Dancing in the leaves, or with them..... (a story I had not heard) ... ENJOY

Dancing In The Leaves

By Joseph J. Mazzella

I was taking a walk in the woods on a late August evening. Suddenly, a cool breeze started to blow and a single red maple leaf broke off of its tree and circled down and around until it landed peacefully upon the top of my head. I took the leaf in my hand, looked at it with a smile, and dropped it gently to the ground. "It has started already," I thought to myself. "How early in the year it begins to be late."

I knew that soon the green mountains of my home would be painted by God's own hand.

Soon every leaf on every tree would become a masterpiece. Bright, beautiful reds would come first, followed by sunny yellows and glorious golds. Brilliant burgundies, outrageous oranges, and earthy browns would finally complete this colorful canvas.

As I walked on my mind was filled with memories of Autumns past. I remembered the crisp crunch as I walked on the freshly fallen leaves. I remembered the delightful dry leaf smell that filled the air. I remembered raking huge piles of leaves in the park for my children to hide in, jump on, and run through. I even remembered dancing on that colorful carpet while it crackled underneath my feet. I also thought of how Autumn is the most

bittersweet of seasons. It is so beautiful and yet so brief. It is so joyous and yet also a sign of the Winter to come. It is the ultimate reminder that our time on Earth is short and that we need to live now before it is gone. That is why I plan to thank God for everyday of this beautiful season. That is why I plan to take more walks in the woods while the colors last. That is why I plan to love more, laugh more, give more, share more, and smile more in the days I have left here. That is why I plan to dance in the leaves, or perhaps with the leaves again this Fall and in Heaven when the time comes. May you do the same.

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THERE IS A SEASON..

THERE IS A SEASON

So many things soon come and go

Like autumn leaves, they do not last,

One blink and before we know it

Another day has passed.

And what from it can we keep

This all, we want to know,

What meaning does it have

To hold close as our own.

We know we have our memories

But, do they lift us much,

While musing on all we have seen

Of life and war and love.

And when it all boils down

There is nothing we can keep,

When coldness knocks upon the door

And the river's raging deep.

Thus, God will grant us trials

To find Him while we can,

He'll give us tribulations

So Him we'll understand.

For if all is smooth and rosy

We fill our days with stuff,

But, always feel unsatisfied

As if there's not enough.

But, in a time of trouble

We are stripped of all the dross

And have to lean on Jesus

To bear the painful loss.

And the Lord Jesus we sure need

For HE is all we'll know,

When our last breath is taken

And He takes us to His home.

~*Soft Whispers from

Derry's Heart Poems ©Oct. 2011

                        ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV)

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WOW, IT WAS CHILLY AGAIN THIS MORNING.. BRRRR! I WAS EXPECTING IT TO GET COOL SOON.. BUT WOW.. IT REALLY STARTED QUICK! AND THE RAIN THIS EARLY EVENING, CHILLY!!! THE DAMPNESS ACHES THE BONES. THE EARLY MORNINGS ARE DARK AS NIGHT, AND TIME DON'T CHANGE UNTIL NOVEMBER 1st. BUT HERE WE ARE, JUST HANGING AROUND.. LOL .... SO, IN THE MEAN TIME, WE MIGHT AS WELL APPRECIATE ALL THE BEAUTY OF AUTUMN! AND LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE.. THE COOLER WEATHER CAUSES A LITTLE EXTRA CUDDLING UP WITH YOUR HONEY (*.*) (*.*)

