Thursday, September 21, 2006

Daytona Beach

To this I say, ME TOO! My parents retired in Lakeland, Florida and we spent all our vacations in FL for several years. We would take "side trips" to the attractions, all of which were magnicifent, Sea World, Disney World, Cypress Gardens, Busch Gardens, and so on, but it was when we saw the awesome beauty of nature at Daytona Beach that I really was impressed.    Just like this story, this is how I felt when we saw Daytona Beach, since then we have been many other places, seen many historical and beautiful places and gotten older, etc., but I have never forgotten that first view of the ocean and Daytona Beach.
Love,
Merry
UNTOLD TREASURES
by Betty King

      When our four children were young, we took our first vacation to Florida and to Daytona Beach.
      I remember I was in awe of the scenery when we entered Florida, that beautiful sunshine state.  It was much different than we were accustomed to in our homeland state of Illinois.
      The palm trees stood tall and regal and the tropical flowers among the lush greenery made me think we had arrived in a location much akin to paradise.
      Arriving in Daytona, I savored my first ever glimpse of a beach. I fell in love with the ocean rolling in from somewhere out in the deep.
      As our week provided unrelenting pleasures I came to love scanning the sand along the water's edge for sea shells, small sea critters and other possessions brought in and deposited as treasures at my feet.
      I waded out into the water up to my shoulders, and scanned the water's floor with my feet, looking for assets transported from other lands by the turning of the tides.
      Daily our children sat in the sand, constructing castles and forts, only to watch the waves carry off their fantasies to lands where only visionaries and fairies could interpret and foretell.
      Like greased babies bottoms, we stayed covered and protected from the rays.  Yet my husband, whose feet had been confinedfor years beneath dark dress coverings, was shocked to be introduced to the sun intensified by the sand, as he walked along the beach.  Soon his feet took on the appearance and pain of trapped lobsters.
      I had not known the power water possessed beyond what came through copper tubing.  I stood mesmerized as waves in their might rolled over themselves, again and again carrying me with them into the future where dreams lay and memories are collected.
      Our children stood leery of the imposing authority, fearful of the bashing abuse, petrified of yielding, but determined to step out to conquer the strength of the deep.  They soon overcame their fear, triumphant over the insults inflicted upon them.  They took their stance and tasted the salty rewards.
      At night, we walked the abandoned beaches looking out at the moon, reflecting off the blackness and listening to the tide bringing in more treasures.  What would dawn reveal buried beneath a footstep? What creatures would we find trapped behind, gasping, searching for a lost love -- the depths of the sea.
      Soon our vacation came to an end, our days swallowed up in seven rolling tides.  Seven days of paradise blissfully came to an end, carried away to be stored as future treasures, memories never to be forgotten.
      That vacation was many years ago and our children are all grown. Their children are now learning the beauty and might contained within
great bodies of water.  They are finding pleasures untold and seeking treasures of their own.  They are forming their own love affair with beaches and casting upon the waters their own dreams and visions. They are storing away albums of memories, visual pictures never to be forgotten.
      My husband and I have gone on to walk other seashores, and form other love affairs with beaches around the world, but like one's first love affair, we have never forgotten our first -- Daytona Beach.

                      -- Betty King     <baking2 @ charter.net>
 

Sunday, September 17, 2006

GOOD NEWS!

Good News!!

Well, here I go:
I don't think I'm supposed to be announcing or talking about this yet, so this is "unofficial" BUT:

Our son Tim just called.  You will NOT believe this (Well, actually, maybe you will.)  Tim and Patti are having a BABY!  Do you realize what this means?????  We are going to be Grandparents!  It's not sunk in yet.  She is just 5 weeks pregnant. They are very happy and very excited.  This was VERY PLANNED, seriously.  Wedding plans remain the same.  (First week of Dec. in Jamaica.)  Patti is due in May.  Pretty soon, I am going to flip right out of my mind screaming and I may run up and down the streets naked or maybe not. Maybe with a banner though!  Tim said to me, to put Dave on the other phone, I asked if they were both okay, and he said, "Yes." So, then he said that he had something to tell us, And I said, "I think I know....and he said what & I said, You are going to have a baby."  Tim said I have good intuition.  I was sorta shocked, Dave was the one that said Congratulations.  Who would have thunk this.  It's always been a dream......but never real for me..............  It's is still not really real for me! Wow!  Isn't this something?
Love,
Merry
PS  For those of you who don't know, Tim is our 43 year old son.  Patti is in her early 30's.  They got engaged about 3 or 4 months ago.They live in a town about 3 hours from us.  (Oh, and Tim starts his new job, as a writer again (Yippee!) this Thursday!)  Things are definitely looking good in my world tonight!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Lord, I am counting on you....

