the new patio

Weeds, weeds, weeds! Every where I look, weeds. They’ve been growing all winter and each rain storm has made them multiply and spread. Funny, when I’m on a water diet I lose weight, but weeds just seem to get taller and invite guests. I didn’t really even notice the weeds till I got my patio finished, now when I relax on my new zero gravity lounge chair and look past the new terracotta bricks, red lava rocks that are around the tree in the center of my brand new patio, and hanging flower baskets bordering my brand new patio , that’s all I notice. They all seem to take away from the relaxing effect of …did I mention I had a brand new terracotta patio surrounded by flowers and red lava rock? If not, here I go again……

Well, I just thought my work was done; now instead of breaking my back laying bricks for a patio, I’m on my knees pulling up weeds. It’s a shame too; they are the only green thing that grows on my lawn. As I pull up one loosely rooted weed another springs up to take its place. This is one of those endless, thankless jobs that I just love looking forward to doing. Please, take careful note of the sarcasm; I don’t want it to be wasted. If I wasn’t afraid of weed eaters, due to my clumsiness, this job would be easier. But I figure using a weed eater for five minutes then spending a day in the emergency room doesn’t compare to the hours of manual labor even though some of those interns are kind’a cute.

Apparently, more than weeds have taken advantage of my winter sabbatical from the lawn mower, (now I will use the lawn mower despite my fears of losing toes, there is just no way I’m going to use scissors to level out my lawn!) Little trees have sprouted erratically about with roots too deep for a mere tug of a feminine hand, a calloused feminine hand with dirt under cracked nails. I have to rise from my kneeling position, brush the dirt from my knees, and search for some shears to snip these uninvited guests in two. That is really sad as I have wanted to plant some trees, but these didn’t cooperate and sprout in feasible locations around the borders, but smack dab in the middle of nowhere, yep, that’s where I live, Nowhere, U.S.A.(zip codeless)

Now, since pulling weeds is mindless work, (something I’m qualified for!) I reverted to thinking. (I know, that’s hard to imagine!) It dawned on me that the weeds sprang up from inattention; I had been too intent on building myself a peaceful retreat, developing tunnel vision, spurred on by lust of the eye. If I had just been on the job during the winter, or at least at the start of spring, I could have reduced the unwanted burdensome plant problem considerably. Ahh, a comparison is banging me on the head with vehemence! Are you ready for this? Weeds are like bad habits,(the politically correct term for sins) they can grow and multiply when we neglect to practice good habits, when we take the winter off, to just lay back and rest or divert our concentration to other projects. But the good news is bad habits can be broken or pulled up with some sweat and hard work. They only become difficult when we let the roots dig deep into the soil like the miniature trees I had to snip off with shears, those are the habits we need extra help surmounting, like alcoholism, over shopping and spending, over eating, cursing, judgementalism, to just name a few in a long list of weeds. The longer something is ignored, or lived with, the harder it is to conquer: the more drunk, broke, friendless or fat we become.

You can sit in the middle of Eden like my new red terracotta, flower lined patio with the lava rock encircled tree, {see initial paragraph for further description!} and sip mint julep tea while being invaded by an army of weeds, or you can open the word of God and succeed at legal identity theft by conforming to the image of Jesus, a process that requires daily work (effort, commitment) without time off for the holidays or seasons. Being too focused on one good deed, the patio, doesn’t excuse us from practicing regular spiritual hygiene!

P.S If however, you do find yourself on your knees pulling up weeds after the eye opening moment of discovery while sitting in your anti gravity chair on your new red terracotta brick flower lined patio with the lava rock encircled tree, make good use of the posture by multitasking, in other words, PRAY; it’ll make the time more beneficial and pass pleasurably. Oh, and wear gloves when you pull the weeds, your hands will appreciate it!

anonymous no more

One by one they went up front after their names were called. Not their full names, just their first names and maybe an initial for their last name. I actually recognized one of the attendees, but I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone I met him. That is horrible. To be this close to someone I see every week on my favorite show and have to keep my big fat mouth shut! What’s the use, no one would ever believe me anyway because his television persona is a super good guy!

They all had the same story, Hi my name is (fill in the blank) and I’m an alcoholic. Their stories were identical. That first drink, all the drinks in between, and the last drink. For some the last drink was right before they came to the meeting. They were hoping it would be their last drink. People rallied around these newcomers, hugging and crying. But the tears weren’t without hope, for some of the huggers had not had a drink in years. Well, maybe soda water, coffee and tea, but nothing fermented.

Lists were handed out to the newbie’s with names of same sex members they could chose from to call, anytime, anywhere. And standing invitations were open to come back the next day and the day after that and the day after that. In fact it was considered a requirement. Ninety days of attendance any group any hour. Recovery b y themselves wouldn’t be easy. They needed support. They needed encouragement. They needed to break ties with drinking buddies. They needed the twelve step program; they had to work through The Book. They needed a higher power. They needed God. Some needed a cigarette. That’s a whole other addiction that needs a support group. Smoker’s Anonymous. SA. Sounds catchy doesn’t it. Well maybe I need to work on that.

