American Honey

  I heard a song today as I scooted the hangers from right to left at the thrift store. It was "American Honey". My Neice, Gabrielle, was with me and had decided to skip prom so I decided she needed to skip school and go to the thrift store with my Mom and Me.  I have a friend that calls things like that "therapy". It was one of the first warm days of Spring. The pear trees were in bloom and the bees were appreciative. I was thinking about the people I have known in my past life before the coma went out of my income and I had to go back to having a real job for which I am grateful.

  I thought about that American Honey. When I left a corporate job to don the smoker and gloves and veil and the rake and hoe and shovel.

  I sat on the ground beneath the cottonwoods as the blossoms sailed to the ground around us. I sat at the feet of one of my beekeeping buddies, Ivory Darnell. Nobody was really sure how old he was, including himself, because when Ivory was born nobody gave out birth certificates. I sat at his feet and listened as he told me stories about his Mother, the Original Alabama Bee Charmer, with her white bonnet, smoking rag and bee "gums" near her clothes line. "Those mean German bees" as he refered to them. No one could go close to them but her. When they first put a man on the moon he told me what his Grandpa said... "Well, they'll not put one on the Sun".

  My Friend got blowed away by an F5 years ago. He didn't have any legs by then. We helped each other. I was his legs in the bee yard and he kept the smoker alive with mounds of cool white billows.
Moments like that made me glad... glad that I choose the life I did....or did it choose me

...of American Honey.

Lessons I've Learned From Bantie Bellbottoms

Miss Bantie Bellbottoms 

1) Be happy where ever you go.
2) Be grateful for the smallest of joys.
3) Bring joy to the lives of those you come in contact with.
4) Be good company.
5) Leave the world a better place.

You Want More?

                                         
                                                            "You want more????"

God Bless Us

                                             God Bless Us...........
                                                                              Everyone.
                                         

Life Is Short

                                          Life is short so open all the presents that you can.
                                                                       Jasmine, Age 9

Recycled Rosemary Wreath

  Rosemary is known as a symbol of remembrance, friendship and love. A story of rosemary tells that the flowers were originally white but changed to blue when the Virgin Mary hung her cloak on a bush while fleeing from Herod's soldiers with the Christ child.

  This is a simple recycled, artificial evergreen wreath that has been carefully hung and sprigs of fresh rosemary added to the frame. This adds a nice touch to an existing wreath and fragrance to the area where it hangs. In this case, it's my front door.

Happy Veterans Day Uncle Robert, Welcome Home, Love, Cheryl

  I took a wet washcloth and washed his face. I prepared his coffee the way he liked it. I placed a straw into the coffee cup and put it to his lips. He was to weak to drink it. In a few hours I would be sitting across from the man behind the big desk down at the funeral home where he and I had sat together 4 months earlier for my Dad.

  He told me he was tired. I kissed him on the forehead as he lay in the hospital bed. As I sat quietly beside him there, mysteriously the door to the hospital room opened slightly. I thought about how odd that was as the door was heavy and had to be opened deliberately. After it had stood open for awhile I got up to close it. I wondered who had come to get him before the Nurse, the Doctor and the Chaplin arrived.

  It was August 25, 2005 and it was Friday. His chest still heaved as if he was breathing. The nurse said it was reflex action from all of those 71 years of breathing in and out.

  I wrote his obituary from the template he and I had used for my Dad, his brother. I said he had "crossed the river". As General Stonewall Jackson lay dying he was still shouting orders to his men. It was said that he suddenly laid quiet and said," Come, let us cross the river and rest 'neath the shade of the trees."

 A fitting reward for any good soldier.

 Rest well Uncle Robert. I'll see you soon.

Love,
Cheryl