When you look outside and hear the winds blow,
Just remember my hometown is getting snow,
While we have about an inch of rain,
inches of snow hits their window pane,
While not seeing the Sun makes us depressed,
the birds outside are happiest,
While they shovel, and scrape ice off their cars,
We put up umbrellas and take off in ours,
We can’t build a snow angel or snowman, or take a walk in the white fluffy stuff,
but we’re not slipping on crusty ice, and for me, that is quite ENOUGH!
to my Baha’i friends:
I have been a Baha’i for 50 years. Recently, I’ve had the realization that oftentimes, I carry stress or tension within myself, unnecessary worry that “I haven’t done enough”. Sometimes Book Ones go forward, sometimes they fail. Sometimes teaching efforts show immediate children’s classes or junior youth groups, sometimes they don’t. My thought is that we put stress upon ourselves. God doesn’t. Baha’u’llah doesn’t. The point is to strive to be a humble servant, strive to share His teachings, each and every day, in some way. You might achieve this in prayer. And be RADIANT. Be HAPPY. “I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY, … TO LAUGH, SMILE AND REJOICE, IN ORDER THAT OTHERS MAY BE MADE HAPPY BY YOU.”~~ Abdu’l-Baha.
“The Blessed Beauty often remarked: ‘There are 4 qualities which I love to see manifested in people: First, enthusiasm and courage. Second, A FACE WREATHED IN SMILES AND A RADIANT COUNTENANCE. Third, that they may see all things with their own eyes and not through the eyes of others; fourth, the ability to carry a task, once begun, through to its end.”
How often do we convey to our friends and associates this RADIANT countenance? We are only asked to make the effort with courage and enthusiasm, the rest is up to assistance from the Supreme Concourse on high. You are HERE, making the effort. The prayer for parents, which I say every day, has these words, “…for this son (I say daughter because that’s what I am)… “for this daughter hath arisen to render Thee service, and is exerting effort at all times in the pathway of Thy love.”
It doesn’t say “and is creating devotionals, children’s classes, etc….” it says “and is exerting effort in the pathway of Thy love.”
I want to know those
who are not perfect,
who spoke an unkind word,
who hurt another’s feelings, or
the ones who tried and failed.
I want to know those whose hearts were broken
who did not show righteous calm,
I want to know those who forgot how to pray,
but are turning to God, again.
We are all but walkers on a path
that takes its twists and turns,
We are all imperfect travelers,
and yet, we are noble souls,
We try to light our little fire,
we try to fan the flame,
We are not here to be perfect,
but to get up, and try again.
cfblack, 11-21-22
Pink clouds tell
Of the Sun’s rising
and the light of the Moon fades into dark
as we sleep.
Who will notice?
In the midst of ‘the Nothing’, I will say Thy Name,
In darkness, light a candle, and begin again,
The darkness has enveloped us
We can’t see or hear each other,
We flounder in the midst of it,
we must find one another,
In the darkness, a light shines brighter
than in the daytime Sun,
When hope flounders, light a candle,
It will attract everyone.
cfblack, 9-5-2022
List of ALL the surnames that would be mine & my siblings ancestors in some way, that we would have a touch of their DNA– male and female lines. Literally the ONLY one not proven is the James Agnew paternal line which I will never give up on finding, but may never find.
will keep a count here:
Scotland: /
England: //
Germany /
Ireland: //
Wales: /
Just one of my ancestors… ANDREW REID, Born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1622 to General Andrew Reid and Magdalene McDowell. Andrew Reid married Elizabeth Bessie Hall and had 13 children. He passed away on 14 Oct 1718 in Ulster, Northern Ireland. His son, Alexander Reid, immigrated to Lancaster PA.
Another ancestor, JAMES WADE, b. in Gloucestershire, England, d. in Padiham, Burnley Borough, Lancashire, England. 1730-1799. His daughter, Sophia Wade, immigrated to America, Lancaster PA.
Her husband, Owen Thomas Owens, 1746 to 1809, b. Pentraeth, Anglesey, WALES. Died in Washington, KY.
William Richardson, b.1640 Cumberland, ENGLAND – d.1691 Massachusetts, 9th GGrandfather. (Polly Richardson mother of Sarah Sallie Owen who married Thomas Reid.)
B:1680 Ulster, Ireland
D:14 Nov 1734 Donegal, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States
through Rebecca Mitchell who married Alexander Reid 1755-1851.
Another ancestor, Peter Smith, came from Rheinland, Germany (on western side) to Rowan County, NC, died in NC in 1769. They migrated over a couple more generations from Rowan, NC to KY, to Bedford, Indiana. Nancy Jane Smith married Alexander J. Reid, grandfather to MY grandma Mary Reid Agnew.
Agnew, Mitchell, Owens, Reid, Richardson, Smith, Wade
There is a point past which
you stay awake,
as if it’s morning,
but it’s not,
as if you could work all night,
but you can’t,
Your body is playing a trick on you,
and you need sleep now
more than you know,
You are hungry,
but won’t eat,
You will dream before
the new day breaks.
cfblack, 4-25-2022, 4am
Coloring eggs was family time,
mixing all the hues
with a tsp of vinegar
to make the colors bright,
I liked to draw my own design
invisible, magic,
that only showed when dropped into
a coffee mug of paint,
Carefully, I took my time,
not wanting this to end,
leaving one alone in blue
hoping they wouldn’t see,
and no one else would have an egg
a deeper blue than me.
My dad’s in his coffee cup
to watch it become brown,
I did it later with my kids,
and now they carry on,
Family time and bonding,
a happy memory,
Acceptance and creating
our own identity.
(just a little Easter memory)
Doctor Grandma 