People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person. When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it; it is real, but only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant .

Thank you for being a part of my life, whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.

I have always believed this to be true. Now that you have read this article think about how certain people have come and gone in your life. How each person played a certain part in your life at a certain time. With each person was there a need filled or a problem lightened ?

Whether it be family, friends, or strangers they were put there by someone who loves us and knows our needs. Which person was there for you ?

Welcome to Humor Therapy

Patients, doctors and health-care professionals are all finding that laughter may indeed be the best medicine. Laughing is found to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones, increase muscle flexion, and boost immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gamma-interferon and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies. Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being. Laughter is infectious. Hospitals around the country are incorporating formal and informal laughter therapy programs into their therapeutic regimens. In countries such as India , laughing clubs -- in which participants gather in the early morning for the sole purpose of laughing -- are becoming as popular as Rotary Clubs in the United States . Humor is a universal language. It's a contagious emotion and a natural diversion. It brings other people in and breaks down barriers. Best of all it is free and has no known side reactions .

Many of us feel awkward in joking in front of terminally ill patients. Many may even consider it inappropriate or insensitive. However, it has been known scientifically that the best thing you can do to your friends is to provide a humorous environment and let them "forget" about their condition. Sitting and feeling sorry for their condition will not help them much. Dr. Michael B. Van Scoy-Morsher, an oncologist in California says that "one characteristic of the cancer patient who does well is the ability to often put cancer in the background for periods of time."

A TV journalist Linda Ellerbee wrote about some of her cancer experiences and of being bald in the January 1993 edition of McCall’s: Her experience went like this. That summer I bought some breast prostheses to use while swimming. Instead of fastening them to my skin with Velcro as the directions instructed, I simply inserted the prostheses into my bathing suit. When I came out of the water, one had migrated around to my back! Now, how can you not laugh at such a thing? Either you laugh or you cry your eyes out. . . . It's something I've tried to teach my kids as well. When my 23-year-old daughter saw me with my bald head and no breast, she said, "You look just like a Buddha without the wisdom," and we both howled. I think we are never braver than when we stand tall and look into the sun and laugh. Laughter may be a form of courage.

If you get the chance read the book, "Intoxicated by My Illness," Anatole Broyard wrote about the final months of his life after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He stated that "Illness is primarily a drama, and it should be possible to enjoy it as well as to suffer with it. . . . . Illness," after all, "is not all tragedy. Much of it is funny."

I believe this to be true. When we learn to laugh at ourselves we begin to heal. I can remember how hard it was for me to laugh after my mastectomy, but once I learned to laugh at myself and at all those silly things I tried to do to make my problem better my days became lighter and I felt so much better. Of course others may not see any humor in what we find funny, but then again we the cancer patient have the right to laugh, cry, or share what we want to with others. God Bless each of you and may you find some humor in your life and share it with others. Release some of those endorphins.

Amazing Facts...About Honey

When I was a child I was fascinated by the honey bee. How could something so small do so much good for the crops, yet hurt so bad when getting stung. After my husband and I bought a farm in Missouri I expressed my desire to raise honey bees. We both agreed it would be work, but it could be a winning situation along the way. During those next 10 years of building hives and raising honey bees we both learned a lot. Here are some amazing facts I would now like to share with you .

Honeybees have 5 eyes and 4 wings.

Honey may be frozen to retard granulation.

A bee flies at a rate of about 12 miles per hour .

The United States has an estimated 211,600 beekeepers.

Honeybees communicate with one another by "dancing" .

Bees have been producing honey for at least 150 million years .

In the Bible , this sublime nectar is dubbed "the heavenly food."

One bee colony can produce 60 to 100 pounds of honey per year.

A hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles to produce a pound of honey.

Some worker bees are nurse bees . Their job is to feed the larvae.

Due to the high level of fructose, honey is 25% sweeter than table sugar .

Physicians in ancient Rome used honey to help their patients fall asleep.

It would take approximately 1 ounce of honey to fuel a bee's flight around the world .

Did you know that one honeybee only makes 1/12th a teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime?

It takes 35 pounds of honey to provide enough energy for a small colony of bees to survive the winter.

To make honey, bees drop the collected nectar into the honeycomb and then evaporate it by fanning their wings .

The honeybee is not born knowing how to make honey; the younger bees are taught by the more experienced ones

Honey is created when bees mix plant nectar, a sweet substance secreted by flowers, with their own bee enzymes .

Honeybees do not die out over the winter . They feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months and patiently wait for spring. They form a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.

Honey never spoils . No need to refrigerate it. It can be stored unopened, indefinitely, at room temperature in a dry cupboard.

