Archives For June 2012


My sister shared this with me this morning: My friend, Sarah, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house..

The first day and evening went well, and Arlene was delighted to have this rare glimpse into how the very wealthy live. Her husband’s employer was quite generous as a host, and took them to the finest restaurants. Arlene knew she would never have the opportunity to indulge in this kind of extravagance again, so was enjoying herself immensely.

As the three of them were about to enter an exclusive restaurant one evening, the boss was walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband.
He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment…

Arlene wondered if she was supposed to pass him….. There was nothing on the ground except a single darkened penny that someone had dropped, and a few cigarette butts. Still silent, the man reached down and picked up the penny.
He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure.

How absurd! What need did this man have for a single penny? Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up?

Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could stand it no longer.. She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection, and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value.

A smile crept across the man’s face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for her to see. She had seen many pennies before! What was the point of this?

“Look at it,” he said. “Read what it says.”
She read the words, ” United States of America .”

“No, not that. Read further.”

“One cent?”
“No, keep reading.”

“In God we Trust?”
“Yes!”
“And?. … .”

“And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin. Whenever I find a coin, I see that inscription. It is written on every single United States coin, but we never seem to notice it! God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him. Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray. I stop to see if my trust IS in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as a response to God; that I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God’s way of starting a conversation with me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!”

When I was out shopping today, I found a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up, and realized that I had been worrying and fretting in my mind about things I cannot change. I read the words, “In God We Trust,” and had to laugh. “Yes, God, I get the message!”

It seems that I have been finding an inordinate number of pennies in the last few months, but then, pennies are plentiful! And, God is patient.

Thought for the Day:

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it…

If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.

He sends you flowers every spring.

He sends you a sunrise every morning…
Face it, friend – He is crazy about you!

God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.
Read this line very slowly and let it sink in…..

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.


Dogs, Gardening and Home Depot.


Well I woke up quite early this morning. Somewhat happy that there is only another day and a half of school left for my three youngest kids. I was also a little scared with just over two long weeks left before they start camp. What to do with three young girls? Anyway, Once the kids were all settled into school for the day, I then did some paperwork that I’ve been putting off for some time. Then I treated my husband to lunch before heading over to The Home Depot. I had hoped to buy material to build a fence for my garden.

For anyone that knows me, I absolutely love gardening. I’m self taught at everything. I prefer to do things my way and instruction hasn’t proved to be the way for me to learn. I’m not saying I hated school or anything. I just feel that if there is anything I really want to be good at, I have to teach myself. Any way, I’ve always wanted a garden, but have only recently been able to have one thanks to my husband. We moved in to his house in July of 2010 and I couldn’t wait to get started, but it did wait until next summer. Because I had to tackle the inside of the house first. Then there were two other things standing in my way. One giant ugly bush on either side of the house. They just had to go! It’s always been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well to me, any talk of beauty was completely lost on those two bushes. Well my loving husband agreed that it was indeed time for them to go despite the fact that he looked out at them his entire childhood and then his adulthood.

With that handled and absolutely no experience gardening, I was off and running. Home Depot became my next best friend. I can’t really tell you how many trips I made there, but I have my loving husband to thank for being my chauffeur and helpful assistant. He doesn’t have a green thumb but he has just enough patience to put up with me when I’m on a mission.

So I started laying down anything with color that looked good. Then I decided I had to make a walk way. I decided what I wanted and then laid it down. It’s funny what you can do without knowing what you are doing. I hope that makes sense. Many passerby’s made warm and pleasing comments, and I was grateful to be able to give them joy. The winter came and took all the color with it.

So this year I started again. I put in some rose bushes, some Asian dwarf bushes, and more ground cover to keep company with my existing plants. Then, I thought it would stand out more if I lay down some white pebbles in the back part of the garden while mulch covers the front part of the garden.

Back to today. My intent while shopping at The Home Depot was to find some rocks, or wood to use to build some type of a wall. This would hopefully deter the dogs tat seem to love my garden as much as people do, but not for the same reasons. Worse than that, their owners don’t seem to want to stop them from harming my garden. Then argue with me if I ask them to remove their dog. Now, this is not true of every dog owner. There are many respectful dog owners, but there are others that just don’t care.

As I’m sure many of you have experienced, The Home Depot is normally filled with a bunch of wonderful and amazingly smart people, but for some reason today, those that helped were “punching out for the day”, “on a lunch break”, “not my department”, or just plain just didn’t know how to help me. I was soon approached by a familiar face, but just couldn’t remember her name. She was an amazing help to me. Because time ran out after waiting so long for help, I was only able to get material to make signs for the garden to ask pet owners not to allow their pets to use my garden as their public bathroom. I did not leave with the rocks or the wood that I had intended on buying. Viewing the long lines, and school letting out soon for the day, I decided The Home Depot could wait another day.

Well, in the words of Gloria Gaynor “I will survive”!


My Garden Today

A work in progress

Hello world!

06/14/2012 — Leave a comment

Hello world!.

I have wanted to start a blog for some time to share various thoughts with those who may find them of interest. Living life we are all exposed to different experiences. It’s nice to know that there is a place that we can share them. I’m not sure how often I will visit and write, but I hope when I do that you will all share your thoughts with me.

I may also preview some of the poems I intend on including in my upcoming book of poems. Let’s start with this one which a few of you may have seen already:

Redemption

Happiness is what we all live for,

Peace is what we all hope for,

Forgiveness is what we ask for

Time is what we have.

When we think about family our heart takes pause to reflect upon cause.

What caused us to be here feeling so blue,

Separated from the ones we love,

We’re saddened when the answer does not come.

We look back over time and realize what we must leave behind.

We must move forward for times running out.

Love is what we’re after,

Redemption is at hand.

Written by Felina S. Robinson 6/9/12 @ 5:14am