Cause and Effect

This was fun. Too bad we didn't have color photos back then, it was such a lovely combination of purples and yellows. My sister wouldn't even look at me, backing into the bedroom when it was time for bed and notice how she's sitting behind me in the picture.

School playgrounds used to be very exciting. We had the swings that went ridiculously high, slides that were at least a mile up, tether ball where there was always the chance (and a pretty good one for me) that you'd get smacked in the side of the head and everything with a nice hard asphalt surface underneath. The monkey bars were my favorite and I'd wear shorts every day under my dress (which was mandatory for girls) just so I could flip around on them and not flash the world.

The day this happened I had perfected my no hands spin around the bar (holding on with my knees). That was fine and pretty safe. But then I decided to try a one handed version. I didn't really think that through or I might have realized that that one hand would pull me to one side. Unfortunately that side was the side with the vertical bar which my eye met quite nicely. I don't remember a whole lot right after that except that the doctor kept looking for glass in my eye no matter how many times my mother explained to him that since my glasses were not at all broken there was no need. I got some lovely stitches, a tetanus shot and nice bandaging and off I went to impress everyone with my shiner. 

And now all the we have are nice, safe playgrounds. Boring.

Girl Scouts

Last night I had no intention of buying Girl Scout cookies. I'd already baked cookies earlier in the day and didn't need more temptation hanging around the house. The Girl Scouts were out in front the grocery store but I just went in the other door and ignored them. They were putting quite a bit of effort into it, singing to a karaoke machine quite loudly (and badly) which showed initiative but not enough to guilt me into buying.

After the shopping and a side trip for sandwiches next door, I came back across the parking lot. The girls were still singing, still really out of tune but with great enthusiasm. This time though, they were being devious. They were singing "Sweet Home Alabama".  Out came all my Robert E. Lee High School class pride and off I went to buy Girl Scout cookies.

So, now I have way more cookies than I need, Sweet Home Alabama stuck in my head and no cash in my wallet. Girl Scouts are evil.

Love

I came home from my walk the other day, turned around and saw this. It only lasted a couple of minutes but wow, what an amazing sunrise!

Things like this remind me that God loves his children. He loves us enough to want us to have beauty to enjoy even on hard days. A God who thinks that way is a very personal, loving father to me. It is easy to pray to someone who cares so much about my happiness.

Life is hard, the world is not always a good place and we struggle on a daily basis. However, when we take time to look up from the daily plugging away and see the amazing beauty in the sky that is there for everyone to enjoy, the trials seem to shrink to their proper size instead of being the huge issues that wipe out all our happiness. Joy can come to anyone in any situation from a Father who's purpose in giving us this earth was to bring us happiness.