Dear Reader:

Haven’t we all been around toddlers ( our own or friends and families) who have started asking … ” But why?”

If it is our firstborn we initially think the increasingly repeated question is ” adorable and so cute” until about the umpteenth time when we are ready to pull our hair out.

Then as older children we get paid back with the first day of school’s teacher’s famous ( expected to be answered in union by the class) ” Now students…Remember there is no such thing as a stupid question… the only stupid question is …What? ( She then waits to hear the class say … ” the one not asked.”)

Apparently the origin to this standard question goes back to Confucius who stated” The man who asks a stupid question is a fool for a minute . The man who does not ask a stupid question is a fool for life.”

* And as many times as I heard some variation of this statement throughout my school years I should have been glad to hear it.

The teachers who didn’t allow ” interrupting questions” were my worst teachers. Any student who forgot in the excitement of something they wanted to know and raised their hand or blurted out a question was met with a withering look and a lecture on proper learning etiquette! Without questions there can be no learning. And there wasn’t.

I believe God understands this more than anyone. With our planet’s population hovering around 8 billion-just think how many questions in prayer God must get daily and nightly!

One author, Ruth Harms Calkin, calculated that her own personal ratio was probably around ten to one between herself and God. She wrote:

” I ask:

Why do You permit this anguish?

How long can I endure it?

What possible purpose does it serve?

Have you forgotten me?

Have I wearied you?

Have I offended you?

Have you cast me off?

Where did I miss your guidance?

When did I lose my way?

Do you see my utter despair?

YOU ask:

Are you trusting me?

So until tomorrow…Prayer is asking for rain. Faith is carrying an umbrella.

” Today is my Favorite Day” Winnie the Pooh

Saturday evening I attended a party-a celebration of life for Ellen Styles… a fabulous teacher, amazing wife and mother and one of the funniest, wittiest people I have ever had the good fortune to know!

She had told her family she wanted a party to celebrate her life when the time came-to invite all their family and friends to remember her with joy… because she felt blessed to have had the life she was given!

After a Covid delay… that is exactly what happened last evening! The thunder clouds parted leaving a perfect, delightfully cool, gorgeous evening. * No one was raining on Ellen’s long-awaited parade! !

Isn’t that the most wondrous way to leave-with smiles and laughing friends and family remembering the priceless time they got to share with you?