It’s Only Time

    How many wrinkles will it take to hide the beauty on your face? There aren’t enough crinkles in the passing years to make that take place. Every line that nature seems to add, removes two wrinkles from the past. Your youthful look is magic to me and I wonder why I have been blessed to live with someone who has been bestowed with such a special gift. 

    Every candle that is added to your birthday cake is only there to illuminate your model face. As your sculptured lips come together, the miniature flames on the candles can’t wait to feel your loving breath. As a wisp of air dances from your lips and extinguishes the birthday light, I can’t believe you are my lovely wife. 

    Even though time keeps moving on, the only change I see are the number of candles on your birthday crown. I know you don’t agree, but that’s because your beauty is only matched by your humility.

        Happy Birthday Day Sweet Sixty……een!

The Vault of Heaven

    Heaven, I have always wanted to go there and a map has been drawn with specific roads to reach my destination. I was told that everything is perfect in paradise and you attain perfect happiness there. Sounds like the only place I want be, but what is perfect happiness?

    When I try to describe perfect happiness it encompass many things on earth: at the top of the list is waking up in the morning, taking a deep breath, and looking forward to what the day will bring. I know everything is not perfect and I don’t expect it to be, but I am still happy. The morning at times greets me with some aches and pains, and sleep is a place that I don’t always find, but I am still happy.

    There are times when the meter of happiness reads higher than others days. Should I share my happiness with others or should I bask in my euphoria for the day? Will the joy in my heart and the tone of my voice be enough to share the happiness that I don’t want to misplace. A smile with a good morning or hello with people you meet will help share in the imperfect happiness but will it be enough. Fortunately sharing love will be enough. You must be willing to give imperfect happiness, to attain perfect happiness.

    Heaven is still such a confusing place to me, but I think I am beginning to understand what heaven might be, and what perfect happiness could be. It’s more than just one souls happiness, it’s about sharing in everyone’s exaltation. 

    Everyone we love will be there and everyone that God loves will be there. We will be individuals and we will be one. We will finally be able to fully share in True Happiness.

A Special Day

     When Saturday morning comes around, I can’t wait for my feet to hit the ground. This is the day that more often than not, I get to see my two boys, and I’m sure we will do a lot.

   My boys are my grandchildren; Max is an effervescent five and his brother a mellow two. Max is a blue eyed, wild ivory stallion who makes my life come alive, and speaks as though he was a very intelligent twenty-five. 

   His brother Griffey, on the other hand has dark eyes, Hawaiian Tropic skin, and is a spitting image of his daddy when he was a tyke. Griff as I call him is like a Sugar Bear, sweet and loving, with a smile that brings joy to anyones heart.

    The waiting is over, I hear a car in the driveway and I’m sure it's my boys because it’s to early for anyone else to arrive. I run to greet them as though I had not seen them for a while, and I realize that without them my driveway would be empty, as well as my life.

    Maxton springs from the car first and we embrace. He tells me he loves me and places a kiss on my face. We have a special bond that I hope will never be erased and Max will always be special because he has won first place.

    I look to the other side and my little Griffey starts to appear. He is holding tight to his daddy because there is still a lot of bonding going on. I try to be patient and wait for Griff to release, before I ask him to hug me and place a kiss.

    Let the day begin but first we need to start with Nona’s special breakfast that the boys like a lot. Some scrambled eggs with a little cheese, spicy Jimmie Dean Sausage and some exotic juice really hits the spot. Max would like some coffee but that’s not on the breakfast menu yet. One of his favorite things to do is open a container of hearty fragrant Italian espresso coffee grounds and take a deep sniff. After a satisfying Ahhh… Max is ready to eat. Griffey on the other hand is happy with some tasty chocolate milk, his espresso days will come.

      Breakfast is finally over and so is the begging to finish more of their meal. Now its time for my boys to extract all the energy that I had stored for them this past week.

   There are so many things they love to do, and every moment I spend with them is so special to me. I couldn’t ask for a better way to end a week and I look forward to start planning our next retreat.

   

    

    

Whither or Not

    Why is it so easy for a weed to prosper and a flower to whither?

    One must nurture a flower to make it bloom, but a weed will flourish no matter what. A weed will squirm into the smallest crack leaving no earth for the water to penetrate, and steal the space from a flower petal that might sprout. 

    I just don’t understand why life makes it so difficult to nurture a flower and a weed needs nothing to propagate. 

