Over 114,000 dead from Sunday's earthquake and tsunami, and the death toll keeps climbing. I cannot imagine the loss and suffering--the panic, lack of food and basic supplies. And then the spread of disease that usually follows this kind of devastation.

I wonder how Falguni is. She had left just before Christmas to go back to India for a wedding.

Lord, I honestly don't know how to pray right now, but to just say that you are bigger than all of this. Help those who are suffering and show us how to be your light and heart in this tragedy.

I guess we all have gifts from Christmas past that we remember fondly. I have had more than my share --from the handmade cards and gifts from my children and now my grandchildren to the hi-tech sort that bring me closer to living the sci-fi life Gene Roddenberry and Ray Bradbury captured on paper.

Each gift or memory of a gift evokes a miriad of feelings, putting me in touch with an event or an atmosphere or a circumstance or a person.

One year, my grandfather gave me a very different sort of gift: It was a sprite can filled with pennies. In fact, he did the same thing for my mom, my brother, both my kids and my husband. My kids emptied out their cans. Our son actually counted them and told us there were 203 pennies in his can. Jim and I never emptied ours out. They still sit on the bookshelf as a reminder of one of the "twilight" Christmases we were blessed to share with "Epaw".

He was a man of few words, so there was never any explanation as to why he filled the cans with money as a gift, but it is a reminder to me of a man whom I loved and who loved me and will miss until eternity swollows up death.

I am not joining the ranks of the Weight Watchers Backsliders, but I am taking a bit of a seasonal break. After the Thanksgiving festivities, I gained .8 lbs. According to my scales, I am holding my own. It may be January before I weigh in again.

I am looking for moderation, and if that fails, I will try for "excess within control".

Good luck to all!

Grief is a long journey with many false conclusions. About the time you think you have gotten through it, you realize that you are nowhere near the end.

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There are two categories of people that I fear: the ones with no experience with your trauma and those who are hurting themselves to such a point that they stab at you in their own pain.

I don't blame those in pain who inadvertantly hurt me, because I am sure I have done the same thing and may never know in this life who all I have been guilty of hurting. But, I do try to stay out of their path if I cannot be an instrument for healing.

There are times, when those people won't let you avoid them, but they won't let you love them either. And, it is at times that I hear the words of Jesus, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." It is not easy to hear these words! It is even more difficult to heed them!

Thought for the day:

When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we should engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.

Planning for the Golden Years
(borrowed from GCLF)

As I was checking my 401(k) account and thinking about retirement, I saw an article about nursing and retirement homes are.

Then it hit me. No nursing home for me!

Here is my plan: I'm checking into the Holiday Inn.

With the average cost for a nursing home reaching $188 per day, there is a better way when we get old and feeble. I have already checked on reservations at the Holiday Inn. For a combined long-term stay discount and senior discount, it's $49.23 per night. That leaves $138.77 a day for breakfast, lunch, dinner in any restaurant I want, or room service. It also will leave enough for laundry, gratuities, and special TV movies. Plus, I'll get a swimming pool, a workout room, a lounge, and washer and dryer. I'll also get free toothpaste, razors, shampoo and soap. And I'll be treated like a customer, not a patient.

Five dollars worth of tips a day will have the entire staff scrambling.

There is a city bus stop out front, and seniors ride free.

The handicap bus will also pick me up if I fake a decent limp. Ride the church bus free on Sundays. For a change of scenery, take the airport shuttle bus and eat at one of the nice restaurants there. While you're at the airport, fly somewhere.

Meanwhile, the cash keeps building up.

It takes months to get into decent nursing homes. On the other hand, Holiday Inn will take your reservation today. And you are not stuck in one place forever -- you can move from Inn to Inn, or even from city to city.

Want to see Hawaii? They have a Holiday Inn there, too.

TV broken? Light bulbs need changing? Need a mattress replaced? No problem. They fix everything and apologize for the inconvenience.

The Inn has a night security person and daily room service. The maid checks if you are OK. If not, they will call the undertaker or an ambulance. If you fall and break a hip, Medicare will pay for the hip, and Holiday Inn will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.

And no worries about visits from family. They will always be glad to visit you, and probably check in for a mini-vacation. The grandkids can use the pool. What more can you ask for?

