Random Acts of "Kindness"

Posts tagged ‘dogs’

THE CHRISTMAS TREE

I wrote this last year at Christmas Time, before the BLOG. I thought I would share it with you this year.

Every year, it seems that the decorations for Christmas arrive in the stores earlier. It used to be that we celebrated Thanksgiving before the stores decorated for Christmas. Then Christmas decorations vied with Halloween costumes for space in the store. This year, the battle began before the children went back to school.

I’m old fashioned. I will admit it! I don’t put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving although I will admit that I might begin making presents earlier.

One of my favorite decorations is our Christmas tree. When we moved into our house, our son was barely crawling and my husband did not want him eating pine needles so we bought an artificial tree for $25. Year after year we put the tree up, decorated it with ornaments, tinsel and garlands. The tree appeared real as the branches sagged and spaces opened up. Our son referred to it as the Charley Brown tree.

The year finally came when instead of putting it in the basement, it joined other trees in the alley and we purchased a new tree. I thought we would buy a smaller tree since our children were married. I wondered where we would put all the ornaments that I had accumulated over the years. I didn’t need to worry. Our new tree was taller and fuller. There would be room for ALL of our ornaments.

This year as I decorated the tree I remembered the year my father, aunt and uncle helped my husband and I make ornaments from sequins. The sequins have lost their shine but the ornaments are precious since my father, aunt and uncle are no longer with us. Since they aren’t breakable, they take their spot on the lower branches of the tree. Of course the six small angels are the first to take their place on the high branches. (I wrote the story of the battle of the angels in JOURNEY WITH ME, titled WINGS. I had always credited my father with the extra “help” that I was receiving. forgetting that my mother and brother preceded him by many years. LESSON LEARNED)

I usually have the job of adding the ornaments. My husband puts on the lights and the angel sitting on the top. The large silver ornaments go around the tree trunk to help reflect the light. They were a present from a woman long ago. Then I add all the small older ornaments that rest over the summer, wrapped in tissue paper in their own box. Some of them are very old and heavy.

I won’t bore you with a description of all the ornaments. The angels increased again this year. I had to get a chocolate lab angel for Mabel to accompany our other four footed angels. More of our friends moved to the other side. Sue gave me an angel bell to remember the angels that got their wings. Besides the angels from my story of WINGS, I have Irish, and Hawaiian angels — crystal, copper and plastic. I was delighted with all the angels that I found.

Many of the ornaments remind me of trips we have taken – South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Hawaii to name a few. Others remind me of milestones in our life. When Rusty, our Irish Setter joined the family; I decorated the tree with red apples, Silver EGGs, and clear bells made from wine tasting cups. The breakable ornaments took the year off.  I haven’t put the red apples on the tree but I haven’t tossed them out yet either. The eggs and the bells always find a spot.

Our son made an ornament when he was in Kindergarten from a gold tube. It is always is in view. A stable scene dates from girlscouts. I received an ornament when I was a milk mother; I don’t remember how many years ago that was.  One year, Terri, our daughter in Florida asked if we got the two penguin ornaments that her kids had made. Nope, didn’t see them. The next year I used the same box to send our presents to Florida, and I found two penguins.

Gifts from friends have a place on the tree. When TO PAP, WITH LOVE was published, a friend gave me a rising star. Speaking of TO PAP, I found two bears with the date 2002, celebrating the year that book was published. They are not the only bears hiding in the branches. I also found a couple of ornaments celebrating JOURNEY, from 2007. I realized another five years have passed.

My Aunt Connie knew how much I enjoyed the ornaments on our tree. She gave me a box of her ornaments the year before she died. Clowns, M& M’s and other storybook characters joined the group.

Of course, there has to be Santa – opening the refrigerator, sitting in a chair, riding a train, fishing, etc. There are also a lot of horses. Isa, our youngest granddaughter was very happy when she saw them – they were right in her line of vision. Imagine that. Daniel, our younger grandson, didn’t notice the super heroes; he is into Transformers now.

The tree is too crowded now for some of our older ornaments. The popcorn cranberry garlands stay in the box with the apples.  But there is still room for MORE!

New note: Walking to the post office, I remembered that we had another dog angel, so I ordered Tidbits angel ornament. Weeks went by. On Sunday, 12/2/12  I continued to trim the tree, adding our dog and cat angel’s. The doorbell rang, Tidbit’s angel arrived to join the others.

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RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

The premise of my writing is to show that we have “friends in high places” that are involved in our life. Therefore, for the most part I don’t write about the joys, problems or challenges in my life unless they seem to be interacting with the other side. Often, my life is ordinary. Then there is the rest of it.

