Elfchen or “Elevenies” are poems with eleven words in a pattern of 1+2+3+4+1
Embrace Spontaneous Leisure as you relax and enjoy life today: Sunday
Sunday mornings always are hurried “UP ‘N AT T’EM” days. Rush!
Shower. Get up. And get dressed. Then gobble your breakfast. Church!
(Click the arrow below)
Listen “Rush Hour” for a minute … Then click it off. Frenzy!
Happy? Not likely. That “Happy Hardcore” Destroys any residual sanity. Yuck!
(Go back and click outta that sound!)
Repetitive, nerve wracking… Who needs it? Put your feet up. Relax!
Wallow in silliness for a while; Find yourself some laughter. Chuckle!
Find some friends to join you. Good for your soul. Laze!
A few friends took me up on my suggestion yesterday. My silly blog was titled, “Embrace a Camel” and I really wentoff the deep end. One little friend got into a box and joined the insanity club!
How about you? Do you take a day to just be silly and relax every now and then?
It’s called “Spontaneous Leisure” and I recommend it!
Today we slept in. We dressed in a casual, leisurely fashion. We ate brunch at 10: am (our church didn’t ZOOM the service today or we would’ve tuned in to it) and then we went up to our sanctuary and had our own worship service up there.
It was just the break from routine that we needed!
Embrace Spontaneous Leisure. Just treat yourself Take an unintentional break – Relax
Jesus Accepts worship Wherever it occurs. God condones taking breaks. Recline!
Question: “What does the Bible say about rest and relaxation?”. Answer: “Rest” is defined as “peace, ease or refreshment.” “Relax” means “to become loose or less firm, to have a milder manner, to be less stiff.” The Bible speaks quite highly of rest.
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Doctor ordered relaxation: Just sit back – Put your feet up – Chill!
If you can laugh at yourself, Laughter will always be with you. We do the darndest things!!
Flight Attendant
On our trip home from Eugene, Oregon via Seattle, WA, we “lost” our carry-on suitcase. Because of a shortage of overhead bin space, we were asked to leave our carry-on at the entrance of the plane. At the end of the flight, the cart rolled out with all the luggage and ours wasn’t on it. There was a blue bag like ours, but it had a strange-looking lock on it, and it was a little bigger than ours, and the color wasn’t exactly right.
We figured somebody had accidentally picked up the wrong bag. We reported the missing bag to the flight attendant.
“You’re sure this isn’t yours?” she asked.
“We’re sure!” we both chimed in.
So, this gracious masked flight attendant escorted us to the Alaska Airlines Passenger Assistance desk. On the way we exchanged pleasantries. She discovered we’d been married 59 years. She asked about our destination. We asked about her life. We had plenty of time to share. It was a long walk to the help desk.
At the customer service desk, the attendant took our phone number and other contact information and assured us that we’d be contacted when the person who mistook our bag for theirs realized their mistake and returned it.
We thanked her again and got her contact info from her. Later she sent us a picture of herself unmasked so we’d recognize her if she came to visit us in Montana. We really hope she will!!
As we were headed for our next departure gate to continue our travel home to Bozeman, MT, we saw another flight attendant wheeling a blue carry-on toward the help desk. Something caused us to turn around, follow him, and inquire about that suitcase when he got to the Alaska Airlines customer service area.
Our sweet and helpful flight attendant still was in that area. She came over to see the blue bag that was left behind and get an update on what was happening. The two attendants looked at the bag, turned the tag on it over and examined the name/address on it.
We felt soooo stupid! We BOTH had denied that bag could be ours. We had created a hassle for the flight attendant and ourselves. NEEDLESSLY. We felt like such morons! We profusely apologized. They chuckled. We laughed out loud… a laugh filled with embarrassment.
Our sweet flight attendant patted us on the back. Gave us a comforting smile and said, “It could happen to any of us. Don’t worry!”
She said she wanted to adopt us as her “Marriage longevity role models.”
Thank you, Lisa!!
Ah, 59 years together! We often tell folks it takes the two of us to complete one another… two halves make a whole.
At that moment we thought we had both become slightly senile. Neither of us felt like half of a whole!! Maybe a quarter?
We can’t afford to have BOTH of us lose a few marbles. HELP!!
As we rolled our bag – hmmm… why hadn’t we noticed that lock on there before? Hmmm … was it really this size? Hmmm … why hadn’t we noticed the shade of blue?
We got the giggles. We laughed at our own feeble-mindedness and decided what we needed was a good glass of wine, a taco snack, and a chance to just sit and relax before we boarded the next flight.
I received a text from our dear flight attendant. She assured us that we were the highlight of her day. She sent us a picture of her beautiful family and invited us to come visit her if we are ever in the area where she lives. I can just hear her sharing the story about this “adorable old couple, married 59 years, not recognizing their own suitcase” and getting a good laugh for years to come.
We’re able to laugh about it, too. We hope she really will take us up on it and come to visit us in Montana!
The moral of the story:
The next time you do something stupid, give each other a high five. Get a good laugh at yourself, and realize:
You are not alone! Laugh together. No one can laugh AT you, if they are laughing WITH you!
And, by the way, do you have some kind of bright florescent ribbon that we can tie onto our luggage?
Something that we can’t mistake for someone else’s?
Send it along to us!! And have a great Thursday!
