mea culpa and the 3 trees

Vonda’s Views
October 3, 2010

I must plead mea culpa, mea culpa, for not getting ALL of my facts straight for something I stated in last weeks column on Social Security. I was at a Diocesan meeting last week in Jackson, when dear Fr. Bob hugged me and then said, “I read your column and you are wrong.” “Huh? Me? Wrong? Never”, I started to say and then I remembered that some things had changed and I had not quite gathered all of my facts about retired priests. Thank you Fr. Bob, for setting me back on the path of the straight and narrow.

As I look in enjoyment at my maple tree as it is beginning to go through its Fall changes I am reminded of a story of three trees that wondered what their futures might hold and what would become of them.

The first tree said: “When I grow stronger I’d really like to be made into a cradle, and be a place of warmth and safety and protection to newborn babes. I would like my legacy to be that I fully supported life.”
The second tree spoke up: “ It is my hope when I am a large tree that I can become an ocean going ship, carrying hundreds of people from one shore to another and delivering food to those in need.”
The third tree spoke up and said: “Both of you impress me much but my dream, to be perfectly honest, is I don’t want to be made into anything. I just want to be what I am today; a tree for shade. I simply want to point my leaves and limbs upward and remind others that there is a God in Heaven who loves all people in the world.”

Years later, woodcutters came into the forest and looked at the first tree. The first
woodcutter looked at the tree and said: “Before we cut down this tree what shall we make of it?” The other replied: “Let’s make it into a manger.” The first tree protested: “Wait a minute, wait just a minute! I want to be made into a cradle.” Despite the first
tree’s protest, it was cut down and made into a manger and sold to an Innkeeper in Bethlehem. When the Savior of the world was born, He was placed in that very manger. The tree became the cradle of life, which the entire world would remember.

Some years later, the woodcutters came back among the trees and looked at the second tree. The first woodcutter said: “Any ideas what we should do with this tree?” The second woodcutter said: “Let’s cut it down and make it into a small fishing boat.” The second tree protested; “Wait a minute, Wait just a minute! I want to become an ocean going ship helping those in need. I don’t want to be a small fishing boat!” Despite the second tree’s
protest it was cut down and made into a small fishing boat. Later, a man by the name of Simon Peter bought the boat. When Jesus needed a pulpit, so He could address the
crowd on the seashore, the little fishing boat became his pulpit. From that little boat came the good news of God’s love that was meant to carry people from the shore of life to the shore of hereafter; a small fishing boat carrying more good news than any ocean liner could carry goods.

Three years later, the woodcutters came back to the grove once again. The woodcutters looked at the third tree and said: “The Romans are paying good money for crosses these days. Let’s make this tree into a cross.” The tree was horrified. It protested: “Wait a minute, wait just a minute - - I simply want to remain a tree. I want to lift my leaves and my limbs upward and remind others that there is a God in Heaven – a God who loves the world.” Despite the protests of the third tree it was cut down, made into a cross, and it was on that cross, that the Savior of the world was crucified. To this day, that tree points to Heaven as a reminder of how deep is God’s love.

The tale of the three trees points to God’s call; how He calls us, when He calls us and where He calls us may not be in the ways that we have imagined.
God calls. We respond. It’s that simple.

Todays Church in Crisis

I have been sitting and pondering about a crisis in the United States that isn’t really noticed by the media, and that is the lack of people that are going into the full time pastoral type of ministry.

Our churches nations wide, whether they are Catholic or Protestant, are beginning to suffer because of this. I don’t want to get into a debate about being ‘called by God’ and what that means and yes I know that the scriptures say that ‘all people are called to ministry’. I understand that all Christians are call to be ministers, but there are those who enter into the full-time ministry where not only are they a minister in the church, but it is their sole job and sole source of income.

Accepting the call to be a priest in the Catholic Church is something that is one of the hardest things to do because of the churches’ stand on marriage. And right now that is hurting whole church communities. Some smaller church communities may have to eventually close because there will be no one to be their pastor. Some changes have to be made some where.

I know ministers in other Christian denominations that also struggle. Some of the pastors of smaller churches have outside jobs in addition to their pastoral duties that they juggle. And those fine pastors have spouses and children. It’s a constant battle for them to find the balance but they do succeed. Yet going into the full time ministry is not an attractive choice for young people any more.

Why this lack of interest in the ministry today? Well most people, while they respect and like their pastor, don’t encourage their sons or daughters (YES I SAID DAUGHTERS!) to listen to their hearts and discern if they are getting the call to serve the Lord. They want their kids to ‘have more and do more’ with their lives. It’s all because we are such a materialist, status driven society that being a minister does not get much respect. Sometimes being the minister is not at the top of the food chain.

I ask you to think about this. Do you have a desire compelling you that is both relentless and joyful? If it is a passing desire that comes and goes, it is not relentless. If it is a desire that is burdensome, then it is not joyful.

Do you feel the need to go to study more and more theology and get a deeper understanding of the scriptures and a desire to learn about all beliefs and how they fit into the plan of Lord?

Are other believers encouraging you to get into ministry? This is very important as it is an affirmation from the Body of Christ that your calling is not just from you. God will use others in such a way. Are YOU encouraging someone to get into the ministry because you see something in them?

Are you in fear of misrepresenting God and his church? Lack of this fear evidences a dangerous arrogance. The presence of this fear is recognition of your own brokenness and will keep you before the throne of grace praying without ceasing.

Are you humble? The foundation of your calling is not your desire to help people, but your desire to represent God in truth. If you don’t have the desire for truth first, you need to rethink your calling.

I don’t think he primary qualification for ministry is not a good smile, the ability to speak and persuade and fill the pews, nor the ability to abstain from sin, but conviction. Your conviction will be infectious to all those to whom you minister. The Gospel is not just a nice option, it is the truth.

Finally, look at what is already happening in your church. Ministers in the making are all around you. It is flowing out of them and they need the encouragement to see it. It is time for believers to step up to the plate and face the crisis facing the churches in America. Being a Pastor or a Priest or a Deacon or a Brother or a Sister is not a lowly thing. It is a higher calling that should not be ignored!

Bullys walk among us and Your kid could be the one!

Vonda’s Views
August 23, 2010

Bullys are among us and I am not talking about MSU Bulldogs. I am talking about kids that bully. Last week I watched two very disturbing videos on Youtube that were made by kids in the Tupelo municipal school district. The kids that videoed them were using the new Macbooks provided by the school system there. How ironic and convenient that the very tool given to these kids to enhance their educational experience is also what is exposing the problems among our youth. Their moral compass is busted!

In the first video, a young male student was waiting at the bus stop for the bus to carry him to school. He was sitting on the corner using his Macbook, minding his own business. Several other male students came up and started making verbal jabs at him and calling his daddy crazy. Then one of the male students kicked the young man in the head. Not once did that child say or do anything to defend himself. He was out numbered about 6 to 1. Another student, a girl, had her Macbook on and the camera was turned in his direction and she captured the whole incident. She was even laughing about it and telling the others that she was going to put it up on Facebook.

The second video was at Ballard park and two highschool boys had called out another boy to fight. Again, the spectators were ready with Macbooks and Iphones in hand to video the fight. While that one was a ‘planned’ fight, what happened was atrocious. One of the pair of fighters had a mini bat in his hand and he beat the third boys’ face into a pulp. The blood was real the open gashes were real. And everyone was laughing about it!

Those of us old people that are on Facebook happened to see these horrifying images when they popped up on our pages and we reacted in a big way. It wasn’t long before the television stations and the newspapers and the TPSD were receiving the videos and emails protesting these actions.

I was a victim of bullying from 1965 to 1970. I hated going to school and nothing was ever done to the gang of girls that bullied me. I was just told to look the other way and not to get involved. Well, that was a little hard to do. I became the proverbial ‘loner geek’. When I was home schooling my daughters I also homeschooled some other kids and the one thing they all had in common was being bullied at school.

