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WITandWISDOM(tm) - July 16, 2003 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "The flack is always the heaviest closest to the target." - Boyd K. Packer Source: Web Evangelism, http://www.web- evangelism.com/ ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: I grew up in the fifties with practical parents -- a mother, God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name for it... A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones. Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, dish towel in the other. It was the time for fixing things -- a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep. It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more. But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any 'more.' Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away... never to return. So... while we have it... it's best we love it... and care for it... and fix it when it's broken... and heal it when it's sick. This is true... for marriage... and old cars... and children with bad report cards.... and dogs with bad hips... and aging parents... and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away -- or -- a classmate we grew up with. There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special... and so, we keep them close! Author Unknown Submitted by Carol Blum ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Somebody Said By Renee Hawkley Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby. . somebody doesn't know that once you're a mother, normal is history. Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct . . .somebody never took a three-year-old shopping. Somebody said being a mother is boring. . . somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit. Somebody said if you're a "good" mother, your child will "turn out good"...somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee. Somebody said you don't need an education to be a mother . . . somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math. Somebody said you can't love the fifth child as much as you love the first.. .somebody doesn't have five children. Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books . . . somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose. Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery .. somebody never watched her "baby" get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten. Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back . . somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies. Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married... somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother's heartstrings. Somebody said a mother's job is done when her last child leaves home... somebody never had grandchildren. Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell her. . . somebody isn't a mother. Renee Hawkley is the author of "Don't come in here! Mom's throwing spaghetti!" 2nd ed. Boise, ID: Pennington Publishing, 2000. 51 p.; 22 cm. ISBN 0966517709 Source: The Inspired Buffalo, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the-inspired-buffalo/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: I had laryngitis and finally decided to go to the doctor. After the nurse called for me, she asked my age. "Forty- nine," I whispered. "Don't worry," she whispered back. "I won't tell anyone." By Lola P. Bell, Colfax, Louisiana Source: Reader's Digest, Copyright (c) May 2000, http://www.readersdigest.com/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Nine Things Strom Thurmond Was Older Than AM/FM radio Human flight The Panama Canal Wristwatches Tea bags Ice cream cones The World Series The states of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii Dick Clark Source: The Oregonian, Copyright (c) December 12, 2002, http://www.oregonian.com/ Submitted by Barbara Henry |