The Donkey and Me


The Donkey and Me

I was just chatting with a friend of mine on Facebook. She is such a nice person. She was trying to explain as so many of my friends have been all day that I need to continue to remain true to myself.

Have you ever tried changing for someone? Maybe your parents, or a boyfriend, or a teacher or boss? Did it work? I have tried but I end up being a failure because I didn’t remain who God had made.

T…

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The Past & Today


I don’t know or remember if I have written about this topic and tonight I am too lazy to go way back in my posts to see. I realize it is warm everywhere; well it must be because for the second time it is quite warm here in Warsaw, Indiana.

I have just been lazing today. Is that a real word? If not, it is now a Terry word. Took AJ for several walks. Showed my neighbor’s trailer. Almost had the cash in his hand but the younger generation with the parents said, no, too small. I know the neighbor was disappointed, but I tried to boost his hopes back up. He may have alternatives if he doesn’t sell it by the end of the month.

So I did crap, but yet I stayed busy. I love watching the Waltons, and of course this was on tonight. It was a rather serious show. Christmas and the family being all together.

This hits a sensitive  spot with me as each year I struggle with my emotions wondering who and who won’t be here Will there be arguing or no arguing. Will everyone bring something or should I make extra.  When I was young family was  just expected to attend. No questions, no doubts. Family was very important in earlier days. Now people have to work weekends, don’t get the benefits they used to get and life can suck at holidays, no doubt.

But I had to giggle throughout the show. Our culture today has been brainwashed that Christmas is all about gifts. I won’t even bring Jesus Christ into it tonight. I don’t want another post where there could be comments I don’t want to read. So just keeping on the gift giving.

Me, as a child, always got that big gift I dreamed about and I am sure I bugged my parents to death since Halloween was over. We had good Christmas mornings. We were blessed. We weren’t given the world. There weren’t gifts staggering from the tree to the hallway. We didn’t get it, but the important thing was we didn’t expect it.

Today’s world is about money. Spend big and spend what you don’t have. Not everyone, so don’t take offense, but let’s face it. If most weren’t living this way at Christmas, the sales departments would go down and another idea would be born.

I have worked with organizations where the goal is to help the less fortunate. It is truly a bigger gift than receiving when you hand a mama a bag of toys and as you wish her a Merry Christmas tears run down her face from joy.

They don’t get tons of things but what is important to them is that their kids get something under the tree. I know, I know, the system is abused. I have dealt with that too. It can tend to cause your hair to turn grey as you pick out the needles in the hay that have went to every program there is getting triple what they should; sometimes leaving the deserving short on gifts.

But all in all, we hope and pray it is fair in the end and no one suffers. Do children suffer today if they don’t get lots of gifts? I have to admit when my kids were small we did go all out. We saved and spent little on birthday’s to give more on Christmas. For me, it was more for me than for the kids. I enjoyed seeing them scream in delight, jump up and down with joy.

They may have been disappointed more because they learned to expect big times on Christmas, but if we didn’t produce so much, I think they would have been sad but would have adjusted quickly, knowing they were going to Grandma’s later that day.

Today, I would change some things. There would be less gifts and more talk about what Christmas is all about. I know I brought it up, but I wasn’t as strong in my faith then as I am now.

But laughing through the Waltons because I can see how times have changed so much. They were working hard on making sure the entire family was together and they spent sometimes days or weeks making that one special gift for each other. Some saved their pennies for months to buy something.

Today if we don’t have the money we charge. If we can’t get what they ask for we carry guilt. In the Walton days it was different. I giggled because the family got one gift a piece. I stopped giggling and started tearing up when the entire family was together, holding hands and giving thanks all around the table. When they all repeated Amen, the smiles remained and they ate together and had a wonderful Christmas.

christmas tree

The Donkey and Me


I was just chatting with a friend of mine on Facebook. She is such a nice person. She was trying to explain as so many of my friends have been all day that I need to continue to remain true to myself.

Have you ever tried changing for someone? Maybe your parents, or a boyfriend, or a teacher or boss? Did it work? I have tried but I end up being a failure because I didn’t remain who God had made.

There are so many opinions in the world and we definitely are all blessed to be able to think and voice them. I used to always try to please my parents, friends and husband. It was important to me with the shaky childhood I had as a toddler.

It didn’t work. I knew my parents loved me but I needed to hear it, and this never happened. Sometimes we need to be told or recognized in some verbal way. Not all of us are like that. Some don’t care what others think about them.

Then there are others who are extra sensitive to words, and I guess, no I believe I fall in that category. So reading all the positive comments today helped me so much. I made a promise to myself this morning to not let all things I hear, to take them personally. It will be a hard task but I will save myself a lot of pain.

At the end of my conversation with Mary Grace M. Salomes she asked me if I had ever read the story of the donkey. I said I had not. She told me to google it and read it, so I did. See how obedient I am? LOL

This is the story I found and I can see why Mary thought I should read it. It fit me to a T. Here is the story.

Thank you Mary for teaching me by showing me.

 

 

 

 

 

Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.)  Fables.
The Harvard Classics.  1909–14.

 

The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey
A MAN and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”   1
  So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”   2
  So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”   3
  Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours—you and your hulking son?”   4
  The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the Donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the Donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.   5
  “That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them:

“PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”
  6

Thank-You


I had a very restless night last night. I didn’t sleep well at all. I stressed and worried about the many negative remarks on my post yesterday.  I pondered on maybe just giving up writing.

If I have to worry about whether I am going to be slammed for my honesty in writing, it may not be worth putting it out to the world.

A friend did remind me that my blog is placed for all to see and there are…

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