Hello to you. I hope this finds you well you well and if something, whatever it may be, is disrupting your peace I hope help is on the way. I was going to write something totally different today but decided not to contribute to negativity. So many people are going through so much right now. With the modern news systems bad news is vomited on to us at every turn! Let love, peace and light find you today. You are unconditionally loved! Don’t you forget that!
Spin of the world prayer wheel today:
Violence never again! War never again! Terrorism never again! In God’s name, may all religions bring upon earth justice and peace, forgiveness, life and love!
Hello to you. It’s early evening as I am writing to you from bed – feeling tired. Today I went to Thursdays prayer meeting and got groceries. I almost didn’t go as I was feeling really out of it in my balance. We had a good turnout:
White flowers from yesterday evenings walkA white variation of HibiscusMy doodles today
Spin of the world prayer wheel for today;
Dance as though no one is watching you, Love as though you have never been hurt before, Sing as though no one can hear you, Live as though heaven is on earth.
Share a photo of your pet and tell us one thing that makes them uniquely them.
My sunbeam boy
Hello to you. Hope this finds you well. It’s Saturday as I write to you.
Today’s prompt asks me to point out a unique thing that makes my dog Link who he is. Something that comes to mind is when he hides his favorite toys – babies- in plain sight:
One of his favorite babies he recently “hid”
The other thing that is unique is his weak or nervous bowels. When he gets nervous he poops wherever he is. He has a booty butt! The vet always brings that up when we visit. One other thing he does is nips at the back of the heels of men he doesn’t know. He’s very protective of his domain! Most of all he is a good boy and my best buddy.
Spin of the World Prayer Wheel:
My True Father, I set my hopes upon You alone, And I only ask You, God, For my Soul salvation.
Let Your Holy Will Be my strengthening on this way, For my life without You is a mere empty moment, And only serving You leads to Eternal life.
Amen!
prayer for the soul – st. agapit of pechersk – 11th century
Hello to you. It’s another smoky and hazy day as I write to you. I’m getting a bit of cabin fever staying inside so much. We stay inside for the winter and stay inside for the summer! it feels like the whole earth is burning.
Do I think everything happens for a reason? The way I’ve come to understand how things work is this existence is like a chess match. Every move of a piece is carefully thought out. Our Lord knows where every single fragment of this existence is going to go. Each move carefully thought out. To answer a single prayer requires the movement of so many pieces. The Lord has all the time in world – he operates in infinity. One day in our time is forever in his. He exists outside of time whereas our mortal coil is limited by time and circumstances.
I can remember sitting out in my back yard in Texas and I would point at a dead leaf or a blade of grass. I would ask “what are you going to do with this,” and then a breeze would come and move the leaf or blade of grass. Sometimes an insect would land on it. I came to understand that God had a plan for everything in creation – even things that seemed to not be of use anymore.
Sometimes things happen in this shared existence that seem to make no sense at the moment. It’s only when enough time passes that we see the purpose. We can often look back and see Gods plan and have an “aha” moment. We are able to see what happened that seemed horrible while we were living in it was actually for our greater good. If my second husband had not divorced me, I would not have the relationship I have with God, my family and church. At the time I was going through the divorce I wasn’t sure I would make it!
I would say to young people a number of things, and I have only one minute.
I would say — let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity.
Let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power, and that we do — everyone — our share to redeem the world, in spite of all absurdities, and all the frustrations, and all the disappointment
And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live life as if it were a work of art.
Hello there! How are you? If you’re American you are probably having a cookout and preparing for fireworks tonight. I hope if you are reading from America and you have pets that you secure them. I know a lot of people have to give their pets tranquilizers to get through this night. Thankfully my Link doesn’t get worked up like most dogs. So many people like fireworks! They are pretty to watch but aren’t very eco friendly!
There has been quite a hoopla over today marking 250 years – we made it this far and I have hope for the future despite everything going on right now. Freedom isn’t free! It’s good to see so many people loving our country.
