As another year ends....

 Another year is drawing to a close.  As I reflect back on this past year, I realize how much I have changed.  You may not think so, since my appearance is much the same.  Oh, a few more gray hairs and my complexion just a tad more leathery.  My weight remains the same and the hair is still white.  The changes are inside.  The changes are subtle.  I suppose it happens to all of us as we move forward from the cradle to the grave.

I moved into this house in 1982 with Kenny Mercer and my two kids, Sam and Susie.  They were both still in school.  Sam would go on to graduate college.  The kids are both gone.  Kenny has since passed and I remain here on my "Gods little acre."  with 7 geese and a calico cat for company.  The grandson that Kenneth and I adopted together is grown, married and has three  children of his own.

Today was Sunday, December 24.  Yesterday was December 23.  On December 23, 1983 Kenny Mercer and I exchanged our wedding vows in front of retired minister in Canon City, Colorado.  It was 15 degrees below zero.  We topped the ceremony off by enjoying a doughnut at the local donut shop. Susie was in middle school and Sam almost ready for college.

Sadly, I lost Kenny in 2002.  I have spent over half my life in this house.  I look around at where I am in my life journey and wonder how this happened.  It seems like only yesterday that I was surrounded by a vibrant loving family and the token dog and cat.  How many sunburns did I suffer while on a weekend fishing trip?  The children are gone, replaced by grand children and even great grand children.

I set here in my 2400 square foot house with a detached garage and an acre of land and wonder just where this will all end.  I can't sell the house and move into town, because I have 7 geese left from the good old days when I had 17 geese and 47 ducks and a pond.  They have only known this little acre  of mine as their home. 

And if I should move, where do I move to?  Do I go back to Hutchinson, where I have only one sister left?  I have no friends that I have kept in touch with.  Do I  go to Garden City, where I spent many years with my husband who is the father of my kids?  He is since deceased.  Do I go to Lakin where I have one daughter?  Or Longton where I have two daughters.  I have one daughter here and one son.  And one son in Dallas. 

Life would be so much simpler if the good Lord had not given us free will.  We should be born with some kind of handbook on how to do this.  But we weren't so I am stuck.  Guess I will just keep putting one foot in front of the other until one day I just cease to be.  Then it will be someone else's problem, won't it?

Peace!

Rethinking that flight!

Lou Mercer Words of Wisdom: Welcome to Texas little Colorado girl!

 I hit the send button on that post last night and went to bed.  My mind immediately told me, that I was not going to sleep and it was right, but then it always is, isn't it?  Momma told me more than once that everything happens for a reason and we all know momma was always right.  Momma was always right.  So this morning I will reveiw with a clear head .

Was that flight deliberately detained to make me suffer or was it perhaps detained to change the course of my day to make me just late enough to avoid a car wreck or something else that was in my future that only God could know?  Something bad, or to give me something good?  Or was it even about me?  

God has his own way of reaching down and touching people and places that need touched and I like to think that He spends way more time taking care of me than I take thanking him for doing it!  And you know what, it may not have been about me at all!

Maybe the man setting beside me needed to hear something I said.  Or maybe the lady two rows back who was so helpful in charging my phone on the bank of chargers needed to help someone that day.  Maybe she was missing her mother.  Or someone on that flight, or someone waiting for that flight to land needed to be detained to avoid a situation.  Or maybe the man across the aisle who could not set still needed a lesson in patience.

I do know this was harder on my son and my friend Ross, then it was on me.  My mother had a caveat that she spat out fairly regularly and that was this "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."  And I have come to know that when something goes wrong it immediately (if not sooner) snowballs into an avalanche, much like the lemmings walking off the cliff!

So, in the cold hard light of day, I have this go say..I had a wonderful trip down to Dallas, and had a wonderful time seeing the sights and my friends (They are actually Sam and Allen's friends, but they accept me.)  I made a (hopefully) new friend on my 12 hours on the plane.  There were restroom facilities, and I did not suffer a bit.  I wanted to get home earlier, but that did not happen.  So be it!

Thank you, Sam and Ross, for being so caring and considerate in the drop off's and pick-ups so I did not even have to worry about anything!  

And thank you God for always being around close enough to catch me if I fall!

Happy Birthday to you, sonny!

Well, today is my son's Happy Birthday.  He lives in Dallas, Texas so I will not be running by with a cake.  And I am not going to tell you how many candles is on the cake he will have, assuming some one will come up with one.  But I can tell you this, when he was born he was very small and very bald,  but he was also very pretty.  That is assuming a man can be pretty and in my world they can and often are.  He was always a studious little fellow.  He used to grab up the cat and walk around explaining to said cat how the universe came into being.  Maybe you find that behaviour a bit strange?  That was back in Hutchinson, Kansas.
He went off to Garden City to live with his father early on, which was fine.  He excelled in school and drama.  He did move to Colorado to be with me most of his high school years and continued in the drama club until his Junior year, but that is another story.
So I just want to tell the little fellow who is no longer little Happy Birthday and wish him all the best.  I wish I were there!