In today’s schools, it’s the lone wolf kids and geeks that teachers are told to look out for. Well maybe they should start looking out for the packs of kids and that pack mentality. In the wild, wolves travel and hunt in packs. The lone wolf is the one that has had to learn to survive alone because the others bullied and shunned it out of the pack.


Here are some alarming stats for you to mull over this week.

•Thirty percent (30%) of U.S. students in grades six through ten are involved in moderate or frequent bullying — as bullies, as victims, or as both — according to the results of the first national survey on this subject.

•Bullying is increasingly viewed as an important contributor to youth violence, including homicide and suicide

•1 out of 4 kids is Bullied. The American Justice Department says that this month 1 out of every 4 kids will be abused by another youth.

•Surveys Show That 77% of students are bullied mentally, verbally, & physically.

•In a recent study, 77% of the students said they had been bullied. And 14% of those who were bullied said they experienced severe (bad) reactions to the abuse.

•1 out of 5 kids admits to being a bully, or doing some "Bullying."

•8% of students miss 1 day of class per month for fear of Bullies.

•43% fear harassment in the bathroom at school.

•282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month.

•More youth violence occurs on school grounds as opposed to on the way to school.

•Playground statistics - Every 7 minutes a child is bullied. Adult intervention - 4%. Peer intervention - 11%. No intervention - 85%.

•46% of males, and 26% of females reported they had been in physical fights.

Bully’s are among us and they have no place in our schools.

Old People Play Video Games too!

Video games are not just for kids any longer in case you haven’t noticed. Most people have access to computers now and it seems that a lot of us ‘old fogeys’ are playing video games on them. My personal favorites are Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma. I think I like them because of the racket they make when I blast the little jewels or maybe its because I try to get a higher score in shorter lengths of time. I do play against other people on line also.

I have some Scrabble buddies that I have never met but we are all using words we probably don’t get to use in normal everyday conversations. Its rather exciting to me to see my little notice that one of the others has played and its my turn to see if they have bested me.

At times I wonder if I am wasting my time playing games. I play them to unwind after a stress filled day or I might just use the games as a way of procrastination. Then again I might not be sleepy yet and the games are a way of making me tired enough to doze off. What every the reason, I was invited to participate in a study of ‘older’ adult gamers.
Research has found that video games have the potential to help seniors age more gracefully, keeping their minds sharp and responsive through game play. There's growing evidence that suggests playing video games actually can improve older adults' reflexes, processing speed, memory, attention skills and spatial abilities. With the advent of the Nintendo Wii, there's even the potential that video games could provide an outlet for physical exercise. Research has found that off-the-shelf video games have the potential to help seniors age more gracefully, keeping their minds sharp and responsive through game play.
I have not gotten a Wii yet but I know plenty of people that have and they love them. They like the virtual reality of the exercise. A study was conducted in a senior center in Florida and the Wii Bowling game boosted the players heart rates by 40%. The game required the players all of whom were in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, to hold the controller just as they would a bolwing ball and swing it to hit the pins in the virtual bowling alley. The older folks loved it because it was something they could do and it was good for them!

The potential of playing video games to stave off dementia and Alzheimers and keep minds sharp is being heavily studied right now. Is all of this game playing, whether it is playing solitaire or Bejeweled or Warcraft or Rise of Nations, going to help you rmember to take your medications or remember what you went to the store to buy? Who knows. It might improve your short term memory. It might not. That part has not been proven yet. But senior citizens, and those of us boomers that are the fast track to senior status might should consider playing video games as one of the things that we can do to keep ourselves sharp. We ain’t dead yet. And kids are usually impressed to find out that the Gparents can play a video game. So I say go for it. Play some games and to heck with what any one thinks. Play them for pleasure, play them for stress relief, play them for competition. Just play a game and tell yourself its good for you!
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GAte Crashing at USA Stadium

Well the time is tick tick ticking away until the Arizona illegal immigration law goes into effect on Thursday. I have been reading articles and seeing news clips all weekend about how it’s a mass exodus from Arizona. People that are apparently here in the US illegally are just selling what they have or what they can’t take with them and relocating to another state that is not taking the hard nosed stand that the state of Arizona is taking. They are feeling cornered as one interviewee put it and they are just going to relocate to another place for a while until they are forced to move on from there.
Now just in case you have missed this, what Arizona is going to do is make being an illegal immigrant a state crime and require state and local police, during lawful contact or probable cause, to investigate the status of anyone they reasonably suspect of being an illegal immigrant. In other words, if you don’t have a US social security card and other identification that most US citizens carry on their person, then you better be ready to prove that you are an American citizen either born and bred here or by naturalization.
Polls are showing that 65% of the US people are against illegal immigration. Yes, this is a nation of immigrants, but just sneaking into the country and not going through the proper channels is not going to cut it. Don’t get me wrong. I have many friends and acquaintances that were not born in the US. Some I suspect are not legal and I hope and pray that they will get their papers and not live in fear of being picked up and shipped back. I can see both sides of the dilemma. A young couple meets and marries and then has a child on the way. The young mother is a US citizen, the father is not. He is picked up and sent back to Mexico and he has to work hard to cut through all the red tape and go through the proper channels to come back to the US in order to be with his wife and child. That scenario happens all the time.
But look at illegal immigration another way. Look at it like its gate crashing. If you had tickets to a the Ole Miss, MSU Eggbowl, or a ticket for an airline flight, and when you got to your assigned seat you found someone else was in that seat, what would you do? You would call for a person in charge of ticket checking and have the person in your seat removed. Someone would ask for you to show your ticket, and you would gladly do so, because you bought and paid for that seat. The person in your seat would also be asked for a ticket, which they would not be able to produce. They would be the "gate crashers" and they would properly be removed.

Right now in this huge USA stadium we have millions of gate crashers. The American people have been begging security to check tickets and remove the gate crashers for years. We have been asking security to have better controls in checking at the door. We have asked security to lock the back doors. But Security has failed us. They are still looking the other way. They are afraid to ask to see the tickets. Many people say there is unlimited seating, and whether there is or not, no one should be allowed in for free while the rest of us pay full price!

Finally in "section AZ", of " USA Stadium", they have had enough of the failures of Security. They decided to do their own ticket checking, and properly remove those who don’t have tickets. Now it seems very strange to me that so many people in the other 49 "sections" of the USA Stadium, do not want tickets checked, or even to be asked to show their ticket! Even the head of Security is chastising us, while not doing his own job which he has sworn to do.

If you are going to live in the USA Stadium you need to play by the rules just like we would have to play by the rules of any other country that we might visit. If we tried to sneak into another country we would be branded as spies. We would be lucky to be imprisoned but more than likely we would be shot or beheaded.
My own ticket has been bought and paid for, so I am proudly going to show it when asked to do so. I have a right to my seat, and I want the gate crashers to be asked to show their tickets too. The only reason that I can imagine anyone objecting to being asked for their ticket is that they are in favor of gate crashing, and all of the illegal activities that go with it, such as drug smuggling, gang wars, murder, human smuggling for profit, and many more illegal and inhumane acts that need to be stopped. If you are not in favor of showing tickets, (proof of citizenship, passport, green card, or other legal document) when asked, as I would do proudly, then you must be condoning those illegal activities.

A-Tone-Ment or At-One-Ment? how about both

A-tone-ment or At-One-ment?

We have all heard of atonement. If you grew up in the Bible Belt, you know what atonement is. It is all about the sacrifice that Jesus made for us to save mankind from sin and insure a spiritual reconciliation with the Father. It’s all right there in our Bibles and we read and read those wonderful mysterious words trying to see through the mysteries to make sense of it all.

Atonement is about making the supreme sacrifices and living such a life as Christ did. But really look at that word for a moment. It needs to be seen in a little different way before we can fully appreciate it. All of our lives we have probably only heard it as A-Tone-Ment. Well look at it another way; At-One-Ment.

