God Spoke To Me Today

This morning at the first Sunday of Advent mass, the message could not have been clearer. Let me begin at the beginning so that you to will understand why I felt that God sent me a message.

There is a reader at mass that bothers me the way she phrases her words. The readings do not flow but are said about three words at a time, pause, then three more words, whether there is a period or not. It has always bothered me and sometimes I wonder why someone doesn't tell her what she is doing wrong. Or maybe in God's eyes it isn't wrong. Who am I to know?

The same lady, in a mean way, let me know I should not sit at her table at a dinner. I sat down to speak to someone I knew, and she said, "This table is full, you can't sit there!" I had no intention of sitting at her table but her comment irritated me.  Other persons have commented on some of the weird and mean things she does. I heard that she had accused someone of stealing some of her belongings. She has become my nemesis and I stay away from her.

As she was reading today an unchristian thought ran through my mind immediately followed by my act of contrition for my thoughts. When communion time came, I went down the aisle asking forgiveness for all the wrongs I do, known or unknown. As I approached the Eucharistic Minister, it was my perceived nemesis. I bowed, she looked me in the eye, and gently said, "The Body of Christ." Something inside of me seemed to melt. I wasn't sure if it was the receiving of the Holy Host or how she said it, but maybe, I thought, she wasn't so bad after all. And then I felt a soft pat on my arm and I knew I had been unfair in my thoughts.

The times I have received communion, I had never seen her participate as a Eucharistic Minister. Today I felt as if God was letting me know that I am too critical and put her in my path. Yes, God spoke to me today and I will be a kinder, nicer person when I see the lady I thought was my nemesis!

"Christmas gift suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect."

Oren Arnold

An Oxymoron

A funny sadness. Not sure the sentence is an oxymoron but I think it might be one. It began when I went in search of some new jeans. Macy's was continuing their black Friday sales on Saturday and I thought I might find me some new denim jeans. I went into the dressing room with about four pairs of jeans with the thought that at least a couple might fit me.

One I could not get past my hips, one got over my hips but I could not snap the waist band closed, one had extremely thin legs (leggings/jeggings) and the last one fit around the waist but the legs were baggy. The oxymoron comes in when I got so depressed and feeling so blue until I was pulling a pair of jeans off.  As I struggled to remove the jean, I felt a coolness on my rear and looked in the mirror. A tag had hooked on to my panties (big whites as I've been teased by my daughter) and I was standing there exposing my bare butt. I burst into laughter. When I finally got the tag unhooked from my underwear, I was still laughing. So in the midst of my sadness I found some humor. Surely that qualifies for any oxymoron! I suppose if there are cameras in the dressing room, someone else was having a good laugh also!

I did find comfortable pants with a two inch waist band made out of stretchy material and once I had the pants on, my stomach fit into the mesh pocket in the front. By mistake, since it was hanging with the regular pants, I had brought a maternity jean into the dressing room! My stomach fit comfortably in the special pocket! I debated whether I should buy it or not, (who would know?) but somehow it just seemed to be amazingly awful to be in something for a pregnant woman!

I continued looking, trying on, getting frustrated until I found a pair of jeans that fit perfectly. The price was $41.95 on sale which I found to be an expensive sale. I refuse to pay that much for jeans.  I went to other stores without much luck until I went into a Walmart.  Maybe, because they cater to larger women they had plenty of jeans with elastic waistbands. I bought two of the White Stag (Isn't that a good brand? It used to be when I lived in Greeley!) jeans and felt good that they actually fit and the size marked is one size smaller than I usually wear. A large small size!That made me feel even better.

My hope is that once I wash them they will still fit me. I know that many times, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for so I am hoping these jeans work for me. My wish is that I grow smaller!

"Always remember that you 

are absolutely unique.

Just like everyone else."
Found in a list of oxymorons.