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DAILY PRAYERS FOR YOU AND YOURS THAT GOD WILL WRAP HIS LOVING 

ARMS AROUND EACH OF YOU AND BLESS YOU SPIRITUALLY, PHYSICALLY, 

EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY, 

FINANCIALLY, AND WITH HIS GRACE, 

LOVE, 

MERCIES, GUIDANCE, FORGIVENESS 

AND A SPECIAL ANSWER TO YOUR 

UNSPOKEN PRAYER THAT ONLY YOU AND 

HE KNOWS ABOUT. PRAYING 

FOR THE HOMELESS, THE SICK, 

HURTING, LONELY, GRIEVING, THE 

JOBLESS OR THE ONES THAT NEED A BLESSING AT WORK.. PRAYING FOR 

OUR COUNTRY AND OUR SOLDIERS AND THEIR SAFETY AND HIS 

PROTECTION FOR THEM. AND ALWAYS GIVING HIM MY LOVE, THANKS, 

HONOR, PRAISE AND GLORY IN ALL THINGS IN JESUS HOLY NAME, AMEN.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." ...... Enjoying the rain, how about The Smell of Rain??

"Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassion's never fail. They are new ever morning." Lamentations 

3: 22-23 NIV

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These verses were in my Daily Guideposts reading for today.. I surely touched me ~

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The Smell of Rain

by STEPHEN 

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the Doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10,1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24 weeks pregnant, to deliver Danae Lu Blessing.

At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words dropped like bombs. I don’t think she’s going to make it, he said, as kindly as he could. “There’s only a 10 percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one.” Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on. “No! No!” was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.

Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live, and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter’s chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable. David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements. Diana remembers, ‘I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn’t listen, I couldn’t listen.' I said, “No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don’t care what the doctors say; Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!”

As if willed to live by Diana’s determination, Danae clung to life hour

after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure. But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae’s under-developed nervous system was essentially raw, the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger.

But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later-though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero. Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.

Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She shows no signs, what so ever, of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more-but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.

One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in

Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachers of a local ballpark where her brother Dustin’s baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, “Do you smell that?” Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.” Danae closed her eyes and again asked, “Do you smell that?” Once again, her mother replied, “Yes, I think we’re about to get wet, it smells like rain. Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, “No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.” Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children.

Before the rains came, her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

This is a real story.

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Great Spirit Prayer

"Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,
whose breath gives life to all the world.




Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom.
 Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.




 Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.
Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me.




Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others.




Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy - Myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.




 So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.


~Chief Yellow Lark, Lakota Tribe
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Wouldn't it be so awesome to know and realize the smell of HIM? It says: Psalm 139:13(NIV) For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. and in Jeremiah 1:5 .."Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." 
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What a special "DOUBLE BIRTHDAY" today! Big hugs to both of them!!

Both were born September 18th. just 4 years apart!

Both are so loving, respectful, kind, smart, and totally precious to all of us. What a blessing they both are!

LOVE, AND GREAT BIG HUGS

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thank you God for the blessing of grandchildren! And thank You so much for their health, happiness, and all the blessings they have

and thank YOU for the banana pudding that they both love soooo much! 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweet Birthday To You

A wish for lots of birthday fun
To last until the day is done.
Hoping that all your wishes comes true,
and your birthday cake is as sweet as you!

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"$20.00 Worth"

Sometimes we just need to be 

reminded! A well-known speaker 

started off his seminar by holding 

up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 

200, he asked, "Who would like  

this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this 

$20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple up 

the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air. "Well", he continued, "What if I do 

this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the 

floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.

"Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends (and my grandchildren, Kayla and Nathan), we have all 

learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you 

still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth 

$20.00. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground 

into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that 

come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what 

has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty 

or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those 

who love you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who 

we know, but by WHO WE ARE. You are special- Don't EVER forget it. 

Count your blessings, not your problems. And remember:

amateurs built the Ark .. professionals built the 

Titanic."

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SPECIAL PRAYERS FOR ALL OF MY GRANDCHILDREN. YOU ARE ALL SUCH BLESSINGS TO US, AND OUR LIVES WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT YOU. I PRAY THAT GOD WILL KEEP BLESSING EACH OF YOU SPIRITUALLY, PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY, FINANCIALLY, AND WITH HIS LOVE, GUIDANCE, MERCIES, YOUR PROTECTION, SAFETY AND GRACE. AND I GIVE THANKS FOR EACH OF YOU DAILY. THANK YOU GOD FOR EACH OF THEM, I KNOW YOU LOVE THEM TOO.

