Never Out Of Style…

The following was posted on a laundromat bulletin board where I was washing clothes while out of town awhile back. Although it was written for teens, it carries an important message for us adults as well. You may have read it before, but it was my first time and I thought it was worth copying while I waited on my laundry.

Words For Teenagers

Northland College principal John Tapene has offered the following words from a judge who regularly deals with youth. ‘Always we hear the cry from teenagers, ‘What can we do, where can we go?’ ‘My answer is this: Go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons and after you’ve finished, read a book. Your town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun. ‘The world does not owe you a living, you owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy, and talent, so that no one will be at war, in sickness, and lonely again. In other words, grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and develop a backbone not a wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are important and you are needed. It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday. Someday is now and that somebody is you!’

 

It’s All Relatives…

Kinship without love is mere bone and sinew

To be ground up and tossed

Into the wind

Whose wings carry it far

Into the heavens

For God Himself to hear the cries

The grave is quiet, the eyes are closed

The heart doth not beat, silent

Is the tongue

Stiff are the hands and the feet

Words of yesteryear, cold as stone,

Yet fresh as Spring

Remember no more, yet remember true

Kinship and words, and the winds that blew

Here today, gone the same,

It all passes by

Kinship is severed for all shall die

Love given or withheld is a choosing of one

The day turns to night

And then it is done

Copyright 2013

I Like Old Things…

Books, furniture, buildings, even some people. Of course I don’t like ALL things old. I much prefer fresh food, water, and air, but you know what I’m talking about. Right now I’m reading “Farmer Boy” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I find myself constantly salivating over the food Almanzo describes as his days on the farm prepare him for a satisfying life of a farmer like his father. I remember my mother describing her life growing up on a farm. Although it was quite different than Almanzo’s, she still had the same love of the land. She said that when they would go into town on Saturdays and shop, whenever they got close to home, even the air smelled fresher. My grandfather loved it and his son even though he never ‘farmed’, always kept a garden until his age prevented it. I remember when my children were small, him bringing tiny eggs and I dyed them for Easter. For quite a while I never bought eggs from the store. Each week he brought Mama eggs for us and we ate them and never missed the cold storage ones a bit. The deep orangy-yellow yolks just can’t be beat in my opinion. Almanzo Wilder had the secret to happiness, I do think. He enjoyed his life and was grateful for the bounty of the land that God gave them. Who can ask for anything more.

Thinking back…

to simpler times. When using a phone meant hearing the ‘tuh tuh tuh tuh tuh’ of the rotary dial. Then the fancy square buttons with the musical beeps. I would punch short songs and hang up fast as not to dial some long distance number and get into trouble as a teen who has to explain why the phone call to timbuktoo was made. Internet was more like ‘enter the net’ when you slept outside in a tent and the flaps on the windows/door maybe had a type of netting on them to let a breeze in. When you got in the car to drive somewhere you talked to the people in the vehicle, not somewhere ‘out there’. I seriously think about having a single landline again. Can you even get those anymore if you are not a business? I can imagine giving my number, then stating it is a landline. Crickets chirp. The look of ‘hmmmm…not sure about this one.’ But then, that would be part of the fun now wouldn’t it.

Words and Attitude…

Tonight I am reminded of how far removed from polite society this nation has become. I speak of this because people who are considered ‘professionals’ that I deal with on a regular basis continually show me through words and attitude that while the title may be there in the working world, they are in no wise such in the true spirit of the matter. I once heard it said you can say “I love you”, but depending on the attitude (and tone) it can take on a whole new meaning. Forced through gritted teeth will not win a heart. What I am referring to is more on everyday courtesy. Things like “May I help you”, comes out with the attitude of ‘What do you want…Why are you bothering me…I REALLY don’t want to wait on you…’. I know you’ve experienced this as it has become a norm in today’s society. It seems those that hold the power of play these days are forgetting that they themselves at some point may be in a position where they would like kindness and soft speech instead of the sharp choppy retorts they give. A very telling scene, to be sure.