At Sea on the USS Lamar. . .World War II

Lt.(jg) George W. Wiegers to his wife, Jo    (my uncle and aunt)

January 1, 1945

"I was looking at the moon tonight.  It is so beautiful.   It doesn't seem possible that 
it is the same moon that shines over you in Missouri, the one that shines over Berlin
and Tokyo.   I sometimes wonder if the enemy looks at the same things we do and 
have the same thoughts we do."

A Thought

. . ."an interior life will never be available in stores."
                  Lauren Shields  "My Year of Modesty"   Salon.com  July 1, 2013

Keep on the Sunny Side

My group of literary friends (called "Inspirtice") recently discussed "a favorite song" as our program topic.

I looked back to my childhood when I heard mostly country music on the radio and thought of "Keep

on the Sunny Side."    I grew up with the Carter family rendition; June Carter Cash made the song famous.

Ada Blenkhorn wrote this hymn in 1899 as her nephew was crippled and wanted his wheelchair pushed on the 

sunny side of the street.    As kids in school, we would hold our noses in order to get the nasal country twang

to sing the familiar chorus.  The message, however, is a basic truth of life - not always easy to follow.

Keep on the sunny side,
always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life;
It will help us ev'ry day, it will brighten all the way
If we keep on the sunny side of life.

There's a dark and a troubled side of life;

There's a bright and a sunny side, too;

Tho' we meet with the darkness and strife,

The sunny side we also may view. (Chorus)

Tho' the storm in its fury break today,

Crushing hopes that we cherished so dear,

Storm and cloud will in time pass away,

The sun again will shine bright and clear. (Chorus)

Let us greet with a song of hope each day,

Tho' the moments be cloudy or fair;

Let us trust in our Savior alway,

Who keepeth everyone in His care (Chorus)

Inspiration from an old friend

Getting together with sorority sisters in Columbia last week, I spent some time with one of my former Alpha Delta Pi room-mates, Ronnie.    She told me that every Monday she texts her teen-age grandchildren a thought for the day to stimulate their thinking, and every Thursday, she sends a prayer to each of them.  A touching way to use the internet these days!

Five inch rain!

Watermill Road   June 22, 2013

Gives renewed meaning to the old saying "We'll be there - the Lord willing and the creek don't rise"

The state of women - Kathleen Parker

. . .Women are reaching equality as never before.   Certainly many struggle to keep food on the table.   But in the salons where luckier women discuss what women really want, they are reaching the traditional benchmarks of happiness - money and power - and guess what:   They're still not happy. . .

Of course women want wealth and power, but not at the expense of the things that matter most - equilibrium, inner peace, wisdom, heart and a family that isn't in constant chaos.

Research, which we prefer to common sense, supports that happy, well-adjusted, less stressed-out people make more productive and efficient workers. Men also, by the way, because it turns out men are human, too.  

. . .Ariana Huffington (at a conference discussing the missing thing in our lives) described it as that inner place of heart, soul and wisdom where few of us spend much time. . .
                                                                          Kathleen Parker editorial,  Kansas City Star,  6/17/13

The Lady Vols

Folks in Knoxville are avid fans of women's sports at the University of Tennessee.   The female Volunteers are almost always national finalists in their fields.   Recently,  the Lady Vols softball team made national news when they had to take shelter in a building corridor during tornado
warnings in Oklahoma City.    Annabelle,  three year old grand-daughter of a friend of my cousin Cheryl, remembered the team in her bedtime prayers:  "Please, God, keep the Lady Vols safe from the Big Potato. . .it is a long, long way from our house so we don't need to be scared."  Loyalty from all ages!