Sacrifice is certainly not a concept that anyone I know enjoys doing. Although, everyday we are hearing the word bandied about more often, due to the high prices in food and energy and the cost of living in general. Most of us do everything we can to avoid having to make sacrifices but we have to for the sake of our kids. Think of what some of us have to do in order for our kids to go to college. We have to give up something that we love to do to save the money needed for those textbooks or we sacrifice our time in order to be there for some special function.

As ironic as it sounds, we will make sacrifices in one area to keep from having to make a sacrifice in another! This just proves the human tendency to hold some part of our lives closer and dearer than others—and we are reluctant to let go of even a small bit of what we love the most.

Mention atonement and sacrifice to anyone familiar with the Bible and immediately the first thoughts are of His sacrificial death at Calvary to atone for the sins of mankind. His crucifixion was indeed the greatest act of sacrifice in the history of the world and a perfect demonstration of His own teaching in John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." His supreme offering of His sinless life paid the terrible cost of all of mankind's sins for all time.

I see that Jesus, in His human life, was all about sacrifice—His whole life was a sacrifice. And His is the life that has been exalted as the perfect pattern for our own. And are we not all called to live as Christ lived; to live as we were created in the image of God? Another mystery. Does God look like me or like you or like our next door neighbor? Hmmm. What if we have been trying to make God look like our image?

In my continued studying in theology and in comparing world religions, I find that other world religions have some of the same mysteries hidden in their belief systems. In order to understand my faith, I have had to get an understanding of other faiths.

For the Christian, all we have to do is believe in Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for us and to accept the fact that he became the atonement for our stupidity and sinfulness. His a-tone-ment became our bridge back to At-One-ment with the Father. Because of the greatest sacrifice, we are again able to be one with the Father and the Son and the Spirit. Perhaps all of the mysterious secrets of the Holy Scriptures are actually pointing us to living in At-One-Ment with the Lord because of the A-Tone-Ment of the Son. And perhaps we will one day realize the mystery of what the image of God really is.

Traveling north of the 45th parallel

The Halfway marker in Wisconsin.
Vonda’s Views
The Trip to the 45th Parallel


The semi spontaneous road trip is how my husband and I have always traveled. We have learned from experience the hard way that if we plan a trip too far ahead of time, something will happen that will snatch the trip out from under us and leave us very disappointed.

We began our married life with spontaneity. He proposed to me over a Chinese fortune cookie and I said yes. Then the idea popped into his head that we should go to Disneyworld for our honeymoon and the wedding date was chosen around the date that we could book a large enough spot for the motor home that my parents owned at the time.

I think from the time of the fortune cookie marriage proposal to the wedding itself was about one month. And so our last minute trip planning life began.

This summer has been no exception. He was able to get a few days vacation from work and my work week was free because of the Fourth of July, the girls were both home so we decided to head north to see as many of his Wisconsin relatives as we could find.

After the stop in Chicago to ride extreme roller coasters we made our way on into the beautiful country that is Wisconsin. Everywhere I looked is like a picture postcard. The classic barns, the rolling farmland, the waterfalls, the scenery is just breathtaking. One of our stops was in the Green Bay area where several of my husbands’ cousins live. We visited Bay Beach amusement park and found out that the Zippin Pippin Roller Coaster from the Memphis Liberty Land is finding a new home there on the banks of the Bay. It will have a beautiful new home and once again be the focal point ride it deserves.

Monday we got up early and loaded the car again and headed on farther north to spend time with the uncles and aunts at their summer cabins. We took a side trip to my the birthplace of my father in law and to an old cemetery where his great grandparents were buried. We stopped at a cheese factory and bought fresh cheese and then moseyed on up past the 45th parallel. I pointed out the marker to the girls that we were halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. There are a couple of markers in Wisconsin to mark that spot. The one we could get to say it’s the Theoretical point. Who cares? I just thought it was cool. I have been to the Equator before. I don’t know that I will make the same statement about the North Pole. I am content with being at the half way mark.

We spent the next couple of days enjoying visiting with his aunts and uncles and just kicking back in the Wisconsin woods. Even the rain was enjoyable. While Scott and the girls enjoyed a boat ride on the river, I stayed at the cabin and watched the deer sauntering through the side yard and seeing the antics of the chipmunks. The different varieties of birds that were at the feeders kept me mesmerized and I really enjoyed the quietness Kiss Lane. As night fell the flying squirrels came out and took their place at the feeders. And as the night grew darker we could see the brilliance of the myriads of stars in the sky.


Our time up north came to an end too quickly and we had to make the long trip back to the heat and humidity and back to the real world of getting up and going to work every day. I wish I could make a career out of sitting in a peaceful cabin the woods, far from the sights and sounds of traffic; a place where I can look out my window and see nature at its best and be inspired and nurtured to create more paintings and writing more stories.

I think I could handle living north of the 45th parallel even in the frigid cold of a Wisconsin winter. I might have to learn to plan ahead a bit better but I could still be spontaneous even in the peacefulness.

The Voyages of the Earthship Keon Family

The United States... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Earthship Keon Family. Its multi-year mission: to explore the different states; to seek out new adventures and new places to see; to boldly go where no Keon has gone before and to retrace a few steps to places visited in the past.

Captains log stardate 07042010. Location; Seymore, Wisconsin. We left Mississippi Friday evening at around 6PM with a final destination of Wisconsin in mind. With four licensed drivers, we figured that we could drive all night with each person taking turns to make the traveling easier. Our plans were to arrive in the Chicago area at around the time for Six Flags to open and we could take a side visit there to ride a few extreme roller coasters.

Traveling with grown kids can still be a challenge and as with traveling with little ones, a couple of portable DVD players is still a good idea. And I'm not talking about the kids using them. My husband and I sat in the back seat of the car while the girls were driving and we watched a couple of movies that we had been wanting to see. We were so good that not once did our daughters have to tell us to be nice or to go to sleep!

I guess the excitement of going somewhere for a few days does something to your sleep desire and trying to catch a few winks in a car is a bit hard to do. We arrived in the Chicago area around 5AM as the morning sun was beginning to rise over the distant horizon. It was a very clear day as the sky turned multi colors of red and purple and a flash of green just as the blazing ball of yellow sun peeked its head over the horizon.

The Chicago skyline at 5:30AM

We could see the Sears/Willis Tower in the distance. It is still the tallest building in the United States and it stood proudly reflecting the morning light. We raced in the early morning traffic around the greater Chicago area heading toward a side destination of Six Flags. we grabbed a quick McDonalds breakfast and then drove to the park entrance to join the other early risers and stopped to hurry up and wait for the park to open at 10. I took a 2 hour nap which I badly needed.

By the time the gates were opened to admit cars it was 9:30 and we drove in and got a great spot to park the car and then stood in line with our BOGO tickets that we had lucked up on. So four people went to Six Flags for the price of two thanks to some internet searching. The park is not officially open until the National Anthem is played which I thought was cool.

The weather was great for a day in the amusement park. The girls rubbed me down with sunscreen and we only discovered later that we missed a couple of spots as they turned quite red before the day was over.

The goal was to ride roller coasters and the first one we could find was the Batman. It is an extreme ride but not the most extreme it could be. All four of us were buckled in the seats, glasses well hidden in the depths of buttoned pockets and shoes laced up tightly so not to lose them. Our legs were dangling as the chain pulled our seats to the apex of the ride and then faster than you could say "beam me up Mr. Scott" it suddenly released and the ride began.

With my eyes firmly clamped shut, I felt the G's as we made the first sudden drop and the moment I opened them we were in a series of loop de loops which led to a corkscrew. I was screaming like a banshee at that moment keeping my head from going side to side because I knew I would be sick as a dog if I didn't. The fleeting thought of 'Have you lost your ever loving mind' was there too. Roller Coasters are not for the faint of heart and I sure was hoping that I was not going to find out that my heart was the fainting kind. Then as suddenly as it began, it was over. the suddenly stop was actually the worst part I thought.