Anyway, I noticed the guiding principle here. Support. Encouragement. No one judged anyone, condemned anyone. I was here by invitation only to witness a relative get his recognition for months of sobriety: a gold (plated) token. Yeah! You go boy! Everyone cheered for him the same as they had for the other anonymous members. His sponsor got up and spoke glowing words about his accomplishments in the past few months. Yeah! You go boy! I was so proud of him!

I’m a member of another larger group I was invited to years ago. When we gather we get up and say, “Hi, my name is (fill in the blank) and I’m a sinner.” We gather for support and encouragement. We’re not judged, (that’s a laugh, but at least we’re not judged by our higher power!)We get assigned a sponsor, direct from God himself, because walking the spiritual line isn’t easy on your own. We meet regularly. We break ties with other sinners who refuse to repent. Well, not all sinners because we’d have to leave the world for that, (and we will some glorious day, and it could just be today!) We just avoid the dangerous malefactors, drug dealers, thieves, fornicators (yes that’s an outdated word), star gazers, Satan and his cronies, any one that could lead us down the wrong road again. And that’s a judgment call because we aren’t all enticed by the same vices. We have a book we follow with only one step to recovery, acknowledging we’re sinners and accepting the free gift offered to us(free for us but it was costly to our founder!). We’re not an anonymous group, at least not here in America, and we are allowed to tell people who we meant at the meetings, again at least here, we’re especially required to tell people about our initiator, again, at least here, who ironically was a sinless man. And we get a token for our continued adherence to the program! It’s bigger than a gold plated token! It’s a crown! Or crowns! Or a city! Or cities! Yeah! You go people!

Math. 7:23
Luke 12:18
Luke 19:17
Rom. 16:17
1 Cor. 9:25
1 Thes. 2:19
2 Tim 3:5
2 Tim 4:8
1 Pet. 5:4

take action

Worried about unemployment, global warming, real estate, pollution, depleting the earth's resources, your children's futures? All these problems can be solved with one word- RECYCLE. It takes a little action but solves lots of issues.

I wish I had started recycling when I was younger. I've just re-discovered that recyclable items have little emblems hidden on them in various places to let us know what can be recycled. The problem is you need younger eyes to find these emblems, it's like searching for Waldo. Once older people get their cataract surgeries they are re-equipped for emblem hunting. Emblem, emblem, where's the emblem, is Waldo hiding it? Sometimes it's on the bottom on a crease, sometimes it's large and in the middle. Sometimes it's on the paper wrapper in black ink, sometimes it's in white ink. Sometimes it's on the front sometimes the back. The companies are more involved in making their packages look pretty than letting us know what can be reused or maybe they just like to play jokes. Some items look identical enough to me I search forever for an emblem to be disappointed. It sure takes a lot of time to be earth conscious. Can't we standardize the emblem? Would that be asking to much to always place it where the ingredients are listed or always on the bottom. And what's the deal with the size. Why does it have to be so small. I need a magnifying glass half the time to distinguish between the emblem and a scratch.

Recycling should be a priority for us as the earth fills with trash. My neighborhood doesn't have a recycling plan for hard goods, just bins strategically located for paper. So, not only do I spend time looking for emblems I stash things in a bag and cart them to my dad's house to share his recycling bin, I know others that do the same,(not to my dad's house, but other locations). It seems if my neighborhood was interested in papers they could place other bins nearby. At dad's home paper, plastic and cans all go in the same container.

I love treasure hunting though. I just thought to look on the little plastic hangers that came with my new bras and panties, recyclable. My Little Ceaser dog food trays, recyclable. Alpo dog food cans, soup cans, coke cans: recyclable. Plastic butter containers, baby food containers, cream cheese containers, recyclable. My slim fast cans, recyclable. I was throwing them away at work!! Shame on me. Detergent and bleach bottles, recyclable. Milk bottles, recyclable. All those plastic bags we cart our groceries home in, recyclable. Wal-Mart’s I know has a box to return the plastic bags, maybe other grocery stores do also. Think of the millions of plastic bags clogging up the pores of mother earth. Would you put a plastic bag over your mother's head!(well, that is another story, sorry, I didn't mean to generate fantasies!)

My job in a hospital is a major gold mine of recyclables but we don't have facilities for it. Most of the containers for supplies I open in the surgery department, recyclable! All going down the shoot to our incinerators and into the air to deplete the ozone layer. What a tragedy. I am trying my best to encourage recycling at work. The fear is those misfits that like to put the wrong items in bins because they are lazy or hateful will ruin it for us. I might start taking my “clean” work trash home to recycle bringing a whole new meaning to taking your work home with you. I told you I'm serious about this mission! Why do manufacturers of medical supplies bother to put emblems on their products if we just trash them?

