Where oh where are you tonight?

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That’s a line from a comedy skit I heard so many times, I can still sing it by heart from the long-running TV show – “Hee Haw.” “Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I’d found true love. You met another and th… you were gone.”
February always brings on thoughts of romance. I never realized when I was younger that skit would be a comedic commentary on my own love life or lack thereof.
Sometimes though God gives us ways to find humor in all aspects of what we face.
It is better to be able to laugh at ourselves rather than be settled in a rinse and repeat cycle of frustration, sadness or anger.
Over the years, I tried my best to learn how to be a good potential suitor.
I was taught how to act around females, what to wear depending upon the occasions, how to dance, and how to eat depending on the level of formality. Manners were the key I thought.
Then I realized many of the prettiest girls were drawn to the bad boys who seemed not to have any.
I could never pull that act off. Just wasn’t in my make up.
Although once I studied acting, I could manage a decent stab at it.
Early in my life experience, I tried but found no takers.
Then when I got a little older, I tried but wasn’t much interested in finding any takers that held on.
None really seemed like they wanted to anyway.
Once I did start trying harder, is when I seemed to be into repeating the lines of that song again and again.
I got so tired of the experience; it eventually became a comedy of errors that seems endless.
But despite my losses, I was comforted in knowing that marriage is an institution and I never want to be institutionalized anyway.
I know that love exists, otherwise folks wouldn’t spend all that money on those greetings’ cards with hearts and all those heart shaped boxes of candy, and dozens of red roses. Those must be the cement upon which hearts with initials are drawn upon.
“She took my heart out and stomped that sucker flat,” Lewis Grizzard joked.
I can say for sure that experience is not exclusive to the late columnist. Many of us have found our hearts on the floor.
But no matter how many times it hits the floor, you know, it has the ability to bounce back.
The right smile, the right look, the right words, a perfect song and your heart soars again to new heights.
And within you, you find the hope and the dream that love is possible.
You know, with God all things are possible.

Is it a God thing?

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Whenever I find myself facing an uncertain future, whether it’s in work or my personal life, ultimately, I always find myself praying for Divine intervention.
I ask for guidance. I ask for forgiveness. I ask for patience. I ask for inspiration.
It always seems I am asking Him for something. But seldom am I thanking Him for what He has already given.
From my personal experience, I know He hears and in His own way answers our requests. Sometimes the answer is no. We seldom understand that result. In fact, sometimes we interpret it, as He is not there. He is not listening. He has forsaken us.
From our own actions, many of us deserve to be forsaken but thankfully, as part of His family we will not be. We may not always get what our hearts desire. Our lives may not be easy. And sometimes they may be downright miserable. He is still with us.
In the face of what seems to be an ever-increasing presence of things that are ungodly being placed in front of us through media and in our own vision of the world around us,
I must conclude if there was ever a time for us to cry out to Him and ask His mercy upon us, it is now.
In recent weeks, I have been in prayer over lack of direction in my life, over falling short in His service and in trying to walk ever closer to Him. We all fall short of His love.
Yet, in the simplest thing, He can remind us “I am here, and I love you.”
I have a small golden key chain I was presented when I graduated from high school. I had never used it, only pulled it out and looked at it, thinking I will use it for a special occasion. Despite many years coming and going, I had not used it. I finally pulled it out and put my car keys on it. A small golden ball that served as a nut held the mechanism into place, thus holding the key ring into the golden circle into which it was mounted.
One day I went to the post office, I got out and the key ring fell apart dropping pieces to the ground. I bent over picked everything up and went on my way. I did not realize that the small golden ball that served a nut was not among what I picked up. I realized later at home it was gone. It could have unscrewed and fell off anywhere, I checked my clothes, the floorboard of the car, around the house, to no avail.
A couple a weeks passed when the thought hit me as I pulled into the post office again, go and look where you were parked that day. So, I did. I walked over to the empty parking space, took two steps beyond where my driver’s door was and there it sat. It had rolled and sat there for two weeks with no vehicles rolling over it. Not a soul had noticed this little golden ball the size of a large bb. After I had become acclimated that I would never be able to use the key chain again. God sent a thought, moved my body, and there was something I had lost, a piece of something I cherished just lying on the ground safe in a place it should not have been.
I have spent a lifetime in the music industry. I have strived to attain recognition for my music on the mainstream charts. That, along with awards is one of the ways we gauge our acceptance and success. I can tell you; those things just do not just happen. Behind the scenes, there are many actions taken by you and folks who support you which facilitate such an opportunity. I have been praying tirelessly for career guidance for months. This past week, I was notified that I had topped the Cashbox Magazine music charts with a song I wrote with Cotton Carrier and released years ago – “God’s Children” performed with the Watkins Family.
Never in my life had I been on the Cashbox charts, and then out of the blue I was number 1 on a mainstream entertainment chart with a song picked out of the blue by radio presenters with no behind the scenes promotion, no single release, not even trying. If that is not a God thing, I don’t know what is.
Look for the God things in your life. They are there, big and small. And when you find them, don’t forget to thank Him!