I had a wonderful meal and visit with my Aunt, Uncle, cousin and his wife and two of my Aunts Granddaughters Richelle and Tatum, Tatum’s husband Kyle and baby Liam. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, corn on the cob, fruit, watermelon and ice cream and brownies for dessert. Liam was definitely the star of the show. Once he got acclimated to everybody, he had a great time. Great Grandma my Aunt gave him some metal measuring cups he loved clanging together. We all know what he’s getting for Christmas! My Uncle, Great Grandpa said he’s going to get Liam a drum set! lol! 😂 We made a special memory today! So special!
My sweet Auntie and I – Grandma Becker would be so proud! She loved celebrating the 4th in her backyard in Ft. Collins CO My beautiful Grandma Becker (I couldn’t flip picture!)
If God could talk it wouldn’t be in English or Latin or Arabic It wouldn’t be in Yiddish or Spanglish or pidgin
If God could talk the words would crack like thunder pour down like a torrent of jewels flooding our basements with shining ideas, sparkling conclusions.
If God could talk a thought would be a redwood a word an ocean a sentence a century.
If God could talk I would not have to for all the words today requires would flow in on the morning breeze and find their way to the morning news.
If God could talk God’s word would be carried on the wings of eagles the ankles of gnats in the pouches of kangaroos and the paws of polar bears.
It would spread through the sound of honey bees and hyenas be translated into a rainbow by blue herons and cardinals, blackbirds and yellowjackets pink flamingos and gray whales, purple martins and chameleons.
It would cause rivers to flow, tides to rise, moons to wax, suns to set, sparrows to fly, planets to revolve, universes to expand if God could talk.
What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?
Hello to you! It’s Tuesday evening as I write to you. How are you?
Today’s prompt makes me think of my younger self. The best advice I would give is to slow down! When I look back on my 58 years, much of those years I can’t even remember. Everything is a blur. I burned a candle at both ends through much of my life. I barely have any memories of my childhood. The memories I do have are just fragments of mostly traumatic events. Most of my memories are highlights. I used to write in journals everyday but stopped because I was running out of storage space! I have a big black cedar lined trunk full of journals, calendars and sketch books. I have wrestled with what to do with everything for years now. I don’t have any children of my own to pass my stuff on to so someday whomever takes over my estate will probably just send everything to the dump. Most young people these days don’t want stuff from their elders. I am the end of a tree.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”
Hello to you. I’m just back from my Aunt and Uncles where we celebrated Fathers Day with my cousin and his wife. My Aunt had me try on some pants she picked up at Costco – good fit and pretty. We had roasted turkey and they brought over roast and fish my cousin caught. It was so nice to see them! Link loves seeing everybody too! We went for a walk after dessert of angel food cake and fruit and boy was I huffing and puffing. It was pretty hot out but still! I really need to lose some weight!
This morning began with church. We were in Nehemiah 4:9-14:
Hello to you. I’m just home from my cousins house and the first tea party. Today began with church. I got to see my church family. Jeannie was there with Roy’s daughter Wendy. We were in Matthew 6:5-8:
The tea party really was beautiful! It was the first one my family has done so there was a learning curve. I was a bit late as my GPS decided it didn’t want to take me to my cousins without going to my Aunts first! My cousin came and rescued me. I was pretty frazzled! There was a good turnout that included the grandchildren. Everyone had on their spring dresses and little clip on hats. I was so glad to see everyone to include my cousin Heidi. It’s been six months since she had her aneurysm. She’s doing so well! There were little sandwiches, scones and macaroons. There were many different teas to choose from. There was talk of doing it again next year.
Hello to you in your here and now. I hope you are well. I was just watching a video on Tik Toc that made me very nostalgic for my teen years that I want to share with you. It was a compilation of 80’s movies:
I am a Generation Xer so a lot of my core memories are from the 80’s. My generation is the last to know what life could be like without smart phones and the internet. My favorite music was also in that time period. I remember seeing the beginning of MTV! One of the first videos I remember seeing:
I grew up without cell phones. I was a latch key kid who relied on a hard wired phone to keep in touch with my parents. I also relied on phone booths when I was away from home. In my early years in the military I worked on computers when they had data cards that had to be processed.
