"Hey, there's a nice breeze blowing and we are alive, and life is good!"

Welcome to Tuesday, March 10, 2009 where the pollen is thick, the air humid, and supposedly a very strong cold front is on the way. Strong being defined as temps in the forties at night. Now that's something to look forward to! Since we still have our garage full of tools from the rebuilding effort our cars are not only covered with pollen but the pine trees have weeped out enough pine resin blobs to make cleaning our windshields next to impossible. The Bible says that all creation is groaning and if the pine trees were listening I was doing some groaning as I tried to deal with that sticky stuff last night. I used rubbing alcohol which works pretty well but tends to smear it and then you have to wash it all off so you can see the next morning. But as my neighbor told me last night, "Hey, there's a nice breeze blowing and we are alive, and life is good!" Now that's a really good way to look at things, especially in these uncharted economic waters and when you are doing the talking instead of trying to clean the pine sap off!

This coming cool snap will no doubt make spring break planning a challenge for some families since we are supposed to be leaving highs in the eighties behind to seeing some days being in the fifties and sixties. I wouldn't want to see anyone have a problem where they are anticipating some early summer weather for their outings but to tell the truth we have plenty of summer coming soon and anything that holds back those hot and humid days is okay in my book. I actually know folks that really do enjoy the hottest days of the year. I cannot even imagine what went wrong with their body chemistry but on those days when you have to get in line just to catch the next breath, I can do without it! But I remind myself of my neighbor's input: "Hey, there's a nice breeze blowing and we are alive, and life is good!"

I found it interesting that our president recently indicated that the stock market was not a good barometer that should occupy his attention or concern. Talk about a disconnect! He said those daily fluctuations really were more like a political poll than something material. Hello? Anyone home? How about an education fund that has gone from $70k to $16k? What about seventy year old folks going back into the workforce because their 401k's have been and continue to be decimated? The other day I called to check on a secondary portion of my pension and nearly fainted when AIG answered the phone. I didn't have the guts to ask how the bailout program was going. These are the days we are living in. We have no control over so many things, like the pine sap, the weather, hot or cold, or even how well the economy is doing or who now owns our pension funds. Therefore, we must put our faith and trust in God to see us through these stormy times and then we can echo my neighbor's observation from the inside out: "Hey, there's a nice breeze blowing and we are alive, and life is good!" Amen. ....More later.