Dreams that inspire

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I ran down the dark corridor. My heart was beating fast as I heard footsteps rushing towards me from behind. I opened the door at the end as it swung inward and next, I found myself dangling from the doorknob over a dark pit that seemed bottomless.


I held on for dear life trying to pull myself back up into the hall.


Which was worse? Falling into the dark unknown or making it back to the solid hallway where I was being chased by who knows what.


Thankfully, I didn’t have to find out as my alarm went off bringing me safely back into my bedroom.
Dreaming can sometimes bring us to smiles, sometimes to fear, sometimes in between.


I have spent time in many dreams sitting and talking with loved ones who were long passed. Those moments are usually cherished opportunities to spend a few more minutes with a dear friend or relative.


Other dreams have found me in places I have never been experiencing new adventures with people I have never known or with faces I recognize. Those are usually quite comforting as well.


As a youth I saw dreams as roadmaps to where God wanted to take me, and often he placed the footsteps out ahead of me as if they were flashing in neon.


Those took me places I could have never dreamed of in my waking hours.


Are dreams simply our imagination running wild?


Are messages from our past, our future, or from our loved ones gone on hidden within?


I know that people in various forms of study have spent endless hours trying to answer those types of questions. From the Biblical stories of Joseph interpreting the dreams of pharaoh, to whatever scenario one might surmise from their own research, dreams play a vital part in our lives.


They give us relief, sometimes hope, and sometimes fear. No matter what they provide, if you are blessed with a good dream experience, be thankful for what has passed. Perhaps it is a God wink to uplift.


If it’s not such a good experience, maybe that is an inducement to examine your life and find where you might improve to clear your heart and mind, so next time it can be.


For me, despite a few frightening ones along the way, the good ones outweigh those, and from time to time, I do believe God’s drops in a bit of guidance here and there to make my life better, if I only recall it.
So, get a good night’s rest…

Stuck in a rut

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I have often heard a comment when people seem to be immobilized in life about them being “stuck in a rut.”

Another adage equates the rut with a grave suggesting that covering oneself up and relenting to your demise may be the best course of action.

Since there is only a slim chance any of us reading this are likely driving a covered wagon to get stuck in the rut, and even a lesser number are actually grave diggers, I will suggest, we have the ability to change our direction without filling our own grave with us in it.

However, often we might seem to be like the proverbial mouse on the turning wheel, getting nowhere in our efforts to redirect our lives.

Can we get out of the rut and “In the groove?” That’s another one of those descriptors meaning we have everything going our way. It reflects the needle within the jazz record groove moving smoothly over the surface of the album or the jazz talents being in sync with one another. A later adjective would have simply been “groovy.”

But for our analogy, its predecessor fits as we are seeking the right path. But unlike the needle going around the circles on an album, we do not know where our groove will lead.

However maybe all it will take is for us to get up and turn the crank on the Victrola to give us that momentum to find out.

What do you want next in life?

Is there a new job which is your hope?

Do you have your eyes on that perfect person to share your life?

Maybe its smaller, a few repairs, a part-time job, or simply studying a new subject that will give you skills needed for a better life.

I have often found myself seated on the precipice, trying to decide whether to jump into the unknown or remain safely perched on my solid rock watching the world roll by.

It is only when I had the strength to push off from safety that I actually began to see that forward momentum impact what was to come.

Safe is a nice thing. Comfort is a nice thing. We all have aspects of our life in which we desire those adjectives to dominate. Sometimes though we must strive away from the safety and comfort to help us find those new adventures which will forge what is ahead of us.

My multiple great uncle John Shields stepped into the unknown beside Lewis and Clark as they explored the interior of the continental United States for my third cousin Thomas Jefferson. How could he decide to embark on such an arduous adventure. I am not sure but when he was asked, he went.

