Optimism

“Over the winter glaciers
I see the summer glow;
And through the wild-piled snowdrift
The warm rosebuds below.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“In the midst of winter,
I finally learned there was in me
an invincible summer.”- Albert Camus

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So long, Sam

I recently read a story about a woman who after had, 7 years after her husbands death, decided to start dating again.  She found a lump in her breast at almost the same time.  It was a heartwrenching story  about overcoming grief and cherishing what you have at this very moment.  I was immediately struck with [...]

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A Different Christmas Poem

     The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,     I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
     My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
     My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
     Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
    Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
     The sparkling lights in [...]

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Be Yourself

Is it really that easy?  Seriously?  Have those who seem truly enlightened found a way of alway being “themselves”?  And what does *that* mean anyway?  What is it to be “yourself”?
I’m not exactly sure.  I’ve found many quotes from famous people espousing the “just be you” message, but no matter what I do, am I not being [...]

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Thanksgiving Humor

Thanksgiving Divorce

A man in Phoenix calls his son in New York the day before Thanksgiving and says,”I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough.
“Pop, what are you talking about?” the son screams. We can’t stand the sight of [...]

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Turkey Humor

Ah, the Thanksgiving turkey wishbone wish: more reliable than wells, available year round without a birthday cake and minus all that tedious blowing. Plus, everybody knows that wishes made on ordinary chicken wishbones are twisted by Satan to bedevil the wisher. Only TURKEY wishbone wishes will really come true, since they’re granted by God’s [...]

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World’s Greatest Teacher

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ~Jacques Barzun
It was my first day of third grade and I remember it as vividly as if it happened yesterday.  It was also my first day at a new school in a new town [...]

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Reach out and hug a Vet

I grew up knowing that my dad was a Vietnam Vet.  I knew the “story” because my mom had told it to me as if it were a written hymn meant to be repeated verbatim: 
“Your father was an x-ray tech in the war.  He was hurt in a bombing that killed his friend and caused [...]

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I Can’t Believe I Ate the WHOLE Thing!

I have to admit, I’ve eaten more fast food in the past year than in my entire life. I can count on my hands the number of times I’ve eaten at McDonald’s or Burger King or Taco Bell. In fact when I was 17 I got my first job ever at a Burger King. I [...]

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“Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!”

REHASH
~Haven’t heard much more about this or from Stephen Hawking for that matter.  Wonder if he’ll ever actually make it to space or if it will be just his remains…..Is Virgin Galastic still in the works? Seems to be, but I just don’t see them making the 2008 deadline.  And if they don’t- how much longer [...]

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