  There must be a reason, but only God knows why. Maybe in God's eyes there is no difference between a flower and a weed, only humans can't see beauty in everything.

To Weed or not to Weed

    A flower never losses it’s beauty nor perfume no matter where it grows, as long as there is a nose to sniff it and a set of eyes to see it. Without our senses a flower would be just another weed no matter how sweet the bouquet was or how vibrant the colors were.

    We have the gift to decipher a flower from a weed. There must be a reason why we have been endowed with this perk, but we all don’t use it.

    We sometimes fail to recognize a rose from the thorns on the vine, and let the weeds take over the days of our life. Why do we forget to see or smell the real flowers that encompass the garden of our life?

Time Out

    Hey it’s vacation time, and the mind takes on a different perspective of life. No matter where we go or what we do, we are all searching for a place that helps us refuel. 

    A little sun in the open air that is what I can’t wait to snare, and to feel the warmth as it permeates the vacation air. This helps cleanse the sour pallet of the passed, and allows us to savor vacations’ sweet caress, which leaves us with memories that will always last.

    A walk on the beach is never alone, it’s a place where your thoughts are never over blown. A splash of water, some sand on your feet brings you back quickly to vacation’s retreat. 

    There is no destination as you stroll to the rhythm of the dancing tide, and this is where you realize vacation’s peace has arrived.  

“The Eagle has landed”

    The day was filled with sunny skies and the wind seemed to outline everything in a picture frame. This was our wedding day late April: April 28^th to be exact and a little less than four years after our country landed on the moon. 

         

    Our marriage adventure was about to take off, and the only thing that we had to guide us was our young inexperienced love. This trip we were embarking on was to last a lifetime.

    How do we reach this lifetime goal, will we have enough fuel to reach our port of call, and where do we refuel when the journey begins to drain us from reaching our destination? Thank goodness for your mate which helps you keep going strait, just a simple positive thought helps right the ship and makes you feel not so distraught. 

    The road has been long but the journey seemed to travel at the speed of light. Now our children are where we were and we must share our spark of life.

    These days I look back and I see how everyday we both refuel our love: it is with some family-sized trust, and letting trivial things fall through the cracks of everyday life.

    Finally never forget the one you love, especially on your Anniversary date, this will insure there is enough fuel to continue on your wonderful super 
sonic flight.

    I guess the final destination doesn’t really matter; it’s all the different stops along the way that makes the road of marriage happiness matter. 

No Problem

    A problem is something that gives us different challenges in our life. Some big, some small and those that just come off the wall. Why are problems injected into our life, just when we thought everything was all right? 

    Is an obstacle given to us a punishment or reward?  A reward sounds half witted but we don’t always realize what we’ve got. Does the gravity of a hurdle thrown into our life make us weaker or more perceptive of life?

     Wether we prevail over challenges in our life or not, we must learn from the past, and not be shaken by life’s stumbling blocks.

Summer Sip

    I remember sitting with my younger cousin Dan on my aunt’s erector looking porch, during a scorching late July day. We both were waiting for our favorite cup filled with Kool-Aid that my bubbly aunt was going to bring out.

    Our wait was rewarded and the shinny cups my aunt brought out were sweating, and when I grabbed hold of the metal cup, it felt like it was filled with a winter’s day. I felt refreshed without taking a sip. It was like magic, and taking a swig from the cup took longer than it should. Oh it felt so good! It quenched my thirst in so many ways; from my eyes to my hands and finally to the taste buds in my mouth.

    I never realized that this cup would be my fountain of youth. This frosty, gelid cup would hold the memories from my childhood day and still refresh my thirst to this day.

Shakes Me Right

    There is something that wakes me in the night, which makes no noise but shakes me right, until I am unable to wait for a new days light.

    I am not as young as I used be, and sleep is not as exciting to me.  An informal snooze is what I like, because I don’t miss anything when I am sitting upright. I steal some Z’s whenever I can, but sleeping in bed is not for me.

    When the morning stumbles upon the light, I get up feeling somewhat sedated but all right. I try to stretch out the old cramped muscles that were a confined all night, I brush my teeth, and quaff my hair; thank God most are still there!

    Finally, I step into the kitchen feeling like “The Old Man and the Sea”, but as soon as I get a glimpse of my wife, I know old age cannot be.

   
 She must be the one that shakes me right, and that is why I can’t wait for a new days light.