Honey is one of the oldest foods in existence. It was found in the tomb of King Tut and was still edible since honey never spoils.

To keep their hives strong, beekeepers must place them in locations that will provide abundant nectar sources as well as water.

In the cold winter months, bees will leave the hive only to take a short cleansing flight . They are fastidious about the cleanliness of their hive.

Honey is an organic, natural sweetener with no additives that is easy on the stomach, adapts to all cooking processes, and has an indefinite shelf-life.

Honeybees are one of science's great mysteries because they have remained unchanged for 20 million years, even though the world changed around them.

The queen bee is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength. She will lay about 1,000 to 1,500 eggs per day.

Honey has different flavors and colors , depending on the location and kinds of flowers the bees visit. Climatic conditions of the area also influence its flavor and color.

Honey is an amazing food source.

Honey was such a valuable commodity that in many regions there were special laws to protect bees and beekeepers. It was a serious crime to damage trees/hives where bees lived in an attempt to get the honey. This crime could result in heavy fines or in some cases, the death sentence! One such example is the Linden tree also known as Basswood. In many regions including Poland and Greece , the Linden was considered a sacred tree, which symbolized divine power, love, and luck. Since bees are highly attracted to Linden tree blossoms and the honey produced from these blossoms is of high quality, laws were passed to protect not only the tree but also the bees that may inhabit the tree. Cutting down Linden trees was associated with bad luck, punishment, and death. Sometimes the Linden tree is known as the "bee tree".

Some people are purposefully stung or injected with honey bee venom! This procedure is called Apitherapy. Honey bee venom is reported to relieve and sometimes cure symptoms of autoimmune diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, and arthritis. The American Apitherapy Society states that bee venom is also beneficial for a variety of other problems including eczema, psoriasis, warts, laryngitis, emphysema, asthma, and glaucoma!

Honey is good for you! Honey is primarily composed of fructose, glucose, and water. Honey contains many vitamins including B1, B2, B6, C, E, K, and A. Honey also contains calcium, phosphorous, potassium, iron, copper, manganese, magnesium, sulfur, zinc, trace enzymes, minerals, amino acids, One of the most common historical uses of honey was for the treatment of wounds. Honey was used as a salve, either alone or mixed with fat. Because of its antibiotic properties, it was said to heal dead tissues and ulcers. The sugar concentration in honey is so high that no bacteria can live in it. Honey was often used to treat gun shot wounds not only because of its bactericidal properties, but also because the consistency prohibited air and irritants from entering the wound, and in many cases it was more accessible than other forms of treatment. Honey has even been used in hospitals as a dressing for wounds, burns, and cuts!

Ancient texts claim that honey may help to cure diseases of the lungs, liver, kidneys, and heart. Another interesting cure in many of the ancient medical texts is that of treating eye problems with a honey salve. Honey was used to treat conjunctiva, styes, swelling, cataracts, and eyesores.

Mead (honey wine) is believed to be one of the oldest forms of alcoholic beverages. Many different societies produced and drank mead and its importance can be found in various countries including India , Ethiopia , Greece , Germany , and many others. Information on mead is vast and there are many sources for recipes, varieties, and history.

Honey is believed to help the immune system and fight infection. It is often used as a "home remedy" to treat colds. Honey mixed with lemon can be a soothing cough syrup. Many current studies have promoted the intake of honey for athletes. Honey is a highly effective natural energy booster. Modern science now acknowledges honey as an anti -microbial agent , which means it deters the growth of certain types of bacteria, yeast and molds.

Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including water.

Interesting Foot Facts

Here are some interesting facts I ran across while researching how to care for our feet. I hope you will find this information as interesting as I did.

Did you know that 3 out of 4 people in the US experience serious foot problems but only a small percentage is born with foot problems?

Each foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments and 19 muscles. A quarter of all the bones in your body are in your feet.

Walking is the best exercise for your feet, contributing to general health by improving circulation.

Conditions like arthritis, diabetes, nerve and circulatory disorders can have their initial symptoms in the feet - so foot ailments can be your first sign of more serious medical problems.

Women have about four times as many foot problems as men. Doctors generally blame high heels for the difference.

Your two feet have about 250,000 sweat glands and can excrete as much as a cup of moisture per day.

Neglect and a lack of proper care; including ill fitting shoes bring on foot problems.

If you put on weight, the bone and ligament structure of your feet might change. Get your shoe size rechecked to make sure you are buying shoes that are best for your feet.

Approximately 65% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nerve damage, which in severe forms can create the need for lower limb amputations. Approximately 56,000 people a year lose a foot or leg to diabetes.

Walking barefoot can cause plantar warts. The virus enters through a cut.

Your two feet may be different sizes and the ball of the foot is twice as wide as the heel. Be sure to get shoes that fit.

