Love or Hate..The Choice Only You Can Make

Love Makes Allowances

Hate Makes Accusations

Love Says You Are Welcome

Hate Says There Is No Place For You

Love Sees Potential

Hate Sees Nothing

Love Offers A Helping Hand

Hate Slaps You Down

Love Gives Strength

Hate Wears You Down

Love Smiles

Hate Growls

Love Begins Again

Hate Insists All Is Lost

Love Carries You Across Troubled Waters. 

Through Blinding Storms. 

Over Towering Mountains.

 Protects You From Harm. 

Encourages your heart to look ahead, 

To Release The Worries And Dread. 

To Starve The Discouraging, 

Fearful Thoughts You Have Long Since Fed.

Love Builds Up

Hate Tears Down 

It Is The Same Everywhere.

All The Big Cities,

Remote Villages And Small Towns.

Hate Is A Dead End

Love Is A Million New Beginnings.

Love Is All You Need......

Hate Is Going To Die,Vanish Altogether; 

If When It Comes Knocking,

You Personally Refuse It.

The Smallest Amount Of Attention,

Not A Morsel Or Even A Crumb.

Be Smart, Don't Behave Dumb

Realize This Is One Beast You Should Never Feed! 

Boy of Courage, Man of Conviction

Patrick endured hardship and separation from all comfort; anything familiar. When his captors, apparent pirates, liberated him from home and hearth, they did not ask, they took. One day free, next day enslaved. Six years, an estimated 2190 days of uncomfortable, frightening, frustrating happenings. He was not discouraged; instead his experiences ignited his fire. Growing ever displeased with his accommodations and company, he escaped. Time is precious, he wasted none; heading straight for his family.... his British home. The courage he used to flee his captors is the same courage that later carried himself back to the Irish people.

Patrick was simply a man of great courage and conviction. He possessed knowledge of something that held significance. It burned in his heart. The need to tell what he knew drove him into the green hills of the north to share his heart with the people. Once a boy in bondage, returning as a man to share the keys to freedom.

We remember him, his name, what he did...centuries later. His life left a mark and changed the course of many lives. The details may be muddied with the passing of time, but this remains...he was a British boy that became a man who gave his heart to Ireland.

What is in your life....that thing tapping on your shoulder to do...to be? You have courage just the same as Patrick. Engage it as he did...do it afraid, knees knocking, hands trembling. Courage is facing the scary things, going out to meet them and looking them in the eye; never flinching. The biggest take away to remember beyond this day is that Patrick did not walk alone. God held his hand, held him steady, made a way to carry him back home. Yes, it is true, Patrick did not walk alone.

So, wherever you are, however it is you celebrate this the 17th day of March, be it a holy day or a reason to drink a green beer, or possibly an excuse to give a pinch to a person not wearing the green....

 Remember Patrick on this St. Patrick's Day.

Time Out For Grown Ups

Time out for grown ups. Unheard of; it doesn't happen. When did it become acceptable to leave all accountability at the door when exiting childhood? When did it become common to use ugly words in hateful ways, to purposefully inflict pain and humiliation on others?

When did honor become something so forgotten that it would  be more likely to dig it up as an archaeological find than to be evident in the lives of men?

I didn't look at my watch to note the day or the hour, but it happened just the same. Whatever has become of us? This is the time to turn from these habits and begin afresh and new, to hold ourselves accountable for bad behavior and moments absent of good judgement.

If necessary, find a corner of quiet and think it through. Is it still not the best course to act with honor, speak with honesty, stand with truth, move in love, react with laughter, a smile and an extra positive attitude, attitude, attitude?

Hearts and Horseshoes

Hearts and horseshoes 

Must not and must do's

It's our choice if we

dance in the rain or

Sing the blues.

 Superstitions and 

Great expectations

Mopey, Dopey Attitudes

or Sweet Salutations

Turn a horseshoe upside down; 

it's meant to drain the luck.

Turn a heart upside down,

pour out the love and 

immediately, it will fill back up.

Attitudes pave the path and plot our course.

Positive or negative; from which do you drink,

which is your source?

February 29, 2016

This day is so special and unique, it only comes out once every fourth year for a peek.

It is a day to be used in a way you wouldn't usually dare. This occasion is not ordinary, but rare.

Take the opportunity to say the sweet things you haven't gotten around to saying.

Doing those, maybe later, stacked up projects that are in the corner laying.

Spend some precious moments walking, talking, and praying.

These activities are all worth while and for far too long, you know it's true, you have been delaying. 

Take the time to notice these precious extra 24 hrs. 
Fly a kite or send a friend some flowers.

Many other options, all meeting your own, one of a kind specifications, can take you on an enchanted journey of your choosing.

At the close of the day, watch the sunset with awe and respect for this day you have lived in, smiled in, overcome a trial in,

held your baby especially close in, and be grateful for 

February 29,2016.

It reminded you to not put off 'til tomorrow what can only take place today.

Then wake up in the morning smiling, for it is then you will realize, before you is a whole entire opportunity to love, live, laugh, cry and give it all an extraordinary try.

You have something before you fresh, something inside you from yesterday, an awareness, a "should I" dareness kind of bubbling energy that makes you want to not drag through, but jump in; 

in other words, take a leap.

This is an Instance

Believe it

Receive it

Breathe it in

Speak it out

Do you have something of value to say?

Something before you; dangerous, divisive, despicable and downright wrong?

Are you watching it gain momentum with a growing throng?

Then be the brave, bold voice of truth. 

Don't whisper, but shout it out!!

This is an instance where it is appropriate to not keep silent, 

hold your peace and carefully choose your battles.

Choosing your battles is wise. 

However, the time has come to engage in the fight against wrong. This one has landed at your feet.

This is no time to stay in your seat.

Stand up

Speak up

     Call out........the words of truth, hold fast to what is right.

I ask you to do this, but I will not ask something of you I am not willing to do myself.

Let God go before you, clear the path and make a way. 

The day has come to say what burns in your heart. 

Time to do our part.

So step out of the shadows from the sidelines and off the shelf.

Be a voice of honor, truth and strength. 

How far this will go;

there is no telling the length.

Be a sound, sweet and pleasing to the ears, 

so much so, it will quiet the din.

The promise is true. When all is said and done, lies become dust.

Truth will forever triumph; it will always win!!

Yes and No

We have asked it. We have answered it. Yes or No. But, we as a people, have gotten it wrong. There is no yes without a no and no, no without a yes. They are part and parcel, you cannot have one without the other.

When we agree to or with something, be it a second cup of coffee, a land deal or a marriage proposal. In each instance, we welcome one thing while denying another. Yes to caffeine, no to sleepy, sluggishness, yes to selling the property, no to ownership, yes to a marriage proposal is saying yes to love and companionship and no to loneliness and all other suitors. Yes to a positive attitude, no to a negative outlook, Yes to breakfast no to hunger. In the world of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bennet giving Mr.Collins a determined, decidedly, definite no meant fully embracing a yes to sanity and an eventual life of love and happiness with
the incomparable Mr. Darcy.

Whatever it might be, I believe the famous pairs of peanut butter and jelly and salt and pepper need to move over, just a might, to make room for the unnoticed team of yes and no.