Making Assumptions

Happy Valentines Day and Presidents day! The groundhog says we are in for another six weeks of winter. We’ve been doing a good job with the winter we’ve had. I ‘m ready for spring! Well! I have completed my first resolution for 2010. I used some of my favorite batiks and made two quilts, and gave them away. The recipients were pleased. How are yours coming?
I’m in the middle of having a funny e-mail conversation with a cousin I haven’t seen since childhood and I don’t remember that. But we have connected because he was writing letters to my parents. He wanted to send a book to me, which he read and enjoyed. However, he had the wrong address and it came back to him. So we’ve been having an exchange trying to get the address straight. He was only off by one letter and one number, but that’s enough to stop the mail from going through. To emphasize the wrong number and missing letter, I wrote it in very large, bold type. According to my daughter, this, in texting, is the same as yelling at someone in person. Now my cousin is texting in larger, red, bold type. I replied in even larger, bolder, capitals. Are we having a fight? Are we angry at each other? We probably are not. We’re probably just having fun with each other. Sometimes though, I feel the frustration that is close to anger. How easy it is to make assumptions, which can lead to angry feelings.
I have had friends and family members over the years that have let these angry assumptions fester till they were not speaking to other family members. In one case a wife and husband stopped speaking from the time a child was three till he grew up and left home. What a loss of loving comfort that family had.
This weekend I was uploading some music onto my computer. A couple of the songs got my attention, and touched my spirit. One, “Lord, I Need You Again Today” by the Oakridge Boys, says,
“I don’t say it enough.
I don’t pray enough,
I don’t love my neighbor, as I should enough.
If I try to make it by myself,
I say Lord I need you again today.”
Others were
“It is no Secret What God Can Do”
“You’re Not Alone”
“Each Life That Touches Ours for Good”
I wish I could sing them all to you. But the lessons I got were
1. Whatever happens in our lives, God can help.
2. Other people around us affect our lives for good.
3. We need each other
4. We can help each other
We have seen all the help people around the world have given to the people of Haiti, because of the earthquake. I think it’s too bad that sometimes it takes a catastrophe to reach out and help. There are so many opportunities all around us, every day. How are we going to love our neighbors today?

Well, my cousin and I have figured things out and are writing in small print again, and the book is on its way’