Bird Seeds/ Food for Thought (back in 2009)

We are always getting ready to live and never living.  Lets live this year.

An original quote from: Edith Terrell

“What’s With The Fork?”

This is something that I have had for several months. It is something that I wanted to share with everyone.

There was a young woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given 3 months to live. So as she was getting her things in order, she contacted her Preacher and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes.

She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in.

Everything was in order and the Preacher was preparing to leave when the young woman suddenly remembered something very important to her.

“There’s one more thing”, she said excitedly.

“What’s that?” came the Preacher’s reply.

“This is very important.” the young woman continued. “I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.”

The Preacher stood looking at the young woman, not knowing quite what to say.

“That surprises you, don’t it?” the young woman asked.

“Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by the request,” said the Preacher.

The young woman explained. “My Grandmother once told me this story, and from that time on I have always tried to pass along it’s message to those I love and those who are in need of encouragement. In all my years of attending socials and dinners, I always remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, “Keep your fork.” It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming…like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie. Something wonderful, and with substance.”

“So. I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder, “What’s with the fork?” Then I want you to tell them: “Keep your fork…the best is yet to come.”

The Preacher’s eyes welled up with tears of joy as he hugged the young woman goodbye. He knew this would be one of the last times he would see her before her death. But he also knew that the young woman had a better grasp of heaven than he did. She had a better grasp of what heaven would be like than many people twice her age, with twice as much experience and knowledge. She KNEW that something better was coming.

At the funeral people were walking by the young woman’s casket and they saw what she was wearing and the fork placed in her right hand. Over and over, the Preacher heard the question, “What’s with the fork?”  And over and over he smiled.

During his message, the Preacher told the people of the conversation he had with the young woman shortly before she died. He also told them about the fork and what it symbolized to her. He told the people how he could not stop thinking about the fork and told them they probably would not be able to stop thinking about it either.

He was right. So the net time you reach down for your fork let it remind you, ever so qently, that the best is yet to come. Friends are a very rare jewel, indead. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. Cherish the time you havem and the memories you share. Being friends with someone is not an opportunity but a sweet responsibility.

Are You Needed?

I read this last night.  I really liked it, so I thought I would share.

Are You Needed?
Mary Hollingsworth

Those who love you need you in so many different ways, in every area of their lives in which you play a role.

How are you needed?

Your parents need you as a daughter, as a support, as a source of joy.  Your siblings need you as a sister, a correspondent, and a partner in family matters.

Your best friend needs you as a listener, as a funmate, as a burden sharer, as an encourager and helper.

If you are married, your husband needs you as a loving wife.  He may also need you as a tennis partner, bill payer, confidante, and secret keeper.  Your children need you as a mother, as a teacher, as a guide, and as a counselor.

Your church family needs you as a spiritual light, a fellow traveler along the Way, a prayer partner, a spring of hope and faith.

God needs you, too.  Whatever gifts and abilities He gave you, He needs you to be at work in His world and His kingdom.  No one else can do what He designed you for in the same way you can.

No one else can play your role.  No one else knows your lines.  You are uniquely created to fit in the special you-shaped space God formed in His world.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.  Romans 12:4-5

Bird Seeds / Food for Thought from Aunt Ann

Aunt Ann reads from a devotional book titled “Ending Your Day Right”, by Joyce Myer.  The devotion she wanted to share with the family is called “Calm Down and Use Your Gifts.”  The scripture reference is John 14:27.

Peace I leave with you (my own).  Peace I now give and bequeath to you.  Do you know there is a right and wrong way to handle times of stress?  I did not know that until I became a Christian and began to learn that God’s power and peace are available to me.  As a Christian you have God’s peace he has bequeathed it to you, it is your inheritance.  Luke 10:19 tells you he has given you power.   Peace and power what wonderful gifts.  And God gave them to you for a reason.  He wants you to use them.  If you have not been putting these gifts to work in your life you are cheating yourself.  So make a decision to start using them now.  Don’t waste your time whimpering, crying or throwing a fit when problems come.  Instead calm down and think about the peace and power of God that are yours and then put them to work.                                                                                                                          Much Love from Aunt Ann

Great Job – Tina!

With the reading of this story, I see just had hard of a life that they had at the Crossett Camp. While we see it as a hard life, Granny always loved talking about it – such good memories. It makes me wonder how our grandchildren will look back at our life and feel. What we will tell them?

Loved the article.

Bird Seeds: Crossett Camp

Bird Seeds: Crossett Camp

I always enjoyed Granny’s stories about growing up at the Crossett Camp. I found this article by accident and enjoyed it so much I wanted to share it with the family.

Historic Crossett Homes Interpret Early Lumber Days
By Gina Kokes, guest writer
Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism

Sheltered under tall oak trees, the tidy cottage looks like a child’s playhouse. The shaded porch has a white wooden swing, and the half-glass, half-wooden front door seems to reflect a gentler time when everyone was welcome. The house is painted “Crossett Gray,” a steel blue color that contrasts sharply with the white trim and the white picket fence surrounding the lot. But this is not a playhouse; originally it was a company house built for married lumber mill workers in Crossett. One of the “shotgun” houses is preserved in Crossett’s City Park. (CH)

The town was carved out of the “great wilderness” of virgin hardwood and pine forests more than a hundred years ago in southeast Arkansas. An ambitious lumberman, Edgar Woodward “Cap” Gates, and his associates built a temporary sawmill in the middle of the forest in 1902 and erected tent houses for the laborers who would eventually run the permanent sawmills. Because Gates felt a steady and reliable workforce was the key to success, the lumber company literally created a town to support its employees. All the homes, businesses and land were owned and maintained by the Crossett Lumber Company until 1946.

