December 23, 2007 03:18 pm
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A Christmas promise
Have you ever made a promise to yourself only to be dissapointed because you just couldn’t keep it? The worst thing was that you couldn’t complain to anyone because it was your own doing. Sounds familiar? But of course, it’s that time of the year again, you know the ... oh, yes ... holiday season. And boy are you thinking of the promise you made yourself last year at this time.
You vowed to make next Christmas calm, peaceful, a spiritual experience indeed. Guess what? You and I didn’t make it. Go ahead and admit it. Take a deep breath and say out loud — I didn’t make it and it’s OK. Now you know there is at least another woman in your universe who is just as imperfect as you are. (That’s right. Even psychologists are imperfect.)
What gets us in trouble is that we love Christmas so much we keep adding one more thing to our lists on an hourly basis.
You may be still decorating your yard, your baking has fallen behind, and you are running around frazzled, and to top it all off, it’s another thing — the money. The spending that is always in the back of your mind these days as you remember one more person to buy for. Even your mother-in-law should get a gift. Forget the two of you have not spoken in two years. This is the time to mend your heart. A gift could be a peace offering, an ice breaker, a new beginning. Your timing couldn’t be better.
Now I know what you are thinking. You will be better with time. No, you know it won’t happen. Stop fooling yourself. You are a fabulous, wonderful, giving person with a heart as big as Texas, but when it comes to “holiday stuff,” you are imperfect.
Take it from me, I know. I remember when my house on North Anglin was on the Candlewalk tour in December 1981. I was still filling the candy dishes with gumdrops and mixed nuts as the first guests of the tour entered the living room.
Mary Lou Poindexter, who grew up at the house as a small child, was there, and she almost had a stroke seeing me rushing around, putting the final touches on every room.
Later on that evening, we watched the line of guests grow as the goodies disappeared. It was very late, and many guests had missed their dinner.
Twenty-six years later, with a 22-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter, I’m older and wiser, but some things never change.
They have given up any hope of my changing and along with my husband they laugh and get out of my way.
When they were small, I taught them to love someone for who they are, not for who they are not. I knew then this would come in handy around Christmastime.
As I’m looking at the fire in the fireplace and the cookies waiting to be glazed, I realize that Christmas is all about hope, so you never know there may be hope for us next year.
For now, I will cherish this moment and hold those special memories of Christmas past at my Cleburne home in my heart, and I will let the spirit of hope, gratitude, joy and love fill my heart until there is no room for anything else. That is my promise. Let it be yours.
Eugenia Andrews , Ph.D.
Thanks to the firemen
It’s hard to describe the emotions you feel when you awake to a burning smell coming from your heater. My first reaction was to call for help and secondly to remove our most treasured valuables, our two pets. A special thank you to our neighbors, Rita, Mathew and granny for helping with our pets and being a friend indeed.
I’ve never met the firemen before, and at times I would see them in the grocery store, but they never acknowledged me or vice-versa. When I would see them shopping, so many times I wanted to stop them to say thanks for helping people, but I never took the time to say something so simple. But the thought was always there, and I had a heart full of appreciation.
So when the firemen came, here’s all these strangers who had to come into our house to investigate. I was scared, nervous, and on top of that, I had just woke up and everything happened so fast it was difficult to try and register.
The firemen found no fire and thank God for that. The moral to this letter is if I would have taken five seconds to say thank you for helping people when I would see them at the store perhaps I wouldn’t have felt so nervous toward the strangers who serve and protect the community.
Thank you all for the dedication and energy you put forth to your jobs.
My deepest appreciation is to fireman Steve Bicknell for showing such compassion and kindness to me. You never made me feel as if I was just a stranger. You made me realize you’re a dedicated man to his work, and that gives a true meaning of going above and beyond.
Belinda J. Scott
Cleburne
Thanks to business donating door prizes
I recently taught five sessions to youth at the state 4-H Junior Leadership retreat on drug, alcohol and tobacco prevention.
I would like to thank the following businesses for donating door prizes to these sessions.
Thanks to Big Lots, Card and Party Factory, H-E-B, Staples, U.S. armed forces recruiting office, and Walgreens.
Thanks again for supporting youth and the 4-H program in this county and state.
