Life is Like . . .

Okay, you thought it would say, "A box of Chocolates!" didn't you?  Not here.  Not today.

I am thinking life is more like a Parade.

I love parades!  As a child, my hometown of Big Spring, Texas had a parade for everything!  The Circus Parade.  The Homecoming Parade.  Of course a Christmas Parade!  We would go downtown and stake out our spot on the street and wait for the police car the signified the start of moving joy.

There was the Homecoming Queen sitting on the back of a classic car throwing candy to those watching.  The clowns walking and handing out candy and circus tickets.  Then, being Texas, there were always the horses with the beautiful Rodeo Queens riding their prancing horses and waving their Miss America Waves to everyone.  Oh, how about the little Shriner cars?  The people handing out balloons?

The bank would have a float depicting the Parade's theme.  And the football players and cheerleaders would be on a float too.

My personal favorite?  The marching band.  Marching Band is the second religion of Texas!  If you didn't play ball, you were in the band. 

And everyone stood, removed their hats and covered their hearts when Old Glory passed.  Everyone.

That's life.  We are so eager for it to start.  There are circus clowns and candy and beautiful floats.  Sometimes there is poop left on the road and someone has to clean it up.  There are passions!  There is a God.  There is an allegiance.  The parade is fun and beautiful and noisy and crazy and people from all walks of life are there!  Poor, Young, Rich, Old - everyone can participate!

And then there is an end:  the police car or sometimes the fire engine

Seems like life ends with a parade - or a Procession - signaled at the end by a the local authorities. 

When I go, I want them to wave banners out the car windows and throw candy and yell, "She's home!  Yeah, Kim!  You can go with her!  Jesus loves you!" 

And then a big red Fire Engine with noisy tin cans tied on the back pulling a sign that reads, "Come and Go with me to my Father's House!"

Because I love a parade!

Monday Morning Poetry

"IF"
Rudyard Kipling



If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

My Father's World

 This is my Father's world,

and to my listening ears

all nature sings, and round me rings

the music of the spheres.

This is my Father's world:

I rest me in the thought

of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;

his hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father's world,

the birds their carols raise,

the morning light, the lily white,

declare their maker's praise.

This is my Father's world:

He shines in all that's fair;

in the rustling grass I hear him pass;

He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father's world.

O let me ne'er forget

that though the wrong seems oft so strong,

God is the ruler yet.

This is my Father's world:

why should my heart be sad?

The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!

God reigns; let the earth be glad!

Babcock/Sheppard

I have two favorite hymns, this being one of them.  I rocked my children to sleep to this tune;  I sat with them through colds and coughs;  long nights;  emergency room visits and sang this song.  It was the last word they heard at night.  When they each had surgery, it was the song they head in the operating room as the anesthesia took hold.

And this weekend, I was again heard these words as I sat in the San Juan Forest.  Surrounded by God's majestic masterpiece - how can I worry?  How can I fear?  This is His world!  HE is the creator.  I am an awesome, beautiful, loved creation of His!

So I shout "God Reigns!  Let the earth be glad!"