This is what I used early in my military career
If you didn’t want to be found you had an answering machine to collect your calls. I feel like the Internet has been a blessing and a curse! When I went to my first concert, David Bowie, the crowd didn’t have phones to capture it. Everyone was in the moment. Thats not the case these days:
A part of me really aches for simpler times. Nowadays everything is moving so fast. We are already into June when it seems like we just had Christmas! Every single moment has a planned event it seems like! Can we keep up?!
Hello to you. It’s Sunday again! The week flew by didn’t it?! I forced myself to go to church despite having some slight vertigo. I’m so glad I did as I got to see my church fam – especially Jeannie, Terry, Cecil, Mark and Brenda. I love getting and giving hugs! Today was Communion Sunday which is always meaningful. Pastor Jason’s message today resonated with me. Feeling the way I did today, the weeble wobbles, makes it hard for me to commit more of myself to our churches needs. Some days it’s all I can do to get to church like today. We are growing and there are so many spaces that need to be filled! I am glad to be part of a prayer group that meets on Thursdays and when I’m able I go to a Monday coffee with women of Grace.
Today is my Dads heavenly birthday, he would be 83 today. I feel bad that I didn’t know my dad better. He didn’t ever really talk about his past. I’m ashamed to say that today is the first time I have read his obituary! I still haven’t fully grieved and or accepted that he’s gone. I miss the dad that dad was so much of his life. I miss his hugs that could make the world stand still. I miss his laughter and his smile. He had such a fun sense of humor. I miss him calling me and leaving voice messages – “hi Jackie this is your dad.” I miss him asking me to get him quarters from the bank. I miss decorating the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving with him. I just miss him alot! There are so many little things. I was proud of my dad for everything he did. I can remember when I would visit him and mom how many people that knew my dad and would say hello. He was kind of a local celebrity!
Part of his life is missing from his obituary and that is being married to my birth mom Jeannie and her subsequent suicide. This painful part of his past changed the course of both of our lives. Suicide does that so I’m not surprised for the omission. I only ever heard him speak of what happened when he told Dianne when he thought I was asleep in the backseat. I have never forgotten that! It was a horrible thing he went through! I feel bad that I put him through so much with my mental health issues during the latter years of his life.
Larry Schmidt, Sioux Falls, SD, passed away Wednesday, November 1, 2023, at Avera Prince of Peace. He was 80.
Larry Jay Schmidt was born May 31, 1943, in Marion, SD, to Elias and Irene (Wipf) Schmidt. The family lived in Freeman, SD prior to moving to Sioux Falls when Larry was five years old. He attended Sioux Falls Washington Senior High School and then joined the US Navy. Following his honorable discharge from service, he sold insurance for Physicians Mutual. Larry served as a police officer in Freeman, SD, then later moved to Rapid City, SD where he continued in security.
On July 7, 1973, he was united in marriage to Dianne Warrington in Tea, SD. The couple made their home in Sioux Falls. Larry continued his career with security in Sioux Falls. In 1987, he and Dianne purchased Velvet Uniforms serving the Sioux Falls community and the law enforcement community in the area. He retired in 2008.
Larry was a member of St. Michael Parish, the Knights of Columbus, American Legion and VFW Honor Guards, and was a member of the Fraternal Order of Police Associate Lodge #1, where he had served as board member and president.
In his free time, Larry enjoyed genealogy and collecting coins.
Grateful for having shared his life are his wife, Dianne Schmidt, Sioux Falls, SD; daughter, Jackie Wygant, Middleton, ID; son, Jerry (Robin) Lemme, Dell Rapids, SD; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and his brother, Eli (LaVonne) Schmidt, of Sioux Falls, SD. He was preceded in death by his parents, and three brothers, LaVerne Wipf, Gene Schmidt, and John Schmidt.
To be 