Life's Loving Memories

  CRUISING         "If you don't move your body, your brain thinks your dead. Movement of the body will not only clean out the 'Sludge' but will also give you more 'energy'."                                                                                                --Sylvia Brown There is something very spiritual about standing on the back of a cruise ship at midnight, and staring out into the wake of the boat. The vastness of the ocean makes you realize how infinitesimal you are compared to the ocean. My husband Gary and I love to cruise, although the Corona Virus gave us a setback and we missed our 2020 cruise through the Panama Canal. What I like most about cruising are the people we meet, and the countries we visit.   It is a wonderful place to feel like you have really gotten away from the business of life. Anything done to help enjoy the  blissful joy of life is truly a blessing, whether it is hiking a trail, walking along the beach at sunset,

  RETIRING OR REWIRING? "We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken."       --Ralph Waldo Emerson In my life I have retired two times, once after teaching high school for Twenty-six years, and once from ministry after eighteen years.   Now I am rewiring to write more books. Currently I am writing a series of children’s books that follow Sam, a young girl who, after a recent, move is learning how to fit into the school she attends. The second time I retired, the Pandemic showed its face. Boy, did that bring changes--but it did support my writing.  I learned all the many things I could do while staying close to home. I think it was also a great way to remember that I am truly blessed by family and friends. Life has an amazing way of opening paths to different vocations and experiences in life. "Happiness can only be found in the present moment, not at some imaginary place in the future."                Living a life of Awarenss    --Don Miguel Ruiz

  COLLEGE, NOT IF BUT WHERE "If we live truly, we shall see truly."            --- Ralph Waldo Emerson My family might not have had a surplus of money while I was growing up, but what we lacked in finances was made up for in love. My parents valued education and we grew up not wondering if we would be going to college, but where.   Four children in the family and we all graduated with college degrees. My father graduated with degrees in mechanical engineering, metallurgy, as well as one in music.   My mother did a two-year college study after high school, and then, later is life, went on to earn her certificate in interior design. Kids need either a parent who cares about them or a caring teacher or other influential adult to whet their interest in continuing their education.   You may not think you make a difference in anyone else’s life, but to at least one person, you make a world of difference.   "You have to be true to yourself. You have to be enough in touch with

  ERNIE THE COCKATIL "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."                    George Bernard Shaw When we first moved to Kennewick, Washington, and I began my ministry, my husband was an IT consultant. That made it easy for us to make the move, because he could work from anywhere that had an airport.   Sunday afternoons he would fly out to wherever his current job was, and on Thursday evenings he would fly home to our house.   His being gone so much left me a little lonely, So I decided to buy a bird. I decided on a Cockatiel and named him early.   He quickly decided he would grace me by climbing on my finger. Every morning we would go around the house and open all the blinds, and I would sing, “This Little Light of Mine” to him. After a few weeks of singing to him, he learned to sing it by himself.   When I was home, the cage door was open, and he would fly out to sit on my shoulder or sit on my lap (I had my cover towels han