Dear Reader:
Rutledge adopted an elephant for Christmas and applicably enough…he is named Rutledge in his honor. He lives on the Kenya Wildlife Reserve! So cute…just like our Rutledge with the same great memory!
Maybe one day Rutledge, the Clemson Tiger, will get to meet his namesake, Rutledge the Elephant…as long as he is from Kenya and not Alabama! 🙂
Yesterday as I was watching a talk show (Kelly and Ryan)…Oprah was on talking about her most recent book…
From her conversations with well-known philosophers, theologians, well-respected authors on her own television show….(Super Soul Conversations)…Oprah has selected (what she calls) snackable bites of wisdom that are easy to consume and remember.
One quote I heard (from this quick video sample of tidbits of spirituality to help us through the day)…came directly from Oprah, herself. It basically said that the “Three most important words aren’t “I love you”…even more importantly, it is “I hear you.”
*Listen to the five quotes below…everyone of them I want to set to memory…so I can pull them out as needed
AHA quotes from Oprah’s The Wisdom of Sundays book – YouTube
And Oprah is right…There is no way to truly love someone completely if we can’t hear them…if we can’t hear what they are really telling us. Listening comes before loving. And now I realize that “A-ha” moments are never new thoughts that spin out of space and magically land in our brains…An “A-ha” moment is when we have made a connection with something we already knew…we simply had never connected the dots to complete the entire thought!
Oh…I love it when a thought completes itself!
So for me…I need to stick with “Listening” as my word for 2018 too. I am still a novice and still learning…I have ‘miles to go before I sleep.’ (Anybody else needing to stick with theirs, too?)
So I re-lit my “Listening” candle I made last year (yesterday) as a symbol of my continuance with this word and the new understanding it brings.
So until tomorrow…
Let’s all join the growing movement to care more about what the other is saying and less about our response back…
“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh
*Today is also my “baby’s” birthday…Tommy or as he is nicknamed… “Deduction Dingle.” Tommy and Kaitlyn are leaving today for Chattanooga to visit Susan and Butch, Kaitlyn’s parents, and her adorable nieces over the weekend.
Tommy… I will have your annual birthday present ready when you return…(a jar of brown and silver) from the day after your birthday last year until today…amazing how loose change adds up so quickly! We can never stop that tradition. *And look…this year I couldn’t even get the lid placed on…Too much change was coming out the top…a good sign!
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
As always I enjoyed today’s blog. I have been thinking about my word for 2018. I mentioned this to my Ashley last week while at home. When I told her my word has been Hope and I didn’t know if I could come up with a different word for 2018. She said, ‘you know Mom that’s always been your word , so just keep it!’
Yes, Hope is my word and it is such a part of me that I can’t let it go. So as 2017 ends and 2018 begins, may each of us hold onto hope and share it with those who need it.❤️
Hope is your word Honey because you do bring hope to everyone you meet! If we could fill the world with “ Honey’s” what a wonderful world it would be!
Sent from my iPhone
Bless Rutledge! I love elephants. They have so much to teach us about family life and devotion to the pack.
Oprah?….I’ll check this out but don’t especially care for her . She is pretty messed up.
Love the money jar.
Happy New Year to all of the Dingle family
Happy New Year back…a clean slate and new opportunities.