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The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity 
To accept the things I cannot change; 
Courage to change the things I can; 
And wisdom to know the difference. 

Living one day at a time; 
Enjoying one moment at a time; 
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 
Taking, as He did, this sinful world 
As it is, not as I would have it; 
Trusting that He will make all things right 
If I surrender to His Will; 
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life 
And supremely happy with Him 
Forever and ever in the next. 
Amen.

lets lighten up a little for today.. it's been one of those days!!! Smile, think with your heart.. and more : )

A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside. ~ Denis Waitley

You can smile, when you can't say a word
You can smile, when you cannot be heard.
You can smile when its cloudy or grey,
You can smile any time, any day.

 (then we changed to, at church camp yet included the verse above as the first verse)

You can sing, when you can't say a word
You can sing, when you cannot be heard
You can sing, when it's cloudy or grey,
You can sing, any time any day

You can pray, when you can't say a word
You can pray, when you cannot be heard.
You can pray when it's cloudy or grey
You can pray any time, any day.

You can smile when can't say a word.
You can sing, when you cannot be heard
You can pray, when it's cloudy or grey
Our dear Lord, knows and loves all that  we say.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heartfelt Creations

When I'm an old lady, I'll live with each kid,
And bring so much happiness just as they did.
I want to pay back all the joy they've provided.
Returning each deed! Oh, they'll be so excited!
When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.

I'll write on the walls with reds, whites and blues,
And I'll bounce on the furniture wearing my shoes.
I'll drink from the carton and then leave it out.
I'll stuff all the toilets and oh, how they'll shout!
When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.

When they're on the phone and just out of reach,
I'll get into things like sugar and bleach.
Oh, they'll snap their fingers and then shake their head,
When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.

When they cook dinner and call me to eat,
I'll not eat my green beans or salad or meat,
I'll gag on my okra, spill milk on the table,
And when they get angry I'll run if I'm able!
When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.

I'll sit close to the TV, through channels I'll click,
I'll cross both eyes just to see if they stick.
I'll take off my socks and throw one away,
And play in the mud 'til the end of the day!
When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.

And later in bed, I'll lay back and sigh,
I'll thank God in prayer and then close my eyes.
My kids will look down with a smile slowly creeping,
And say with a groan, "She's so sweet when she's sleeping!"
-by Joanne Bailey Baxter

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Ray Tola

A city lady visiting the country was eating a sandwich, She begins to cough. After a minute or so, it becomes apparent that she is in real distress. One of the hillbillies looks at her and says, "Kin ya swallar?" The woman shakes her head no. Then he asks, 'Kin ya breathe?'The woman begins to turn blue, and shakes her head no. The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up her dress, yanks down her drawers, and quickly gives her right butt cheek a lick with his tongue.The woman is so shocked that she has a violent spasm, and the obstruction flies out of her mouth. As she begins to breathe again, the Hillbilly walks slowly back to his table. His partner says, 'Ya know, I'd heerd of that there 'Hind Lick Maneuver' but I ain't niver seed nobody do it!'

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief. ~Swedish Proverb

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.
 ~   Oprah Winfrey

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Praying for you and yours today and daily that God will wrap His loving arms around each of you and help you with whatever you are going through for the day. Praying that He will bless each of you spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, and with His awesome and unchanging love, forgiveness, guidance, mercies, grace, protection, and inner peace.. (think about all the above, I cannot think of more!) So, for everything you and yours needs and some you want, plus his protection and guidance, and sweet peace
. Praying that HE will be with, and touch each of you that are sick, hurting, grieving, abused in any way (by any one) the jobless, and for all the soldiers and policemen/ service people, and their families and friends. Praying always for our country, and it's leaders that HE will touch them and guide them to do HIS will for our country and it's people. TODAY AND ALWAYS, GIVING HIM OUR LOVE, HONOR, PRAISE, THANKS AND GLORY FOR ALL THINGS IN JESUS HOLY NAME, AMEN.