Dear Reader:

A few days ago I heard from one of my best teaching co-horts in the Social Studies Department at Alston Middle School.

Patty was an amazing teacher and when the Social Studies Department would meet monthly …we all had the best times laughing together and planning fun events and creative lesson plans.

It all came to an end when Patty and her family moved to Simpsonville … a beautiful quaint town in the Greenville vicinity.

Over time we quit communicating regularly …until just a few years ago I got a call from Patty … her beautiful daughter was just diagnosed with breast cancer-she now too was a teacher, married with a little boy and as strong and stoic as her mother. I immediately promised to contact her and share my experiences.

That year at the Breast Cancer Clemson game… she became the breast cancer representative … her smiling face looking down from a large poster.

Her whole family joined her in the fight… Patty subbing for her daughter when she had chemo sessions or felt too badly to return to the classroom. Today she is in remission … praying it will stay that way…releasing any concerns over to her Creator.

Like me she turned her condition over to God and she hasn’t looked back.

When Patty contacted me a few days ago she asked if it would be all right to send a new ” Thought for a Day” every day to me. I replied ” Certainly!”

She and her retired teaching buddies and other friends share these thoughts daily …sending new thoughts out … as memorable quotes of encouragement and to simply keep in touch. Great idea! Occasionally I will continue to pass some onto you… like today’s title!

My planter just showed it’s last full blooms …dangerously tilted now and leaning over… tied it to a stake but the stalk filled with blossoms is winning the game I fear… looks like the stem could crash or split any moment. But even if this happens …what happiness it has brought me and we just have to remember to savor the memories and wait for the future! Such is life!

Jo said another song she thought of while watching the ants save their own rain forest from humans drilling into tree trunks was Frank Sinatra’s High Hopes. Especially this stanza…

” Just what makes that little old ant, think he’ll move that rubber tree plant?”

” Anyone knows an ant …can’t … move a rubber tree plant… but he’s got High Hopes! ”

And every day beauty pops up in front of us … if we just stop long enough to absorb it.

Have a blessed day!