For Music Lovers

When Quartet came out in January of 2013, the trailer inspired me to see it. Somehow, I missed it and lately I got it through Netflix. It is a nice story of aging people who live at Beecham House, a home for retired musicians. The film was directed by Dustin Hoffman. I enjoyed listening to the classical, opera, and some vaudeville music plus the interaction of the characters. The home is beautiful with wooden floors, large doors, long drapes, brass railings, expensive looking furniture and sprawling, green  lawns with a gazebo. All the home's finery made a backdrop for the musicians in the home. The story is about four opera singers, famous in their past, who are to sing as a quartet for a fund raiser. It was a song they had done before and were famous for doing it. The only actor I recognized was Maggie Smith.The other actors were Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly an Michael Gambon.

Whether they do or not perform as a quartet, I will leave for you to find out! Aside from the music, there is humor and sadness, much like real life. I rated this movie as a 4 out of 5, though some of the reviews stated that the movie was too predictable.

A Jazz Concert

 Thanksgiving Day

"For each new morning with its light,

for rest and shelter of the night,

for health and food, for love of friends,

for everything Thy goodness sends."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I was invited to a friend's home for Thanksgiving Dinner I did not know that it would include music. After the traditional meal of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, yams, and pie we relaxed in the front room to listen to a mutual friend entertain us with his flute.  We loosened our jeans, leaned back and listened to the wonderful music coming out of the silver flute.

He has discs that can be played with the melody and he then accompanies the music. It was like having an entire band playing along with him! To me he sounds like  a professional musician, yet he says he still has a lot to learn. The notes were sharp and clear and before long we were tapping our feet. I could picture myself doing a rumba to one of the selections.

I wrapped myself up in a colorful rebozo, enjoyed the beautiful music and felt thankful and content. Even though I thank God every day, especially for seeing another day, I like that there is one special day to appreciate family and friends.

On my way home I passed a Target and a Walmart and the parking lots were filled to capacity.How sad that businesses open on Thanksgiving Day and  consumers feel the need to do their shopping!

"Cherish your human connection: 

your relationships with friends and family. 

Joseph Brodsky

Zorro,The Fox

When I saw that Isabel Allende had written Zorro, I was puzzled. I remember seeing movies about Zorro when I was a little girl and then a more current movie about Zorro with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. How could Allende have published her book around 2005? How could she write a story of Zorro when it had already been done? In delving into my confusion about Zorro, I read, "Allende uses a mix of fictional characters borrowed from early Zorro works and invented some for her novel plus using actual historical characters."


The book cover gave me a hint of why she wrote about Zorro. "A swashbuckling adventure story that reveals for the first time how Diego de la Vega became the masked man we all know so well."  I looked on the Internet and found out that her novel was how she envisioned the legend of Zorro beginning with his birth, his growing up, his parents, his grandparents and putting her own spin on the story.

In 1919 Johnston McCulley wrote a novella called The Curse of Capistrano with a character by the name of Zorro. The story was published in a magazine called All-Star Weekly which later became Argosy magazine.  In 1920 there was a silent movie with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. as Zorro. In 1940 Tyrone Power played the part of Zorro.

Walt Disney, in 1952, tried to produce a Zorro series but for some reason was never able to do it until 1957.  The series was finally shown with Guy Williams playing Zorro. In 1960 the movie Sign of Zorro came out and in 1965 Zorro stories were aired on television.

Anthony Hopkins plays the part of an aging Zorro in The Mask of Zorro in 1998 and passes the skills on to a young man played by Antonio Banderas. A sequel followed in 2005 and it was called The Legend of Zorro with Banderas as Zorro.

A futuristic Zorro may be in the works to have Zorro be a robot. I wonder how Zorro's image of a caballero in black, sporting a mustache, riding a black horse, and having a sword and whip to fight for the down trodden will be captured as a robot!
 

"Do you truly believe that life

 is fair, Senor De la Vega?

No Maestro, but I plan to do 

everything in my power to 

make it so."

Isabel Allende, Zorro

Half and Half

My world was cut in half today. I left the house to a beautiful, sunny day and traveled four blocks and encountered a weird snowstorm. How could this be, I thought, it was as if a line had been drawn to separate the weather in two.