The first permanent houses were “shotgun” houses, which were typically one room wide, one story tall and a couple of rooms deep. Southern folktales attribute the name to one’s ability to fire a shotgun through the house from one end to the other since all the doors and rooms were arranged in a straight line.

The small size of the house meant rooms had to be used for multiple purposes. The first room often served as both a bedroom and sitting area, which was followed by another bedroom and a combination eating and kitchen space. Rent for a three-room house was approximately $6.75 per month and jumped to $8.00 month when electricity was added around 1915.

The interiors of these houses were modest. Small grooved boards lined the walls and ceiling and were painted the same color gray as the exterior. There were no drapes, which were considered luxury items, so dark green roll-up shades hung on the windows. Nails and a few small wardrobes served as closets. Occupants carried water into the house from outside spigots.

Each room of the house had one single naked light bulb and pull chain suspended from the ceiling. The lumber company supplied the electricity, and between 10 and 11 p.m. each night, company workers would flash the lights to warn residents that only five minutes of electricity remained for the day. Friday was considered “ironing day,” which was the only time electricity was available during daylight hours so that housewives could ready clothes for Sunday services and the following workweek.

Workers’ houses were identical and lined up neatly on wide streets. Tom Pat Cook, volunteer with the Crossett Historical Committee, recalls some of the humorous stories associated with living in company houses. Although liquor was banned in Ashley County, men traveled to riverboats to buy whiskey or visited the infamous bootleggers on the edge of the town.

“It’s not too hard to imagine what might happen when a man celebrated, came home in the dark, and was confronted with row after row of identical houses with identical white picket fences,” Cook said.

Many early residents have recalled hard work and long hours at the mill. Men were paid 15 cents an hour and worked 11-hour days starting at 6 a.m. with an hour off for lunch. The mill eventually moved to 10-hour days, which caused a few men to complain about an “excess of free time.”

Money was tight. Almost everyone in town maintained gardens that produced fresh vegetables, and most town folks kept chickens plus a cow or pig in their yards. Meals were frequently supplemented by wild game, and it was reported that by the mid-1920s there wasn’t a deer to be seen in Ashley County.

There was always a strong sense of community in the town. Because there was no health insurance, an injury or illness often necessitated the passing of a hat for donations. Early life in Crossett was, in many ways, closely tied to the churches, which also served as recreational centers for families and the many bachelors in town. Each year there was a Sunday school gathering where as many as 2,000 residents rode flatcars to a picnic site to enjoy a day of eating and games.

Nature was a force to be reckoned with in these early days. Tornadoes ripped apart the area without warning. Some residents remember storms with hail so large that dead owls could be found in the forest afterwards. Ice storms in winter snapped thousands of pine trees and damaged homes.

Because the homes were not insulated, severe cold weather tested the little stoves in the front room and kitchen. In the sweltering summer heat, squares of cardboard were often the only available fans. Some people built stoops onto the back of their houses and slept outside in summer. In doing so, though, they faced another adversary — annoying insects.

The hardships the residents endured were tempered by unique entertainment. When a circus went bankrupt, Gates took the bear home for his children and had the merry-go-round set up in the back of the commissary for the town’s residents. The lumber town also had a skating rink, a bandstand and a warm, spring-fed swimming pool.

Simple pleasures, though, might very well have been the most cherished. Long, wide benches in front of the commissary made a perfect meeting place where the citizens shared stories and caught up on news, especially on Saturdays when the store was open late into the evening. After services on Sunday, half the town might spend the day meeting the trains, which would arrive in the late afternoon and early evening, just to see who and what they carried. And luncheons and meetings of all sorts, as well as dances, were held at the Rose Inn, elaborate by early Crossett standards.

To help interpret the early days of their lumber company community, a group of Crossett citizens in 1985 relocated and restored one of the first three-room shotgun houses built in town. Through hours of volunteer labor, the Crossett Historical Committee has preserved a unique part of southern Arkansas history.

Tours of the Old Company House can be arranged through the Crossett Area Chamber of Commerce by phoning (870) 364-6591. The structure is adjacent to the City Park, which also has a playground, picnic tables and a 52-acre fishing pond surrounded by a three-mile paved walking trail. The Crossland Zoo, a small zoo exhibiting native and some exotic animals, is near the park.

Decide Daily

DECIDE DAILY TO

Be as cheerful as possible.

Try to feel and act a little more friendly toward other people.

Be a little less critical and a little more tolerant of other people, their faults, failings and mistakes. Place the best interpretation upon their actions.

Insofar as possible, act as if success were inevitable, and be the personality you want to be.

Do not let your opinion color facts in a negative way.

Practice smiling at least three times during the day.

React calmy regardless of what happens.

Keep as far away from negative thoughts which appear to you throughout the day. Change them into something powerful.

July Bird Seeds

This month’s food for thought was contributed by Aunt Betty.

Some of her inspiration came from a column in Women’s World Magazine she enjoys entitled “You Deserve a Little Lift.” The title of the column alone makes one feel better. The reference to Ecclesiastes was an uplifting note given to Aunt Betty from Martha.

Aunt Betty hopes these bird seeds will bring a smile to your face and heart.

I know they will, because they did for me.

Seed 1: Turn your face to the Sun and the shadows fall behind you.

(Maori Proved)

Seed 2: Honor the things that make you special.

(Sarah Collins)

Seed 3: Dance to the music in your own heart.

(Patience Lawrence)

Seed 4: A cord of three strings is not easily broken. When you are at the end of your rope God and I will be here for you.

(Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12)

where to look…

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, faith looks up.–Anonymous

Success

Success comes in CANS, not can’ts!!