After we got unbuckled and out of our seats i ws a bit disoriented and I sat out the rest of the roller coasters because I had fluid in my right ear and it was making me a bit dizzy. I became the official purse and phot holder while everyone else rode the rides. I sat in the shade and kept filling up my Six flags super cup. that was the best money I ever spent. The soda machines were $3.50 for a 20oz. drink so I figured I could get the Super Cup and make it work. I was filling that thing up at every drink station we passed. So we got my moneys worth out of that cup.

When we could not longer stand the heat or another extreme ride the family headed back out to the car and proceed to head north for further adventures with family in Wisconsin. I am hoping we can get in a tour of one of the cheese factories here and a brewery or a winery. We are in Wisconsin after all and this the story of the Earthship Keon Family and we seeking out new places to go and see.

Vonda’s Views
June 28, 2010


"Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions but only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide" Kermit the Frog singing in the swamp.

Last week was very stressful week and I was having to make some tough decisions. As I usually do during times like that, I was praying that I was making the right moves and I asked the Lord to show me a sign that I was moving in the right direction. Wednesday evening I got the first one. A brilliant rainbow popped out in the eastern sky. I was just mesmerized by it. But I did not think too much about it after all, it was just a rainbow after an afternoon thunderstorm.

Some times it takes a slap upside the head to get my attention. The next day, Thursday, was a long day for me. It was crammed full of back to back things that I had to get finished and as I was heading home from Water Valley I had just turned south on to 9W at Paris when I saw it in the distance. Another beautiful rainbow. Then I noticed it was exactly the same time as the one I had seen on Wednesday. I felt a little tingle on my neck.

I stopped to take a photo of the pretty half bow and then went on my way. A few miles down the road, that one had faded and then I saw another one appear and it was a double. I pulled over and took a photo of that one which was to the south west of the highway. As I stood admiring it, I glanced to the east side of the highway and in the distance I could see another one forming.

I am not an expert on rainbows but I was starting to realize that seeing this many rainbows in a space of 10 miles and 15 minutes times was not a normal thing.

As I drove on home admiring the beautiful rainbows the closer I got to them the brighter they became. Then I passed them by and could not see them unless I turned and as I came into the city limits the sun produced another magnificent rainbow in the southeast. It was the largest arc I had seen. As I snapped it photo I thought about it being number 5 for the day!

I came home and excitedly downloaded the photos on to my computer so I could look at them. I was amazed at the idea of seeing 5 rainbows in one afternoon and 6 in a 24 hour span. Saturday evening added another vision and more photos to my rainbow collection. That time my husband and daughter were with me and they say it also. We saw another double bow and this time we could see the complete bow in the evening sky.

Many cultures in the world believed that rainbows led to God. Some tribes of North American Indians called the rainbow a "Pathway of Souls." In Japan, a rainbow is the "Floating Bridge of Heaven." In Hawaii and Polynesia, the rainbow is the "path to the upperworld." People in the Austrian Alps say righteous souls go to heaven via the rainbow.

Throughout history, rainbows have been considered either very good luck or very bad luck. It is bad luck if a rainbow's end rest on water and it is good luck if the ends of the rainbow rest on land. Similarly, a rainbow that appears the day a child is born is considered good luck. Some people believed that looking at the base of a rainbow would bring death. Others believed that pointing at the highest point of a rainbow would bring bad luck (anything from being struck by lightning to losing a finger).

Interestingly enough, although rainbows are scientifically explainable optical phenomena that occur when white light is refracted into its spectrum of colors, an illusion, the dictionary still defines rainbows as Noah did: a symbol of hope.

And that is what I believe the 8 rainbows that I saw last week were; Symbols of hope that I have made the right decision. Now I look forward to the next rain to see if I can add any more rainbow visions to my collection and maybe just maybe I can figure out what the rainbow connection is that the Lord wants me find. Sing it Kermmie.

"So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me."

Summer time and Livin's not easy in this heat!

Vonda’s views June 21, 2010
Summertime, an' the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin' an' the cotton is high
Oh, Ya daddy's rich an' ya' mama’s good lookin'
So hush, little baby, don't you cry
Mercy me! It’s the first day of summer as I write this. Its already so hot all I want to do is find me a kiddie pool to fillup and lay in it under a big shade tree with a cooler full of iced tea ( we live in dry counties so that is all we can talk about!) and a good book to read. Unfortunately for me and other adults I know, we have to put on work clothes and get out in this wretched heat plus humidity and work while the kids are able to sleep late and then get up and forage for some food in the kitchen and then go and get in a pool somewhere.
If you saw me you would know that I don’t do swimming pools in the day light hours. I am about as fair as one can be and not be an albino. And I just don’t do heat well. I have always maintained that I don’t like cold weather but I CAN put on enough clothing in the cold months to keep myself comfortable. Now in the summer time that thought cannot be reversed. You cannot take off enough clothes to get cool. You are still hot and sweaty and running around in your birthday suit is still illegal in Mississippi.
I was talking about the heat to a California transplant just last week. We were both working in a store and I asked him how he liked living in the southern part of the US so far. He said “what is the deal with this heat? It’s so Hot!” In true Mississippi fashion I answered him with “oh this is nothing. You just wait until the Dog Days of Summer hit. Now that is hot!” he looked at me with fear in his eyes at the prospect of even hotter temperatures.
The dog days haven’t even gotten here yet and my poor Mary the wonder pup and her remaining litter of girl pups are all laying around in the shade and lapping up cool water in copious amounts. Bless their little doggy hearts, when the Dog Days of summer do arrive they will be begging me to shave their already short hair off.
My husband gave them all a bath over the weekend and even though their daddy was a Labrador, they have their mothers’ absolute fear and loathing of the water. They will swim but and they don’t like it one bit. You can see the gears working in their little heads when they see a puddle. I can just visualize a little devil dog on one shoulder whispering ‘jump in! you know you want to’ while the little angel dog on the other shoulder is whispering, ‘you know you don’t like the water except to drink it. walk around it and go rest under the hydrangea bush’.
I understand their dilemma. Part of me wants to stay home and paint or read a book in the cool comfort of my home while sipping tall glasses of iced tea while the other part is poking at me telling me to get up and go on out in the heat and do some work because there are bills to pay.
Too bad Summer time can’t be easy for everyone and we just work in the cool hours and rest during the hottest hours and then get back at it after the heat of the day has passed. But then again this is the South and the heat of the day seems to go on into the night!

Another thought occurs to me as I contemplate this heat. Perhaps there is a reason the Bible Belt has so many churches. It’s hotter than blue blazes in the South. Maybe some folks realize this is as hot as they ever want to be!
One of these mornin's, you gonna rise up singin'
Then you'll spread yo' wings an' you'll take the sky
But till that mornin', there's nothin' can harm you
With daddy & mama standin' by

Anna Lives in our Hearts and our hearts do go on!

Anna leaving our house for the last time.


May 13th was a tough day for us. We had to take our exchange student, Anna, to the airport and say goodbye. My husband and I never in a million years would have thought that it would hurt us so much to say goodbye. But it did. We have hosted before and we loved them also but something different happened to our whole family this time when Anna arrived.

I remember when I first saw her photo on her application; I saw the spark in her eyes. We all looked at her application and essay and agreed that she was the one and we never looked at any others. I did place other students with other host families and we got close to those students also. But not like we did with Anna.

The moment she stepped off the plane last July we knew we were in for a treat. She had a bounce in her step and an “I can do anything because I have just flown half around the world to get here” attitude. We were driving back home and she was taking in the country side and making observations about things and the subject of the internet came up. My husband asked her if they had high speed internet in Armenia and she looked at him and said just so matter of fact, “We are not cavemen you know.” Scott said she had him at the point. For me it was a few days later as I watched her enjoying a BBQ chicken sandwich on one of our first little day trips. And so our adventure began

Hosting an exchange student can be a great experience for everyone. The student exchange program is a program in which a student chooses to live in a foreign country to learn, among other things, language and culture. These programs are called 'exchanges' because originally the goal was an exchange of students between different countries. No exchange is actually required, so a student is allowed to go to another country without finding a counterpart in that country to exchange with. Students live with a host family, who are unpaid volunteers and can be a traditional family, a single parent, or a couple with no children at home. Host families are vetted by the organization coordinating the program and the Department of State conducts a criminal. background check.