My first cousin (13-removed) Sir Walter Raleigh embarked on numerous adventures, some which could have easily ended in his death, but yet he went, with his final one resulting in English execution at the behest of Spain.

Jumping bravely into the unknown does not always result in happy endings but it does add variety in the tapestry within which the threads of our life are depicted.

So, is it better to stay in the rut or to rock with all our might to force ourselves out of it, so we can gain forward momentum?

I can’t speak for you, but for me I will rock with all my might until I am able to push on to reach whatever God has in store. I pray those things are blessings and He protects me from all harm which could befall me.

But if that not be my fate, then I only ask the Grace to face the adventure with dignity, patience and understanding in whatever comes my way.

What will be your fate? Are you filling the dirt in around you with each day or does your groove show you a way out?

Are we there yet?

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A repeated question from childhood that often irritated parents from its repetitive use by every child within a traveling vehicle was “Are we there yet?”

When I was a child, I seldom uttered those words because I actually loved to go anywhere because I was fascinated with seeing the world around me.

I loved to see rolling green fields covered with cows gazing. Waters of the rivers flowing and churning by the rocks below. The mountains rising high around me as I tried to look back into every hollow to see if a small house sat there with a chimney shooting smoke into the sky.

When we went into the cities, I would stretch my neck trying to look up at the top of the buildings as we rolled through.

Since I spent much of my childhood as an only, long rides in cars were not much different than occupying my time anywhere around home. In those days we weren’t tied to car seats, so I could move anywhere across the back seat or floorboard of our blue Chevrolet Malibu as I played and filled the hours.

Nighttime was the only periods when I really didn’t enjoy trips because there was little to see beyond the door windows.

But there were many times as a small child, I remember curling up in the front floorboard of the Chevrolet pickup at the feet of my mother near the heat vent where I would go off to sleep and awake when we got to where we were headed.

Feeling warm and safe in that place made traveling a preferred activity when I was small.

Of course, trips for us were largely limited to our annual vacation or periodic trips on holidays to visit relatives. Oftentimes vacations included relatives too.

Today, as I crawl into the driver’s seat to head off for a trip, I do sometimes find myself thinking “Are we there yet?”

I know the answer, but the weariness associated with the act of driving, does make the traveling less appealing to me. I still enjoy seeing the places once I arrive but the monotony of looking out the windshield at the road makes the experience less of an adventure to me.

Often in life, we set goals, create a path, and then forge ahead towards that objective.

Along the way, we sometimes stop and access how close we are to reaching the goal in essence asking, “Are we there yet?”

So, the skill of asking that question, though frustrating to parents can be a blessing as we map out our lives.

Evaluating where we are, where we are going, and if we need to adjust to reach a goal is a great skill.

Finding our way in life day-to-day can be an adventure on its own, I know I am on a constant trend of re-evaluating my position.

Do you feel like you are spinning your wheels? Maybe you are not reaching anywhere close to where you thought you would be? Maybe you need to ask, “Are we there yet?”

Finding a path within one’s soul

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Is there an unrevealed path deep within you.

If you find a quiet place and think back upon your life, was there ever a still small voice that you ignored encouraging forward to something greater.

Did anyone ever come to you in life with a prophetic word about your future?

Did they say, “God asked me to share this with you, and He sees you being …”

Contemplate and look back upon your life, was there some greater purpose that even you believed to be yours?

Were you to be a great minister of the Gospel meant to bring millions to Christ?

Maybe a leader of men and women who was to rise to great heights in elected office?

Perhaps your head was once teaming with ideas that could change the face of the business world?

Perhaps you hoped to change the world in some way, possible bring peace to mankind?

Did you have a play, a poem, or a novel floating between your synapses?

Is there a great work of art – a painting, a sculpture or another masterpiece just waiting for you to grasp the tools of its creation?

Life has a way of getting away from us, one day we are young with all our future ahead, the next we are graying looking back upon the paths we trod.

The nice thing is no matter where on the timeline of life we find ourselves, our mind, our hopes, our dreams remain almost always planted strongly in our first quarter.

We can realign our lives no matter where we find ourselves, to use the remaining quarters to achieve a trip down that unrevealed path.

While bones may no longer accept a path that includes skydiving or climbing Mount Everest, we still have the opportunity to reach within ourselves and make the world a better place for those around us.