The snow, at first looked like hail, but it was tight, teeny-tiny balls of snow. It had covered some lawns and the road was white. At first I thought someone had spilled something on the street and was shocked to see that it was snow. I had traveled from a clear, bright day into a dark and snowy day. And it was all within a few blocks!

Getting my camera, I took some pictures which do not give credit to the amazing change in the weather! The snow against the dark sky reminded me of many stars falling toward the ground. God does create some unusual scenes!



The clouds on the east side were in different shades of  grey and white, while the west side was clear, sunny and bright.

I drove to Regis University to try to get up high to get a good picture and some of the students were gathering  handfuls of snow to throw at each other.

The snow did not last long but I did see cars with their hoods covered in snow, the shoulder of the road had snow, and the streets were wet where the snow had melted.

I was going to give my blogging a rest today, but when I see something so unusual, I just have to blog about it!

"My world sliced in half

allowed me to enjoy

a summer day

a snowy day

in the month of November."

E. Moscoso

November 24, 2014

Where Are We Going?

My question, when I was invited to accompany a friend to her doctor's appointment, was "Where are we going?"  She said, "Thought you might enjoy a drive to Erie."

I am always open to a new adventure so we began our trek around 10:30 a.m. Erie, though it is not that far away is a place I had never visited. I now know why. Imagine my surprise when we arrived in old town Erie and all I saw were a few businesses, fewer restaurants,  many new housing developments, houses that look like mobile homes, a city hall and lots of open spaces.

We were early for the appointment and decided to drive around. We passed a large high school and brand new homes ranging from $250 to $350 thousand dollars. The sky was bright blue and as we crested a hill the most beautiful panorama of our Rocky Mountains was before us. I could understand why people might move to Erie to have the spectacular view of the mountains.

Driving through town, there was only one restaurant that appealed to us because it looked freshly painted in a bright orangy color and frankly, it was the only restaurant that we saw other than smaller, hole in the wall type of eating places. I know that those places probably have delicious meals but not knowing anything about Erie's best restaurants we picked the Azteca Mexican Restaurant.  The inside is decorated in Mexican artifacts, the waiter was efficient, the booths were comfortable and there were a few people already eating lunch. (Always a good sign to see other people in a restaurant or seeing the eating place with a parking lot full of cars!) The walls have pictures of life in Mexico, a t.v. hangs in a corner, the bathroom had a beautiful tin mirror on one wall and a picture of Calla lilys on the opposite wall. A table had three large, green plants and a small heater kept the bathroom warm.

I ordered Juevos Rancheros and the green chili was tasty. My friend ordered a gargantuan enchilada and she said her meal was good also. She could not eat the whole enchilada! The mistake we did was to order dessert. Vanilla ice cream, tiny sopapilla pillows dipped in honey and cinnamon and a mold of flan that could be topped with whipped cream. We were stuffed as we left the restaurant!

While my friend met with her doctor I sat in the car and read my book of Zorro by Isabel Allende. On our way home we took some side roads and it reminded me of when I was little and my father would take us riding through dirt roads,seeing farms, cows and horses.  The ride to Erie turned out to be a very pleasant time spent with a buddy and sharing stories!  

Note: Rev. Richard J. Van Valkenburg arrived in the area around 1866 and the town was named for his birthplace of Erie, Pennsylvania. In 2013 the population was 19,723.                                                     

Are Men Nicer Than Women?

 Today I received proof that some men are much kinder and nicer than women. I was at the grocery store, and as I looked over the different breads and read some of the labels, I noticed a man standing near. I asked, "Am I in your way?" His reply, with a smile, was, "No, that's okay, we..." Before he could finish his sentence, his wife burst out in a loud voice, "Yes, you are in my way!"

By then I had moved my grocery cart and she stepped between me and her husband and haughtily pranced off down an aisle. He gave me a big smile, a bit of a shrug and meekly followed her. I figured she is the boss in that family!

I found this perfect picture on the Internet in an article entitled, Venus vs. Mars!


"It's not the man in your life

that matters,

 it's the life in your man."

Mae West

Calories = Pounds

 "My doctor told me I had to stop 

throwing intimate dinners for four 

unless there are three other people.