The exchange student typically stays for 6 to 10 months and sometimes they receive academic credit for their school time here. Some countries don’t accept the credits earned here and those students have to repeat that school year upon their return. The student do have that year of living here as an American which helps to increase their understanding and tolerance of other cultures, as well as improving their language skills and broadening their social horizons. Students are expected to integrate themselves into the host family, living as a natural child would, immersing themselves in the local community and surroundings, and upon their return to their home country are expected to incorporate this knowledge into their daily lives, as well as give a presentation on their experience to their sponsors and to other students that are thinking about coming to America with these programs.

I am not going to tell you that hosting an exchange student will be like a Disney Fairytale. For some people it is not. There are times when there are just unrealistic expectations on both sides. Things like culture shock and not realizing that life in America is not like the movies can come into play and most kids don’t have a clue as to the size of the US and they don’t understand why they can’t go to Disneyworld one day and the Grand Canyon the next. And our own ignorance of what life outside the US is like comes into play also.

That aside, I do heartily recommend that you try hosting a student one time at least. AYUSA is a great organization that we used and the Regional Representative live right in Vardaman. Truthfully I can tell you that for now our hosting days are over. This time it hurt too badly when we said goodbye. We have had a wonderful 10 months with a very extraordinary young woman named Anna from Armenia. She will live forever with us in our hearts.


Anna's plane taking off from GTR.

Saying goodbye to our exchange student Anna

Time is rapidly drawing near that I will be driving our exchange student, Anna, to Golden Triangle Regional Airport and watch her fly off into the blue sky back to her home country of Armenia. The past 10 months have been a wonderful experience for me and my family since Anna arrived to live with us for the school year to experience life in the USA.

It’s been an eye opening experience for her in many ways. She has found out that all American people do not agree with the political climate in the US and are quite vocal about it; especially at our house. I think that has been somewhat of a surprise. And ask her about sweet potatoes. The ones grown here are exceptionally sweet apparently; and we continue to ‘doctor’ them up by adding more sugar and cinnamon. She has enjoyed Corky’s Bar B Que, pizza sticks, grilled cheese sandwiches, and Bubba Gumps Resturant and Maharaja’s Indian Cuisine. There really isn’t any food that I can say is ‘typically’ American since all of our recipes and favorite food usually originated in another country to begin with.

She arrived with a list of things that she wanted to try and do and we have tried to mark off as many of those things as we could. We’ve had many adventures with her and our game plan turned into how many different states can she go to on a shoestring budget. She is even taking home a large wall map with all the places we have been marked. We succeeded in making it 16. Over Spring Break we hopped a bud and let Greyhound do the driving and went from Memphis to Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois. Add that to Mississippi and Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Washington DC and she has been one very busy young lady.

We went to Disneyland, and that was a pilgrimage for me. My first trip to Disneyland was the year it opened in 1955. I can still remember all the rides and it still holds a sentimental spot in my heart even after all the changes and growth. Anna saw how it really was a fairytale place. We walked through La Brea tar pits and went into the museum there. We strolled Rodeo Drive and looked up at the balcony that Richard Gere and Julia Roberts stood on in Pretty Woman. We saw Las Vegas in the day light and it still glitters in that dusty desert. She saw the extremes that the US can be from farm land to hills; from river deltas to deserts; from ocean front beaches to majestic snow covered mountains; from salt flats to the birth place of grand canyons and colorful mountain ridges and land formations. She even slept through a California earthquake although I sure didn’t!

She has seen small towns and medium sized cities and megacities like Los Angeles and Chicago. She has seen the tallest building in the United States and several state capitols including Mississippi’s as well as our nations Capitol. She has seen that American people are not all rich and famous and that we are not all glitz and glamour like in the movies or on TV. And speaking of movies, she has seen more movies in the past few months than she probably will ever see again. She has stood on the beach of the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica, stood on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi in Memphis and witnessed the power of the wind on Lake Michigan in Chicago. She has experienced the hustle and bustle of city life in LA and Chicago and the slower laid back sweetness of life in rural Mississippi and tent-camping on the banks of the Tenn-Tom waterway at Aberdeen.

We took several little day trips to do things, like ice skating in January in Tupelo and movies and up to Huntsville to the Space Museum and down to Jackson to see the Capitol. She was surprised to learn that the largest cities in states are not always the state capitol and not all state capitols have super tall buildings. What we consider old and historic here pales in comparison to her country. Our nation’s history dates back over 200 years while her nations history is over 6000 years with Noah’s Ark of 4000 years ago the part we usually think about.

She will leave here on Thursday and return to her land and her family and friends. She will finally be able to wake again and see Noah’s mountain from her bedroom window again. She will eat dolma and get hugs from her grandmother again. She will see her brother come home from the Army and take her college entrance exams.

So our year as a host family is now at an end and we say good bye to our Anna as she is leaving for even more of life’s adventures.
We will miss her very much and can only hope that she will remember us fondly and all the memories that we tried to make for her. She has been very much a part of our family since the day she arrived and we tried to figure out this tiny person’s personality. She arrived quite bubbly and full of questions and opinions and she leaves us pretty much the same; still opinionated and full of questions but there is a major difference now. There is a level of maturity. We know that what ever she sets her mind to do, she will achieve it. Good Bye dear Anna. We love you.

Beware of the Wolf you Don't See

Warning! Warning! If you don’t believe in terrorists or that we are still at high risk of being attacked on our own soil, then stop reading this column right now; because you won’t like what I think today. Now, if you get all hot and bothered about the current politics surrounding our safety and well being then by all means, read on.

This idea for this column started forming Saturday after we made a trip to Columbus to bring home all the ‘stuff’ that our college kid needed to move home for the summer. We took a little detour to Aberdeen Lock and Dam so our exchange student could see how an interstate waterway system functions. We discovered that civilians can no longer go to see the locks or dams up close. There are concrete barriers and chain linked fences and locks and gates and more gates with no admittance signs everywhere thanks to 9-11.

As we drove around the rest of the area and saw all the beautiful beaches and picnic areas and boat docks for the fishermen and on into the serene stillness of the camping area, I thought how sad it was that a place a such beauty was held hostage by some goof ball somewhere. THEN I heard the news on the radio about a suspicious vehicle being found in Time Square.

The Smoking Vehicle was seen by your Average Joe working class street vendor who noticed that a white male had parked that older model SUV, left the motor running and then took off down the alley. That was certainly suspicious behavior so the street vendor went to investigate and alerted the authorities about smoke emanating from the vehicle and, after pedestrians had been cleared from the area, a bomb squad discovered that the SUV was packed with what was intended to be lethal incendiary materials.

The device inside the SUV was described as "at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to explosives." The large amounts of fertilizer surrounding the gas and propane tanks in the car was good for growing plants but bad for explosions; BUT if the propane and gas had ignited, the SUV would have exploded in half, spraying shrapnel with enough force to kill innocent pedestrians enjoying a warm summer evening in a busy Times Square.

Now I am not a bomb disposal technician but I do think things through and puzzle through things and if that device "was" pretty crude and wasn't going to work the way they wanted it to” the first thing that crosses my mind about this is this was the one they wanted to be found. Unless Al Queda's bomb making skills have really gone down the toilet it was just too obvious and amateurish to have been their best shot.

It was the everyday entrepreneurs on the sidewalks that spotted the suspicious vehicle. The plot was foiled by sheer luck and quick-thinking civilians.

