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When I was teaching, we were allowed to have Christmas parties in our classrooms. It was always on the last day before the Christmas break and it was only a half-day, to boot. Besides taking attendance and lunch there was not much else going on. The kids were so amped up and ready to get out of school for a while that all I could do was to keep them contained – and entertained.
Read moreI don’t take road trips too often anymore but one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Thanksgiving and Christmas journeys is going through small towns and farming communities.
Read moreIt’s funny to me that, somehow, money knows when you get a little extra. Something always seems to pop up at the last minute to claim any extra dollars that may land in your lap from time to time. Car repairs, medical costs, it is always something.
Read moreMy good friend Cindy just got a new bike. Doesn’t sound like much of a story, right? But wait, there’s more. Cindy was one of the first people my wife and I met some twenty years ago when we were new in town and were shopping for a new church. Her self-deprecating humor along with her honesty and truthfulness made her our instant friend. Things rocked along as they always do and as time went on, we counted Cindy as one of the many close contacts we have come to hold so dear.
Read moreAccording to the History Channel and www.history. com, in September 1620, a small ship called The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying over 100 passengers with a combination of religious separatists seeking a new land where they could practice their faith freely along with others enticed by the promise of wealth, prosperity, and land available to own in the “New World”.
Read moreYou know the old saying, “Youth is wasted on the young?” Well, that phrase covers a lot of territory. How many times over the last decade have I wished that I knew in my 20s, 30s and 40s what I know now. I confess that I never seemed to be thankful for things in the moment. Looking back from this vantage point, I can say that all of my Thanksgivings were worthy of thanks but there are a few that stand out in my mind and I hope you don’t mind me sharing those with you.
Read moreEven with the understanding of the premise that nothing is original, I still have to wonder about the direction of popular music, and the “song writing” in particular.
Read moreI’m absolutely not above gloating about all this and you all know what I’m talking about. I consider myself covered under “the Pursuit of Happiness” clause in our Declaration of Independence. It’s just not where I am right now. Sure, a great exhale while still reserving some breath for the next couple months during which time we’ll still have a narcissistic tyrant in the White House, who (from a snowflake point of view) has been, and still is, humiliating himself in front of the entire world.
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