Orson Wells

Usually, I may go out to eat once a week, but this week was a marathon of eating out. The good news is that I only ate two meals on those days I dined out. In a way, I hope just eating twice a day may help a bit.


Tuesday lunch:     Los Arcos for a Bean Burrito.
Tuesday dinner:    Tuk Tuk Thai:  Chicken Fried Rice
Wednesday:         Buffet at Blackhawk
Thursday:             Thanksgiving Day Dinner with all the trimmings
Friday:                 La Azteca in Erie: Juevos Rancheros

My stomach is crying and calling for mercy, and my head knows better, but somehow I can't control my impulses to overeat, and so I suffer! I got on the scale this morning and it is showing an additional six pounds for my week of eating out. I am hoping that some of that weight might be water.

It is strange that when my belly is full I can make all sorts of promises to myself about what I will eat but when I feel hungry, all the promises go out the window. Now with Thanksgiving a few days away, I am going to try to watch what I eat so I can enjoy the traditional meal! (And no I don't mean I will watch the food from the plate to my mouth!)

I saw a quote from a Kris Carr that I liked:  "There's a great metaphor that one of my doctors uses: If a fish is swimming in a dirty tank and it gets sick, do you take it to the vet and amputate a fin? No, you clean the water. So I cleaned up my system. By eating organic raw greens, nuts and healthy fats, I am flooding my body with enzymes, vitamins and oxygen."

And then I saw another quote that I liked better: "Going to a restaurant is one of my keenest pleasure. Meeting some place with friends, ordering wine, eating food, surrounded by strangers, I think is the core of what it means to live a civilized life." Adam Gopnik

Mardi Gras Gambling

Forty-nine happy souls left the Spirit of Christ Catholic Community parking lot at 9 a.m. to go to Blackhawk, Colorado on November 19, 2014. On the way jokes were told, Tootsie Roll Pops were handed out, and people chatted. We have found that the bus driver, who has been driving the group up regularly, is an excellent driver and everyone feels content and safe on the Pacesetter bus.

The Mardi Gras Casino greets us with a goodie bag consisting of a necklace, a food coupon, and a $5.00 certificate to be added to our player's card. The people go to their favorite machines at the Mardi Gras, the Golden Gulch or the Golden Gate. Everyone seems to have fun playing the slots and I have heard that some brave souls play black jack!  I, on the other hand, am not too lucky. I am happy when I can gamble with their money and am not happy when I have to use my own money. Our favorite saying is, "You win some, you lose some!"

The casino had a beautiful table set for Thanksgiving and some of the gamblers took time out of putting money in the slots to have their picture taken.

  

When it is time for us to return home, we reluctantly leave the slot machines, but are greeted by a Mardi Gras employee handing out 100 Grand candy bars. On the return, a signup sheet is passed for the following month and the sheet fills up. That is a sign for me that everyone enjoyed themselves and are ready for the next casino junket.

"The last piece of advice

to the slot player who 

thinks he can beat the 

one-armed bandit consists 

of four little words:

'It can't be done!'"

John Scarne

Celebrating An Early Thanksgiving Dinner

On November 20, 2014, the Spirit of Christ Catholic Community Young at Heart group met to celebrate an early Thanksgiving Dinner. The tables were decorated, fall leaves hung from the ceiling, people were chatting, the photographer roamed around taking pictures, and the kitchen help was busy in the kitchen. The president welcomed everyone, a deacon led a prayer, a joke was told, and tables were called, in an orderly fashion, to the feast of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, bread, green beans, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

Entertainment came via a young, sixteen year old young man who played the violin. He also plays the piano and organ. I kept thinking, how can someone that young be so talented? He was accompanied by a tremendous piano player, Laura Klein, and together they kept the audience mesmerized.

The dinner is a yearly affair and it is beautiful to see everyone enjoying the dinner and sharing stories. A highlight, other than the music, was getting all of the November birthdays together for a photo and then treating them to a chocolate Hershey bar!

