Faded Photographs...

Favorite Memory:  

Sitting at the piano next to my father, with my soprano mother behind me...

This picture is old and faded... but even after 50 years,

this memory is crystal clear in my mind!

It looks like Angels are surrounding us!

Sometimes I get so caught up in memories, that I forget to live in the moment...

I need to remember that what we do today, 

become my kids' memories tomorrow!  

Hopefully they will smile when they remember their CRAZY mom,

 frantically cleaning at the LAST minutes...

All night wrapping sessions... filled with laughter and love...

The meandering stories behind each present...

The memories may be different,

but the LOVE is the same... 

Merry Merry Merry... 

THERE ARE NO WORDS...

I have been silent for a few weeks.  So much in my head... So many drafts... 

Nothing seemed right.

But something horrendous happened yesterday.

A very disturbed man, went to the Clackamas Town Center,

a HUGE mall in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon.

Excited Christmas shoppers were interrupted by the sound of gunshots.

Two dead, one seriously injured...

Then this obviously very sick man, shot himself.

My cousin was there... thankfully unharmed.

THERE ARE NO WORDS to adequately describe the emotions...

It is terrifying and humbling to have it happen in

Portland - one of the best places to live in the world!

People all over the country wonder... will we be next?

What brings a person to the brink of such destruction?

Was he suicidal before he started shooting,

or after he realized what he had done?

One can never rejoice in a suicide, 

but in this case, it was the right thing to do.

I just wish he had done it a little sooner... like before he left home.

My hope is that Portlanders... Oregonians... Americans... 

can rally together in love and forgiveness,

and not turn this into an argument about gun laws!

Whatever the law is, there will be crazies who break it... twist it... abuse it.

God Bless the families and friends of the victims of this senseless tragedy...

including the family of the shooter... 

I pray they will all find peace...

* * *
And now another one in Connecticut...
My heart is breaking for them... I can't fathom getting that phone call.