Now to my way of thinking, a vehicle packed with propane tanks, nestled inside some bag of fertilizer with timers attached , parked right in front of the Viacom building which is home to that highly irreverent Southpark cartoon that depicted Mohammed in a bear suit or something is pointing some racial profiling fingers.

This isn't rocket science people! This might have been a lone wolf act; it might have been a decoy. But it was still an act of terrorism against the American people and we all need to be as vigilant as that American Street Vendor who happened to be a Viet Nam Veteran. We need an active public who will never be intimidated or dependent on government protection. That street vendor in NYC ACTED and the police reacted....we need 300,000,000 active citizens to be more like him. That Patriot acted!

The cavemen with guns are NEVER going to stop and we must beware of the wolf we DON'T see.

Helllloooo! Is anyone else out there in the Universe? ET don't phone home

am a NASA junkie. I watch every space launch and landing that comes around. I waited for the double boom BOOM of the Space Shuttle as it flew over Mississippi on its way to landing at Kennedy on Tuesday morning. I love space exploration. But what if we are not alone?

I was watching a new documentary titled "Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking" Sunday night on The Discovery Channel. The British physicist says aliens are out there, but it could be too dangerous for humans to interact with extraterrestrial life. Why? The 68-year-old scientist said a visit by extraterrestrials to Earth might well be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas , "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans. We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet," Hawking said. "I imagine they might exist in massive ships ... having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”

I mulled over what he was saying and you know…he is probably right. Throughout history, there have been UFO’s reported. People that see the UFO’s are regarded as nut cases by the people that didn’t have the experience. But just because you never have the close encounter doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Think Area 51.

Are we really so arrogant to believe that we….the inhabitants of the 3rd rock from the sun that we have called Earth…. Do we really think that we are the only intelligent life in the Universe? Is God so limited in His imagination that we are it?

I have to admit that I agree with Mr. Hawking. One only has to look through a telescope into the myriad of stars in the vast night sky and look at the million and billions of pinpoints of pulsating lights and realize that we are probably just one of several spots in the unknown swirling galaxies that are probably supporting some form of intelligent life. And they are probably not all lovey dovey and benevolent. When you factor in the 100 billion galaxies in our universe, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.

I don’t really think that it might be the perfect idea to be trying to communicate and let ET know that we are sitting here. Aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding. I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t even begin to understand. And they (ET) probably would not understand us. Just as I can’t understand quantum theory, there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.

What if the visitors are predatory? Do we really think that we can outsmart them? After all, they are the ones that traveled through the time space continuum to reach us. If they have that kind of travel technology then they surely have weapon technology beyond our puny imagination.

So I will keep my telescopes handy and continue to star gaze and wonder. But I am not too sure that I really want to find out about any other intelligent life forms that might be out there. What if?

Jesus loves us equally. Is that a bad thing?

Vonda’s Views
April 5, 2010

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

I can remember during my informative, inquisitive childhood years, learning this song in Sunday School. Various teachers each week would teach from the Holy Scriptures that Jesus loved us ALL. So I believe that Christ does love us all. That means he loves us all equally does it not?

Yet in recent days I have run across statements that people have made that appear to me to be exclusionary. Equality is not something they want or even believe in. Oh yes I would love to have equality of wages for men and women. I have long been an advocate of that. Especially when I once worked in an office where I was more qualified and experienced than my supervisor yet I was paid a lesser wage because I was a woman. No I didn’t fight it because that was not an option back in that time frame. I did move on though when the next best opportunity arose.

But what about equality in religion? Are there really people that believe that we are not all equal in God’s eyes? Sadly I think so from comments that I hear and from things I see in print.

Jesus died for all the children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus died for all the children of the world.

Is being equal such a bad thing? Is it wrong to have a vision of a day when every one is equal or is that some sort of evil indoctrination plot? When the time comes for each of us to meet our Maker, we all will be standing one on one in front of the Lord and he will be looking at us. Not at our skin color or whether or not we went to church every time the doors opened. It’s not going to matter if we helped out a local charity or gave someone the shirt off our back. Its not going to matter if we grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and was a hippie for a while or if we grew up so sheltered that we didn’t have a thought for ourselves.

So what if there was that girl in your class that got pregnant and had a kid out of wedlock? Did that mean you were “better” than her? What about the guy that wore his hair so long he tied it back in a ponytail yet you wore yours in a buzz cut? What about the guys that didn’t want to be drafted and your brother was and he died in Viet Nam? Is that “draft dodger” any less important in God’s eyes.

The point I am trying to make, in my small allotted space, is that religion, particularly the Christian Faith, is about Gods love for us, not about our love for God. He loved us FIRST. And he loves us just as we are. It is because of HIS love that we are changed and we come to love Him. Through that love we seek to change our ways and be more like Him.

Jesus rose for all the children/people
All the children/people of the world
Red and yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus rose for all the children/people of the world.

Jesus loves us ALL equally. So equality can be a good thing.

My Name is Corn Bread Junior and I'm Hongry

Vonda’s Views
March 28, 2010

The Great Spring Break Road Trip of 2010

The people that followed my ‘tweets’ of our Spring Break Trip to the west coast and back have been asking for more details of the trip. You know, little things, like would I travel by bus again, and was the trip really fun or did I just make it sound that way. Then there is the question of WHY did we do it straight through like we did.

Would I do it again? Yes yes yes I would and YES I would do it on the GreyHound Bus. Not that it was all glamorous or that I was sitting in the lap of luxury. It was just a great way and an economical way for us to take Anna to across the USA and to see as much of it as we could in 9 days.

There were all sorts of things that happened to us that I found amusing as well as semi alarming but it was also things that were eye-opening experiences for us.
Take for instance, our arrival in Dallas, Texas where we were to transfer to the Los Angeles bound bus; just before we pulled into the bus terminal, our driver began giving us instructions on picking up our luggage and taking it with us to the next bus and telling us how long we would be waiting before we departed on the next leg of the trip. He also told us that even though there is security in the bus terminals, not to leave our luggage unattended as the occasional homeless person or panhandler would come in and start begging for money. His advice was to not give them money, ignore them and call security over. He said sometimes they really were not homeless, just deadbeats looking for an easy target.

We were standing in line with our luggage waiting for the new bus when all of a sudden we heard this voice coming out of the crowd, “My name is Corn Bread Junior and I’m homeless and hongry! Will you give me a couple of dollars so I can get me some food?” Most everyone took one look at the guy and thought uh oh! Ole Corn Bread looked a mess. He had matted hair, was dragging one leg like it was injured or deformed and holding one arm like it was useless, nasty clothes and smelled to high heaven but I noticed his teeth and he had some pretty good teeth that he was flashing around so I was skeptical.

He disappeared into the crowd as the Security guards started looking his way. Soon we heard his voice again, “My name is Corn Bread Junior and I’m Homeless and sleepy and I need a couple of bucks to pay the Salvation Army so I can go get a bed and sleep.” Then he had a cup he would stick in your face and shake at you. I told him I didn’t have any cash on me. By this time, his body odor was really starting to get to people.

Our eyes were watering and some of us were trying to see how long we could hold our breath before having to inhale again. Then he made his final appeal, “my name is Corn Bread Junior and I’m homeless and I need to take a bath!” That one worked because she smelled like he had rolled in Catfish Charley and then got sprayed by a skunk! People were digging for pocket change and anything else they might have handy to put in his cup so that hopefully he would drag his smelly personage away from the terminal.

After he collected his ‘bath money’ he left and some of the folks stood watching him as he left. Sure enough, when he was out of the building, ole Corn Bread Junior started using the bad arm and hand to count his money and his bum deformed leg started walking straight and without a limp. He had seen his target and made the bull’s eye and some honest trusting people became skeptical cynics that morning.

Vonda’s Views
March 12, 2010

To paraphrase Dorothy in the Wizard Oz, “WE aren’t in Mississippi anymore girls!”