About 5% of Americans have toenail problems in a given year.

The average person takes about 9,000 steps a day. That means that by 70 most people would have walked around the earth 4 times!

Thickening of the toenails is fairly common. Physical damage to your toenail, fungal infection and Psoriasis may be the root cause.

Your nails grow from the base to the tip and it can take 18 months for a nail to be replaced completely by a new one.

Give your feet plenty of air, because warmth and sweat encourage the fungal growth.

Choose shoes that give your toes plenty of room.

It is tempting to use nail polish to disguise the nail, but nails need to breathe so use it for short periods only, removing it as soon as possible.

Treat athlete’s foot promptly. If you develop athlete’s foot, treat it quickly so it does not spread to the nails.

Did you know that about one in five people with diabetes enters the hospital for foot problems? There are several specific problems that you should be aware of as a diabetic:

Poor circulation can make your feet less able to fight infection and to heal.

Calluses occur more often and build up faster on the feet diabetics. If not trimmed they can get very thick, break down, and turn into ulcers (open sores).

Diabetic nerve damage (neuropathy) also can lessen your ability to feel pain, heat, and cold. Loss of feeling may mean that you might not feel a foot injury.

Foot ulcers occur most often over the ball of the foot or on the bottom of the big toe. Ulcers on the sides of the foot are usually due to poorly fitting shoes. Neglecting an ulcer can result in infections, which in turn can lead to loss of a limb.

Take good care of your feet, and in return your feet will take you where ever you need to go.

History about Mother’s day.

The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

In the United States , Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mothers Day."

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else. Hence, Mothers Day.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers."

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia , Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mothers Day. In 1914 Anna's hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mothers Day as a national holiday.

At first, people observed Mothers Day by attending church; writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents, and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with Mothers Day, Anna Jarvis became enraged. She believed that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In 1923 she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mothers Day festival, and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations for a war mother's group. Before her death in 1948, Jarvis is said to have confessed that she regretted ever starting the mother’s day tradition.

Despite Jarvis's misgivings, Mothers Day has flourished in the United States . In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest traffic, as sons and daughters everywhere take advantage of this day to honor and to express appreciation of their mothers

Mothers Love

Her love is like
an island in life's ocean,
vast and wide

A peaceful, quiet shelter
from the wind, the rain, the tide.
'Tis bound on the north by Hope,
By Patience on the West,
by tender Counsel on the South
And on the East by Rest.

Above it like a beacon light
Shine Faith, and Truth, and Prayer;
and thro' the changing scenes of life
I find a haven there.

~Author Unknown~

Coffee

(Enjoy your coffee)

A group of alumni, long established in their careers and very successful, got talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.

During their visit, conversation soon turned into complaints about all the stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When each of the alumni had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor watched and listened to them for a little while. Then he said: "Notice that all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.

While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life. The type of cup one has does not define, nor change the quality of Life a person lives. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee

God has provided us. God brews the coffee, not the cups... Enjoy your coffee!" The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply, speak kindly, and spend time with God over your coffee.

Motherhood

Motherhood is something special it should be treasured and adored, for love and caring goes together with this position and should never be denied or ignored.

Sometimes our feelings and the way we see things are unknown or misunderstood, but the love of our mother is to be honored and humbly endured.

Life is a journey, we can't always have everything we want, but sharing our feelings, desires and problems with a best friend known as our mother is truly a joy to one's heart.

Teaching our children throughout their life how to love, be honest, and learn respect is just a few values that make Mothers look forever admired, so dear and smart.

Written by Mary D. Johnso

Kids share what’s in their hearts

A little boy was attending his first wedding. After the service, his cousin asked him, "How many women can a man marry?" "Sixteen," the boy responded. His cousin was amazed that he had an answer so quickly. "How do you know that?" "Easy," the little boy said. "All you have to do is add it up, like the pastor said, 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poorer."

After a church service on Sunday morning, a young boy suddenly announced to his mother, "Mom, I've decided to become a minister when I grow up." "That's okay with us, but what made you decide that?" "Well," said the little boy, "I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell, than to sit and listen"

A boy was watching his father, a pastor, write a sermon. "How do you know what to say?" he asked. "Why, God tells me." "Oh, then why do you keep crossing things out?"

A little girl was sitting on her grandfather's lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately stroking her own cheek, then his again. Finally she spoke up, "Grandpa, did God make you?" "Yes, sweetheart," he answered, "God made me a long time ago." "Oh," she paused, "Grandpa, did God make me too?" "Yes, indeed, honey," he said, "God made you just a little while ago." Feeling their respective faces again, she observed, "God's getting better at it, isn't he?"