November 1, 2021 a thought for today, Words are dwarfs, but examples are giants. German Proverb

This seems to be one of those times in life for me that have a greater collection of ups and downs to travel through than most days. It will all smooth out and get back to the quieter and near boring time. But for now ... my car is limping along heading for putting its last few miles on the speedometer. I am trying to restrict my use to allow for a little more time. At the same time, I am not-so-gently getting use to a new dental bridge. These are the two worrisome bumps in this current part of my journey. I need the car to get back and forth to my personal assigned obligations. I need to get to doctors appointments. I need to get to the grocery store. And I need to get my sister to her various doctors appointments. I am in the process of talking to people for suggestions about what they might know about available used cars and checking the internet for what it may have to offer. Along with all of that is the financial end of things. The other thing going on is a new dental experience and the kind of adventure it brings like thoughts of aging on the psychological side (and all that that can implicate in these Golden Years) along with the physical sensations of something odd in my mouth. Then there are the normal growing processes we all experience as the hands on the clock and the sun rising and sets bring. All of this was on my mind as my feet hit the floor and I began this new day. 

Yesterday’s photo theme was “I believe....”. This months challenges have mostly been wide open as far as choosing something that would meet the title theme. I believe in many things but this one pretty much catches them all. 

I got about half of the bulletin done as I was multitasking with uploading the taped church service from yesterday to our facebook account. We have a streaming service but for some reason there was a problem with it yesterday so we are using the memory card upload (and me) as its backup. 

I felt a little overwhelmed with things at one point so I gave in to the urge of putting my concern for not using the car aside for a few minutes and took Sweet Pea for a short ride to the park. It worked. I am back to work on things that need to get done today. Besides I have whined enough already . . . 

Since yesterday was the last day of the month I completed my composite of the photo each day for October 2021. 

The word for today is haste. Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind. Henri Frederic Amiel. There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience. Jean de la Bruyere. Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty. Tacitus. Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error. Moliere. A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain. Samuel Johnson. Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education. William Godwin. All things will be clear and distinct to the man who does not hurry; haste is blind and improvident. Livy. Nature does not hurry, yet everything is  accomplished, Laozi. Sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste, William Shakespeare.  Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him, Lord Chesterfield.  

Todays photo challenge in this new month is called rainbow color month at FMS . Today’s theme is “white” (see where this is going.....a different color each day). I had several choices, my neighbors white plastic privacy fence, the back of a big white van in front of me in traffic, the white fuel storage tanks on W. Broad Street or one of the many ghostly figures hanging from trees in the neighborhood this Halloween season. I blurred the background to make the white a little more prominent. 

This article is a look into an area of human nature. The article opens with a man of sixty-three years who started taking piano lessons and a journey he never dreamed of began. His teacher normally taught children but she “made an exception for him”. He quickly met a six-year old girl who had a lesson right after his, they eventually began to play duets. Sometimes playing “Yankee Doodle” and “Skip to My Lou” as they improved their skills and became fast friends. He said “I was awed by this little girl ..... a woolen watch cap covering her head made bald from chemo boldly playing her part with her tiny hands”. She kept going to lessons as she continued the painful treatment for leukemia. She was born about three months after her parents and sister moved here from Israel.  She could speak both English and Russian as well as Hebrew. She also learned sign language. At one point in her treatments she went into remission. Then there was a relapse for which she experienced a bone marrow transplant. When the child began taking piano lessons the teacher arranged her time separate from other students so she wouldn’t be exposed to anything that might be in the air. The child had a footstool to ease the climb onto the piano bench. The sixty three year old and the six year old shared an hour together every week making music together. They came to know each others families. There were “twice-yearly recitals: a bald man” and his younger “best” piano friend. The child had called medical staff that she knew from the hospital to come to her first recital...they all showed up in a “large number”. Once during a duet he “bungled” the last cord of “If I Were a Rich Man”. He said “Ooops” she said “in mock horror, it’s not my fault” . All the songs that were familiar to him from earlier in his life that they began to play together “now...have been transformed....they bring Michelle back to me”. He said the piano teacher gave the best gift to him when he paired him with Michelle. “That tiny girl ........ taught me an appreciation of life.....of this moment, this opportunity to savor it to the fullest”. Her love of life and it’s many adventure were with her always. When she was in the hospital she “plastered the walls and windows with pictures, letters and stories”.  He said “music was their currency...she used the IV pole as a ballet barre, practicing ....positions”. She died in 2008, just before her eleventh birthday. We never know where, when and how God’s hands will bring two souls together for a Devine purpose.  

We are having baked spaghetti, a left over put together from Saturday. 

Joy 

all kinds of textures, shapes and patterns