Thursday Thought--Make the World a Better Place

As I drove to work today, I saw four people standing at the bus stop. Interestingly, my first thought was that they were all together because they were all dressed in dark cloths and had on shirts or jackets that, from a distance, looked like they matched.

However

As I got closer to them I noticed they were strategically positioned so they would not make eye contact with each other or have to speak to each other. For some reason this saddened me.

And I thought...
How did we, as a society get so that we don't interact with each other on a casual, friendly basis?
How did we move to a position of self absorption so that we avoid contact with strangers?

Let's change that.
Join me in this movement.

I will:

1. Speak to strangers on the street -- just a simple nod and hello
2. Greet the clerk in the store with a smile and ask how their day is going
3. Smile at little children in public and tell them I appreciate how nice they are acting
4. Get to know my neighbors better
5. Listen carefully when someone talks to me
6. Speak to people on the elevator
7. Speak to people on the bus or at the bus stop

Will you?

One Good Day Among Many...

As Jenny lay in bed that Sunday morning in the twilight state between being asleep and being awake she felt the old familiar joy of starting a new day with the man she loved. What would today bring? As the foggy waking up dissipated she slowly remembered that what the day would bring was not what she had dreamed of.

Keith lay in the bed next to her. She could hear his heavy breathing. His wavy blonde hair tussled over the pillow like a little boy. Though his face and body were at rest now, those beautiful blue eyes that sparkled when he laughed and the way his mouth was always turned up as though he would burst out in laughter at any moment brought a smile to Jenny’s face even as she thought about the labors of the day ahead. With love in her heart she got up. It was 5:00 a.m. The acid smell of urine on the sheets permeated the air.

Jenny took a hot shower to ease her aching, overworked muscles. She was only 5’4” tall and weighed just 100 pounds. Yet she shouldered her responsibility with a glad heart knowing Keith would do the same for her if the circumstances were reversed. After the shower the ritual called for daily hygiene and cosmetics then dressing comfortably and layered so the temperature could be right for Keith.

Jenny went into the kitchen and decided to give herself a little treat today. She turned on the oven for a little extra heat in the room, put a teapot on to heat the water and got out her favorite hot chocolate mix with hazelnuts, the one she had been saving for a time like this. Today was Jenny and Keith’s fifth wedding anniversary.

As she sat sipping her hot chocolate she wondered if Keith was even aware of what day this was. It didn’t matter, she would celebrate just the same and then give her gift of love to him for the rest of his life and receive his gift of gratitude in return for the rest of hers. Ten minutes she gave herself, just ten minutes and then it was 6:00 a.m. and time to start Keith’s day.

“Good morning merry sunshine, what makes you shine so bright?” Jenny sang her usual wake up call.

“Gmmmmg” Keith always tried to respond.

Jenny rolled Keith over on his side and got ready to hoist him into the wheelchair. The chair was anchored and, with the pulley system Keith’s brother had set up for them, she lifted Keith into the wheel chair and headed for the bathroom.

“Keith, what soap scent do you want today, apple, peach, or pear? “

“Puhhhh.”

“Pear?” Jenny stopped pushing and came around in front of Keith for a response.

His blue eyes sparkled and she knew she had guessed right.

To be continued...

Sandi Grandberry (c) copyright 2010

At firs I was...

Almost

We almost finished the remodeling
We almost emptied all the boxes
We almost have the living room put back together
We almost have one room ready
We almost have the electrical stuff getting done
We almost have ...

Are we ever finished
Or do we live in a perpetual state of almost...

My Life is One Big Drama and I Love it

Sunday morning I attended Welfare Meeting. Between Welfare and Sacrament Meeting, I was standing in the hall and a man, all dressed in white, came running in with a small 4-year old boy in tow.

He came up to me and said, "Is this the place where they have church for children?"

I told him we did have a meeting for children and he replied, "Good, then I will leave him here. What time do you finish so I can come and pick him up?"

I said--in total shock--"We finish at noon."

He replied that he would return at noon and leaned over to the boy and say "Give me a kiss mija." The boy gave him a kiss and he left with me standing there in charge of a strange 4-year old boy I knew nothing about.