For all who read my blog, 

I wish you a very Blessed Thanksgiving Day!

"May your stuffing be tasty,

may your turkey be plump,

may your potatoes and gravy

have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious

and your pies take the prize

and may your thanksgiving dinner

stay off your thighs!"

Anonymous

Part Two of The Death of My Cell Phone

Leaving the house at 10: 20 in the morning, I drove to the Verizon store on Kipling. Maybe this store would tell me something I would like to hear. The five workers were dealing with about 15 needy persons wanting help with their cell phones. Waiting, I chatted with another lady and she said, "They ought to put a Starbucks in the Verizon stores. I bet they would make a killing." I agreed. After waiting for about forty minutes, I was able to speak with a salesman. We went through the whole problem and he kept saying, "That is so odd. I've never heard of a phone just dying like that. Did you drop the phone?. Did it fall in water?" I explained that I had charged it during the night and in the morning it was dead.

He also checked the battery and said, "It's dead." I wanted to scream at him, "Yes, I know it's dead and that is why I am here." But I didn't scream and smiling I said, "I know, I just don't know what could have happened, and I would like to see about getting a new phone."

He looked something up on his hand held computer/ipad and said, "Your contract expires on January 4, 2015 and for you to buy a phone would be very expensive." I asked, "How expensive?" He replied, "500 and up." I agreed, it was too expensive.

He told me that if I could get my hands on someone's old Verizon phone, they could  switch my information over. I told him that there was no way I could call anyone since I did not have a phone or numbers. We looked at some of the phones and he suggested I go to a second-hand store in Colorado Mills Mall. Once I returned with the used phone they would transfer my number on the used phone."You'll at least have a phone to use," he said.

I went through Target on my way to the second-hand store and looked at the phones. Pretty much the same prices as Verizon. The clerk suggested using a pre-paid phone since they run between $20 - $50. I told him I would check if using a prepaid phone would work and continued to the used phone store. The fellow was very helpful and he also checked my battery and he also said it was strange the phone had died overnight. I found out the the prepaid phone would not have worked.


I bought a small flip phone for $50.00 and returned to Verizon. Another associate helped me and he also said it was strange that my phone had died without a warning. I told him, "Maybe I'm just lucky!" He put my information into the small flip phone but told me that any pictures or contact list were gone and could not be retrieved. I feel so lost without my information but I will need to begin from scratch all over again to accumulate information. Going from a smart phone to a small flip phone is difficult because I want to slide my finger over an icon to get my information and it just doesn't work! After January 7 I will be able to go see about getting a better phone. When I left the Verizon store, the clerk and I high-fived. I was in a much better mood!

So far the phone has not rung and when it does, I hope I know which buttons to push to talk. I have some messages but do not know how to retrieve them. My next step is to try and learn how to use my second-hand phone!

This may not be the end of my blog, but then again, maybe it is.

The Instant Death of My Cell Phone

Before beginning my lament on the death of my cellular phone, I saw that on January 14, 2013 I blogged about Cellular Phone Dilemma. Over 2000 persons have read that blog and it is the one that gets read the most. My guess is that many people have cell phone problems!

The other night my cell phone died without any previous aches or pains. It was working fine, I charged it and in the morning the phone was dead. I got on the computer to see if I could get a clue as to what happened to the phone. Nothing I read helped, though there were some problems with "black screens." I tried some of their suggestions but my phone remained dead.

Next stop was the Verizon store. I looked at the workers with suspicion because my phone had died exactly six weeks before my two year contract would end and I was sure the sales people were ready to sell me a new phone! The first thing a young man did was to take out the battery, disappear to a back room where I was told he was charging the battery, and when that did not work, another salesperson came over to tell me about all my options. Most of the options were expensive! My question was "what if it is just a battery?" Since Verizon does not sell batteries, they sent me to a place called Batteries & Bulbs on 103rd and Federal. The clerk changed my battery with a new one but my phone continued to be dead. He apologized that there was nothing he could do and suggested I go to 120th and Huron to a place called, appropriately, CPR (Cellular Phone Repair), and they could tell me why my phone was not working.


