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WITandWISDOM(tm) - April 15, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. - Will Rogers Source: ToInspire Newsletter, http://www.toinspire.com ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: One day when the world was full of spring, my husband and I were traveling through the poorer section of a large city. Cracker-box houses were wedged among the tenements and billboards. There was little birdsong, few trees. Mostly it was a concrete world. It seemed spring had forgotten to come here. I rode along with a strange restlessness beginning to stir in me, with a bit of sadness seeping into the car. Dogs without collars. Dirt without grass. Children without butterflies. It seemed a paradise lost. At a stop sign, we paused before yet another dilapidated old house, scraped by the years of all its paint. But that's not what grasped my attention. There across the front of it was a window box with newborn red flowers peeping over the side. Tulips, I believe. An old woman was watering them from a tin can. She appeared to be unaware of all the concrete, of the sadness that seemed to be coming through its cracks. Suddenly, as I watched her, she did something so lovely, so breathtaking, I can see it still. She reached down and patted the soil around her flowers as a mother pats a sleeping child. Then she bent her face close to them and rubbed a petal against her cheek. And for an instant I was sure I saw God in her face. As we pulled away from the old woman watering red flowers on a gray street, I promised myself I would not forget her nor the truth she brought to me that day—that something deep in all of us yearns for God's beauty and we can find it no matter where we are. Leaving the city behind us, I wondered if maybe I hadn't stumbled upon one of God's subtle challenges—that of searching for beauty in homely things, for spring in barrenness, and for a spark of happiness in sorrow. Maybe whenever a child picks a dandelion, or a person leans on his hospital window before a sunrise, or an old woman grows flowers in a slum, they are all meeting this challenge whether they realize it or not. For God has placed a fragile searching quality in each of us, a quality so easily lost. I would like to go back and thank the old woman. Without knowing it, she told me that if I look for beauty in unexpected places, I shall surely find it. God's window boxes are everywhere Sue Monk Kidd copyright 1983 Source: Tidbits Daily Devotional, mailto:the-tidbits-devotional-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Questions For The IRS This comes from Donna Patterson Wilson, who answered thousands of IRS-directed questions from an often-confused public. She kept a special list of the strangest of these calls. Caller: I want to know if I should file married or single. IRS: Are you married? Caller: Well, sort of ... IRS: What? Caller: Well, we did get married, but we're not counting on it. Caller: I got a letter from you guys and I want to know what you want. IRS: What does it say? Caller: Just a minute, I'll open it. Caller: I'm a bookkeeper and I need to know if ten $100 bills make a thousand dollars or only ten hundred dollars. IRS: Both. It's the same amount. Caller: So why do I get a different answer every time I move the decimal point? Caller: What does the law say about people who are renting to relatives and taking a loss on the property? IRS: You are required to charge them fair market value. Caller: It's very fair. If we rented to someone else we could get a lot more. Caller: Could you please send me some of those WD-40's? Source: Laughter for a Saturday mailto:ed548@yahoo.com?subject=Subscribe_to_Laughter_for_a_Saturday ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: The young suitor was determined to win the heart of the girl her wanted to marry, in spite of her rejection of his proposals a number of times. He began what can only be called a "Campaigning" and sent her a small token of his affection every day for a month. The plan was successful too -- the young lady fell in love with the UPS man. Source: Clean Humor Digest, http://www.jokesnstuff.net/digest ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: An Indian bride invited volunteers from the audience after her groom deserted her at the last minute. One man stepped forward and the couple were married within minutes, reports the Hindustan Times. The original groom had been on the point of being married at Shivshankar Dham in Mirzapur district when he got cold feet. He claimed the bride, Suggi, was not the same girl he had been introduced to before the arranged marriage and fled. The bride's male relatives caught up with the runaway groom but, after a scuffle, he escaped. Suggi then announced that anyone willing to marry her was welcome to come forward and occupy the vacant seat beside her. One man, Balram, of Maklakher in Mirzapur district, immediately volunteered and Suggi's parents quickly approved their new son-in-law. Source: Ananova http://www.ananova.com