Wednesday, December 27, 2006

I still Hope so..... and ....another mule story.

Good evening everyone. This chapter is sort of a duel purpose one. SO....kick back and relax while you read. You can take off your shoes if your feet are clean. ( :-D ) I'm taking orders for refreshments so let me know. My specialty is still Mint Julep though. Before I take off on this story I want to add an addendum to the last post. One thing I left out is a word heard commonly in our society and it has everything to do with hope, or the lack of hope. I know so very many people that can relate to this. It's call 'depression' and it's a debilitating problem to deal with. I know because I've fought it for a long time. If it weren't for my shrink I might not have made it this far. Let me hasten to add that loss of hope isn't the cause for ALL depression. Sometime one loses hope because of the depression. It is a common factor though and they go hand in hand with other. OK...on to something else. Next chapter will start on the next word in this short series. I had an interesting conversation not long ago and had a request for more stories about my old arch enemies, the mules. It's been many chapters since I mentioned them, so if you're not familiar with the chapters on them you should go back and catch up. This story is based in fact. My first cousin and best friend when growing up was Buddy. His nickname of course. Buddy and I were pretty much inseparable when young. Come to think of it, I'll have to post about Buddy later. An interesting character if I've ever known one. Anyway, I'm off of my subject. On this particular day Buddy and I were in the back of the farthest field, He with the Black mule and me with the Red one. It was a day in early June and the cotton I was plowing was about ten to twelve inches high. Buddy was plowing an area that had not long ago been cleared for planting, but was not yet ready. We called it 'new ground'. The day was beautiful but hot and we didn't want to be there, but the mules wanted to be there less than we. As I was trudging along behind the mule and feeling sorry for myself ( :-D ) I suddenly heard such a clatter that I looked up to see what was the matter. I heard that lyric somewhere lately. The problem was clear as soon as I looked up. The spectacle was Buddy running along behind the Black mule as fast as He could. It seems that it was a stampede. The Black mule had decided to go to the barn and had broken into a dead run in that direction. Buddy, it seems, had wrapped the reins around his wrist. I laugh now as I recall the sight. There went Buddy, taking strides about twenty feet long trying hard to keep up and not fall. All the time though, He was working just as hard to get the reins unwrapped from his wrist. While all this was happening the plow He was using (called a scratcher) was bouncing up and down and all over the place. As I stood watching this in amazement, mouth hanging open, it suddenly struck me as one of the funniest things I'd witnessed to that point in my young life. (about sixteen years of it at that point) As the pair of them went racing by all I could do was stand there and laugh my head off...along with other parts of my anatomy. I still think it was one of the funniest things ever. Even Buddy can chuckle about it now, but it took him a long time to get to that point. After tying my mule to a tree in the shade, I ran to join Buddy that was hurriedly striding along the dirt road. After catching up with him I immediately saw that keeping quiet was a good policy at that point in time. Which is what I did. I didn't think He could be more angry till we came into sight of the barn. There stood the old Black mule, patiently standing at the gate waiting for someone to let him in. I then realized that it was possible for Buddy to be more angry. As a matter of fact, I began to be afraid He would burst a blood vessel or blow his cork, or whatever was going to happen. When He finally began to speak He....well....I shan't repeat what was said, but believe me when I say it was a work of art and took great imagination. Thus were the life and times of Mike and Buddy in the days we look back upon and call "the good old days". .............And so it went..........

