~for the good that is all around you~

In the late autumn of my life, I sit and realize just how quickly time has passed by.  I have lived a lot of life and at age 61, I give thanks for it all.  Each of the experiences that I have encountered, the bad and the good, have refined my character and made me into the person I was always meant to be.  If you have played any part in that, I have something to tell you.

"Thank you."

2016 is coming to an end.  The day after tomorrow will be time for another year to begin.  It's scary and exciting all at the same time.  Even though the news is filled with one bad thing after another, I know in my heart that there is much more good than there will ever be bad.  It's a message I'm going to be preaching to my students at school with regularity.  Kids pick up on the unsettledness of life and now, more than ever, it's important to remind them to always look for what is good and right about the world they live in.

I have been a witness to so much of that "good".  

In this part of the world, I guess you call it "the south", I have been impressed by the good manners of so many people.  There is hardly a day that goes by that someone, somewhere won't hold the door open for me.  I thought it might be due to the fact that I'm getting a bit older, but then I realized that doors get held open for all ages of folks here.  One thing I learned right away was the fact that I am now living in the land of "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am", and I kind of like that.  It's not that I didn't notice it while living in Kansas or even Colorado, because I did. Yet here I sense it even more and I appreciate that act of respect and honor to me, a total stranger.  

We have made many friends here in this new land of ours, good people who have the sincere desire to always help in any way that they can.  My good friend Mary, from back in Colorado, told me to expect lots of people to come to our aid if we ever needed some help.  She was so right!  Those kind of folks are all around us, from Mike's job at the hardware store to my job at school.  I am always amazed, but I really shouldn't be.

When 2017 arrives in just a short time now, we won't know what the year shall bring.  The only thing any of us can do is to go forward in faith.   The same God who picked me up from the prairies of Kansas and transplanted me in the mountains of Colorado, has watched over me on the plains of northern Texas.  

I'm planning on leaving things in His hands.
It usually works out much better that way.

                                                        

                               A lot of good people live there~