ranch and farm that I learned he had grown up on. We compared what it had been like for him in this small parcel of land in Allen Parish and the ranch and farm that I had grown up in Travis County.

The  more we talked, this old country boy from Central Texas and that old country boy from Central Louisiana we figured out real quick that we shared some common interest. Bull Nettles, Cattle, Horses, a respect for family values and Memorys.  Where I had traveled the world, he had hardly left the Parrish. Still the same, over the next few minutes we learned we actually had a lot in common, becaused we had both been "Raised Country".

 We talked about how to get rid of Bull Nettles since that was what he was in the process of doing when he saw me stopping alongside his ranch.  I shared with him my storys of digging down to their root and throwing a handful of rock salt to rid my Dad's land of them. He replied that he didn't knew of that remedy and would have to try it out. He shared his opinon that they stung so bad and there was no stopping it no matter how much scratching and rubbing you did to try and ease the pain.

 Then he grinned while he looked around to see if anyone was listening even though we both knew where there wasn't a soul within a mile and asked "Ya know, they say there is only one way to stop it from stinging don't ya?" And with a smile I answered "Yea and a couple of times I was almost stupid enough to try it!"

We talked of working cattle by horseback not like they do today with the motorized four-wheelers or motorcycles.  Then the subject went to horses after I noticed a beautiful paint and a roan off in a distance and how much we had both enjoyed riding but those days had long past for both of us. 

We talked about how things and people had changed since we had been kids and how courtesy, honesty and family values didn't seem to mean a whole lot to people and how it has gotten to the point that ya just didn't know who you could trust nowadays.  We both got quiet and just stood and listened to the country for a minute. Then, he broke the silence with  "Ya see that window on the right of that old house over there? I acknowledge that I did and he stood looking at it for a minute without saying anything. Then he added "I was born in that room, Now, I guess I'm just hanging around to see which one of us is going to fall  over first."

I shook his hand and thanked for his time. His answer was "Hell, time is all I've got left."  I corrected him telling him that time is not as important as the memorys he carried within himself.  He smiled, turned and walked away, and I returned to my car to continue on down the country road.