Sincerely,
Lydia Hogan
Dear Editor:
Should have waited on the pope
In my letter last week, I attempted to explain some of the reasons that I thought the theory being put forth that mankind was the main culprit in global warming was in error. Well, perhaps I should have waited. Because Pope Benedict XVI came out a few days later in the Daily Mail and stated basically the same arguments. However, he has better sources than I and presented his argument much more professionally.
He started out warning that any solution to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology. He further suggested that fears over manmade emissions melting the icecaps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scaremongering. He went on to say that while some concerns may be valid, it was vital that the international community base its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement. Here are a few quotes.
“Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow.” The Pope went on to say the world needed to care for the environment but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given a greater priority than that of mankind.
“It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreements on a model of sustainable development capable of insuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances.”
His remarks reveal that while the pope acknowledges that problems may be associated with unbridled development and climate change, he believes the case for global warming to be over-hyped and there is also an intransigent body of scientific opinion that continues to insist industrial emissions are not to blame for the phenomenon. Such scientists point out that fluctuations in the earth’s temperature are normal and can often be caused by waves of heat generated by the sun.
Other critics of environmentalism have compared the movement to a burgeoning industry in its on right. Senior cardinals close to the Vatican have expressed doubts about a movement that has been likened by critics to be just as dogmatic in its assumptions as any religion.
In October the Australian cardinal, George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, caused an outcry among rabid environmentalists when he noted that the atmospheric temperature of Mars had risen by .05 degrees Celsius. “The industrial-military complex up on Mars can’t be blamed for that,” he said in a criticism of Australian scientists who had claimed that carbon emissions would force temperatures on earth to rise by almost 5 degrees by 2070 unless drastic solutions were enforced.
Now please note the scientist’s use of the word “enforced.” I have stated in the past and still maintain that the majority of the environmental movement are defeated socialist/communists who were forced to change their strategy in an attempt to maintain their control over the people.
Planet Earth has experienced a huge number of climatic change periods in its history, both, warming and cooling — long before humans could have influenced the environment with their internal combustion engine of coal-fired power plants. Lots of people — few, if any, of them scientists — are making lots of money and gathering lots of power and attention from the promotion of global warming hysteria.
The major media are not reporting to any degree the other side of the discussion, despite the fact that credible backup for all these facts can be found with just a few minutes of online research.
W.V. Bonds
Cleburne
I am admitting defeat
I feel that I am broadminded and also that I am usually a clear thinker. You’ll notice that I said usually. Lately, I find that I make more errors related to electronic equipment than I did with windup toys and “no moving parts” machinery. Perhaps I was meant to finish my deal before all of this new stuff was put on the market. It’s harder than ever to get by with just old things, particularly if you want your grandkids to come around and have fun while visiting. It’s no longer tops and marbles. Now that I have all this new stuff, I need them to come around just to show me how to operate or to repair the various pieces of equipment made only for the new age.
Young folks got the jump on us when they showed us their natural proficiency at opening child-proof vials and water skiing on the first try. At first I was proud of “my genes” showing up in the little fellows, then I resented that it was so easy for them ,and now I have just admitted to the fact that I belong to the passed-by crowd and yet don’t worry about what I can’t do.
If I need help on anything requiring such talent, I call my grandkids. I could call on my kids but they are too busy learning all of these new things so they don’t get as far behind their own young ones as I did mine.
I believe I was progressing well into the future until I had children of my own and spent all of those Christmas eves putting toys together until 4 a.m., knowing the kids would be up and chomping at the bit to get to the stockings and Christmas tree at 5 a.m.
In those days, not all toys came with proper assembling instructions nor with all of the right bolts and nuts needed to accomplish those tasks. What a relief it was for my own children to take over those duties as their own kids came onto the scene.
Now Santa has learned that these new doodads fit more easily into his sleigh. Truthfully, those early days were the best of my life. So what if my grandkids think that their grandmother and I came out of the Shenandoah Valley just ahead of the damn Yankees? Oops, I wonder if that is politically correct to say that?
The Yankees, the ones who have moved to Texas, are becoming pretty decent folks and after another generation or two can be considered worth keeping. Just kidding. One generation should do it. I just hope that our grandkids appreciate this country and its blessings as much as we do. And that the granddaughters enjoy and regularly practice good cooking picked up from their mothers and the grandsons retain the work ethics from their fathers and they all know what love and grace are all about.
Dear Santa, bring pants that are worn high around the waist for all boys.
Monte Swatzell
Cleburne
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