Dear Reader:

As we get older don’t we all wish and hope that our presence will somehow have changed the world or someone in it for the better because of our existence after we are gone? If not…was our short stay on this amazing planet worth the creation?

The problems today seem so tantamount to the release of the original Pandora’s Box that it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around the increasing amount of troubles this old weary world sees on a daily continuum. How would one even start to change this world …where havoc runs amok?

Simply put…one person can’t… but one step can. What is the old joke…how does one eat an elephant…one bite at a time? It is the secret to change.

*A short essay supposedly originally written by an unknown monk perhaps best answers the question of how to change the world. Food for thought.

“I Wanted to Change the World”

“When I was a young person I wanted to change the world. This was impossible, so I tried  to change my country. That didn’t work so I decided to change my state. No luck. Next I attempted to change my community. Nada. So as I aged I thought it wise to just change my family. Failed.

So now, as an old person, I realize that I can only change myself. Oh, how I wish I understood this long ago as I could have made a positive impact on my family. Then my family and I could have made a difference in our community. Together our community could have made great changes in our state, and then our state could go on to impact our country and then … I could have said that I changed the world.”

It all starts with us….Doodle gave me the BOO sign on my deck brick wall years ago and it has survived potential hurricanes, tropical storms…when I am sitting in the lounge chair in the evenings counting my blessings while gazing at my garden… I see BOO in big letters on the wall and are reminded that it is up to me to make a difference in the world…not to wait on someone else to do it for me.

So until tomorrow….“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

• My old-fashioned long thin-stemmed sun flowers are all in bloom now…they make me smile each morning welcoming me to a new day!

Mandy said the kids had a ball at Splash Mountain yesterday and from the photos I think she’s right! I love how Eva Cate and Jake are so close (holding hands).sibling fighting..sure…part of growing up…but for four years difference in age… they truly love and protect each other.