Life's Loving Memories

  AM I OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER, OR AM I TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND? "Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older, they judge them; sometimes they forgive them."    --Oscar Wilde Perhaps when you were young you heard the same thing I did, at one time or another.   “You ought to know better. Imagine doing something like that at your age.” Or, when you asked to do something or go somewhere you were told, “I don’t think so, you’re just not old enough.” Okay, which is it? Am I too old, or not old enough? I remember, all through high school, that my mother would tell me, as I left for a party, “If you are going to be later than you originally told me you would be, call me and let me know.”   Then, time after time I would call to say I was going to be late she would say, “No, I’m coming to pick you up now.”   Finally, in my senior year I voiced my opinion, “Mom, you have always told me that I could call you if I thought I was going to be later than I thought, but

  LIGHT ANOTHER ONE JIMMY "I am a light in this world, and I shine."  Donna Michaels (song lyrics) During my early childhood, I had a friend who would come over to play. He was a neighbor boy from down the block, Jimmy.   Jimmy always seemed to help get me into trouble. In my parents' bedroom they had a hole cut into the wall that was just the height and length of the bed.   During the day, the bed was pushed into the cubby hole behind it leaving just enough of the bed out to look like a couch. At night it would come out for them to sleep on, sort of an early type of hide-a-bed. One day, Jimmy asked if we had any matches in our house and I said, “Yes, we keep them on the top of the refrigerator.” He said, “Let’s get some and we can come back upstairs and light them in the dark (in the cubby hole).” We went down to the kitchen and pulled over a stool, and just as I pulled the cookie jar out that they were in, the stool fell and I came tumbling down, matches and all.

  MISSING DAD "Your personal contribution towards the great plan for the evolution of man is to dwell continually upon the love of God; to look always into the light and so train yourself to recognize God's goodness working through everyone else".  The Quiet Mind: Sayings of White Eagle My father died when I was thirty.   It was the first time someone meaningful to me died.   He was only sixty-eight, so it was very unexpected.   While he was alive, he was not home very much, being way at work, or moving ahead of the family to a new state and a new job.   When he died, I realized that I had not always been nice to him.   I felt he talked too much, and it wasn’t always something I was even interested in. I remember him following people to their car as they were leaving church, still engaged in a conversation.   Where did those thoughts come from?  When I stop to think about it now, I know that he loved me and gave me my deep love of reading, taking me to play archery at

 HAVING SIBBLINGS AND BEING AN ONLY CHILD "It is essential to our wellbeing, and to our lives, that we play and enjoy life. Every single day do something that makes your heart sing."    --Marcia Wieder I am the youngest child in my family, my other siblings are seven, eight, and ten years older than I am.   That gave me the experience of having siblings, as well as being an only child. I enjoyed being both. As a little one with siblings, I got lots of attention, and learned so much from all of them.   As an only child I had my parents all to myself, and they didn’t seem to argue as much with each other (no one to take sides perhaps?). My family influenced my life tremendously, I learned kindness and caring. We share a wit that we can all understand.  Sometimes our jokes seemed to be just "too punish." But we shared a common wavelength. I enjoy visiting with them, and my plan is to do it more often. "Life is what you make it. It can be filled with robotic preci

  MOM AND HER LIVING EXPERIENCES "Life loves me, and I love life. I am so thankful."    --Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your heart My father died when I was thirty. My mother was sixty-eight at the time.   She lovingly took in a family to live with her, but eventually decided to sell her house, and when she did, she moved to San Diego to live near me. As my mom turned ninety, I moved to Washington state to begin my ministry in Kennewick; she moved to New Mexico to live with my sister in Gallop. Those first few Christmases she would fly out to visit me.   One year we were Christmas shopping, and she was so excited to pick out some lively colored place mats in Pink, lime, green, and turquoise as a present for my sister.   Meanwhile, back in Gallop, my sister was creating a beautiful new from yard for my mother.   When mom got home, my sister wondered why she had chosen that color of placemats since it did not fit the décor. My mother wondered why my sister could have ever chos