A SMALL WORLD

This morning I went to a website with hundreds of incredible photographs,
of couples and children, weddings, and pets.

CLICK HERE

to take a tour.

I looked at one that looked so familiar (in Paris at the Louvre) and then another,
a zinnia with a bumble bee on it. It was not mine, but could have been.

I then flipped through more, faces I didn't recognize, but places and pets that could have been in anyone's photo album.

One of a woman of asian descent posing with Mickey Mouse made me think about just how many people venture even to that magical place to stand with Mickey Mouse and say "cheese".

I clicked on the link entitled "SOUTHERN", expecting photos of the Southern US and found photos from South Africa, the South of France. How naive to think that every site should be a reflection of the United States.

This week we learned just how small our world is, and how much we all have in common as our weak dollar trickled across the globe, bringing markets down across the world.

There was a soldier standing in a hotel lobby with a machine gun. How often I have seen that in Europe, but rarely here, except when at our hunting camp, with Frank and his arsenal.

We don't know what the future brings. Will we too have to arm ourselves to survive some depression-era revival of fear and turmoil? Will riots plague as they did in the seventies if food grows short?

Our country is in a time of transition, many of the photos that are posted, of places we all dream to go, are farther in the distance, with higher fuel costs, with necessity being placed higher on our priority lists of things to do.

I have been blessed to have traveled early, and still I have only experienced a fraction of the incredible things to see and do on this planet.

While we may not be able to venture far these days, we can take a visual tour through sites like Picasa, and we can plant our own zinnias and pumpkins and watch them bloom.

This morning I watched more than a dozen redbirds dodging a huge bluejay in my back yard just outside of my studio window.

Maybe with fewer places to go, I will find the time to capture them on canvas...or maybe even just on film.

What little slice of heaven do you have hidden in your backyard? Snap it and send it in, they welcome your photos!

Have a blessed day! Remember the small things, they are the things that matter!

Allison

Southern Girls Hunting

I have been asked, "Do Southern Girls Hunt?"
Well certainly, at least ONCE!

My sister once hunted, because her boyfriend broke up with her during Christmas vacation. She was the owner of a hunting camp.... a place where wild deer roam free, taking trees in their whim...

And so, she put on her chamo...put d.o. on as any civilized woman would do...and she zipped up her one=piece camo...and headed to a field...

it was boring..she told me...but she finally saw a tree move...she closed her eyes...she pulled the trigger...and BOOM....that tree feel...

That trophy buck fell (YES this is a TRUE story...) and the boyfriend cried...as he later married someone else...

and that was her last day in the woods...as a matter of fact..she should have won a boone and crockett award..but she was NOT LICENSED..AS noone believed she would have killed a thing...hers is the deer in center...mine to the right..my exes...to the left..God love him, he is never invited back..but as her boyfriend learned....
we LIVE AND LEARN...


There is something to be said about a heritage of hunting, farming and fishing.
As the country grows scared, I have no fear for my family.

We can fish, hunt and survive....no matter what the curcumstances....
we live in the city, but at the heart, we are country bred and will survive....

All of this will fade away...all that matters is eternal...

and there, we will all rest in peace.

LIFE IS GREAT

Tonight.....I realized something everyone wishes for their whole lives....

I walked down my steps...on the front of the porch,
originally searching for the moon, which my 3 year old daughter was searching for...

and stood in my yard...

watching a half moon glow to my left beyond the pines...
(for years it was right out my door on the ocean)
my daughter on the front porch, dimly lit with white lights hung
last Christmas, that NOW my mother will approve of (although we have lit them
all year) since it is nearing fall..and season for lighting and festivity...

and I thought...

how perfect my world...
not ostentacious...
not perfect....

but awesome nonetheless.....

I thank Jesus for every blessing..
for my husband who cooks dinner every night out of enjoyment..
for my dog, Sampson...who is such a delight..
and for my children who remind me each day of my purpose...

In an economy that wavers...

I am RICH in the love I have surrounding me..each and every day....

I praise you for recognizing the loves in YOUR life.


Allison

TEENS Driving

This month, my son gets his LEARNER'S PERMIT to DRIVE....

A WILD thought as I AM SO YOUNG :)

I heard this song today, from an Allstate commercial...


I remember my first time to drive, in a blue LTD up and down and up
and down and up and down the driveway at home...age 12?

And then on the REAL ROAD in the "Turkey Torino", a car my neighbor's dad
let us drive AT 13. I had my first wreck, coming home from school
at age 14~

But I had a "small town advantage".

I sometimes wish my children could begin now at 12 and 14, but in the city,
there is WAY too much risk...even as passengers with ME driving.

I look forward to taking them down for some FALL drives at the hunting camp
and letting them experience freedom on the roads that wind through the
backwoods, like I used to have.

For those of you with pre-teens...oh the things we have to look forward to...
and reflect on....hoping they will be MUCH WISER than I.