Most of what we buy now is reusable why are we throwing them in land fills instead of converting them into insulation, carpets, asphalt, more paper, bridges, jobs, cleaner air, prettier landscape ect. Nothing is bio-degradable in land fills because garbage needs sunlight to decompose. Sun light doesn't penetrate down past all the rubbish. Soon we'll all be living on a garbage heap and propelling our refuse into God's heaven, on the bright side, we can always unearth newspapers 50 years old and still read them. We generate tons of waste yearly, adding to the weight of the globe, it won't be long before we'll start to sink out of our orbit and slip farther from the sun so don't worry about global warming, fear global freezing.

I hope we can pat our selves on the back for our good stewardship of planet earth and outer space. I wonder if we can get paid personal at the landfills sorting out what is still salvageable? A last chance poke at the garbage. Hobos digging for food and carting recyclables to a pick up location, that would be one way to earn a living and feel worthwhile. It would be killing two birds with one stone, recycling trash and hobos! Look, we're going to have to clean the planet up after the Lord's return, it would be a great benefit to ourselves to get an early start. Why spend eternity picking up after ourselves when we could be having fun chasing rainbows.

Benefits of Recycling:

Conserves resources for our children's future.
Prevents emissions of many greenhouse gases and water pollutants.
Saves energy.
Supplies valuable raw materials to industry.
Creates jobs.
Stimulates the development of greener technologies.
Reduces the need for new landfills and incinerators.

organ transplants

Organ transplants and donations are a personal matter. It is hard to
consciously decide to give up and organ even if we know we won't be using them
again. Coffins don't come with commodes or ventilation shafts so we don't need
our kidneys and lungs and we won't need our corneas because we don't pack
reading material. But to decide to not donate because of ethnicity seems odd to me.
Hispanics and Afro-Americans have high risks for renal failures and they have
higher objections to donating kidneys. Yet when it comes to choosing to receive
a kidney versus being on dialysis guess what they choose.

I asked an Afro-American friend if she would donate any organs and her answer was,
"I'm going to heaven with whatever God gave me."

Continuing on that line of reason I asked, "If you have breast cancer would you get a mastectomy?"

“Of, course, that's an illness."

"Well, what's renal failure?"

"Okay, maybe I’ll donate." ( Still not to sure she meant it, I think she was just trying to get me off her back!) but still not donating is a personal choice, I accept that.

To some it seems that life is a gift from God, and if a kidney fails it's God's
will or you need to place your faith in the right basket. I'm not God's spoke
person, I don't know how God feels about us giving our kidneys, lungs or heart
or corneas to someone else, does he think we're ungrateful, we didn't like the
color, it was the wrong size etc. Or does he feel like we do, (or should that be
vice versa?) that life is valuable and we were put here to help each other. He
gave his life for us, he donated a complete body yet we are afraid to donate a
small percent back to the living. if there is a resurrection from the dead, and I can't elaborate on my views because only certain people have freedom of speech, I'm not sure that a god
that created us out of dirt and organized a couple of universes can manage to
refurbish us with all our necessities.

I certainly would hate to get to heaven and not be able to use the bathroom because
I left my kidneys behind with a father of three ,or not be able to breath in
the clear crisp unpolluted air because my lungs were with a young medical
student , or to not be able to see the glorious new heaven because i left my
corneas with some one that wanted to see her grandchildren. Just in case though
I’m packing a crate of tydybowl and a oxygen tank to take with me and
requesting a bible in my casket.



ARTICLE FROM YAHOO.
Two US women to donate kidneys to each other's husbands Thu Feb 23, 1:40 PM ET

Two women will go under the surgeon's knife to donate their kidneys to each other's husbands.

The couples met through an organization that arranges paired living donor exchanges after both wives were told they had the wrong blood type to donate their kidneys to their own husbands, the Chicago Tribune reported.

To date, 80 donor-recipient pairs have registered with the Paired Donation Consortium and 12 kidney swaps have been completed.

The operations will mean a new life for both families. The typical wait for a donated kidney in the Chicago area is about five years.

"Let's talk about what's happening here," Carl Chandler, a minister, told the Tribune. "A black woman is donating to a Hispanic man, and a Hispanic woman is donating to a black man, and there's no fear or cause for concern.

"Too many people waiting for organs are afraid to go outside their communities because of prejudice or closed-mindedness," Chandler said. "We hope that this will motivate people to realize there's no color issue here. There's just a sickness issue."

Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to have diabetes, a main cause of kidney failure. But organ donors from black and Hispanic communities - which provide better matches for genetic reasons -- do not keep pace with demand.

As a result, "minority patients may have to wait longer for matched kidneys and therefore may be sicker at the time of transplant or die waiting," notes a US government organ-transplantation Web site.