Same Children, Different Year

You remember the movie, The Christmas Story? I don’t know if there is a person who hasn’t seen it at some time. I didn’t watch it for many years because of memories connected with my deceased brother. This past Christmas I was able to watch about a fourth of it before I had to get a way from it.

I’m sitting here watching the many kids running back and forth. I see they are sledding and having a lot of fun. I can hear them from my closed windows laughing. It took me back to my childhood days. The days of being outside in the winter.

For me, it took me as long to get my winter gear on as the time I spent outside was about the same. I never liked outside. In fact, today, with having to use my walker and my ability to stand-up steady being weak, I have actually been looking at rentals in Tennessee. It has been two winters now that I am using a walker or scooter. Most times I lean or grab onto other’s coats for an extra safety harness. I just don’t like it, I mean the fact, that the fear of falling on slippery ice or crunchy snow keeps me home bound more and more. I don’t like the feeling of knowing my home that well. LOL.

My parents had the whole wardrobe assembled at the door. Regular clothes, sweatshirt over shirt, two pairs of socks, two pairs of long pants, snowmobile suit, gloves and hat along with a scarf that always came untied and I was eating the fuzz. I felt like I couldn’t move. Perhaps this is why I didn’t like outdoor activities. I preferred shorts and a T, socks and my red Keds.

As I sit here and watch the kids, I can’t but notice some are dressed similar to how I was but others don’t have any boots on. A few don’t have gloves on. One girl has only a sweater on over her clothes. Is the snow warmer today than when I was a kid, or are these kids today more warm-blooded than I was as a youngster. Or is it the babysitter or parents lack of care. I don’t know, but I know it just makes me shiver and wonder about their families. I do know one thing for sure; they sure are having fun and that says a lot.

A Child of God

I would feel like dying if one of my children died. I have had it planned in my mind for many years that my children would outlive me. I would watch then grow up and have their own families and try to be there for them when needed.

I can’t imagine, and maybe it is because I lived a sheltered? life. Sheltered may not be a good word. I came from a family who ate together at meal times. We practiced manners, respect and definitely respected our parents words.

I don’t even really know if this is a true issue today, but I do believe that taking God out of our every day lives and trying to pretend that there isn’t a God can definitely not be helping today.

Yesterday, it saddened me that there were so many missing children posted on my Facebook. It is also becoming a daily news item on our televisions too. Sometimes I can actually understand when there is a divorce and one of the parents tries to take a child of theirs. I don’t agree with this. The parent doesn’t win and I doubt if the child ever forgets his/her torment that goes on in a child’s mind.

There was a missing child that came across my screen and it definitely made me notice as it was from my own town. Don’t these things happen in other towns? Not cities like mine, we are not that big of a city. No, this is happening everywhere and in every city.

This child was a male and was twelve years old. Of course, I may never know the real story, since I didn’t personally know the family. We only know what we are told, as the public. The one thing that was mentioned was that this young boy may have a gun with him.

I trust our town and I know that our law officers and many volunteers were looking for this child. What was the child’s thoughts? Had there been a fight at home? Was the child running away from home because he didn’t get his own way? Had there been abuse involved? I don’t know.

The thing that tortures my mind is the gun. Why a gun? Why was a gun in an area that a child could get his hands on it? I am not defending the ownership of guns. I don’t like them. i am in fear of them, but when I have fear of someone being on the other side of my door; I have wished i owned one, but who knows, I could have hurt my own self.

The facts are, if a gun is owned in a home, it is very important and a must to keep that weapon put away where no one under eighteen can reach it. I may hear slack from some of you and that’s alright; we all have our own opinions.

Well, I was just watching the news and it came on as an update to this missing child. The law found him deceased. How tragic this is. A life that God placed on this earth with a purpose, taken away so quick.

At this time, there is nothing being said on how this young by died. I pray he didn’t shoot himself.

I will pray for this child’s family. No one expects their child to die before the parents. This is a sad situation that seems to becoming more in the news. How can we fix this?

https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Missing-12-year-old-found-dead-near-Warsaw-568083441.html?fbclid=IwAR27rBpuYEvS3fTyRpctYvzovbVq2nueHGSCJwVAXSj7JNV494UgHKu6jZc

To a Bully

https://www.wndu.com/content/news/I-want-to-die-right-now-Mom-posts-aftermath-of-sons-bullying-568056821.html?fbclid=IwAR0b7Whu4uC1h1UHjYmtb9xdlXIp1AgfVSSanhOUA7_yrRfS_asU1NnsZS0

Although this bully story is outside of the United States bullying is a national problem. This case was on my local news station, channel 16, out of South Bend, Indiana and my Facebook. This case also comes from Australia.

I have never been anything special, so don’t think I am any better than the neighbor, but I did have a brother who was mentally challenged. As he grew older he wanted to be friends with anyone. In our school days is where I noticed his behavior of saying anything on the school bus that would get a laugh or attention from the other bus riders.

I stood up for him in the elementary years and I don’t know if this is why I get so irate at people who are picked on, teased or bullied even today. Maybe, it is just my personality or maybe it is something that every person gets mad at. Well, I guess that isn’t quite so is it? The bully and those who stand by and watch don’t seem to get too upset.

I have read many stories on Facebook of bulling and consider the smirks and laughing at my brother also bullying. There are many kinds of bullying. It just doesn’t have to do with school children.

You as a bully think it’s cool don’t you? It places you in the spotlight for a small frame of time. You even get by with it for days, weeks and perhaps months until something stops you. I have a feeling that when you lay your head down at night, you aren’t dreaming of how that kid feels when you bully him. Darn it, you are probably thinking up new ways to bully that other child as you lay there.

