In the past I have written numerous times about things like perspective, the power of intent, and/or attitude. If you live the way I do, attitude can make or break you…
When I am faced with something out of my control, which is nearly every day, I have to guard against an attitude of fear or worry. I am a control freak by nature, so patience is NOT one of my virtues… not naturally!
Writing allows me to see my own attitudes and emotions, assessing whether or not I’m looking at things from the correct angle… or whether I’m making a mountain, if you know what I mean?!
For an attitude adjuster, I chose a little something from someone I greatly admire…
My Note to Self #17 is,
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you don’t change it, change your attitude.” Maya Angelo
The way she said it, there is no need for me to explain any further!
For todays Christmas Music, I have selected several songs that just made me feel good and I wanted to share them with you.
Try putting this song on when your havin a bit of trouble getting your attitude station tuned properly… O Come All Ye Faithful by King and Country… yes I love this group and therefore you hear me playing them often.
Once you’ve ensured that there’s a grateful station tuned in on your attitude, follow it up with All I want for Christmas is by Mariah Carey… your welcome!
Before I even tried to answer this prompt I headed to my local google looking for some important information. First of all, I wanted to know exactly what my choices were.
According to Google, “As of 2018, there are 19,495 incorporated cities, towns and villages in the United States. 14,768 of these have populations below 5,000. Only ten have populations above 1 million and none are above 10 million. 310 cities are considered at least medium cities with populations of 100,000 or more.
This is tough question for me, logistically, since I spent approximately 5 years in a Tractor Trailer with my husband, driving OTR from one corner of our great nation to the other, and back again. We have been to all but like 2 states, and traveled most of the back highways more times than I can count.
There are a great many cities in this country that no one knows about, aside from those living within these lovely communities. It just seems sort of unfair to so many of these hidden gems.
The next thing that stumped me about the prompt was the openness of the question… why am I wanting to visit, how long will I want to stay, and who else should be there. If I attempted to answer all of that, we would need a great many more cookies in the room to keep you all here. There is that tiny line that shouldn’t be crossed called TMI or Too Much Information!
I don’t think that I would be a great representative for most of the big cities we traveled to or through, while making deliveries. Perspective changes everything, including this prompt question! From a truck driving wife’s view… most big cities leave much to be desired, and they hide their ugly side pretty well from the average visitor… but not us! We got to experience the dirty underside of most those places. To be honest, from my perspective… the little cities were much more memorable in good ways than the bigger ones. Things would have looked much different if I were a tourist, though, so I am not sure it is fair for me to talk smack about the big places.
Truth be told, I have no place that I really desire to visit. I have a great many lovely memories of the travels we had, but I really just love my local park and squirrels… I’ve no reason to want to go anywhere at the moment.
I do have a dream of sorts, though. Wanna know what it is?
I have this dream that one day we will be traveling on the open road again, but with a greater purpose than ever before. Our Motor Home will have an overhaul so that it can be trustworthy. We will have a new skin wrapped on the outside of her that reads JOURNEY WITH ME! We will travel to wherever we are called and I can do live performances for children in hospitals, schools, orphanages and churches… giving stories of Acorn Valley, Just a Bag, Brutus and more… If they have a hook up, we will come!
That is really the only visiting I feel like doing…
Imagine, if you will, sitting beside a roaring fire and listening to holiday music. As you listen to the music playing, you watch the falling snow outside and your mind wanders off down pathways of Christmas memories…
Light of The World by Lauren Daigle should get us started…
Picking the right songs for our Fireside Friday required a great amount of listening to holiday songs… poor me… not! I set about searching through what’s out there, but it wasn’t long before I noticed something odd. I found a ton of music for Jesus, Mary, the Wise Men, the Angels, and most of the animals that were in the manger. But, it occurred to me that I’ve been missing music about a very valuable member of our manger. What must it have been like for Mary’s husband Joseph, I wondered… so I went searching, and I found a beautiful song that gives us a peek at things from his angle…
Enjoy The Carol of Joseph by King and Country
I sure cry a lot during Christmas, but it isn’t because I feel bad… it’s just the opposite! Music has always effected me this way. When someone puts a melody with words, it changes how we listen to things. Saying I believe in you, with tender music, just makes me bawl my eyes out. I’m not sure it would have the same effect on me, however, if there was circus music playing… see what I mean?
Now that I’ve managed to start my morning off with a tear stained salty cup of coffee, thanks to my choices in songs, I will turn up the Christmas cheer volume…
There’s no better way to do that than a little bit of Brenda Lee…
From fun with Brenda to some jamming with a group called Train…
Before we end this music madness, I have one more for the road. Christmas is not the same without a bit of Chuck Berry…
I’ll be honest in saying that at first, I thought the question asked what I thought people were saying about me, rather then what I hope they say. I stopped and made a cup of coffee and reread the prompt before answering.