My father enjoyed helping other people. My mother might have shared the same feeling. Since she passed over when I was four, I really can’t speak from experience. I have been told that I’m like her in many ways.
Over the past few years I’ve realized that she is often with me, for which I’m extremely grateful.

So, okay, where is this going? Do I have a point? Yes, I really do. When I enrolled in a Creative Writing class, our teacher mentioned that once we became aware of synchronicities, they would occur more often. Depending on my actions during the day, it might be a quiet day or more interesting.

Recently it was a shopping day. One of my favorite stores is Costco. I feel I receive good value for my money and I enjoy interacting with many of the employees. Costco DOES NOT provide bags for your purchases but they will place them into boxes for easier handling. Sometimes those boxes can be extremely heavy. The weight of the box and the deepness of the shopping cart can make it difficult to get the loaded box out of the cart.  Walking through the parking lot, I passed a woman who had such a problem and was able to extend an extra hand.

That same day, at another store, I noticed a gentleman that seemed to be searching for something with a degree of anxiety. When I asked if he was looking for the bathroom, I was able to direct him to the proper place.

Friday, I took our last pug, Lexie , out for a bathroom break. I call her our energizer pug and someday I will write a thought ramble about her. For now let me say that she is 14 years plus, half blind and with hearing loss. Since she walks with a fishtail gate, and stops to rest often, she wanders without a leash. Friday, I took her out in front of the house for her bathroom break. We live on a busy street. A car pulled over to the side, they lowered the window and a woman asked for directions. She was trying to get to the South side of Chicago and the directions she received from her hotel had her confused. I had to take a break to retrieve a wandering dog,  but luckily I was able to help her.

We have lived in our neighborhood for many years and I still don’t know the streets. But when I was young and took the bus, I learned the major streets on the North side.  Right Place, Right Time! Always makes my day!

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GIFTS

Do you think all gifts come in boxes or are wrapped with beautiful paper and tied with a bow?

Once upon a time, I might have thought that was how gifts were given. I have since learned that those types of gifts are only a very small part of the presents we receive. I have already mentioned the trouble I had printing a chapter from To Pap, With Love. I thought the problem was in the description of the party, it took a long time before I learned that we had received a present — the storm clouds moved on and we had a beautiful day.

Our grandchildren are visiting from Florida. Temperature in the city was forecast to reach 100 degrees — not the time to visit the zoo — air conditioned space was preferred. I have a senior membership at the Field Museum, but that would allow only two adults to enter. We received a gift that day, we had tickets available for Genghis Khan which enabled both of our grandchildren to enter. Our grandson had read about his life and was very interested in seeing the exhibit.

This is not the first time that our membership : aquarium, museum or zoo, has allowed our grandchildren to enter at no additional cost to us. I always say “Thank You!”

Talking about museums, my grandchildren mentioned they would like to visit the Museum of Science and Industry. I DON’T HAVE a membership there. I remembered that the Library has passes available for the various museums. Each time I have tried to borrow one, none has been available. That didn’t stop me from phoning. I learned one was on hand, the Librarian suggested I run over. Temperature at 105, no — running was not an option. I planned to walk until I saw a darkened sky. A short rain shower cooled the temperature for a few minutes. “THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!”

We DO NOT have central air conditioning in our house. It is over a hundred years old and would require too much money to have it installed. We have gradually added a couple of window units, one per floor, to keep the temperature liveable.

Fourth of July, temperature 101, 105 forecast for Thursday. A transformer on our block quit working at 7:00 PM. At 5:30 AM I heard a hum in one of our bedrooms, electric was back on. I said “THANK YOU”!

I was worried about our remaining pug — Lexie is fourteen, deaf and partially blind. The two footed occupants of our house could go to a store, the museum or the mall.  What would we do for Lexie? She would not be able to handle the heat. Thankfully the electric was back on.

Often something happens which alerts us to a bigger problem. Water on the floor, unexplained noise in the car — little things that point to a possible problem if we are alert. Even though they are inconveniences, slivers or blisters at the time, they have saved us from damage. Last year, our car needed ball joints that was discovered during a  routine checkup before a trip. Recently the car needed stabilizer links.  Noise brought the problem to our attention.

Last but not least lets not forget the many people: friends, neighbors, doctors, mechanics, store clerks and complete strangers that are often there when we need them.

Just some of the gifts that are given to us on a regular basis.  Do you notice? Do you say “Thanks!”

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