Love, JanBeek
Hah!!
Oh- and by the way, that girl at the top with her tongue out? That’s Bob’s niece, Tammy. She has a great sense of humor. As a nurse – especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, Laughter has been a saving grace! Gotta keep your spirits up!!
If you’ve followed my blog for a week or so, you already know that I journal most days in this little book that is dedicated to my dear and daring daughter, DeAna. I don’t write in it EVERY day, but often I do, when I am up in my sanctuary, motivated by my devotionals. Today was such a day.
Look ahead, my friend Live Life Forward Stare out the windshield Not the rear view mirror
Look toward the future Find the unexpected gifts Share the love and grace You find at every turn
Share the laughter Share uninhibited joy Share compassion Ease each others pain
Find the hidden treasures ‘Neath the tears of sorrow Let them wash you clean Ready for tomorrow
Look ahead, my friend Don’t let the past upset Live life forward And bury all regret
Ya gotta read this post! It’s full of gorgeous flowers from derrickjknight
and you don’t want to miss seeing more! It’s full of a variety of humor and thoughtfulness!
Do you know the word “HodgePodge”?? Is it real or is it one that my mom made up? When I put it in Pexels to look for a picture, nothing came up. But my iPhone dictionary had it! Here are some synonyms:
jumble
mishmash
collection
combination
medley
miscellany
potpourri
melange
Don’t you love the concept? It doesn’t say “junk” (which is often what I thought of when I used the word hodgepodge). No, not junk… just a mishmash of unrelated ideas or an assortment of things that can actually be related – like this meat on a grill.
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com A hodgepodge of meats
Need to Share
Today’s blog is a mishmash – a hodgepodge of various things, ideas, photos that caught my eye this week. I saved them because I either loved them or hated them, laughed or groaned at them, and I wanted to share them for your viewing, too.
Love One Another
My blog’s subtitle is “Loving One Another” – so I try to share ideas that represent ways we can reach out in love more fully and unconditionally to one another.
A friend (who was born in Canada but is now a USA citizen) sent me these pictures/memes/jokes/thoughts today. I decided if the election goes the wrong way next November here in the USA, Canada may be my next residency! It appears they have a handle on how to “Love One Another.” Even their graffiti is kinder than ours!!
And if they wear a hat with something written on it, I guess it is positive, too…
Going on with my hodgepodge, I received this meme from a friend today. It made me laugh. I think laughter is what keeps me going these days!
You can’t fix stupid. Don’t even try… unless it’s YOU!! Then get some help…
But God says we gotta LOVE everybody! So, cover those unused socket holes!!
One of my blogging friends wrote a comment this week. She said to me, “You’re a mess!” Should I laugh or be insulted?
You have four choices for how to survive this virus: champ, chump, clump, or chimp. What will it be?
Oh, Other Options?
You say you have other survivor options? One way my blogging friend, Derrick Knight and his wife, Jackie, are surviving this pandemic is by being voracious gardeners. And Derrick is a phenomenal photographer. Let me add to my hodgepodge today by sharing a couple of my favorite photos he posted recently from his rainy vistas in Great Britain:
Derrick’s peach rose Magnificent!!
Derrick’s Mamma Mia Amazing!!
Derrick’s gladiolas I love ’em!
Derrick’s California Poppy – My favorite.
Pictures Bring Back Memories
In my past life, some of you know I was a teacher for 24 years and a principal for 9 years and worked in the district office as curriculum coordinator (wearing a hundred hats with all kinds of responsibility and no authority to back ’em up!)… and then I decided to do what I loved most – and go back into the classroom before I retired. I taught a first grade and took them on to second. Oh, what a joy that was! Many of those students are my FaceBook friends today… 21 years later!!
That poppy brought back those memories because the school where I was principal for 9 years was Caswell Elementary in the Ceres Unified School District in California. Our school song was:
“Poppies, Golden Poppies, Gleaming in the sun. Closing up at evening when the day is done. Pride of California, Flower of our state, Growing from the mountains To the Golden Gate.
We’re the Caswell Cougars, We are Number One. Green and yellow banners Waving in the sun. Caswell is a place for Learning and for fun. We’re the Caswell Cougars, We are Number One!!
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com The Cougar… our mascot
And the HodgePodge Continues…
Cord and Ruby
Yesterday, if you read my blog, you know we went for a farewell ice cream social to say “See ya later” to our two favorite little Sunday School friends, Cord and Ruby. We are praying for their happy resettling on their dad’s home ranch in Jordan, MT. It’s a six-hour drive from here. They’ll have horses and cattle and dogs and cats and lots of room to roam. Our love and prayers go with them. We gave them great big farewell hugs and told ’em how much we love and will miss them.
Vissoie, Switzerland
Great HodgePodge Finish
A great end to my hodgepodge for today is this wonderful photo that I JUST received via the magic of WhatsApp from my daughter, DeAna. She wrote,
“I took this photo from the parking lot near our restaurant this morning while thinking of you.”
Ah, our children certainly know how to melt a mothers heart, don’t they? Nothing could make me happier than to know that when my daughter sees a symbol of our faith, she thinks of me! What a gift, huh?
Maybe I am not so disturbed after all!!
A Puuurfect Ending
What HodgePodge of thoughts captured your imagination today? I hope they were a medley of love and laughter, memories and musings that lightened your soul.