While I am fully aware of what has been said about me in the past, what is possibly being said at this moment, and what may be said of me in the future… I no longer care!
In truth, I do not wish for anyone to SAY anything ABOUT me… instead, my hope is that they SEEsomething IN me!
There is only One whose opinion matters to me and only one thing I hope that He says… “Well done, my good and faithful servant” Matthew 25:21 … that’s it!
Whenever I think for any time at all, on what others may say of me… I feel like being Snarky or sassy, and that makes me not like myself. I consciously make the choice for my thoughts to dwell elsewhere!
Anyways… talk is cheap, and there’s a lot of it flying around most days. Sometimes folks say nice things about us and sometimes not! Depends on the day, the time, how they feel, if they liked you, and/or if they want something from you. Remember, I said sometimes… not all the time!
My answer reflects the only opinion that should matter for anyone… care about the words said by the one sitting in that Fox Hole with you, instead of everyone else barking at you from the field outside…
Since the Northern Lights always makes me think of Santa and his Sleigh bounding across the night sky, I simply have to share an oldy but goody. Who doesn’t love Charlie Brown?
Ok, I’ll be serious… let’s try this again.
Better??? I love the oldies for some of these songs.
This woman has some incredible vocals. Who among us girls has not dreamt of singing some of her songs… hairbrush in hand… in front of a mirror? Wait?! Did I just do an overshare? Oh well…
This last song is ridiculous but I still love it and since you are already here, you might as well check it out…
Does any of this have any rhyme or reason? Probably not, but it IS Christmas, so I just keep picking out songs and videos that make my holiday brighter… and I’m sharing them with my favorite people… YOU!
When I first saw the prompt this morning, I was momentarily perplexed. I’ve done way too many things in my life to try picking just one to remember the first day.
What are the odds that you can remember your very first birthday or your very first holiday? I wouldn’t go to Vegas with those odds if I were you… just sayin!
I, however, can remember both my very first Birthday and Christmas celebration. Why? Well, I’ll tell you, if you wish to stick around long enough to read.
Most of you have already read most of my history… born into a family that celebrated NO holidays whatsoever! I think I may have even written about a time as a small girl, where I made a tiny tree and gifts out of twigs and toilet paper and hid them under my bed. I waited for everyone to go to sleep on Christmas Eve and just sat on the floor next to my bed pretending. I was trying to celebrate something that seemed like it should be important.
Years later, when I was 15 and just landing in one of the first healthy foster homes I’d seen, it so happened to be during the Christmas Season. Somehow, I got chosen by a local family to be their guest for the upcoming holiday. Maybe you would have been scared to be handed over to complete strangers for a overnighter… but I was so used to be passed around that this was nothing!
They came and picked me up two days before Christmas, taking me to stay at their very large estate… yeah… they were very wealthy! Apparently, they owned the local timber mill that supplied the area with all its lumber needs.
I woke up on the morning of Christmas Eve to a massive table of every breakfast item imaginable… and………….. my first gift… for my Birthday!!!!! They took me horseback riding in the snow and I was wearing my first Birthday gift… a Members Only Jacket with a fur lined hood! I actually wore that thing for several years, until the fur wore away from the edges and the zipper actually dropped off.
We stayed up late into the night watching movies in this massive theatre style family room, where I eventually fell asleep from all the days adventures. While I was asleep that night, the whole family snuck in a giant Christmas tree, decorated it, and filled the entire room with gifts and stockings and all the holiday trimmings. I woke up to a wonderland of lights and packages everywhere I looked. It was amazing how the whole of this family took the time and effort to do this for me… little ole me!
I will never forget this first day at something I had never before experienced… a FAMILY! They were so loving to one another and the house was filled with laughter, love and hope. F.Y.I. … they even had a birthday cake with candles sitting amidst the holiday foods… for me!
Looking back on these memories ended up being the perfect answer to the prompt, and at Christmas time even!!!! What are them odds… maybe I should go to Vegas!
I know I played it the other day, but my all time favorite Christmas song has to be Heaven Everywhere by Francesca Battistelli. I decided to play it again……… cause I can! I tried to bring the actual music video in to my blog, rather than send you out to watch it. Let me know if you like it better when I have you click on the title, or just watch it right here.
Winter Wonderlands are never complete without puppies… who doesn’t love watching puppies play in the snow?!
While I could fill these pages with stories of some of my antics in the past, I will instead regale you with memories we all can relate to… our moments with Mr. Microphone!!!
