WORDS, Saturday, December 28, 2013

I grew up in a time where games were either played with a board, words, or our BODY!  Yes, I am old…an official antique, mind you. 

My favorite part of Church growing up was getting to play with my friends while our parents were at choir practice.  When we were little, we would play “Mother, May I”  (wow…a teaching lesson and we didn’t even know it!), “123 Red Light”, “Simon Says” and some other funny games…We all played and no one was left out or bullied.  As we got older, we would play KICK BALL outside in the summer and YES, in the basement when it got colder.  We knew what was expected of us and I honestly do not remember us getting into arguments…oh sure, there were the mumbles of UNFAIR or IDIOT under our breath, but we knew if we didn’t get along, then NONE of us would be playing anything BECAUSE our parents would step in and we WOULD be punished…so we learned to get along and to play nice…Yes, again, I was raised in a time WHEN we FEARED our parents who disciplined us in LOVE.

My parents were involved in a circle of friends that would play ROOK…They would go to various homes and play, but the highlight was ALWAYS the “ma-freshments” as my oldest brother called them.  This was BACK in the day when Chex Mix was called Do-Dads and they were made with cheerios and pretzel sticks…I STILL need the cheerios and pretzels for them to be good!  Do-Dads were served in small round wooden bowls that I still have.  We also ate popcorn from them each Sunday Night after we got home from Church as we popped corn in a PAN on the stove…I KNOW…we SURVIVED WITHOUT microwaves…

There would be a GREEN BUTTON in there!!  sigh

Mother played WORD GAMES with us when we were young.  Riddle, Riddle, Marie, I see something YOU don’t see and it is GREEN and starts with a B…then we would do our best to guess WHAT in the world she was seeing…It taught us to be observant and to pay attention AND THAT Parents even when they were busy, STILL took time to make sure they were teaching us and spending time to keep our minds busy with POSITIVE thoughts.  I liked when a word was said and we would say the first thing that popped in our minds…To this day, most everything people say makes me think of something else…MAYBE I took that game a little too seriously??!!

Society has changed SO many words that we used to say without fear of offending.  CUSS words were seldom uttered in my home—I can STILL remember WHEN my Parents said cuss words…NOT because of their meaning, BUT BECAUSE they were so seldom said, they stuck in my mind and YES, I laugh when I remember Mother getting into Aunt Becky’s car and hitting her head and saying the S word…My eyes got big…At our house, laughter would break out at the supper table when we would start talking about “dam water”…it was good, clean EDGY fun!  Last night I watched a show where a sixteen year old was cussing as a normal part of the conversation with her father and NOBODY blinked—except me…As I’ve gotten older, I have developed a potty mouth, but I hear how tacky those words sound and I am FAR too intelligent to not be able to find OTHER words to express my feelings, so I am working on my mouth…

I shared on fb that my favorite word is GIGGLE.  It instantly makes me smile…AND YES, I GIGGLE…Mother told me so many times that one of her favorite sounds was to hear me LAUGH…While I didn’t have much to laugh about while I was caring for her in her last days, I am so thankful that laughter has returned to my life and I still feel guilt that I let it leave me as I cared for her…I’ve got to let that go somehow also…sigh…

I think it is TIME for all of us to find some GOOD Four-letter words:  Love, Hope, Care, Cook, Help, Give, Make, KISS (Keep it Simple, Silly), LIKE, TIME, Play, Rest, Hugs…and for Karalee…FROG (FULLY rely on God)…

THESE are words that can serve us well…These are words that we can use to HELP each other…We are all in this life TOGETHER…so it is time to STOP all the negativity and to replace it with HEALING words of encouragement.  This is where THE GOOD OLD DAYS needs to come into the present and we need to slow down and OBSERVE our surroundings and make a POSITIVE change in our world…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte♥

 Faithfully

 Beautiful

 Friends who

 Really

 Inspire me

 Every day to

 Never Stop

 Dreaming and

 Striving to be the best ME!  U~charlotte