We are a Blessed People, cont.

Teri and I have probably walked hundreds of miles together. If you walk for exercise for thirty years it has to be many miles. Of course in those walks we have solved many problems and many still remain unsolved. We probably have gained a pound or two around the middle during all that walking which seems strange, and yet I think our jaws are thinner, because of all the talking! I would like to state right here for the record that we do not gossip on these walks. We solve world problems and mysteries and strange goings on in the nieghborhood. Never gossiping only trying to solve problems and in some helpful way figure out why people are so strange. We come up with lots of answers, but of course not much changes, and so I sometimes wonder, what was all that walking for??? If we don't loose weight and don't solve the problems our neighbors are having or our own problems and our jaws are tired from all the talking and our heads ache from all the thinking, what does it all mean??? Maybe Teri and I have our own patch in the quilt, it has two women walking and laughing and the stitches are very uneven and sometimes wonder on to another patch. But maybe that patch with all it's stitches kept us a little sane as we raised nine children and two husbands between the two of us.

When I was a younger mom I decorated my house for each holiday - even St. Patrick's day took a day of my time to make everything green. But Fall and Christmas took days. Of course my friends were all engaged in these same activities, making our homes look festive for the season. One year when my son was about twelve, I had just finished a masterpiece on my mantel for fall. I called Pat right over to admire my handy work and admire we did. Nick joked as Pat came in, "You have to see my mom's Tribute to Fall". Ever since any decoration for a season has become known as "Tribute" to Christmas, fall whatever season. Well, this particular fall season I am in bed with one of my many illnesses and I just don't have it in me to get "Tribute to Fall" out. I had a phone call from Sue, the most concerned of neighbors. Her first sentence was "Paula, I hear you might not get your tribute up!" It almost sounded like our country was being invaded or some such disaster. She was that upset. I found out that if I was not well by the first week of October that Sue, Colleen and Pat would be over here making sure my tribute was up in all its glory, because it can't not happen one year.

It seems a small and very unimportant thing when you look at the state of the world. Iraq, hurricanes. But what if all neighborhoods were like mine, where people were so concerned that they would come and put some fall leaves up just to see you smile? Somehow, when I look at it that way it seems as big as world events. It seems more important. Friends loving friends, looking after each other. We are all so different yet because of love we are the same. There has to be a patch in the quilt with different colors of thread going around it, but these stitches will all be perfect.