I love that Channel 16 made this topic available to all of us on Facebook. There is always the other side of the coin. The one we don’t see quite as often. The side that shows the damage you, the bully, are causing.

I want you to take the time to read this. Read it over and over until it sinks in your head what you are really doing. Try placing yourself in the other foot. Do you want to feel like this little boy feels?

Thank you Channel 16 news, for sharing this story with us.We need to stop this!!!

Happy Valentine’s Day to You

I wanted each of you to know that our friendship matters to me. Whether I have met you or not; you hold a special place in my heart.

CHALLENGES

I have enjoyed some changes I have gone through and I am pretty sure that the illness that God has allowed me to have has played a big part in the plan.

What I am actually speaking about is one word; challenges. Oh my gosh! You should have seen me up to just a few years ago. A challenge stared at me straight on and I would freeze.

I would ponder on it as my body stood frozen. I would talk to anyone who would listen about the problem and then I would argue with myself too much and worry about how or what the other person would say or feel.

I would end up not feeling well. I would feel sick, worn out, physically tired and the biggest thing; drained. It wasn’t pretty and I am pretty sure this caused my hair to turn white more than my kids could ever do.

When my father became ill, my faith became a little stronger in God. I did try going to church but what I really drew close to was, the conversations I had at home with just my God and me.

I think church is a good thing but for me there also drew issues of getting ready when my stability is not good. Problems of feeling like I belonged. Sitting for an hour and then getting up and leaving, many times with no one seeming to care if I showed or not. I found myself doubting me more and more.

I wanted simple so when my brother became ill and church became too much for him to go, we both started watching Joyce Meyers and Dr. Charles Stanley on TV. We both understood what was being taught and we started praying and reading our Bible more.

After my brother passed, I didn’t want to lose what I had gained with my relationship with God. I know I drifted a little from the church from remaining home so I tried once again going to church. Twice I did this and for whatever reasons it may have been, I found myself in that same old spot, so for now, I am staying home again and watching my two favorite people on the television.

My personal conversations with God are stronger today than ever before and I don’t have those doubts. It is simple. My life is simple. I thank God for his gifts and I tell him everything that I am having problems with.

This brings me to the word,challenges. I had a big challenge only two days ago. Instead of making myself sick; I just sat on my couch and told God all about it. He worked it out and I was able to not only trust him, but I got through it all calm.

Now, I thank God for all my challenges. Life, people and my illness can bring challenges as you know. God giving me and being there for me during the challenge has made me a more peaceful person, knowing I will survive and I will be alright.

Written by,
Terry Shepherd

Where I Belong

I find myself loving silence
I think this must be my age
I love the sounds of night time
Noise often makes me flinch.

I see the news in the background
I see my cat cleaning once again
I feel my breathing in and out
And yet I hear a zero sound.

I find myself remembering
The past comes to me so clear
A tear falls for what once was
I can’t find myself to sing.

Then I think about the present
And the contentment is very clear
I have everything I could have needed
Nothing borrowed and nothing sent.

i used to think i needed more
i wanted what they had bought
And then I realized it was foolish
And threw those feelings out the door.

So as i sit here in my quiet
I realize I am blessed
To make it to this moment
Is life at its very best.

Written by,
Terry Shepherd

On a Snowy Day

The snow is falling here in Warsaw, Indiana. It is so pretty to watch and even prettier because I had made the decision to get what I needed before the snow started. Staying inside is a joy when you choose to go that route.

Kids are out of school today because of the weather, and I have been watching a dad with his kids sledding. I never liked sledding. In fact, i never enjoyed anything outdoors in the winter, except that one special year.

i doubt if anyone from the Warsaw area would remember my granddaddy, unless you are up in age years.His name was Loften Johnson. He was the best of all grandpa’s. It was even better because he wasn’t my true, blood grandfather, but he sure never let on.

I have mentioned it in posts before, but the memory is so wonderful and always causes me to smile when I think about it, so one more post of it can’t hurt.

He had an old, I believe, Ford hood off a truck. This particular winter life was good and he had nothing special on his mind but spending time with us grandkids.

My brother, Alvin Miller, and two of my cousins, Dan Yoder and Rod Yoder, were along for this ride. Sorry, if there were more, I plain just forget. Granddad would get his gray tractor and with a chain, hook up some way the hood to the tractor.

Us kids in all our winter gear would hop on and on the lonely, country roads, granddad would pull us down the snowy roads. I remember laughing so much, not a care in the world, and never wanting this fun to stop.

Granddad used to make house calls here in Warsaw. He would work on your furnace or install furnaces. After he retired from that he began a new job with the State Highway. He drove one of their trucks.

One day while driving, the good Lord wanted him worse than we did. He had a heart attack and died instantly. He has been gone from this earth many years but remains still very close in my heart, especially when I look out my window and watch the snow falling and the little ones smiling as they make memories with their parents sledding.

Written by,
Terry Shepherd

Coffee is my best friend

Wake up
Drink the coffee
Fix the food
Start the wash
Change the sheets
Clean the john
Sit and rest
Drink the coffee
Take a sigh
Dust the white stuff
Sweep the floors
Fold the clothes
Clean the cat box
Pet the cat
Sit and rest
Drink the coffee
Start the supper
Do the dishes
Take a bath
Take a break
Drink the coffee
Take a sigh
Go to bed
Wake up
Repeat the day.
Written by,
Terry Shepherd