Drama Free Zone

Life is not perfect.

Shocking statement but absolute truth.

Honestly, I believe that many people never learned that as a truism and therefore become both disappointed and drama filled when things do not work out according to their finite view of what is acceptable and how to deal with what is not.

I was raised by a Daddy who always told us important truths to live by:

* There is no such thing as a free lunch. That which you receive for "free" was actually paid for by someone else OR you will be paying for it later by owing someone a "favor" for the lunch.
 
* Life isn't fair. You shouldn't expect that it will be either.

* Sooner or later, someone  you count on to be there for you will let you down. They are human and fallible and make mistakes. Forgive them.

* No one is perfect, not even in their intentions. Set your expectations of people's behavior much lower and you won't be disappointed nearly as often.

* Murphy was an optimist.

* Your attitude is your choice. No one decides for you if you are going to be mad, if you are going to be a poor sport or if you are going to be ungracious. You determine that all by yourself.

* No matter how other people treat you, act like you have some raising and treat them right even if they are being a jerk.

I could go on forever. Daddy didn't spend a lot of time sugarcoating things so that life would always be pleasant or easy for us to endure. Instead, he prepared us for the rocky road that ALWAYS shows up on our personal GPS toward our goals.

There is no escaping the truth. Everyone - EVERYONE - has a hard time at some time. No one is exempted.

There will NEVER be a time in your life in which you will get your way in every circumstance.

English teachers tell you that "always" and "never" statements are to be avoided like the plague. However in this circumstance, I believe they are applicable as a statement of fact.

Each day, I read the news and the headlines are often disturbing. It is a living example of the love of men waxing cold. People are showing their carnal and devilish sides in a daily display of man's inhumanity to man. And lest people think only men are brutes, witness the continual parade of women who have forsaken the softer natures God intended for them to cultivate who instead seem to be in a grinding competition to be vulgar, mean-spirited, coarse and uncultured as if that somehow equates to being "manly" in our society.

I'm ready to create signs for a "DRAMA FREE ZONE". I'd like to post them prominently around my own property then expand to a broader world.

Within those zones would be educational outreach instructors who would explain that when you open your life up to the criticism of the world, you shouldn't be surprised that the vultures pick your bones and strip out every little giblet of juicy goodness to leave you as a mere shell of your former self.

There would be opportunities to show that no matter what happens that you can select your response to the circumstance and to practice grace in a classroom setting with daily field trips into the real world for practical application.

Oh what a dreamer I am! Seriously, I believe a good dose of Daddy's wisdom would heal a lot of the drama that people fuel their daily lives with under the mistaken belief that yelling is the same as solving a problem.

Oh well. Back to the laundry. It isn't going to fold itself.

Projects and ponderings

I've been mentally auditioning songs I'd like to work up for a special project and yesterday afternoon quite by chance I happened upon a cute little song that has been done by others both famous and not so famous over the years.

It's a piece for voice and ukulele that is just precious. It's entitled "Tonight You Belong To Me".

The words are sweet and the tune is relatively simple including the counter melody that would have to be overdubbed unless I enlisted the aid of a guest singer.

I just need to find a uke to borrow so I can shore up my skills on the chording for this tune...

My excitement over the project is growing...

Easter Skyping with Nathan

Though he is not even a month old, we spent some time on Skype with Nathan today.

Now surely you know his nimble fingers didn't create the connection, but rather his Daddy set us up for the long distance kiss fest.

I love that little boy with all of my heart in a love so deep and wide that it is beyond the superlatives that mere language can offer. It is a love that is emotion in action that can never be fully worded or expressed in conversation.

To see his precious sleepy little face and to see the obvious love and interaction between the new parents and their little sweet son is such a blessing. Technology has spanned the miles in  a way that gives us more time to see little Nathan growing up.

I worry for the kind of world that is around him for I am unable to protect him from all the harm that is in the world that is no longer the genteel place of bygone days. I ponder over the ways that I can be of help to him and his parents to whom this great responsibility and love has been extended.

They sent us an Easter picture of Nathan and Tianna all dressed for church today. He made it through about half of the meetings which for a little guy on his first outing is fabulous.

Nathan's FIRST EASTER April 20, 2014

I have felt in my heart for a long time that my oldest son would be afar as an adult with his own family. And I have long tried to reconcile myself to that feeling so that when the travel to and fro in the earth to be with him happened, I would be able to ready myself and be happy to go.

Now with this tiny piece of my heart extended at this great distance, I find that I am wishing more and more for a way to be near to him that could bridge the miles more swiftly.

It must be some measure of how Father feels when we His children are away from Him for a time as we attempt to work our way through mortality and find our way back to His presence.

That distance between heart and soul must indeed be the same for Him as it is for me only manifold multiplied over the countless generations of those children named His.

I'm thankful for Easter, the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ that offers us so much more than cleansing from our sins, but a marvelous opportunity to bridge the distance between heaven and earth.

And I'm thankful for the technology that gives us the bridge between our home on earth and that little bit of heaven that currently lives with his family in Virginia.

Grandma loves you, Nathan!