SMILES; Important Stuff

You may already have read this but it bears repeating (and having in another location for more to see). A short little story for you: When I was a young girl, about 8 or 9, my mother sent me in to a grocery store by myself to buy some eggs and milk. Back then, way before the wrinkles took over, I had these adorable little dimples that people were always commenting on and I was even told on a few occasions that they transformed my face. Well, my little 9 year old self was walking down the dairy isle and an older gentleman was walking toward me. I must have been feeling pretty special since I was doing an important errand all by myself so I smiled at him. He stopped me and said something to the effect of: “Sweetie (or something similar), there are a lot of things that will take you far in life but that smile is by far your best bet for getting everything you could possibly want.” Obviously his comments made a long lasting impression on me since I am sharing that story with you now. And because of his advise, I have, many times over, learned the indisputable value of a smile and what it can do for others when you give them one! Imagine, not being able to smile! Imagine not getting smiles from others. Recently I learned more about an organization that Close To My Heart sponsors. We had a presentation from the founders of an organization called Operation Smile during convention last week and during this production there was not a dry eye in the place. Those of you who know me well know that I went through about 5 tissues and the presentation wasn’t that long! You just can not imagine how absolutely beautiful these children look, after years of suffering, with just one operation that only costs $240. Here’s one example that touched my heart: http://www.operationsmile.org/testimonials/thanh/, please check it out! I have totally fallen in love with that boy and have committed myself to helping other children with this affliction. You will probably get sick of me repeating myself, and normally I am not one to ask for money for anything, but I am determined to help as many children as possible get the operation they need to have a real smile for the first time in their lives. I had no idea that most times their deformities also prevent them from eating or talking and that many of them develop horrible infections which can eat away at the rest of their face and eventually lead to death. MY EYES ARE OPEN and my heart is hurting for these kids. It has now been 3 years since I started with CTMH and so far I have not often asked for help in supporting our charitable organizations. Since Corporate has decided to put all of our (consultants) fund raising efforts toward this ONE charity I am now asking! I will continue to ask and I will have many opportunities in the future for your help. Sometimes you will get something from me for your donation; sometimes what you would normally pay for a class or a crop will just automatically go to O.S. One of the biggest and easiest ways you can help is to just round up your order totals to the nearest dollar. And if you can't help financially, please keep me and my efforts for these children in your prayers. Here’s my goal: to raise $240 each month for one child’s smile! I will be keeping track and will let all of you know how “we” are doing.

LOVE

Okay a lovely friend of mine reminded me that I was going to post a little story about LOVE. And while I can't remember my exact point or specific reason for thinking that it was all that important when I wrote that, here goes. . . . . I have a necklace with the word LOVE on it. I've had this particular LOVE necklace for more than 10 years now and it is a near replica of another LOVE necklace that I had many, many years ago. I can't for the life of me remember at this moment, where or how I came to have the original LOVE necklace (written in a font that just screams of the 60's) I just know that it was very important to me because of a song I learned in church when I was a young child (and also the reason why I had a near replica made when I lost the original). The song was this: "Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and he who loves is born of God and knoweth God. He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another, first John, 4:7&8." And you have to say the "first John, 4:7&8" part or it just isn't finished! And yes, I was singing the tune in my head as I wrote that. And obviously it is from the Bible, duh. Now, why, that song stuck in my head for all of my life is peculiar but I have to admit that even through many years of questioning religion, God, etc., I always KNEW that God is LOVE. And I lived by that "fact" no matter what. And somehow I figured that if I just loved others I would "get by," "be okay" or "make it through well enough" even IF God wasn't always a part of my daily life. So, at the CTMH convention, (that was what I was rambling on about the other night, right?) part of our check in process (not for the hotel but for the "event") was to go up to a wall upon which tons of buttons were stuck. Buttons that had words like "passion," "creativity," "honesty," (which I almost chose because I am passionate about honesty) but then I saw it. . . . a purple button with the word LOVE on it and I knew that was MY button! The reason for the buttons was for the give-aways during the general sessions and other classes and while the LOVE buttons were never chosen for those of us who were wearing them to win a prize, I got to keep my LOVE button and now I have a necklace and a button with my favorite word! Okay, so this all sounds sort of corny now but that was my LOVE story. Hope you enjoyed it and . . . . . LOVE to all! P.S. I just recalled (maybe part of my mind is coming back, ha, ha) while reading through this post that a very dear friend of mine gave me the original LOVE necklace and that is another reason why I treasured it so much!

I'm Home. . . . .

Hey, I'm so tired! My flight left Florida this morning at 7:15 which doesn't sound all that early until you think about getting to the airport 2 hours early (what the heck was I thinking!). Okay, so 5:15 doesn't seem too horrible until you call the "taxi" service to schedule a pick up time and they tell you the bus will be out front of your hotel at 4:20 a.m. Oh MY HEAVENS!!!!!!! Really, what was I thinking???? So I got up at 3:30 a.m. and no, I didn't need that much time to get ready, I just woke up at that time to make the nightly routine to the facilities and then couldn't go back to sleep for the 20 or so minutes that I had until my alarm was scheduled to go off. I didn't sleep on the plane too much as we had 2, count them, 2 stops on the way home. Who knew Birmingham was on the SW flight path? I knew the look of the non-stop schedule was not to be believed because of the times of departure and arrival but I had no idea there would be more than one stop. For the most part I love to travel SW airlines but not today. So what am I doing up at 10:30 at night writing in this blog? That is a very good question and my only answer is I really don't know! But now that I think about that one, I've decided to go to bed right now. Love to all. Speaking of LOVE, I'll go to bed right after this, I have a story to tell about that word that I hope to remember to post tomorrow! If you don't see something about LOVE in the next day or two remind me. Call me, post me or something! Okay, now I'm going to bed! Really!