Perhaps your unrevealed path is simply improving the plight of the less fortunate?

Be still and listen to the Words within your soul.

God is speaking to your heart, if not today, He left a message for you long ago.

Seek and you shall find.

Overcome the madness around us

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Six decades ago, there was a movie called “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.”
While the focus of that film followed a star-studded cast in a race to find a dying man’s riches as a commentary on man’s foibles as it strives for wealth.
The title though indicates how many people feel about our current world as they look upon what is occurring around them – politics, world affairs, culture, and so many other areas.
Questions are upon hearts, frustration is on faces, stress is in voices, doubts circle around in our minds as we ponder where this circling madness will end.
People who were alive when that movie debuted probably would not recognize the world that we now are seeing cross our palm screens. They would have never imagined we would be carrying computers around in our palms.
Those screens allow us to see and hear things that often bring on the questions, cause the frustration and stress and bring on the doubts.
Many people are carrying that around with them. Some become quick to anger or react to others out of character without thinking.
If there was ever a time we need God’s Grace in this world, this is that time.
We each need to listen to others more intently and with the patience of Job.
We each need to hope for greater answers brought on by the questions.
We each need to seek calming resolutions for the frustrations.
We each need to soothe the stresses by encouraging more thoughtful discussions.
We each need to cast out the doubts knowing that within our faith we can overcome those.
We each need to not engage in the madness. You don’t end madness by playing along.
In our own hometown, we can be a beacon of sanity by caring for those around us.
Offering Grace in the face of frustration and doubt, help to find the answers that will offer understanding.
When all of these things don’t suffice help to lead others down a path of prayer that will ultimately bring peace of mind, soul and body.
Yes, it’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, but it’s theirs and doesn’t have to be yours.
Take charge and expel the madness or at least give its own straitjacket and padded cell.

Dreaming of a new year

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A new year is upon us and with its arrival is the promise of another opportunity.
Perhaps it’s the practice of making resolutions, or the celebrations of ringing out the old and ringing in the new. I always see Jan. 1 as a new chance to do things more effectively.
So, let’s see what can I do?
The house, it needs to be kept cleaner, I can do that, let’s get started, vacuum hose in hand, dust cloth in back pocket, Pledge in the other back pocket. I need a bucket, full of water, with ammonia for the floors. OK that’s all ready, what else, where’s that extension to clean the dust off the fans? There it is. OK I need some Comet to clean the bathrooms, and a sponge.
Great, I am ready now, cleaner house here we come, but before I get started, it’s about lunch time, let me make a sandwich.
That’s another area I can improve. I should eat healthier – more leafy greens and drink more water. OK lettuce on the sandwich… what else can I put on it? There is nothing else in here. I need to go shopping.
I need to more efficiently stock my kitchen. O.K. Let’s make a list. I will open all the cupboards and see what is missing. Peanut butter, I need that, soup is always good. What about spaghetti? What’s wrong with this pen?
Now I have to find a pen. There are none here so, into the office. I’ll check by the phone. I don’t know why; pens are never there when I need one.
Right, no pens. Look at this office, files everywhere. Look at that, I sat that file there last year and haven’t touched it. I really need to get organized in my office.
No better time to start than the present. We will start with this file on that mystery book, I want to finish. Hmm. I better take a look at this before I file it.
That’s a good story. Why haven’t I finished it? That’s it, that’s what’s needed, a twist to take us in a new direction. Let me just get this typed in the computer before I forget it.
I’ll get this new book finished in no time at all.
Boy, I am getting hungry. What did I do with that lettuce sandwich? Kitchen. I was hunting a pen. Here’s one.
Will you look at this mess, all these cleaning things in the middle of the floor. Look at the kitchen, cabinets open, refrigerator door open. It looks like I have been robbed.
I have got to get this place cleaned up, close the doors, the fridge. Now let’s get the cleaning stuff back where it goes.
Now, doesn’t everything look better? There is nothing like making things neater to give a new year prospective. I am still hungry, where’s that lettuce sandwich? Here it is. Look here’s a coupon on pizza delivery. That’s a great deal. Where did I put the phone?

