April
I was around 4 years old when you came along. I was too young to understand the April Fools teasing that I had a baby sister. Didn't take long to realize competetion for mom's affection had taken the form of a little baby girl. So I took it as a life mission to be as mean as a brother could be. Until PMS entered the game on your side, did I realize that I had a formadible foe I might should respect. Time moved us apart which probably saved my life, but I also came to grips with what a gift I really had in my baby sister. Mom's chocolate pie set the bar for sweetness. With time however, you proved just by being you, the sweetness of unconditional love. My baby sister, how can I say Happy Birthday? For many it is just words, but for me it is a condition of the heart. How many more birthdays we will share is far less than what has passed us, but I wish for you the very best during the last year of your half century decade. I find it easy to say now, I love you, and Happy Birthday...
Posted April 1 from my office
For you to understand the base of this post, it is almost imperative for you read the final post on my March blog that I posted on the 31st. It sets the stage for what I am posting now. I was told yesterday by my daughter that my "pending" grandson's name is Garret, not Garrett! This means she is obviously doing better and "Garret NOT so FEMALE ferret" is still in the oven gaining the strength he needs to compete when he does enter this world. I'm not sure how strong my daughter is, however. This pregnancy has been harder on her than the last one. I hope her health holds out and she can go full term with this little boy. Thanks for the prayers and thoughts...
Posted April 2 from my office
I have had several friends the last couple of days, ask how my daughter Paige and her unborn son, Garret are doing since last weekend's hospital scare. This is what I told a friend in Baton Rouge just this morning: Paige is at that point of her third trimester where she is ready to get this over with. It appears that every time she runs to the hospital to investigate aches and pains commonly associated with this term of her pregnancy, Garret convinces medical personnel he is not ready to engage the world. He prefers to stay right where he is! So, as it was with Gabby a couple of years and a few months ago, it appears this will be an hour to hour, day to day, slow dance until Garret alone decides to give it up. I personally think Paige is going to "push" the issue until Garret "slips out" and gives Poppy the traditional High 5 as to join the family. I'm seriously considering going to Alaska until he and Gabby get out of diapers. There are some things to which a grandfather should never ever be subjected, again!
Posted April 3 from my home.
I was given a small booklet today by a close friend entitled, In God We Trust. The Faith of the Men on Our Money, by Steve Casey. So many things I found interesting as I read through it twice in one sitting. Oh ye of little faith, as I thought of myself and countless others! No wonder the atheist and agnostic amongst us are motivated by Satan himself to do the best they can to turn us against the Almighty! Here is a quote from one of these men we grew up with historically. "It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe, without the agency of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to govern the universe without the aid of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being." This speaker continued, "Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason, in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he NOT a Supreme Being to refer to." The speaker in the above quotes, has his picture captured on the Currency of the United States of America's One Dollar Bill. He is considered historically as "The Father of Our Country." I think we should doubt not his faith?
Posted April 3 from my office
As the early morning light begins to filter through the window of the bedroom, my mockingbird encourages me to engage the day. I've been laying here in the comfortable bedroom of my sister, Nona's home in Monroe, where I spent Friday night. She and I sat up and talked until 00:30 this morning before we both retired. I guess somewhere between 00:45 and 01:00 I finally drifted off into a restless sleep. I have too many of those as of late and at 04:15 I was wide awake. As is the norm, I grab the IPhone and Safari allows me to read a handful of my short stories until I hear movement in the kitchen around 06:10 or so! Coffee is ready and Nona's Shih Tzu, Emmy Lou comes in to remind me she needs some attention. I am attending a tactical firearms class as a student in West Monroe today. The shooting should keep me entertained throughout the day as we are expecting to put more than 300 rounds down range in an 8 hour class. It is the drive back to Pineville this afternoon that I might find somewhat less entertaining. Sleep? I have been here before! Dreadfully tired to the point of illness yet anxiety has me fast awake?? What memories must I remove in order to allow my mind and soul the equilibrium necessary for deep, restful sleep?
Post April 5 from my home
OMG!! Just saved!!! I'm sitting here and little Gabby runs up to me and says, "pee pee, pee pee, Poppy!" Immediately I jump up and think out loud, YES!! I excitedly guide her to the closest potty which is in my bedroom! "Pee, pee for Poppy," I gleefully encourage her!! We are both happy, as I reach down to take off the diaper and surprise, surprise!! MAJOR DIAPER FULL!!! Oh heck no! Not again! I snatch her up with said diaper still attached to that nasty little butt and sit her on the potty and DARE her to move while I summon assistance!!! I scream down the hall for a mother or grandmother, at this point it didn't matter. Mom to the rescue! I go back and sit down at my computer where it all began and in just minutes, here she comes. Gabby pats me on the leg and my daughter said, "Well daddy, she still pee peed for Poppy!" Well, maybe so, but Poppy didn't need to deal with the rest! And I thought I might tell her that!
Posted April 10 from my home...
Sitting at my river this morning, I watched a full moon slip slowly to a defined position in the western horizon. I distinctly remember posting a picture of this same moon suspended like a football between the lift uprights of my drawbridge like a kicked field goal. This morning, the celestial kicker missed far, far left. I wonder how this could be? I also wonder on parallel thought processes of the people we interact with on social media. So many people we know but what about those "meteorite people" that enter our atmosphere that could burn bright in our life and we never see them because we are just not looking in the right direction or paying attention? And then at some moment at some unappointed time, we glance to the darkness of infinity and across the sky there is that one "meteorite person" we do see. A spectical of sorts as the short presentation of its entry into our atmosphere sends a special invitation you just feel. Just like the millions of others that enter our sphere of cognizant reasoning everyday, yet this one stands out. I wonder why that same celestial athelete passed that one just for me? I collect it and add yet another friend to my facebook list. I think it will stay even though its resting place is far, far away... Sometimes these surprises lift us to another level of self discovery and resolution of understanding of the blessings we so take for granted. Are we not blessed? Abundantly?
Posted April 16 from my river.
Michael Buble's "Crazy Love" just played on Pandora and for some reason I smiled and enjoyed the entire song. I sat at my river today and my mind carefully sifted through this past month as the waning moments filter memories in short and long term databases of my mind... I focused immediately on a particular lesson my river revealed to me concerning the rise and fall of her pooling stages that control her gradual decent into infinity. I am reminded that this event is controlled by man. "As I pool before you," she says, "I find myself entertaining your mind once again. Just remember, what you see is a reflection of past memories. I will visit you from time to time and it is ok to remember me, but possess me you will never again." And with that, I smile knowing that when she re-engages my thoughts, when man causes locks and dams to close and gather her waters to pool, she is only there to see if she might possess me yet once again. Pleasingly tempting, but never again... And as April passes into May, I still await the arrival of my latest grandson, Garret. I am told his birth will be induced the first Monday in May. It has been an interesting year.
And my friends comfort my resolve for the month with their late evening comments.
Becky W. Harper: Love your gift of words Rodman!
Martha D. Compton:
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