'Tis the Season to Give

If you can, please give to those less fortunate. Here are some really good charities to help out. Please donate your time, money, food, toys, etc. It will all be appreciated by so many this year.
Marine Toys for Tots Foundation , The Salvation Army: Home , Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee Feeding Hope

Some days are better than others

This isn't one of those, again. Today my brother, John, and his family will return to Texas. His leaving isn't something I think I will ever get used to. If I were 16 I would tell you "It sucks!". Ok, maybe that isn't true. When I was 16 I may have offered to help him pack. However, I am 38 now and I will tell you it hurts. Not like a paper cut, not slamming your finger in a door, not even like hitting your toe on the edge of couch. No, this pain will grab your heart and squeeze it until water pours from your eyes, and you gasp for air. This is hurt. This is love.

Not Happy Holidays for many in Tennessee

I was reading a friend's web site this morning, Sharoncobb , and I had to write something about this as well. After 8 yrs of Bush we have people standing in food lines. His parents must be so proud of what all he has managed to destroy. Do I sound angry? Good, because I am!
For anyone with teenage children please watch this video:

www.tennessean.com Nashville SPECIAL0348 The Tennessean

Perhaps they will see how good their lives are even if they do not get the iPod, laptop, cell phone, etc that they have been wanting. Maybe, just maybe they will be willing to forego some gifts to help those that simply want food. And after seeing people trample each other to get black friday deals, I think some grown ups should watch this video as well.

Special Thank You

To Mom and Dad,

Thank you both so much for surrounding me with family, for teaching me the value of people is far greater than the value of stuff, and for always being there for me. I love you.

Idava

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. What I am thankful for? Family and time. Because one is not really much good to me without the other. This is the painful lesson that most of us do not learn until we find out either someone we love or ourself is running out of time. Let me say this, I love my family. I love all of my family. I love the ones that piss me off and make me crazy and I especially love the ones that I get to piss off and make crazy. I have been so very blessed in my life. I come from a close knit Italian family. That basically means I have aunts, uncles, cousins and I know them all. If I need anything and it is within their reach they will find away, as I would do the same for them. I was 34 when my brother who was 39 wasn't home for Christmas the first time. Was Christmas the same that year or since? No, and all he did was move a way. I can still call him. And right now, he is here. He loaded up his family and drove all night to be here with us. I know how hard that drive is for his family but I am so grateful for this time with them. So, today we will all be at my Mom's. Mom, Dad, my sister Brenda and her family (including a grandbaby), my brother John and his family, me and my family , and anyone else that shows up!
But our hearts and our minds will really be with my Aunt Bobbie who isn't healthy enough to come up here this year. She has been battling renal pelvic kidney cancer. On Saturday she had to be taken to the hospital. It seems the chemotherapy really has not been working, so they are going to stop. So, why this video? It is one of her favorite songs. It used to make me crazy as a kid. I would go to her home and she would have this playing. As kids, we would whine about it. So, she would put her big 70's headphone's on, then we just got to hear her sing it. Now I call it her theme song. So, more than a house, a car, a job, a tv, or anything else , I am Thankful for Family and time.

Quote for 11/27/08

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die. Leonardo da Vinci

Looking Back Looking forward

I remember when this song came out back in 1983. Twenty-five years later and the song still applies. Don't know about everyone else, but I sure could use a little good news day.

Saturday 11/22/08

Yes, I know that yesterday was feel good Friday but, a friend in Texas sent this to me and I thought I should share. I hope you like it.

Quote for 11/21/08

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Feel Good Friday 11/21/08

It's feel good Friday! Now this is music!!! Ok, this is a happier song than last week. If this doesn't make you smile, then you have too much botox!!

Feel Good Friday 11/14/08

Quote for 11/14/07

Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted. ~Paul Pearshall

Feel Good Friday 11/07/08

WOO HOO!! It is Feel Good Friday!! I love this song. When I hear it I think of my Grandfather coming here as a child from Norway and my Great Grandfather that came here from Italy leaving all of his family behind.

Check out the other Feel Good Friday bloggers Sharoncobb , LeftWingCracker , and GingerSnaps .

Quote for 11/07/08

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. - Abraham Lincoln

Tears, Hopes, Faith, and Burdens

If you have seen the news the past two days then you have seen tears flowing. When it was announced that Sen. Obama would be the 44th President of the USA people all over the world shed tears. Tears of joy for the historic moment is what many would say. Tears because people now have hope is what I saw. Hope that their son or daughter will return home safe and soon from Iraq. Hope that this president will bring jobs back to our nation. Hope that their children will be able to get a great education. Hope that maybe they will not lose their homes. Hope that he will restore the American Dream. These Americans took their hopes for a brighter day and placed their faith in Barack Obama. They have faith in him, perhaps not that he can do all of these things, but that he will at least try. Surely, Sen. Obama is quite proud to be the one that so many people believed in. But being the one everyone believes in means knowing you carry their burdens. Every hope of ours becomes his burden. 64,337,005 hopes, dreams, & burdens. I do not envy Sen. Obama for the tasks that are before him. I will however, do what I can as an American to lessen that burden by pulling together with others in my community to make this country what we could only dream it would ever become.

Quote for 11/06/08

“No one is useless in the world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.”
Charles Dickens

President Barack Obama

Today we have President Elect Obama. I know this a historic moment. The African American community is beyond proud. I share this joy with them as many others do. What I want to stress right now though is this simple truth, Barack Obama was not elected by African Americans alone. While he carried the AA vote handidly, AAs only make up 13% of our population. Barack Obama is not going to be an African American President that only represents our African American population. He was not put into the White House by only AAs. He is our President whether we are black, white, yellow, red, brown, or even purple with pink polka dots!!! I think perhaps Colin Powell says it best.

Quote for 11/05/08

Every generation needs a new revolution. Thomas Jefferson

Quote for 11/04/08

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. -John Newton

Quiet Heroes

Only in the eyes of our grand parents can all of us, any of us, be President.

The Final Stretch

When you have made all the phone calls, knocked on all the doors, and sent out all of the flyers then you must find quiet. Tomorrow is election day and what is done is done. On Wednesday, we will go back to focusing on the people and things in our immediate lives. But for now, I find the Serenity Prayer and the Lord's Prayer running through my mind over and over. THE SERENITY PRAYER God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.Amen. Reinhold Niebuhr THE LORD'S PRAYER
Latin version
Pater noster, qui es in caelis:
sanctificetur Nomen Tuum;
adveniat Regnum Tuum;
fiat voluntas Tua,
sicut in caelo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a Malo.

1662
Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done,
in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
[For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.]

Quote for 11/03/08

I find myself, in my own nation, seeking the compassion of these words. So, from the Statue of Liberty...The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Emma Lazarus, 1883