Dear Reader:

I love hearing true stories from people who saw a need and reacted immediately…sometimes leaving their own jobs and/or changing their entire lives at great risk.

This happened to one woman interviewed yesterday on one of the talk shows. She had been a teacher and was helping one student  …who was struggling after school one day…the girl had to make a sentence with the word “accustomed.” She was stuck.

So the teacher gave her a clue…“You could write a sentence about your birthday parties over the years and how you have grown accustomed to them.”

Tears fell down  the young girl’s cheeks…“I wouldn’t know about that she said…I’ve never had a birthday party. My mama and I live in a shelter.”

That one statement changed the teacher’s life…she wrote a grant and got some seed money to start “Beverly’s Birthdays”…going into shelters and other assisted living situations…giving birthday parties for every child who had a birthday in that particular month she arrived. She then returned each month until every child had a party.

Like the ‘fishes and the loaves’ word spread and more and more donations came pouring in. Soon more staff was needed and the idea became a full-time commitment.

Don’t we all admire people who can react so quickly to a need ….sacrificing everything for the cause.

Like the title says…”A Life Without Cause is a Life Without Effect.” 

Cause and effect…one of those key standards of learning in school. I remember I taught this concept (critical in understanding history) with a “snowball fight” in class. It worked with any unit of history but I saved it for the causes and effects of the American Revolution.

I would write the number of cause and effect words on the board that were related to the unit and assign each student to copy one on a white sheet of notebook paper.

The student then rolled the paper up in the shape of a white snowball and upon my signal the class let’em rip. When I blew the whistle…each student had to pick up one “snowball” unwrap the paper and study the cause and/or effect.

They then had to walk around the classroom until they found the right student holding the matching word or phrase that completed their cause-effect example.

When called upon…the two-student team read their ’cause-effect’ and then explained how it lead to the Revolution. It was a great review before the final assessment.

Isn’t life, itself, always about cause and effect? Every time we make a choice we wait to see if it was the right one…depending on the final effect that either ripples outward positively or back inward negatively.

Life really is all about choices…the better we get at choosing the right path for ourselves…the stronger our compass becomes directing us past the obstacles waiting ahead.

Anytime our choice involves others in a positive way…we can be sure it is the right one. Choices require courage.

So until tomorrow….Living for others is the rule of nature.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

My moon flowers are loving life since I planted them last week…they have grown at least 2 to 3 inches in the same amount of days.

I also planted a “Siskiyou Pink Guara…if it looks familiar…it is in the same family as the white/pink tinted “Whirling Butterflies”…It will take off soon and grow tall like its “cousin”…  staying light and feathery….I thought it would add to the one “whirling butterfly” by the fence.

John and Mandy decided to escape to a different view than home…with a three-day vacation at Wild Dunes…had a fun day today. So nice to just wake up in a different place with a different view after three months at home. Beautiful!