CPR charged $67.50 to just look at the phone. I paid and about forty minutes later I was told it would cost me close to $140 dollars to repair and it would take a few weeks because parts had to be ordered. I told CPR I needed a phone and would just have to buy another one. The good news was that they charged me $22.50 and refunded me $45.00.

My house is eerily silent without a phone. Tomorrow I will visit a Verizon store and see what kind of a phone I will buy. I wonder if all my phone contacts are lost. I dread learning another phone when I finally learned how to use Samsung with a slider key board. During the night, I had many dreams of anger.  I happened to be in a Verizon store and arguing with one of the salesmen who would not listen to me, I accused Verizon of breaking my phone so I would have to buy another one, I threw a phone across a room and used some foul language. They were not good dreams! So, I am not in a good mood this morning.

Continued.......

A Play on the Screen

A friend of mine and I met at Tuk Tuk Thai Restaurant for a delicious meal before going to see Billy Elliot at the AMC Westminster Promenade 24 Theater. I had never been to a play filmed especially to be shown in a movie theater and wondered how it would be different from a regular movie. Elton John wrote the music for Billy Elliot, The Musical, and even though I am not a big fan of Elton John, I enjoyed the touching and moving words in some of the songs. The dance scenes were incredible with tap, ballet and some acrobatics. The play has humor, rough language, great singing, tenderness, anger and spectacular dancing. As we were leaving the theater, a man said, "The next best thing to seeing a production like that, is actually being there in person!" We agreed that if we couldn't be at the actual play, this was one way to enjoy a musical.

After the ending bows, we were treated by most of the twenty-two Billy Elliot's that have played the part. It looked as if ages ranged from about ten to twenty. It was exciting to see the Billy Elliot's in white t-shirts with the name "Billy" printed on the front as they tapped and gracefully leaped through the air!

The sad thing was that the theater was practically empty. I counted about twelve people. I couldn't believe that an opportunity to see an award winning show for $18.00 would not have been packed. I knew that operas are filmed and shown in certain theaters and wondered if they are better attended. One lady behind us said she loved the play so much she had also come to a showing on Saturday.

One thing I found interesting  was a gadget you can bring to your seat to be able to read what is being said on the screen. The close caption viewing system surprised me because even though I knew about hearing devices I had never seen a viewing one. The bad news was that my friend could not use the device because it only works for regular movies and not for the play production.

"Ballet is sort of a mystery to me.

And I don't want to unravel 

that mystery." Robert Caro

Sand Creek Memorial

The first time I heard about Sand Creek, a friend and I were returning from Kansas a few years ago and got off I-70 to take a more scenic route. We ended up getting lost in the never-ending flat lands that seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon. Somewhere near the Colorado border we saw a sign about Sand Creek Memorial that happened to be about nineteen miles away.  We decided to go the memorial because we were curious and neither of us had ever heard of it. After driving for what seemed more than nineteen miles on dirt roads, some paved roads and seeing nothing but flat farm lands we ended up at a ranger's station.

After explaining about a battle (massacre) of men, women and children, he pointed us to follow the dirt road to the memorial. The memorial is about a two mile walk and on the way we encountered large, leaping grasshoppers, black stinging bugs, dust, weeds and sunflowers.

The monument is not very big and it sits in the middle of open land. A wooden split-rail fence kept us from going any further into the area where many Indians had been killed. We spoke in whispers because the area seemed like such a holy place. As we read about
what had happened, how the U.S. military and volunteers had slaughtered hundreds of Indians it left us feeling angry and sad. The Indians believed they were safe because they had signed a peace treaty.  Left Hand, an Indian leader, is said to have watched the soldiers approaching and said, "Soldiers no hurt me --soldiers my friends," right before he was shot. The Indians were flying the American flag with a white flag below it and thought their signing a peace treaty would protect them. It didn't.

My friend and I left the area in a somber mood. 

