Family

Family...ah yes, those people that at one time or another you wished you could exchange for a better model or nothing at all. But really, if you had the "real" chance of doing this you wouldn't. Come on, who are you kidding? You've already broken these people in and put up with their "stuff" all these years. Do you really want to start all over again?

My family has been there for me through thick and thin. They have also kept my feet on the ground with the occasional "reality check". Let's face it, we all get those checks when someone in the ranks feels we are lifting off the ground onto that "high horse" and need to be brought back down, with love hopefully. Your family knows what made you tick as a baby, child, adolescent, teenager, and young adult. Now it is up to you to show what you have learned and what you are all about now that you are an adult.

We go to work and somewhere along the line are reminded that our mothers are not going to come behind us to clean up. We go through the rest of our lives realizing that "hey wait a minute, I have to do this myself?" Then it begins to click in our minds what we really do have. There are others that don't have that much and wished they did. Don't get me wrong, I am not going on a tangent of what our parents or grandparents reminded us of everytime we refused to eat something on our plate. "Do you know there are starving kids in ---- that would give their right arm for a feast like this!" Of course you only think it in your mind, if you're smart: "Well, can I mail it to THEM?"

Families on the short end of things are either for you or against you. But you have to be honest with yourself when you are criticizing them. Are you being honest when you say to yourself, "I don't do anything and they yell at me for nothing!" Because if this is true then you answered your own question of why they treat you the way they do. You aren't doing "anything". I don't have the answers for all of this but what I do know is the one set of people you can't fool....you guessed it--your family!

So while summer is upon us and the BBQ's will be starting full speed ahead, it would behoove you to make peace with your people and have a good old fashion party in the backyard. It brings families together and you never know what surprises may come, but whatever you do, always strive to have fun. Your family is what makes you, you and granted now you can add your two cents when the conversations start...

Blessings

At one time or another you will contemplate certain things in your life. Some good, some bad, but none the less they make us reflect.

I was sitting on a bench in the park thinking about what good things I could reflect on. I would have to say it would be the birth of my granddaughter in July of this year. Truly a blessing, every day a miracle. She was a preemie at under five pounds and was kept in the hospital for almost a week after birth because her little tummy wasn't the size of an average newborn.

Finally after a few days she had reached five pounds and was discharged from the hospital. I think a true miracle every time I hold her in my arms. Someone so small that can bring such a humongous happiness into our lives. A smile that can bring you to your knees, a gurgle that can bring tears to your eyes, with a laugh that can bring both.

I am truly blessed, very thankful and most of all accepting of all that it comes with. I thank God every day for all that I have and pray that He will help me through what I am in need of.

As all those blessed enough to have shopped for Thanksgiving dinner, please remember the less fortunate. Give if you can to a local church or wherever they are collecting for a family in need. Even one can of corn or whatever you can give, it doesn't take much and a little goes a long way.

Contemplate your blessings and make your goal to focus on others and what you can do to make this world a better place to live. This year has been one that I very proud to say I heard on the news or read in the paper that many youngsters have taken up the project of giving to others in need. We adults could learn something from them.

Blessings...they come when we least expect them. Share your good fortune at whatever level of life you are in....you will never regret it and sometimes the good Lord lets us see how it affected others. Either way, you get that warm feeling that you helped your fellow man and we should all remember that feeling and try to continue every chance we get...