Friday, December 22, 2006

I certainly Hope so....... (first word)

Good evening everyone, and welcome to this chapter. I'm honored and flattered that you would once again take time from your busy lives (especially this time of year) to visit this blog. So, let me welcome you in. Sit, relax and let me know what you want for refreshment and it'll be served right up.
In the very first post to this blog I made clear my purpose for starting and continuing this endeavor. Let me repeat it so you won't have to look all the way back to recall it. My stated purpose was/is to offer hope and encouragement to all who read. To this point I've mostly dedicated myself to letting everyone get to know me a bit. Of course there is still much most don't know. Over time though you will. I begin now mixing the chapters a bit to accomplish that.
In the last chapter I said that there were three words which I'd like to talk a bit about. This post will be on the first of those. This is something I know something about, mostly because I've been to the extreme on both sides of this word. The word for this chapter is..(drum roll)... HOPE. A very simple word which we all use pretty much daily and mostly without thinking about it. A word we tend to use rather freely. I've done a bit of research about it. The dictionaries I've consulted describe it as (I'll paraphrase a bit here) "an expectation of achieving something or of something coming to pass". I've thought long and hard about how to write this (and continue to do so) and realize that I'll have to write it from my own perspective. Hope is thought to be different things by different people. To everyone it has a different significance and value. So, from my perspective, here goes. I can think of very few things that is more important. To a person in combat it has a huge significance. I can tell you that the sound of a helicopter is like a sound from heaven itself. I can say that, to a cancer patient (been there) Hope has a vast importance. It means the continuation of life itself. I can say that to someone that's lonely it has a wonderful meaning. In that respect it springs eternal (so to speak). To someone that's watched a loved one slowly wilt and die before your eyes it has an even different value. To someone that is wrestling with a hard and difficult career it means something better at some point. To someone that's gone through a bitter divorce it means life afterward. To someone that has been so very stressed that they can barely make it from day to day hope has a very special significance. I stated a bit ago that I'd be writing this from a personal perspective since it's the only one I know. That's what I'm doing. I've had all those experiences I've described. In the year two thousand one I was going through or had just gone through many of the things I just described. It was at that time I lost all hope that anything would ever be better. I became suicidal because of that loss. I was hospitalized for a short time then began seeing a therapist and continue to do so. It's the reason I'm still here and writing this. I've come to know that to remove someones hope is to end their life. I can say with certainty that if one has no hope they won't allow themselves to continue to live. Everyone reading this can relate to some degree to what I've said. Everyone can recall times in your life when hope was dim or gone. Although that be true, only those that have been without hope can know the anguish brought on by the total loss of hope. I believe that Solomon said it best in Ecclesiastes chapter nine verse four. I won't write out the verse here so you'll have to look it up for yourselves. It says "where there is life there is hope". Also, Jeremiah said in Lamentations chapter three verses twenty one through twenty six, that we are all (whether we acknowledge it or not) totally dependent on God. Being dependent on God is what gives us eternal hope. Sorry, you'll have to look that one up too. Let's face it. Without that hope that comes from God we're all fighting a losing battle. Let me say before I stop and crawl into bed that I now have hope out the waa zoo. (that taken from the movie 'over the hedge') ( :-D ) To conclude this I'll give you something I've learned over the years. While Solomon is absolutely right that 'where there is life there's hope' the reverse of that sentence is also true. Where there is hope there's life too. Ask anyone that's lost or almost lost either. .........And so it goes...........

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Three crucial words that give life meaning......

Good evening all! Thank you once again for showing up to check out this chapter. It's a bit past my bedtime so I shall not linger long on this post. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the next several posts on this blog. I promise if you come back you'll learn something and leave encouraged. If that's what happens I'll have accomplished what I started out to do. Again, since it' s now past my bedtime and my eyelids are heavy I'm going to leave it at that for now with the promise that I'll be back very soon to continue what I started tonight. I'll look forward to seeing you again soon. ........and so it goes.........

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The nomad wanderer............