By the time this is published I will be on the second or third leg of our great Spring Break Road Trip to see America in 9 days. I decided that we would take the ‘south western’ route out to LA and see Dallas Fort Worth and all of the beautiful deserts through New Mexico and Arizona.

On the return leg of our trip we may have a large detour to make in the Denver area as several tons of boulders the size of semi tractor trailers slid down onto US 70 and that is the main passage through the Rockies. From what I have seen on the news, those are some pot holes that won’t be able to be patched with a little bit of cold patch! The detour is going to make the trip about 4 hours longer but it is also going to take us through the scenic route. As if there is anything more scenic than the Rocky Mountains!

I have an Atlas and I am marking all of the little places that we will be seeing and passing through and it will be fun for me to pass on to my kids a few things about the US. Geography and History has always been one of my stronger subjects.

In the mean time, if you are reading this on Thursday then we are already on the bus going through the Mojave Desert and it might be lunch time in Las Vegas where we will be stopping. I’ve never been there and it will be enough for me just to pass through the city and gawk a little at it.

Anna and Erin will be excited to be heading toward Chicago and our little excursion into the Sears Tower before getting back on the bus and heading to Memphis where Scott and Ariel will be waiting pick us up and bring us home. And as much as I love to travel and see new things, I will be clicking the heels of my red Crocs together 3 times saying “there is no place like home.”

Planning an adventure

Vonda’s Views
March 7, 2010

I love a good adventure story and now I am about to write one of my own.
I have been planning a Spring Break trip for the two high schoolers in my house. We started talking about this back in the Fall after our exchange student Anna arrived to live with us. Anna was trying to grasp the concept of just how big the United States is and we thought that it would be a great idea to take a cross country trip and see as much of the USA as possible in a short period of time. I started researching and came up with the idea of traveling by train or bus. There is nothing like letting someone else doing the driving and navigating while all I do is sit and watch the landscapes and cities go by.

We decided on Chicago and Los Angeles as our destinations; Chicago just long enough to go up in the Sears tower and then on to Los Angeles to see the Pacific Ocean and other points of interest. After contacting friends in the LA area and making arrangements for a place to stay then the fun began; how much money or how little can we make this trip for and just how are we going to get there?

While I really wanted to travel by train, the schedules just were not going to cooperate with us. I want to go out there one route and return on another so that we can travel through as many states as possible. While traveling by train is surprisingly very cost efficient, some routes are only traveled 3 days a week and as luck would have it, it was not the 3 days we needed. So the Greyhound Bus has become our mode of travel.

The girls have been researching all of the ‘free’ things that we can do while we are out there. There is the La Brea Tar Pits at Hancock Park and the Hollywood Star Walk of Fame; Graumans Chinese Theater and all of the Hand and Foot prints of the stars is nearby as is the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park. I would love to be able to look through that huge telescope into the cosmos! There are many other things that we want to do that will cost money. There is Disneyland and we can’t pass up going to the original Disney theme park. I want to go to the Pacific at Hermosa Beach which is where we lived in 1959 before my Daddy decided to move back to Mississippi.

Anna is from Armenia so we are going to go to visit the area of Los Angeles known as Little Armenia and my friends tell me there are many wonderful Armenian restaurants there so I will finally get to eat some Armenian food. We have found it amusing that Los Angeles has more Armenians living there than do in her native land.

I am busily trying to plan something on paper so we can cram as much as possible into every day as we will only have 4 days to see and do as much as we can On the way out there we will have meal stops in St. Louis and Denver and Las Vegas and then on the trip back we will have meal times in Phoenix and El Paso and Dallas before finally getting to Memphis. Its going to be a long ride but we will travel through 12 states seeing everything from the Plains to the mountains to the deserts and a little of everything else in between. I will be journaling the whole time and taking pictures.

I love adventures and taking a bus trip with a couple of teenage girls to LA so we can say we wet our toes in the Pacific should be a good one.

15 minutes of Fame

These days it seems like everyone is famous for at least 15 minutes. Or maybe its just five minutes but it sure does appear that everyone, especially young people are obsessed with being a celebrity. Look at all of the reality type shows on television now. People standing in front of so called industry judges singing (very badly I might add) at the top of their lungs trying for fame and fortune; or prancing up and down a runway or posing vogue in front of cameras aiming to be the next top model.

We sit glued to the television listening to people say that they want to have plastic surgery so they can look like some glamorous model or we hear these wannabe singers talk about living the dream and failure is not an option for them or they gush that they have worked all their life to reach this moment and most of them are not even past 20 yet!
Even in the sports arena, you see young people thinking that every one of them going to be the next great quarterback of the NFL or something along those lines. They all want to be rich and famous. What lofty goals our young people have now days.

Young people think fame is their birthright. They have a sense of entitlement that is bigger than anything I have ever seen. Kids (as well as some adults!) look at these reality shows and think “I can do that” and that becomes their life’s ambition. The majority of kids leaving schools today no longer want to be study to be doctors or lawyers or architects or teachers or rocket scientists or plumbers or electricians; they want to be famous. They want to be celebs; they think being a celebrity is the short track to wealth and happiness and they are firmly convinced that it will bring them everything they ever wanted. There is an entire generation WORLD WIDE apparently, that thinks if you have a lot of money and material things then you will be happy and they don’t understand that nothing worth having is going to come without a lot of blood, sweat and tears, work and scrabbling to the make it.

As a parent I have always tried to tell my girls that they can be anything they set their mind on but that it takes hard work and perseverance as well as being in the right place at the right time. I am a classically trained artist and a good one. I had the opportunity to work in a couple of major cities where the world of commercial art is strong but I choose a long time ago to stay in Mississippi. Would I have been rich and famous had I gone somewhere else? I can’t say. Maybe. Maybe not. Do I regret not taking the big leap? Nope. I had and still have the talent but having the talent isn’t the be all and end all of it. I was not cut throat enough to survive and I saw that pretty early on in my career. So I chose to stay close to home to be with family and to raise a family. Even now at the age of 56, I still am not cut throat enough for some things.

Watching all this debacle about the state of education in our state has made me think about a few things. I have never thought kids get a good enough education in our state. Not on the public level anyway. The teachers might as well be hog tied for all of the restrictions and for the things they are required to do. And how they do it with what little they get paid…well my hat is off to them. But I do get tired of buying reams of copy paper for each of my daughters’ classes. I have complained about that ever since they reentered the public school system.

I home schooled my daughters until their junior years in high school. Why? Because I could and because I felt that I could offer them a much broader education than they would ever get in the public school system. It was hard work for 9 years and we all learned a lot and did a lot of things. They sometimes thought I was crazy for the things that I presented to them to learn about but the one that is now a junior in college finally understands some of the things I was pushing her to learn. I knew when she got to the university level she would understand. Now both my girls are looking forward to their higher education and making plans for their future.

I haven’t heard the phrase ‘I want to be famous’ out of either of them but the spark is probably there. With a good solid education and a lot of hard work, hopefully they will have learned a good trade and have a worthy career and find their 15 minutes of fame and hold on to it. I just hope and pray that there are kids out there that still think being a nurse and doctor and a tech is good. There needs to be more respect for the plumber and the electrician too. Those are very worthy careers. It’s better to be a great in demand electrician and plumber than a mediocre singer or anorexic model.

Traveling with Teenagers on a field trip

I’ve said it before and I will say it again….traveling with a group of teenagers is like herding cats. It is always an adventure!

Last week, I and Donna Williams the Regional Director for AYUSA in Mississippi, took a group of 12 exchange students down to see our state Capitol and some of the other sights to be seen around Jackson. We left bright and early Tuesday morning and started picking up students. I had warned all the kids to pack light and only bring the necessary stuff . Just because I drive a 15 passenger van does not mean it has room for people AND luggage. It is sometimes an either/or situation.

