RED MARBLES

Great Story and life lesson:

I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily appraising a basket of freshly picked green peas..

I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes.
Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.

'Hello Barry, how are you today?'

'H'lo , Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas. They sure look good.'

'They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?'

'Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time.'

'Good. Anything I can help you with?'

'No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas.'

'Would you like to take some home ?' asked Mr.. Miller.

'No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with.'

'Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?'

'All I got's my prize marble here.'

'Is that right? Let me see it' said Miller..

'Here 'tis. She's a dandy.'

'I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home ?' the store owner asked.

'Not zackley but almost..'

'Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble'.. Mr. Miller told the boy.

'Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller.'

Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me.. With a smile she said, 'There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store..'

I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado , but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.

Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr... Miller had died.


They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could.

Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts....all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband's casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her, and moved on to the casket..

Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one; each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes.

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband's bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.

'Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim 'traded' them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about colour or size.....they came to pay their debt.'

'We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world,' she confided, 'but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho.'

With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband.. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles.

The Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds.... Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.....

Today I wish you a day of ordinary miracles ~ A fresh pot of coffee you didn't make yourself...An unexpected phone call from an old friend...Green stoplights on your way to work....The fastest line at the grocery store...A good sing-along song on the radio...Your keys found right where you left them.

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY WELL PUT AND I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT'S BY A YOUNG PERSON, A STUDENT!!! WHATEVER HE RUNS FOR, I'LL VOTE FOR HIM.

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce.... I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel. You can keep Oprah,Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.

We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.

We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We'll practice trickle down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you Answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J. Wall

Law Student and an American

P. S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you.

P. P. S. And you won't have to press 1 for English when you call our country

This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his
seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all
over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has
never spoken out before about a government official, until now. He
dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year.
People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain
wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and
after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest
home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep
alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind,
blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do,
but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.


I can't figure out what country you are the president of.

You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies
like:
" We're no longer a Christian nation"

" America is arrogant" - (Your wife even

announced to the world," America is mean-

spirited. " Please tell her to try preaching

that nonsense to 23 generations of our

war dead buried all over the globe who

died for no other reason than to free a

whole lot of strangers from tyranny and

hopelessness.)

I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor
do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious
gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a
dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said," America hasn't lived up to her ideals."

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000
farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British?
Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that
500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn't mean the ideal

470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally
died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any
nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than
discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people
understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I
can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue
. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of
murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump
to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow
soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you
did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college
professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don't mind
offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend
Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had
to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief
now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you
for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if
you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American
soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge
ever presented to any president.
You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated
economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of
who we are as Americans is our big fight now.

And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this
final battle...

Sincerely,

Harold B. Estes

Snopes confirms as true:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/haroldestes.asp

When a 95 year old hero of the "the Greatest Generation" stands up and
speaks out like this, I think we owe it to him to send his words to as many
Americans as we can.

Good News

Good news from my visit with my doctor this morning. I do have Type II Diabetes but at the level where it can be treated and managed by diet and exercise. This is good news because the therapy will cause me to eat more healthy and get my rear in gear on the recumbent, thus losing weight and getting more energy. Man, this "doing stuff I tell others to do" is gonna be a challenge! Sure is easier just to preach and teach than percolate and demonstrate. I think God is smiling at me. Darn!!!

The bad news...no Blue Bell. Ouch! and double darn!!! Enough humor...I will get better.

Proverb 3:5-6 was quoted in my previous post. Interesting that the next two verses (verses 7-8) in the book of Proverbs state, "Don't be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn your back on evil. Then you will gain renewed health and vitality."

Yeah, evil comes in so many ways (and packaged so tasty). Sure can sneak up on you. For sure, God is smiling at me, maybe laughing out loud.

Let me close today's post with a quote from my good friend Nancy Stewart....

"I am thankful for this country - not because we have a lot of stuff and our lives are comfortable - but because we have freedom - to worship, to respectfully and responsibly voice our opinions, to assemble, to bear arms, to go where we want when we want - do you realize that so many do not have these rights? Thank you Lord for this country. Please have mercy on us. We need your grace to reestablish THE foundation this country was built upon - your ways, your principles."

Have a super Independence Day!!!

Just getting started

I guess the best...is to start with a good thought I read several months ago and don't remember where I read it, but it is definitely a worthy thought to deeply ponder: "If you can determine where your stress is coming from, you have located where you faith is."

Oh well...I just got interrupted with my first "jots" with a call from my doctor informing me the results of my recent blood tests determine I am diabetic. So now my life is going to change big time, huh? Not sure at all of all the ramifications of this new diagnosis, but I will begin a new journey tomorrow after discussing this matter and condition with my doctor.

Maybe my opening thought I shared above is going to be tested pretty quickly in my life. In my profession, I encourage folks to trust God with the many circumstances that come into their lives, especially the difficult ones. Trusting God alleviates the fear of the circumstance thus producing peace under adversity. Now I know this to be a truth from the Word of God. Where my faith is is determined only as I totally believe and accept this truth from God.

I am not quite sure why I stumbled on this blog thing today, especially right before getting the message from the doctor's office. However, I am also reminded how I tell my clients that God is in control and things don't happen by chance or accident -- everything has meaning (another truth from God's Word). So we will see where this goes.

Again Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

Hmmm, this does seem to lower the stress.

Later, more jots.