I took his hand and told him to stay with me, asked his name (Damon) and introduced him to the Primary President, Sister Faller.

We went to Sacrament meeting together and, being the good grandma that I am, I had candy in my purse to entertain him. Sister McFall asked him if he had any breakfast and he told her he had a muffin. She gave him an energy bar, which he saved for later.

He was very obedient and behaved during the meeting, though he was bored. I kept thinking, "I hope I haven't just adopted a 4 year old boy." His teacher, Sister Mickelson, was sitting behind me and told me she would be sure he got to all the right places.

I asked him who brought him, "Was it your grandpa?"
"No."
"Was it your Dad?"
"No."
"Who was it?"
"Never mind" and he shut his eyes.
"Where do you live?"
"Far away"
"What is your Mother's name?"
"Never mind" and he shut his eyes again.

Oh, my, I think I may have just adopted a 4-year old boy.

During the meeting he noticed he was not wearing any socks and then checked to see if he was wearing underpants--he was, trauma averted.

After Primary started I walked out into the hall and saw the man who brought him pacing back and forth as if he was looking for Damon. I stopped him and introduced myself. He was quite embarrassed that he had not even found out my name when he dropped off the boy and wanted the check and be sure he was okay. His name was Rick and he was Damon's uncle. He gave me a little personal information about Damon's family which I won't put here, but it was an interesting story.

Man, was I relieved.

We walked to the Primary door and looked in through the window and saw Damon up in the front of the room with Sister Faller. They were singing the Hello song to him. Rick was ecstatic and thanked me and said he would be back at noon to pick up Damon and then this..."If he has a good time, I will bring him every week."

I'm thinking..."and who are you going to leave him with?" but I didn't say that.

After the meetings, I went to the classroom for the 4-year old children and found Damon just finishing a picture that said, "I want to hold the Priesthood." He was so excited and couldn't wait to show his uncle the picture. I guess the uncle will find out very quickly what he is learning at the place were they have church for children.

So, Rick picked up Damon--Damon jumped up and down with excitement because he had so much fun--Rick said, "see you next week"--I realized the sign on my forhead that said "sucker" was flashing--all in all it was a great day.

Pre-Holiday joy

Tamales homemade by Jackie Harrison. I'm in the holiday spirit now.

I do not sweat--Recent Monday Memory

You remember Papa's Grow Sticks? Of course you do, how could you forget something so important to me? Well, we finally found a lumber source in Springerville, Arizona. They custom cut them for us and every stick is from a forest conservation project so we are not not only made in the USA, we are green.

This is Charlie, he is loading 700 pieces of lumber into the pickup we rented for the trip.

That's a lot of lumber. We are going to be very busy.

See how neatly it is stacked.

Whoa, it looks a little crooked. Watch out Tarzan...

Do you think that pickup can hold a load like this?

Tarzan looks a little worried.

Those straps are ingenious. We thought we were going to have to unbundle it to get it in the truck.

Up-se-daisy

Going doeoeoeown...See Charlie standing up to be sure it goes in the bed of the truck?

And in it goes, we made it...

Tarzan is guiding it along...

Notice the wheel well...

Whoa, that is one heavy load. Not much space left in the wheel well.

Tarzan and Charlie are checking out the weight on the pickup...

We made it home but about 30 minutes into the drive home, we did have to stop and redistribute the weight of the lumber, see in the last picture how it is over to the left a bit? That made things real scary and having had another scary experience with weight shifting, we decided it was worth the effort to break down the bunch and redistribute the weight.

When we arrived home we had to unload that lumber, we were having an unexpected 100° day. I do not sweat. I get a little moist sometimes, but drops of sweat like basketball players have do not form on my body, especially not on my face. Well I got so hot and worked so hard that sweat actually dripped off my eyebrow. I thought I was bleeding. When we finished we were going to run some errands and go out to eat...

NOT

When we finished, we ate leftover roast beef sandwiches, took a hot shower, and fell into bed exhausted.

The ole' gray mare, she ain't what she used to be.