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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.

Warming of the heart

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The cold wind blew hard against the windowpane as I pulled the covers up above my head.
I could barely turn over with the heaviness of the quilts which seemed a foot thick above me.

The back room of Grandma Kitty’s house seemed a long way from the warmth of the stove in the living room.
At least the bedroom was off the kitchen, so when the sounds of rolling dough for biscuits and coffee percolating, most likely, would wake me from slumber before the house filled with the smell of bacon and eggs.

I would lift the covers up so the smells would fill in the gap as I watched my breath raise as I breathed in the smell of breakfast.
My grandmother’s cathead biscuits baking in the oven filled my room with enough aroma to evoke a desire to jump out of bed. Usually that effort would take a time or two. I would muster the strength to throw back the covers only to feel my bare feet hitting the cold floor, just to jump back in pulling the hand sewn quilts of patchwork back over my head.

Soon I would garner the courage to jump out of bed again finding my socks and shoes slipping them on after I pulled up my britches, then I would pull back the curtain to see Grandma Kitty making her way around the kitchen. In the corner sat the butter churn that the day before I wore out my arm on making the butter that we would put on the cathead biscuits.

Grandma was pouring the grease off the bacon and sausage getting ready to stir up some sawmill gravy.
I stood quietly watching the artistry of someone who had for 60 plus years raised before dawn to prepare a meal to keep a family working. Though there wasn’t as much to do and fewer to do it, she still went through the ritual with the joy that the eating would bring to the family as they gathered around the table.

Eventually, my quiet vantage point would catch her eye as she turned to place some meats on the table, and she would beckon me towards her and I would hug her and then find myself consumed with helping until the others joined us as she called everyone from slumber.
It is amazing how the cold outside seemed to disappear around the warmth of her table and the love that found its way seated around it. I pray you find the warmth of your heart as the cold wind blows on your windowpane.

Loving beyond worldly measure

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Some of the most difficult times to watch are when someone we know is trying to be there for a loved one when he or she is coming to the end of his or her journey. As I think back through the years, I remember watching my mother and father as they reached out to support friends or relatives in such times.
If the loved one was elsewhere, they would close up the business, and off they’d go for an undetermined amount of time to just be present.
There to be called upon if needed for and extra pair of hands and legs to: run errands, do day-to-day tasks, cook, just simply sit,
talk, laugh, console, remember, and pray.
I saw my mother and father do this time and time again. I know they drew no financial benefit from what they were doing. Their only
requite was in knowing they were serving Christ with their actions.
Sometimes their presence reached beyond the caregivers to the patient and I know that brought a peace over each of them when they knew they comforted someone as they prepared to cross over.
As a small boy, I watched this routine many times as they said goodbye to former co-workers and neighbors, friends from throughout
their lives, and of course, relatives of every description who impacted their lives.
I vaguely remember one period in my childhood when I felt I was spending more time in hospitals and funeral homes than at school but
death comes at God’s appointment not on our timetables.
I am now at a similar point in time of my life as they were when they were saying goodbye to so many. So, I have become readily cognizant that like my folks, many of those I know are being called, some old, some young, but its seems more with every passing year.
As I reflect on what can I do to support their loved ones, I think back on the model that my parents gave me. I try to simply be present
whenever possible to offer support and help them walk down the path I have already walked. I know that hope, comfort and strength should be offered along the path and I only pray that I can be an instrument to provide some aspect of these to all concerned along the final journey.
Most of us know someone who is facing this point in life, what are you doing to support he or she, and his or her circle of caregivers?
I encourage you to find some way to make a difference; you may be able to leave a message of love that changes a life forever and
passes a legacy of love to your children as they see how you help others in a time in life we all must face.