Good Morning everyone...I bet the morning part threw you all off your stride, huh? It's uncommon to have morning posts. At any rate, welcome to this, another chapter in the life. I'm pleased to announce that since the last post I've taken yet another trip. I departed on the ninth of this month, spent the weekend in Jacksonville, Fl. and visited the Church My deceased wife and I used to attend. I was fortunate enough to find friends there that I haven't seen in about three decades. They are doing well I'm pleased to say. On Monday the eleventh I left there and headed south for sunny south Florida. There I spent three marvelous days and nights with my wonderful nephew and his beautiful wife. Let me hasten to say here that, while she is very beautiful on the outside, Her true beauty is on the inside. Brad and Mandy are truly blest to have found each other in this crazy, mixed up world. While there I visited Ft. Lauderdale, the sight of many adventures for a blond young boy that was wide eyed with the world around him. I did indeed identify the exact spot that the boy directed traffic for a short time. I also was able to identify the spot that some young boys were picked up by the police and taken home to their certain doom. ( :-D ) I was also blest to meet up with a wonderful friend and her family for dinner. What a joyous occasion that was. I look forward to a lifelong friendship with them. In all I drove about two thousand miles. It was a trip I'd looked forward to for many, many years. I have to say here that it was a complete success. Well, until I got back into Birmingham. It took two very long and draining hours just to get through that unfortunate city. It seems that about eighty percent of the people in that metropolis don't know that the left lane is for passing and the right lane is for traveling. It makes for a tough drive. OK, I'm off of my soap box! To answer a question that has been posed to me more than once. Yes, I did indeed go alone. I played many CDs and sang to my hearts content. (I kept the windows up on my truck so no one could hear) Anyway, that's the latest on the life about which you've read so much. I've been asked for more mule stories so I'll post another chapter or two about those cursed animals. ...........And so it went............

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Yea, tho I walk thru the valley of Misconception.....

Good evening everyone, and thank you for taking the time from your busy lives to visit. I know that this time of year is especially tough for some, and sadly so. I was just explaining to someone that I don't get involved in the commercialism of Christmas, but prefer to watch as others race through their lives in a desperate attempt to accomplish all that's expected of them. To that I say "Bless their little hearts"!!! Ok, Ok...Enough Mike. Get on with the post! Anyway, welcome and pull up a chair, ask for your favorite drink and relax as you read.
This particular chapter is about living life in a swirl of misconceptions. As we walk through our lives we tend to be labeled by those around us. Hopefully in small ways but labeled nonetheless. The last couple of days I've been working to recall the times in my life that I've been labeled with a misconceived idea. Here are the conclusions I've come to on the subject. (One) Misconceptions come in all shapes and sizes. (Two) They come from people in every walk of life and social status. (Three) No matter where they come from or what the misconception is it affects our life in some way, and it's usually in a negative one. (Four) When a misconception is formed it's almost impossible to change it to what is the truth. Partly because it's very hard to find out that it exists and partly because it's in the mind of another person and we human beings tend to believe what we choose to believe. Since it's mostly impossible to change another persons mind the misconception lives on and thrives in fertile soil till it becomes a permanent fixture. I've also considered the times that I have had misconceptions. Of course it's nigh impossible to count the total times but I can recall some of the times I've nursed misconceptions. Speaking for me (since I'm the only one that can), the times I've developed a misconception is when I've looked at a part of the whole and decided that I knew the 'whole truth'. That is, in fact, where most are born. A really sad thing is, we miss out on so very much in life because we develop misconstrued lines of thought about someone or something, be it big or little. A misconception, in my humble opinion, isn't actually a 'lie', but is indeed very close kin. It's amazing how quickly a misconception can become a full blown lie, simply by the expression thereof. I wish I could truthfully deny having ever done that, but alas, I cannot. A good example of the misconception is how political ideas are planted in the minds of voters. They are then mulled over for a few seconds then develop into grown up lies. The better example though, is when we (you and I) see a part of something and assume it to be the whole and then assume that it's the total truth when, in fact, it is not. Ok, Ok. I'll stop. Before I stop completely let me encourage you to, before you make up your mind as to the truth, pursue the whole picture and find out the whole story. In doing so it will make life so much easier for you and those that are being misconceived. .........And so it goes.............