"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day." – Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Don't try this at home.

I open up my thoughts today with some words of caution. It is Friday, January 3, 2020, not the 13th even though I do plan to talk about old people using ladders. Our dear neighbor across our driveway, Ruth, well, she used to use a ladder and even get up on her roof to blow off the leaves. She did. She did so, well into her 70's plus. She was wobbly. It was scary to watch. I told her as much. She more or less told me to not watch her and essentially to mind my own business. There was some humor in it too. You know. Like the American funniest videos. Guess what? The wife was gone the other day working at our local fellowship taking down Christmas decorations. I decided I would take the Christmas lights down for her while she was away. I fetched two different ladders. One was 3 foot and the other was 6 foot. I thought to myself, 'piece of cake'. Hello? The lights on the trees where strung, wrapped, strapped, and overlapped where dealing with them was like putting together a puzzle with the pictures on the bottom. I leaned, I twisted, I grimaced, I pirouetted, and, like our late great neighbor, I wobbled quite a bit as well. Once I moved to the house, I used the 6 footer to remove the strings from the facial boards. I began to hope that none of my neighbors were watching me like I used to watch Ruth. I did have one reasonably serious mishap. It has not been disclosed to the better half, therefore, I will talk in code. Old people using ladders should always count the rungs before stepping off. It's never good when your cap lands in the ditch about 12 feet away. Maybe Ruth is afforded the opportunity to see me when they play in heaven the highlights from this week's dumbest people stunts. Just saying.

Twelve years ago on this very calendar day, January 3, 2008, I wrote the following paragraph, lifted from my blog: ~ Being Habitual About Some Habits Is Okay! We must all admit early and often that we are what we are, creatures of habit! We pretty much have our routines and we go through many of the same motions day after day, week after week, and year after year. If we aren't careful we can get into a rut which is often defined as nothing more than a grave with the ends knocked out of it. Habits and routines are important because they assist us in getting things accomplished in an orderly manner. They can also be problematic whenever we become their slave and lose our ability to function whenever our routine is disturbed or interrupted. Talk about getting off to a bad day! Just let one of our established routines get out of sync and then everything else tends to collide in its wake. Surely we can be more flexible than this! On the other hand, being habitual about things that really count for time and eternity is an area where only good and positive things can occur. In other words, we do need to have some holy habits that become habitual in our life if we are to grow and mature in our relationship with God. ~

My sidekick.

Your assessment is on the right track. I don't think there have been very many times when I was accused of having nothing to say. I mean that sincerely since I often do wonder when I will run out of material. I know some of my more astute readers have concluded that happened a long time ago, however, I humor myself by thinking I still have something to say. I've never doubted for a second that my writings could be better, however, they are mine and I do know how they come about. Yep. Just like they sound. Me. Still not having run out of something to say. That first paragraph about my ladder story was not one I had thought about writing until I sat down and wrote it. I did, with Mr. Bentley at my feet all sprawled out, making some occasional weird sounding noises as he slept and I suppose as he dreamed. I had thought about putting him in his outside kennel while I was taking down the lights. I'm glad he didn't see me working with the ladders. He already has questions about my functional abilities. Just joking. Enjoy your Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday. Hey, it's the first Sunday of the new year and I think it would be a great decision to show up where folks come together to worship the Lord God of heaven. And, I am unanimous in that opinion. Amen. ...More later.