Bittersweet Weekend

This past weekend was filled with various things that I could write about. All I had to do was choose one but instead I chose to touch briefly on a couple that impacted my life in some way. On Christmas Eve, a relative died in Texas ... a special cousin ... we found one another in a forum chat room. We sent messages, there was a visit and phone calls. I sent him an animated card on the 23rd. He answered and sent wishes to me and my family .. he died the next morning. I was shocked and wondered why our lives touched for such a brief time. Almost two weeks later, I received a call and an invitation to come to a memorial in Pascagoula for the cousin. January 21st at 2PM. When I returned to my hometown in 2003, there were my two brothers, a sister and their families but I wondered about the other relatives. Where were they? I didn't know their married names and I couldn't trace them. As the story goes ... the "others" didn't know that I was here. There is meaning to all of our lives. Sometimes we don't like or understand why certain things happen to us but in time we will know. When I walked into the roomful of people, I was home! Thanks Butch!

The poem below is not written by me. It is a version of one written by an unknown author.

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.

When someone is in your life for a REASON,
it is usually to meet a need
you have expressed outwardly or inwardly.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty,
to provide you with guidance and support,
to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend, and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrong doing on your part
or at an inconvenient time,
this person will say or do something
to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met,
our desire fulfilled; their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered
and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON,
it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.
They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;
those things you must build upon
in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson,
love the person/people (anyway);
and put what you have learned to use in all
other relationships and areas of your life.

It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

~Author Unknown

Now about the Saints... I am not a football fan per se but I like this team. They never give up, they can teach us all something about tenacity. I watched the last half of the game and my heart grew heavy for the guys. They slipped, fumbled, were penalized, BUT still they carried on to the end. I felt that they were playing for our storm ravaged areas. It took our minds off all the problems here. For a short time, everything was normal again. A local left a comment in one of our papers asking how we could be so foolish when there were more important things to be done here. I am sorry for that person because it is obvious that hope in that particular life for a future isn't alive.

I will take pictures during the week of new construction and anything else I find of interest. It has been raining every day and that makes it near impossible but I will be back!