When I discussed my plan with friends, they came up with even more benefits that Holiday Inn provides retirees. Most standard rooms have coffee makers, reclining chairs, and satellite TV -- all you need to enjoy a cozy afternoon.

After a movie and a good nap, you can check on your children (free local phone calls), then take a stroll to the lounge or restaurant where you meet new and exotic people every day.

Many Holiday Inns even feature live entertainment on the weekends. Often they have special offers, too, like the Kids Eat Free program. You can invite your grandkids over after school to have a free dinner with you. Just tell them not to bring more than three friends.

Pick a Holiday Inn where they allow pets, and your best friend can keep you company as well. If you want to travel, but are a bit skittish about unfamiliar surroundings, you'll always feel at home because wherever you go, the rooms all look the same. And if you're getting a little absent-minded in your old days, you never have to worry about not finding your room -- your
electronic key fits only one door and the helpful bellman or desk clerk is on duty 24/7.

Being natural skeptics, we called a Holiday Inn to check out the feasibility of my plan. I'm happy to report that they were positively giddy at the idea of us checking in for a year or more. They even offered to negotiate the rate. We could have easily knocked them down to $40 a night!

So, when I reach the golden age I'll face it with a grin.
Just forward all your emails to the Holiday Inn!

Received from FranCMT2.

It is so hard to live up to the labels we wear, or even to remember what labels we are wearing. The following story just made me laugh.

A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming
in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the
intersection with him. As she was still in mid-rant, she
heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a
very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to
exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police
station where she was searched, fingerprinted,
photographed, and placed in a cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell
and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking
desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her
personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I
pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn,
flipping the guy off in front of you, and cussing a blue
streak at him. I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate
holder, the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, the 'What Would Jesus Do' and the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper stickers. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."

Received from Janet Price.

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Brought to you by GCFL.net: The Good, Clean Funnies List
"A cheerful heart is good medicine!" (Prov 17:22a)

The evening hours have been times of solitude for me. With night falling earlier, I go home ready to hybernate and turn on a Christmas "feel good" movie Hallmark recently aired "Once Upon a Christmas" and "Twice Upon a Christmas". Aside from the fact that I like John Dye because of his Touched by an Angel affiliation, I liked watching it, though I must confess I did fall asleep.

Kristen, played by Kathy Ireland, is an immortal who is the daughter of Santa Claus. She gives up her immortality to live with a family who had been touched by grief in the death of the wife and mother. In doing so, Kristen also loses all memory of her previous identity.

As it so happens, Kristen has a sister (Rudolfa) who is rather evil and manipulative. With Kristen out of the way, Rudolfa concocts a scheme for selling off pieces of the North Pole. She also includes momentoes from Kristen's childhood. The kids Kristen cares for see the advertisements and order "Pieces of the Pole". What is interesting is that the pieces they receive actually serve to help Kristen retrieve her memory.

The thought occurred to me that this is so often what happens in the dance between good and evil. Evil takes its best shots, but God takes those very arrows and uses them for good in our life, often to accomplish the very opposite of what Evil or Satan was trying to achieve.

Mike Cope's Blog and recent comments on divorce in the Church has inspired me to make a few comments of my own. I have lifted my own comment on his blog and pasted it here. To the extent that context may be missing to understand where I am coming from, I apologize.

It is hard to share the "scars" of divorce without running the risk of opening up old wounds. It is hard to focus on the faithfulness of God through the divorce without being tempted to also "confess" the faults of others or having to turn again and wallow in your own mistake.

As one of the many children of divorce out there, I know how my parents suffered on both sides of the equation. But God was there, even when the church struggled with how to deal with their decision.

My parents were not perfect in their dealings with each other; I was not the perfect child in my dealings with them or their decision; and the Church, who is also made up of imperfect people, did not always make the perfect choice in dealing with my parents.

And, my parents did not hold the church to a higher standard than they were capable of living themselves, because they knew that they, too, were part of that "imperfect" church. But they did want people who were involved in decisions concerning them to "hear" them.

It is hard for us to deal with divorce in our midst, because it reminds us of the truth that, "but for the grace of God......."