I think that most of us have performed or given a speech at one point or another. It started when we were small children and still full of imagination! Who didn’t play pirates at the public park… we didn’t care who was watching.
Did we, or did we not play act at any given moment? We had baby dolls to feed, change, and spank… yes, I used to put my babies in the corner for time outs. I will even wager that many of us dressed up our dogs and cats and locked them in a room with us while we sang a song, or gave an award winning performance of Laura from Little House on the Prairie.
When Mr. Microphone came on the scene in 1979 I was 11 years old. I never bought one myself, but it wasn’t necessary since nearly everyone I knew had them. Now you may understand why I figured we’ve all done a bit of song and dance at some point in the past… you just sort of forgot… or blocked it out, depending on how bad you sounded on Mr. Microphone.
While I can’t say how good I was, I can say with certainty that I was LOUD! I figured that with the feedback we got from those things, if I just yelled into the mike, no one would know the difference… and they didn’t! Oh I’m sure they heard how bad I sounded, but you see, none of us cared… because we were still kids.
Looking back over the years, I have been on stage a good many times, but it wasn’t nearly as fun and fulfilling as when I was young and didn’t care what people would think.
When my girls were small, we spent a great deal of time in different children’s programs at Church and School. Every change of season brought some form of program or other that required our little ones to cross a stage, whether it be a piano recital or Holiday Pageant. The girls did great in groups of kids, but not the solo stuff… I’m talking deer in the headlights!
Get them together with their closest friends, however, and it was a completely different story… let the drama commence! All we had to do was give them some form of recording device and either lock them in… or lock them OUT! Hours later there would be food and a premier performance of whatever they came up with… sometimes a video, sometimes a talent show, or sometimes a Live Performance!
If you are ever wondering about personality and character dynamics… just watch a group of kids trying to organize themselves into a functioning show of music or acting. You will see the directors come out, the stand-up comedians, the drama queens, and last but not least… the OCD kids that will have a melt down if things can’t be perfect! Remember, they are grown ups in training, so this is where they are figuring out how to act and respond to those around them.
When I was a kid we did this kind of stuff too, but there were no lightweight cameras or Video Recorders. All we had was the 80 lb. movie production size Camcorders needing the strength of Thor to carry them… and Mr. Microphone! No Problem… we got the job done… in the back of cars driving down the street, in bathrooms across America, and in school hallways before a teacher could confiscate them.
I better stop here, or we will end up down some memory lane that lands us in a part of my naughty days that, fortunately, were not caught on camera.
I do really miss the I Don’t Care What People Think days… yes, I miss you Mr. Microphone!!!
In honor of my 55 years of existence, I have decided to gift myself 55 virtual Golden Retriever puppies…
These virtual puppies are guaranteed to brighten even the darkest of days, filling the air with oodles of puppy breath that will surely be the worlds best antidepressant on the market!!!
I had a pre Birthday walk yesterday and it was divine! While on my walk, I heard a fantastic song and wanted to share the warm fuzzies I’m feeling these days… give a listen to Lead on Good Shepard by Patrick Mayberry.
I wouldn’t dream of ending with just one song… are you kidding, it’s almost Christmas!!!
You can’t have holiday music without Ray Stevens, so for my birthday I give to me… It’s a Redneck Christmas
You all know how much I love to sing, but I chose the next best thing for this last Birthday/Holiday song… Jim Carey singing White Christmas … just think of me as you watch him.
I made us a virtual cake for my Birthday… grab a slice before you go…
Right now I am thoroughly enjoying my new eyeballs… so I’m doing a good bit of blinking, which is pretty nice. If you’re wondering, it’s because they took out the astigmatism in my right eye during the first surgery, so blinking doesn’t hurt anymore.
Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite physical activities or exercises?
Today also marks the first day I shall be walking on my trails again… I am sooooooo excited!
However, I shall first be drinking a cup of coffee while I answer this prompt. Reading and writing are some of my other favorites. My new eyes have made these activities even more wonderful than I remembered. I have placed a hold on my first choice of good reads with my new peepers. I decided on Redwall by Brian Jacques. I started reading this book for my children years ago and ended up falling in love with the characters. I basically binge read everything written by the author. Whenever a new book came out in the series… I had it! I know it’s for younger readers but I don’t care… talent is talent and this author owned it with pretty much whatever he wrote. I aspire…
I also have plans to pick a camera back up, as well as a paintbrush and also my faithful crotchet hooks… why not, I say?!
Whatever my favorite activities are or will be, it is fitting that my eyes now work fully… to be a light in the darkness, one needs good vision!
Journey With Me! 