My days are hard lately.   Added to my pain problems, my psychiatrist is no longer practicing (here, anyway).  I call and call out of town doctors, who either aren't taking new patients or who aren't providers for our Insurance Company.  It seems I've hit a brick wall.  I have an appointment to see the one remaining psychiatrist in our little town, the end of December in case I can't find anyone someone anywhere else, but I don't  want to see him if I don't have to as he doesn't think my pain is an issue, and refuses to see that I have been on tons of drugs that don't work, and doesn't want to give me the only thing that does work (I have seen him before.)    I think the following is an appropriate and timely piece beautifully written.

Lord, I'm Counting On You........
I've fought a good fight
Done all I know to do
Lord, please lift this burden
I'm counting on you
My body is tired of this pain
My endurance is low
Please take my hand
Never let it go

I'm giving it to you Lord
You know what is best
I pray for my healing
Only you know what's in store
Many prayers have gone up
And stormed heaven's door
Your Word tells me, You are always there

Please hear my cry Lord
I am truly in despair
My faith has grown weak
Speak to my heart Lord
It's your face I now seek
Tell me Lord, my pain you share
Assure me Lord tell me
It is not more than I can bear

How many times I've given you things
Only to take them back again
And I am alone once more
To bear the pain
Help me Lord to just let it go
I know it is you that is in control
That your love will see me thru
Nothing is left now, what else Lord,
What else must I do

I know you will take care of me
And you know Lord,
I'm counting on you

© 2006 Gayle Alatia

I think this is simply beautiful!  If you are reading this, maybe this prayer can be of help to you, too, sometime.

Merry

 

Friday, September 1, 2006

From Petwarmers.com  (It's a GEM!)

THE END OF THE ROPE
by Roger Dean Kiser

      The rain was coming down so hard that I could hardly see the road.
      I looked behind me at the mother cat who was on the back seat of my truck.  And then I looked at the box beside me, carrying her three kittens.
      For weeks I had tried to find them a home.  Two kittens were
lucky and we found them good homes in the neighborhood.  The mother cat was going into heat again and every male cat within five miles was camping on our front porch.
      I had not slept for two days and I was grasping at my final
straw.  We already had five dogs and five cats in our home there was no way we could bring anymore inside.  For weeks I had tried to get the Humane Society or animal control to help, but to no avail.
      Over the past five years we have saved many animals who were beaten and mistreated.  Then there is little Cinnamon who had her leg torn off by five teenagers.  The cost to save her, and the all the others, wiped out our savings as well as the money we had saved for  our granddaughter's education.
      For almost a year I went off my own medications to try and save these animals.  Now, at the end of my rope, my son and I loaded the cats into my truck and I was heading to the local camp ground to drop off this family of animals.
      I just didn't know what else to do.
      By the time I reached the camp ground the rain was coming down so hard that I could not see the dirt road.  Once again, I looked back at the mama cat and she just looked and meowed, quietly, several  times.
      Trying not to look at the cardboard box, I felt the tears begin
to roll down my cheeks.  I slammed my hand onto the steering wheel, as hard as I could, knowing that my heart was taking over what my mind was trying to get me to do.
      Without thinking twice, I turned around and headed toward home.       Unable to reach my wife, Judy, on the telephone I left a message  on her answering machine.  Unable to talk without crying, I left a choked message which I know was inaudible.
      After reaching home I fed the family of cats and walked next
door to my son's house.  I was told that he had been on the phone begging his friends to take the kittens but no one was interested.
He then went into the bathroom and that is where he stayed and would not come out.  I walked outside and waited for about twenty minutes before Roger Jr. finally appeared.
      "How do you feel?" he asked me.
      "I feel pretty good," I replied.
      "How can you feel good, Dad?"
      "I suppose because the mama cat and her three kittens are up on the porch eating their supper."
      The boy's eyes got real big and he grabbed hold of me.  I have received hugs from my son throughout the years but never one like that one.
      "I'll help you Dad.  We'll find them a home, I promise," he
said, with tears in his eyes.
      "Sounds good to me, son."
      I suppose sometimes being at the end of your rope is really just the beginning of another rope.
      For some reason, I have been renewed and I will continue my work to make sure than no child, or animal, is ever abandoned, or
mistreated as we kids were in that terrible Jacksonville, Florida,
orphanage.
      I suppose you have to see the outside world from inside a
cardboard box to really understand.

            -- Roger Dear Kiser   <trampolineone @ earthlink.net>