CHAPTER 10, PAGE 1

The Angel of October rejoices as we reap the harvest of what we have sown in life.

October is a good time to step back from our projects and our dreams and to take a hard look at what we have actually accomplished.

The October angel helps us to be honest and objective about what is good and what is not. With this help, we can face clearly the consequences of our choices over these past seasons. We will taste our harvest and reject what is bitter or unripe; we will make note of what worked and what did not, and we will change for the better.

October's angel teaches us that the greatest fruit of our personal harvest is understanding ourselves.

GOOD MORNING !

I added a few more birthday pictures for you all to see today. I had a very frustrating time of it yesterday and for a while thought I’d lost my whole journal. I started out with 42 pictures and that may have been the problem because when I finally deleted them my journal came back too. So for now I’ll just add a few at a time. A few of my readers from the UK did say they saw all the pictures, strange they could and I couldn’t .

It was just one of those AOL mysteries.

Back to work today and it will be a busy one. Not only will I have a stack on the desk from being off on Friday, but I’ll have to be doing payroll too. Thankfully I did get rested up some yesterday afternoon, so I’m hoping it won’t be too bad of a day.

Our summerlike temps are still with us, but the nights are very cool. Once the sun goes down, it cools right off. Porch sitting days are coming to a close for sure.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Because North Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect:

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Stevie toilet-trained.

We'll entertain-when we replace the living-room carpet.

We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

 Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of

"I'm going to,"

"I plan on" and

"Someday, when things are settled down a bit."

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my hips with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker.

If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy. Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to ......not something on your SHOULD DO list.

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say?

Attributed to Erma Bombeck, 1991

May your day be blessed with a few smiles and lots of SUNSHINE to warm your heart !

MA