February 7, 2009

Proverbs 15:13
When people are happy they smile, but when they are sad, they look depressed.
Proverbs 15:30
Smiling faces make you happy, and good news makes you feel better.
Proverbs 17:22
Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow death to be gloomy all the time.

Greetings My Friend,

Retirement has made me much too serious. I’ve dealt with neck stiffness, with hypoglycemia, and extreme tiredness. I’ve spent time contemplating the down turn in my health. At times I had felt like I was fighting my way out of a paper bag. As I thought about this I realized that I’ve spent a lifetime in stress. I was a stressed out child. I wanted to please my parents. I can remember my Dad telling me over and over that he had given up on me. I wanted to please my Dad, to make him proud of me and somehow I was not able to do that.

Mom was not proud of me either. Lately when I look back on our relationship, I realize that I was a mistake she could not hide or pretend away. She got pregnant with me prior to marriage – at a time when to do so meant you were cheap. I was also the eldest and I was to set an example for my sister (11 months younger than me) and for my brother (who is two years younger than me.)
As I have contemplated my life, I see that stress was all I knew. As a child I had many struggles with stress stomach aces. In my first marriage, I often struggled with severe stomach aches – doubled over ones. I started a new job a few months prior to my marriage to Junior. I was also a recently divorced woman and 13 months after we were married my mother died. I struggled with irritable bowel syndrome for a couple of years. Six years into our marriage, I had breast cancer. To be honest, I found working the last four years prior to retirement to be stressful. I liked what I did; still it was getting too much for me. So I came to retirement a tired woman.

Last fall Floozy, our garage cat gave birth to another batch of kittens. Those babies were precious. It is fun watching them grow into playful balls of fur. In this batch there was a special little girl that kept our attention. She is gray with a white eye liner look around her eyes. One time she ran over to Junior rolled over on her back and seemed to beg for him to rub her belly. We kept telling ourselves that we did not need another kitten. We had Alex and Blanko already. As life dealt their struggles, these boys snuggled us and we had many laughs at their antics. Alex is now 13 and Blanko is 9.
The gray kitten made her way into our home and into our hearts. We call her Sara or knot head. She is makes us laugh – laughter we had let go of. Right away Sara decided that Blanko was “mom.” Since Blanko is heavily medicated due to seizures, he tends to be shall we say, “Laid back.” Sara thinks Blanko is “mom.” She snuggles him and likes to take pieces of his fur and pretends she is nursing. When she tried that with Alex, he hissed at her.

Sara runs all over the house. Sara thinks everything she touches is to be played with. Junior and I have had so many laughs. She has brought life to Blanko. She plays with Alex and once he realized she was here to stay, he loves watching her and playing with her.

This little girl has brought life back to our home. Junior and I have started being silly with each other again. We laugh with each other and have renewed the love we truly enjoy in being husband and wife. Junior and I had been able to laugh throughout our many trials in the past. My retirement seemed to take away our laughter. Our commitment to each other was still there, though we were struggling in our own private struggle. Now we are laughing again, enjoying our unique sense of humor. Praise the Lord!

May you find laughter in your life again today. Laughter truly is good for the soul.

May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you.

Love
Janet