Year-end Thoughts---
As I watched a flag unfurled today, I contemplated
the meaning of our beloved Red, White and Blue
leading to a book-idea: The U. S. flag waving proud-
protector over the citizenry with a syncopated cadence
for Truth! Justice! and the American-way through a
reverence for Independence through Liberty to Freedom!
If you correctly think that is a mouthful, try assimilating it mentally!?
Anyway, hopefully, from that manager will flow a new title.
We shall see!?
Day 27
“Snow-globe
effect”---Watching big snowflakes falling
outside in the
lighted floodlights at the corners of the
house while
sitting by a roaring fire with no lights on
Oh!
How I do love a fire! Just give me a match and I’ll set the world ablaze!
Almost
not too much of an exaggeration. Almost?!
I
love snow! Can’t wait for the
blizzard to begin! “That” sentiment makes all others angry!
We
had a perpetual fire in the fireplace, or, later, in the wood burning stove; Warm! Comfort.
Since
Candy designed our houses and I managed to nail them tight together; we planned
our settings to take advantage of the natural habitat surrounding our abode and
the various seasons.
Large
glass windows adorned each and every exterior wall along with huge glass-panel
doors.
I
once quipped that “I’d build them out of ‘glass’ boxes, if I could!” And, I
meant it!
The
last one we designed and built had “forty-six” windows in it, including the
door panels.
I
hope to get to perform that activity again---one day…Soon! I love “creative-construction”!
But, about the “fire-bug” in me!? Umm! Hmm!
(That is another story---several
other stories!)
Once,
I decided to burn-off a hillside next to our house. Yeah! I know! It was windy, but, there was “no” adult
supervision on site; Candy let me run wild and she was the only mature adult in
the area at the time. Oh! Somebody! Just give me a match! Please! Anybody!?
Well,
I began a “manageable” blaze---uh! Er!...Small fire. Before a minute, that
demon flared into an eternal conflagration! No one was more surprised
than---“Simple! Humble! Me!
God! I love a
roaring fire! What
I mean to confess to here is: The darn thing got completely out of control! Who
knew! Certainly, not I! (We did get to meet the village firemen that
day---and…in the dozen years we lived on that farm…several more times!) Hey! I’m
a congenial guy!
That
fire scorched Lady Candy’s bangs and her eyebrows as she bravely fought the
atrocity with a shovel before we called the Fire Department to save us. The
next day was the first day of the school year and she was not happy; but, she
never scolded my ambition toward becoming an arsonist and to this day, quite
some years after the fact, she tells that story with relish. (It might have
been nice if she had brought relish to the hot dog roast, that day!) Ha! Ha!
I
waited a few years before I set the “granddaddy” of all hell-on-earth bon-fire
conflagrations!
I
had actually bought the property as a “deer-hunting” sanctuary. The fence rows
along the western boundary were getting choked with weed, thistle and all
manner of aggravation, so, one fine day in the month of ice-cold January, I
went to work setting the dry vegetation ablaze. Yep! We got to meet the village
firemen---again! But, this time, they couldn’t spoil my “fun”. That fire was
right at the edge of the bluff standing sentinel above the Mississippi River
and access to the very remote area was was challenging and, for the most part,
non-existent! It burned for over three weeks! We took nighttime rides along
“Ole Man River” on the levy to watch its progress!
Uh!
Oh! Boy! “Baby! It’s cold outside!”---Feels
like time for…a nice, warm fire!
Got
a match? “Anyone know that old 911
emergency number!? Amen!
Ah! "Hot!" Cookie Jar Sweet Memories!
Plus:
Christmas-2016
In lieu of the
“traditional” Christmas play, we offer the following:
Any clues to
this gift are contained in the rhyme
Surely you’ll
get it ’cause it’s magic Santa-time
Here we go:
Riding rainbows! Flittering flutter-bys! Unique unicorn!
Ole “Santa”
never amounted to much; has a family to keep him warm
And, in all my
myriad days---
(read Christmas
letter…after special gift is opened.)
Christmas Thoughts-2016
Merry
Christmas!
Boys and girls! Ole “Santa” has some---Thoughts!...Ho! Ho! Ho!
Umm!
Anna Marie! Feel perfectly free to “ad lib” at any time! Everyone else, too!
Just
look at all of you---Absolute-Perfection!
No wonder I have Christmas…everyday!
And,
I have done not one solitary thing to be so blessed; He simply offered, and I
accepted.
All
my life, from earliest memories, and, even, pre-history of memory: Exceedingly Blessed!
Each
of them Perfect! In my wide-eyed
wonderment. Mom, Dad, sister, brother, Grandparents, Great-grandparents, aunts,
uncles, cousins, family-friends, strangers. Wow!
Then
one fine day while chopping a tree in my Grandma’s garden---a lightning bolt…Candy!
The
“raving beauty” of our fine town, and, of many across this land! Amen! To that.
And,
Surprise! Surprise! Little ole insignificant me---took notice…and decided to do
something about it. And, now, just look at what that commitment resulted---a Miracle…You All!
Each
of you extremely intelligent! With exceptional “Good looks!” Generous! Moral!
Ethical!
(Anybody
have any idea how “simple-humble” I am so privileged to be among this group?)
Somebody,
maybe, should have locked the door from the inside!?---Hmmm!...Thanks!
I
have been blessed with each of you! Thank You! Lord! You all are my precious
Treasure-measure! I Thank each of you, also. I once got into a world of trouble
when I opined that I know many more “Good” people, than “evil” ones. The
challenge burst out, “You don’t know everybody!” True enough! On the face of
it, I suppose I must confess; but, true for those I do know. It’s a lengthy
list beginning with each of you and the ancestors I previously mentioned.
Love! Is that most
precious gift of God to His people. It is infinitely eternal in its
universality. There is no limit on Love! The more you give, the more you have
to give. A sacred enigma!
And,
the saintly-angels just keep coming: Graig, Alexander and lovely Nurse Miss
Jen.
Grandpa
Ted and Grandma Em were saints I came to know along with Gentleman-Herr Rupert
and his lovely Lady Oma-Herta, Uncle Freddie and Aunt Lil, Uncle Randell, Gentleman
Uncle Craig and Lady Aunt Angie, Leo and Virginia, Uncle Dennis of
Cleveland-way, Aunt Kay and Uncle Lee with Lovely Lady Grace, nearly all of the
angelic nuns I knew and several of the holy priests, Bobby Holden, Michael
Bradley, Jerry and some exceptional young ladies, Miss Lisa Straub and
cutie-pie, Little Miss Lydia, among others. And, so many more, too numerous to
mention. Even, quite a few Strangers!
Perhaps, in the flesh; but not in the spirit! Amen!
I
was fortuitous with saintly-angels on both sides; Lady Candice’s Hoffman-family
is as full of true Love as are the
Schulers and the Farrells. Miss Jen’s lovely family is certainly part of that
sacred Communion! And, each of you all, personally deserve respectful-
reverence through Love
My
sometimes inspiration, Elvis, queried, “Why can’t every day be like
Christmas!?”
It
is, Elvis, my friend. I pray that you now know the truth of all of it. Amen!
I’m
not much in the overall scheme of things, never was, never aspired to be. But,
I love you!
Hopefully,
in seven decades, I’ve learned a thing, or two. Like---
Live!
Love! Laugh!
Focus contemplate!
Vigilant be! No
one’s future is ever late!
And…
Faith!
Family! Freedom!
Might just be all there really---Is!
In one eternal
instant the only mercy-blessing will be…His!
Amen!
Merry Christmas! Santa & Mrs.
Claus