Last summer, my son told me about someone he knew who was filming a movie called Soul of Silas. Most of the summer he would tell me about shooting in Fairplay or in the Denver area. The movie is about the Sand Creek Massacre and directed by Aaron Sears and produced by Jamie Crow Bartly. Yesterday, my son called to tell me that the movie will be coming out in the spring of 2015.


He told me to watch the trailer at  http://youtu.be/mHPK5c8xXy8. I watched the trailer and now will wait  to see the movie. I believe the movie will let people see what happened at Sand Creek and I will have an added plus of seeing my son in film.

Karma

What does Karma mean? A Buddhist belief is that whatever you do comes back to you or the sum of person's actions decides their fate.  

What goes around always comes around. 

Be very careful. 

Quotation from unknown source.

The first time I became aware of Karma was in the mid-fifty's. One day a woman I worked with came in looking disheveled, her clothes wrinkled and her hair messy. My thought was that she hadn't looked in the mirror.  Two days later, I got up late, grabbed a skirt and rushed to work. When I looked in the mirror at work, the skirt was wrinkled as if I had slept in it and my hair stuck out all over my head. Immediately, I knew this was my payback for the un-Christian thought about my co-worker.

When I wondered why someone I knew could be so careless as to get so many traffic tickets, I got one. When I thought someone had a lot of accidents with his car, I was hit by a teenager without insurance. If I thought my luck was better than some one elses, it wasn't. When a noticed a friend gaining weight around her middle, it wasn't long before I had gained weight around my middle. Get the picture? Of course, it works in a positive way also. When good deeds are done I get a surprise gift.

This morning, karma humbled me again. A few weeks ago I was speaking to a friend and noticed that she had almost inch long hair below her chin. It was only three hairs, but it was very distracting because I could not keep my eyes off of those long hairs. Should I tell her or not ran through my mind. I did not say a word but I did wonder why she couldn't notice them.

Every morning I look at my face to make sure there are no hairs on my upper lip, chin, or below my chin. I see nothing so I go about my business content that I do not have hairs protruding out of my face even though it has been about three months since I removed those pesky hairs. This morning, I decided to Nair my face clean and there, under my chin, were two long hairs. Not as long as my friends, but long enough to stick out about 1/4 inch! Where were those hairs when I carefully looked in the mirror? Had anybody seen them and kept quiet about them? I knew it was Karma!

My whole life I have to be careful not to feel superior, look at some one with disdain, or have a bad thought  because it will be turn-about-time and I will also have the same problem as those I mentally criticize. It's a daily battle trying to live my life without a bad thought for fear Karma will reward me with the same thing!

Treat people as you would 

like to be treated.

Karma's only a bitch if

you are!

Unknown

The Spider That Wasn't

Growing up I either read or saw something about how someone killed a spider and then spiders, in their own language, gathered all the spiders, millions, and attacked the spider killer!

I do not know if my trying never to kill a spider is because I believe all creatures are from God or if that long ago story plays a role in my not being able to kill any bug. Well, moths I can kill because I do not like their grey, flapping, dusty, whirring wings!

This morning, on a pillow, there was a black spot. Without my glasses, I could not tell what it was, but it did look like a spider. I got as close as I could without being in any danger, the black spot did not move, yet it did seem to have thread like legs. I fumbled around looking for my glasses while keeping one eye on the spider. This spider was too close for comfort. It had crossed the line of  crawling on a wall, floor, or door and crawled onto my bed! It would have to be killed!


With my glasses on I moved in closer. It wasn't moving. I grabbed my camera and took a picture. Was it a wee guy on a motorcycle?

Up close, the black mass certainly did not look like a spider. Maybe two spiders had a fight and died and dried up on the pillow. Or maybe it was balled up black thread. I took another picture.

With a tissue I carefully and gently picked up the "thing" from the pillow and photographed it. The third picture was still a mystery. It seemed to be a mass of grass or something that might grow in a field. I am baffled by the tiny mass, yet I am pretty sure it was not a spider! I Googled spiders and Colorado has some pretty ugly looking spiders. The good thing is that spiders eat insects and not humans and spider bites usually do not require medical attention!

"When spider webs unite,

they can tie up a lion."

Ethiopian Proverb