At any rate we got everyone and their stuff into the van. The first little casualty of the trip happened down in Grenada. We had just picked up the last 6 kids and we stopped at a quick stop store for the last rest room break and for coffee. One of the girls, Julia, was sitting on the very back row and she decided to climb over the back of the seat and go out the rear door. IN the process of doing that her blue jeans ripped right in the rear seam. IT turned out that was the only pair of pants she had brought along on the one day trip. I told her we would just have to wait till we got to Jackson to purchase her some new jeans.

The trip down went pretty quickly. We had decided to spend the night in Canton because the rooms in the motel there were not as expensive as in Jackson and the budget was already tight. We arrived in Canton and checked into our rooms and we unpacked the van and everyone quickly got ready to go on to the Capitol to meet State Rep. Jim Beckett. Jim had a arranged a tour for us so we needed to get there quickly. But before we could go there was the matter of replacing those jeans. I was not about to let that child go into the Capitol with her a large portion of her leg hanging out.

Trying to find a Wal-Mart, when you aren’t looking for one, is nearly impossible. But I did find a Kohl’s. The second I pulled into the parking lot all the other girls shouted ‘SHOPPING’ and Donna and I were shouting NO! I got out with Julia and we headed into the store. I told her it would be a fast trip. I spied the jeans in the junior department and steered her in that direction. We found the one pair in her size, she tried them on, I approved of them, she paid for them and we were back out the door and in the van in 15 minutes.

Then we were going to grab a quick lunch and that was when Donna discovered that she had left her wallet back in Canton in the room. So we drove back to Canton to retrieve the money, Julia put on the new jeans and we raced to eat some lunch and then to the Capitol. After driving in circles for what seemed like forever, I finally found a space large enough to park the van in that was close to the Capitol building. We started walking and then everyone had to take pictures and more pictures and by the time we got inside we were late for our tour. We were beyond late actually and our tour guide was not a happy camper.

She warmed up after hearing the convoluted story of the ripped pants, search for a store, the hurried pants search and the forgotten money. She gave the kids a very good tour and they sat in the gallery of both the Senate and the House and they asked questions. I just took pictures to document the events and kept to the back of the line to make sure we didn’t lose anyone!

After we left the Capitol, we were invited to dinner at a friend’s home out in Brandon on the Ross Barnett Reservoir. I relied on the GPS to get me there with some directions and landmark advice from my friend. We found her home and the kids were treated to a beautiful view, some great food and Mardi Gras fun and a few games of billiards. The adults hung out in the kitchen discussing the joys of hosting international exchange students while watching kids from 9 nations talking and interacting.

After a great dinner we returned to our motel rooms and had a good nights rest and the next morning went to the Museum of Natural Science before heading back home. It was a quick trip and we wanted to do more but that will come another day. For the exchange students, their time here is rapidly coming to an end as most will start going home in May. Donna and I are already looking for family’s to host students for the 2010-2011 school year. If you have ever thought about hosting, now is the time to look. I am already looking forward to planning trips for next year’s group of kids.

Taking them places may be like herding cats, but it’s a fun thing to let the cats out of the bag as they learn what life is like for teenagers in Mississippi USA!

Snow Days and the natives are getting restless

Ya’ll staying warm enough? I’m wearing layers and a cap pretty much 24 hours a day. I discovered that there is warmer air in my upright freezer than outside my kitchen door. And it has been a mad race to keep the pipes from freezing and to help the dog have drinking water with out her little tongue being frozen to her water dish! I’m trying to figure out why I should bring in my yard dog so she won’t freeze to death in this bitter cold, yet the tiniest of birds can survive without any help from me and they stay in little stick nests up in the branches of bare trees!

The kids were all excited to have ‘snow days’ just two days after the winter break was over. Parents all over the area could be heard groaning when they heard those words on the weather report because you know you can only have so many days of kids being home before the natives get a full blown case of cabin fever and start attacking!

I was working in the Amory area all day Wednesday and it was about 7:30 in the evening when I decided I might need to pick up some bread and milk before I left that town. So I ducked into the Piggly Wiggly there. Unlike most people apparently, I really was out of those two items. As I was shopping, a gentleman came in and grabbed a carton of milk and stood in line. Pretty soon he was joined by a second man with milk and then a third. See the pattern? It got better. One man turned to the other and said, my wife called me and told me bad weather in on the way and to pick up some milk. The next guy said,” me too.” The third man just grinned and held up his milk and a loaf of bread. Then a fourth man gets in line with bread and milk and he said, “my wife called me too. We don’t even drink milk!”

I just chuckled at them and went on buying my ingredients for making the menu for the week” chili, a chicken pie, stir-fried chicken and stewed potato soup. The shelves were pretty bare as I tried to find all the things on my grocery list. There were no loaves of bread so I just bought bread mix and decided to bake my own. The poor little girl that checked me out said that it had been busier than the day before Christmas.

After I paid and got back in the van with my purchases I chuckled at the logic of buying a carton of milk and a loaf of bread to prepare for bad weather. Why is it when we hear the words snow storm that we buy things that we don’t even use? And just how far does one expect to get with a single carton of milk and a loaf of bread? I thought that might have been a little male logic going on there.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the white stuff on the ground the next morning. It threw a monkey wrench into my work week but it was nice to have a snow day and to cook the nice pot of chili and the chicken pot pie. The hot bread and fresh lemon cake and steaming mug of coffee helped me get over the fact that pipes might be freezing and that there were teenagers upstairs and the natives were getting restless!

dealing with the downhill slide of the holidays

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon


Well I don’t know about you but, whatever holidays you celebrated in November, December, and January, they're over now. All of that special food that we slaved over the stoves to cook has been eaten and the decorations are slowly coming down. The New Year is here, though I haven’t decided how I should see it. Should I see it with hope or fear, it is totally up to me.

In most of the western world, January is a month of coming down. We have spent November and December gearing up, getting ready, anticipating days off from work, travel, good food, and good times with people we love. Then January comes, and that's all over. Not only that, but the bills for all that hope and anticipation and fun start arriving and we have to go back to our normal daily routine. It's no wonder if we sometimes look up and ask if the holidays really meant anything after all. Because even if the holidays were stressful, the days after bring on even more stress!

We are now in the Season of Letdown. Seasons of letdown are difficult for the human spirit. They just are. The truth is, our lives cycle and recycle all the time, though we don't often notice because we're too busy experiencing the feelings of wherever we are in the cycle. We are constantly going through ups and downs. We cycle as individuals, as family groups, as business groups, as friends, as a culture, as a country, and as a world..

Right now for me it's almost a relief to say, "It's January, and I'm on the downward side of the holiday season cycle. It's normal for me to feel tired, a more than a little overwhelmed with everyday life coming back at me, and even a little sad. I sat down on New Years Day and tears just started welling in my eyes. I never could figure out why. I had enjoyed a wonderful day with family and we ate great food. The tears just happened of their own accord.

When I get in such a mood I find that I have to find my quiet space and hole up in it for a while. I have been over stimulated by the sights and sounds and smells of the holidays. I have been overwhelmed with the constant searching for the perfect gifts. I have been inundated with the various duties my four part time jobs have thrown at me! The only way I can make it through the downside is to sit and reflect and recharge my ‘batteries’ so I have to take time to be quiet and to contemplate or write or read some of numerous books I have. When I remember the good times I find it much easier to be content in the present time.

Now that January has arrived I have to start focusing on other things and other people. I have work to do and hopefully some trips to plan an escape from the daily life. Focusing on these things allows me to find contentment. Focusing like this can be difficult, when the time is still so close to what was exciting. I have had to develop a Meditation Mind. In meditation, practitioners are asked to focus and relax. When they find their minds wandering, they are asked to simply recall themselves to the focus. This kind of mindset can also serve well in focusing on the present, if you find your mind wandering; simply bring it back to the task at hand. Repeated practice allows our minds to attain focus easier and hold it longer.

If you're down after the holidays, I hope you can find the quiet space and time so you can focus and help you out whenever you're in the downward part of a cycle.