Connectiveness

With Halloween behind us and the winter holidays rapidly approaching, I'm reminded of so many memories of my past...the good and the not so great. Dwelling on the good times, I feel blessed to have a family that remains pretty intact...we all have our little quirks. These little pumpkins were carefully crafted by me and three of my younger brothers in our early elementary school years. Bellingham was a small town then and we went to a small school and all had the same teacher at one time or another... who obviously did the same crafts from year to year. These little orange guys remind me of the gift of being connected to family, friends and community by the traditions of the seasons.

Thankful

This is an historic day in our country, voting day. I have so much to be thankful for. The freedoms I enjoy today were fought for by people I have never met, will never be able to personally thank-- my freedom as a woman to vote for the candidate of my choice, the freedom to speak my opinion about those candidates, the freedom to write this blog entry. I hope I never take for granted the gift of freedom in America and I hope I will always strive to preserve that freedom for those who come after me. Some sage once said, in essence "You can judge a country by the number of people who want to get in and the number of people who are leaving it." Judging by the number of people who want to come to America, I'd say we're still a wonderful nation under God.