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Articles in "Positively Speaking"

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The exercises where one writes personal bits of one’s history on paper and burns them wasn’t appropriate. I had a lovely new life and was struggling with where to put the pieces of my old life. I’d raised four kids, been married for twenty three years, spent fifteen years preparing for the pastorate, and three years actually pastoring, with little if anything to show for it, or so I thought.

“You are giving people an opportunity to correct a wrong.”  Those words were spoken within an hour of.
“They’ve erased you from their history?! How can they do that? You being there is a fact. Are they changing the facts?”

 Facebook memories tells me this time last year the great siege had taken over. The notation reads “Eye treatment on top of flu relapse....hot compresses on my chest...” Eight days later I found out it was not ‘flu relapse’, it was pneumonia.

Donald Trump. Well, my goodness is he just something or what!?
My host family for the year and I have divergent views on politics, but this we agree on: Donald Trump requires the shaking of the head. Yes, he is scary. But what is really scary is his following.

Seriously, Google Analytics. Copy and paste code onto each of my web pages??!! I was raised in the era when Weekly Reader declared that three mice had returned from space alive. What are you thinking I am capable of doing??!!

All that was needed was a little distance, a little perspective. Well, and I had to start taking piano again and commit to regular facial cleansing.

There are exactly two chimes of the clock before the Nutcrackers start to sing, all kinds of Nutcrackers. There are ones dressed in fisherman slickers, and plaid shirts. Some look like Troll Dolls with green hair. The trick is to get the mute button on before they start to sing.

The sight of the armadillo stamped on the envelope always brought a smile. Inside the envelope, I had come to know, would be a tidbit of spiritual thought that pushed the edge a little or inspired. Gordie Fisk had sent me another article he thought would interest me.

“Pieces of April” and “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” are must haves in my Thanksgiving traditions.  At some point, in the coming days, I will watch both of them. They will both make me feel hopeful for humanity and grateful for all I have. They are stories of people with little, who find out they have much.

“The King County Board for Developmental Disabilities would like to invite you to its 26th annual community forum to present its 2016 Legislative Agenda. The meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 23, 2015, at the DoubleTree Guest Suites located at 16500 Southcenter Parkway in Tukwila.

Waterfall cardigans are a wonderful invention of the fashion industry. With long billowy, front tails and a back that extends only to the waistline, they flatter every shape and size. The architecture of the design is such that it can be expressed in all weights of cloth from heavy to light. Again, wonderful. Fabulous.

Obviously I am doing something wrong or something someone did prior to my efforts is wrong. The monitor in my new office location simply will not respond. My computer guy is not available to me right now, and I’ve unplugged and replugged and off’d and on’d everything I can.

 “There’s the mother”, she whispered loudly enough I could hear as she nodded her head to me. The couple next to me paced in place with artificial ease. “It’s OK” the husband said to the wife rubbing her shoulders as we all waited in line.

Most everyone was horrified, including me. What was I thinking? But ‘fool me once’ had extended itself to five unstable rentals.  From the couple who was going to go to Europe for a year, but forgot to tell me they only had a six month visa, to tenancy purposefully intended to act as counselor to the other mentally ill tenant (only once again forgetting to include me in the plan), my desire to find stable, long term rental so I could establish my writing career was thwarted time and again.

The skid strip on top was well worn and the wheels were larger than normal. That’s what I noticed as the skateboard easily slipped into the empty spot between my feet and the wall on which I sat.

There is a poster used by Domestic Violence educators that shows the different roles of DV. Nobody is a real person in situations involving DV. Everyone just plays a role. That’s the point they are trying to make. Real only happens in healthy.

Does it bother anyone else? Those little puddles of water around a public sink that are great breeding ponds of bacteria and icky stuff. They really bother me. It’s such an easy thing to just take that paper towel when you’re done drying your hands and swipe around the sink for the next person.

Entering the walkway lined with lovely accouterments such as patio furniture and plants in full blossom, my eye glanced to the lush veggie and flower gardens on one side and the spacious lawn on the other. I knew what lay ahead, beauty and nutritional nurture and cool. While the rest of the Pacific Northwest roasted in mid nineties, I would soon be searching for my sweater in a house that is perpetually kept at 68 or 70 degrees.

Then, it seemed like my parents idea to go to Michigan was born of a desire to be in the best place possible for summers. Every year, for seventeen years, the pilgrimage to Grandma and Grandpa Anderson and Grandad and Grandma Richards was made.

Orange construction fencing loosely waved in an effort to remain standing around the parcel of land. A crudely created sign designating an unsafe area inside the fence and warding off potential looky-lous, was stabbed into the earth at one end of the property.

A month from today, as I write this, I am officially retired from 52 years of caring for and teaching other people’s children and parents. Wow! That is a long time to have car seats in the car and be changing poopy diapers.

Sunshine helps. So does rest. But even on cloudy days filled with fatigue, the resiliency persists.  Bliss and happiness continue in deep and meaningful ways. The Grand Adventure continues so fruitfully there are not enough hours in the day or days in the week. Were it not that I love what I’m doing, I might be called a workaholic.

Noon... I promised the editor by noon today. Eleven fifty nine. I’m going to be late. Nepal, Baltimore and a death in the family and I postpone what was going to be printed three days ago and try to figure out how to put very very strong emotions on paper.