The smell of flowers upon the heart

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The sweet smell of flowers emanated on the breeze as I ran through the backyard trail. For me, as a small boy, it seemed immense as the rhododendrons towered above me.
It was like an enchanted garden that you could imagine catching the Irish little people scurry out of your sight and the fairies to be dancing in the air about you.
It was a backyard domain of vibrant red, purple, pink, white, orange and yellow colors in every shade created by long serving forestry employee Baxter Reed who created the sights and smells for his loving wife Hazel.
Baxter and Hazel Reed were my childhood neighbors. They were of my grandparents’ generation and themselves had no children. But in their own way, they had many grandchildren – those who made up our little neighborhood.
As we played upon the streets or across the yards, they were there to smile and cheer us along. There were often cups of lemonade nearby and occasionally a cookie to boost our energy. Hazel’s love emanated through many of us.
I was able to come to know Baxter some as I assisted him with a few chores around the yard before his Parkinson’s advanced to where he was less active.
The couple was originally from Oregon and Baxter had retired from the forestry service. I am not sure what had brought them to Atlanta and our neighborhood. I guess I never asked, or if it was said, it was lost in the annals of my youthful inquisitiveness.
But from him I learned that in order to create a beautiful environment, outside of nature’s normal beauty, it took dedication and care. That is what he gave to the space he created for Hazel and him to enjoy.
When I was big enough, I took on mowing yards to earn money. The one yard that I really did not want to mow was the Reeds. Mr. Reed had cultivated the only Zoysia front yard in the neighborhood. It was thick and difficult to push the mower through. But in time, I was asked and could not refuse Hazel’s request.
One of Hazel’s pastimes was painting flowers on china, and she was very good at this hobby. I was blessed as a boy to get a few of her creations and have cherished them through the years. I recently passed those along for someone else to continue in that enjoyment.
In life, often we are not provided what other might see as the ideal situation. We may not have family or close friends with which to share our day-to-day. There may be no children who will carry on our legacy. Our health may not be the best it can be. We may face problems of our own making or thrust upon us by others.
No matter what is in the hand we are dealt in the game of life, it is our job to play it. To make the very best of the situation and along the way to strive to make our world a better place.
The Christmas and New Year’s holiday season is a time for many of loneliness. In some cases, people are outgoing and can fill the time with friends or activities that mask this until the season is passed. But others are mired in a stillness that prevents them from seeking the support of others.
You have a chance to make the lives of those around you better every day of the year. This is a lesson I learned from Hazel and from Baxter, you do your best to uplift, encourage and persevere no matter your circumstances and while doing that you make your life, your days, and your circle of engagement a happier and more loving place to be.
Create a memory that lasts far beyond you. Thank you, Hazel and Baxter, gone from us now for decades, but still in the memory and in the heart of one of those little neighborhood boys.

An aisle to the future

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I walked down the aisle between the rows of seats in the Dresden Elementary School cafeteria. On each side were the parents and grandparents of my classmates watching with bright faces as we walked by in our best. Kelly Carter was paired to walk beside me in the procession as we completed seven years of learning before transitioning to high school in the fall.
Within this room, I had eaten five meals a week for seven school years. After I was diagnosed allergic to milk, that was a daily trip into the kitchen to get a glass of orange juice, more times than I can count.
In that room, the Cub Scouts held their Pack Meetings and Pinewood Derbys. As I recall, Mr. Donor, our principal doubled as pack leader. My late parents also served – Mom was a den mother.
We held choral and orchestra performances from the stage of that room and a few childhood plays also made their way to the parents’ awaiting eyes.
We held parts of Halloween events, Spring Carnivals and special programs in that room. Some of my favorite moments were the special Christmas chorales that were held with such wonderful music. All of us had clear childhood voices with which to harmonize and make the music blend.
I recall at least one Peachtree Pickers performance by my youth bluegrass band from that stage, but on this day all of that was coming to a close as we were handed our certificates and bid goodbye to the teachers, we had known from ages 6 to 13.
There were many hopes and dreams that were realized for us that day and many new dreams began.
In your hometown, in your elementary and middle schools, many of the youth will gather to share songs or music during this Christmas season. I encourage you to lend your support to these efforts. Make a difference in the lives of youth who wish to share their talents. Some may be presenting special plays at Christian schools or churches that reflect the story of the season. Please attend and encourage the participants. You never know, you may find yourself uplifted by talents who will change the world in a few years.
I am sure those parents sitting out in the audience at my graduation or at one of those early performances, likely never imagined they would one day see me acting on network television or hear me from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, but that is where those early experiences led me.
You may experience the same, but while doing it be sure to encourage them along the way and support your local charities which make Christmas that much brighter for the young people in your hometown.