Sunday

Some mornings, during our ritualistic coffee talk, Bubba & I will touch on little things that pop into our heads during prayer. I seem to have a hard time concentrating while I pray and tend to follow my mind as it wanders. I try to choose a specific person or group of people to pray for each day and let my mind wander through the experiences I've had with them and the gifts I pray for them.

Yesterday I was praying for a friend who is as big an animal lover as I am. Bubba and I saw a clip from the ASPCA and, this morning, talked about how people across the world treat animals so differently. Just here in America, to some folks animals are family members, to others they are commodities. In some countries, unthinkable as it may be to us, horses and dogs are a regular food source.

In our home the white, furry canine rules. I named him Mijo (mi hijo ~ my little boy) because he is my little boy.

Today I reflected on the fact that the word DOG is the word GOD spelled backward. A mirrored image so to speak, yet philosophically more. Our dogs give to us what God gives to us; unconditional love and attention. They want us to be happy and to share our joy. Even when we make mistakes and do unforgivable things, they forgive us and continue to love us wholeheartedly. I believe we need to serve as the reflection for our dogs as well and care for them the way God cares for us. We should insure they have everything they physically need, yes, but so much more. We should give them purpose and value. We should return the unconditional love they offer and involve them in our family activities. Like us, God put dogs on the Earth to serve a purpose and I pray more people will pay attention to what that purpose is.

Today, April 13th, SNOW fell from the sky here in Arkansas. It didn't stick, thankfully, but it was a light flurry for most of the morning. As is always the case, on the coldest day of the month, we ran out of propane before sun up. It almost made me laugh out loud. We've gotten so comfortable with the temperatures from the 50's to the 70's during the day and in the 40's at night that we've become lax in checking our propane levels. This morning it was in the 30's and we ended up getting out of bed at 5:30. Since Rene lent us one of his 100 pound tanks we've filled less often and allowed it to slip our minds. Bubba went out and switched the connection back over to our little tanks so we could be cozy over coffee and not pester Rene till later.

We're counting down again until our trip North. Less than three weeks and we'll put our new exhaust break to the test. I'm excited about traveling in springtime weather. It will be grand to be home again and dig into springtime projects. I hope Mom still wants to put a little new paint on her RV. I'm looking forward to helping with that. Camping with them is going to be such fun. One of the first places Bubba wants to go is to the Grotto in West Bend. I grew up in Iowa and had never even heard of it....

More later ..........

PRAY OFTEN
LIVE WELL
LAUGH OFTEN
LOVE MUCH