Who Is The Susie In Your Life?

My dear friend and foster sister forwarded this to me:

Come with me to a third grade classroom. There is a nine year old kid sitting at his desk and all of sudden there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out , he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.


The boy believes his heart is going to stop. He puts his head down and prays "This is an emergency; I need help now! Five minutes from now I am dead meat."

He looks up and the teacher is coming toward him with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.

As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretends to be angry.

Now instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. As life would have it, the ridicule that would have been his has been transferred to someone else; Susie.

She tries to help mop up, but they tell her to get away. "You've done enough, you klutz."


At the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
Susie whispers back "I wet my pants once too."

We all have opportunities to help mop up if we look for it and respond to other peoples needs. We each take turns going through tough times. I wet my pants too, at least I have done things as embarrassing. How about you?

Second Hand Smoke

Some things in life are like second hand smoke: Dangerous, Addictive, A waste of money, Invades my space, Harmful, Disenchanting, Changes the home atmosphere to a disagreeable and unpleasant smell.

The only way to disinfect the atmosphere and restore healthy air and safe heart is to remove the irritant. Just putting out the cigarette is not enough. Removing the smoker is the only way to restore sanity and serenity.

I have realized that two months is my limit. If I can see an end to something that is a constant stressful situation, I am able to draw on my patience and understanding but only for so long. For me, it is two months. After two months of interrupted rest, emotional struggles, static atmosphere, lack of stability, and fear, I have to do things to restore my safe little world. I cannot share that with anyone or anything that destroys my peace and dictates the atmosphere and controls my environment.

What does it say about a relationship that someone would turn on someone if they will not buy that person one more pack of cigarettes. Addictions are mind altering and cruel. 

Photo found on Google.

Friends

What would I do without friends right now. I hope I have a heart to be there for other people as much as some people have been here for me while I am hurting and trying to heal.

Two Blocks Away

So far, the photos I have been showing of my little town have been of the townies. Here is a view from a walk two blocks away.

Going Backward

As a kid, I would often dream I was falling backward into blackness. I don't like going backward to this day.

When I was younger and liked carnivals and fairs, I enjoyed being up in the Ferris Wheel until it stopped and started going backward.

Most of my auto accidents I have had were when I was driving backward.

A few years ago I attended a week long workshop and one of the exercises is shown in the picture:  Falling backward into the waiting arms of other attendees. I could do all the other strenuous exercises, but I could not cross my arms across my chest and fall backward into their arms. The instructor kept repeating to me that they were my comrades, my peers, and on and on, but I could only think that they were strangers, how could I trust them to truly catch me.

Apparently, going forward is my best direction.

Evening Delight

That is not the moon.

It is a streetlight in the next block.

This sunset photo is untouched.

Cool, huh?

Did I mention how small this town is? Less than 1100 people. It is wonderful for someone like me. The people in this town embrace newcomers. With smiles, waves,

I moved to small (to me) towns off and on over my working years, and was held at arms length and was not made welcome. Especially when I moved from Las Vegas to a midwest town. Just the name Las Vegas conjured up fantasies for the people in the town and sometimes a person would stop me on the sidewalk to ask me a stupid question about my life in Las Vegas. I think half of them believed I was either a hooker when I lived in Las Vegas or part of the "mob". One man accosted me in the small grocery store in the produce section. I had never seen this man in my life.   He sidled up to me, speaking in a confidential manner,  telling me he would set me up in a house rent-free for life if I would be his girlfriend, and by the way, he and the other men offering similar "opportunities" were married men. Some lonely widowers would come to the cafe where I worked for awhile, bringing little gifts to me that I graciously refused. I was the talk of the town the first year I lived there, and a lonely person.

Fast forward twenty years to when I moved to this little town a year ago, to find the reception welcoming and calm. I use the word "calm" over and over these days. It is something I have wanted in my life since I was born into an angry, yelling, physically violent family. That is many years behind me and more than just years have been placed between me and those memories. Replaced by my present time of serenity within my soul, manifesting in my being and grateful heart.

I took the photo of the VFW hall. Sometime I will check out their Bingo Night.