He thought he could, and he did

I’ve always liked the story of the little train that thought he could make it up and over the hill. As he went upward he got slower and slower, but he kept saying, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” and he did!

If you are friends with me on FB you know I enjoy taking pictures and this summer has brought me great joy. I have taken many pictures of the beautiful zinnias Doug planted in our yard. We’ve never had zinnias before, and I didn’t know of their beauty. I have taken several pictures of the zinnias and made online greeting cards with them.

A special treat this summer has been the beautiful butterflies who have frequented the flowers. I’ve dashed out and made pictures of several of them. Recently as the season is ending I looked out and saw a beautiful zebra butterfly on a magenta zinnia. As I went around the flower snapping pictures, I noticed something unusual about this little butterfly. Its wing was torn away partially on the left side. He was only there for a short time, and I stood in amazement as he fluttered to the sky and around the side of the house. I could tell he was having difficulty flying, but he could fly. He had a handicap, but he didn’t let it stop him. Perhaps he was saying to himself, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” and he could because he believed he could. I wanted to say, “Good for you. You can do it!”

How many times do we let things hinder us because we don’t think we can do it? Fear is a dreadful hinderance. I’m confident we don’t know half of what we are capable of doing because we haven’t tried! I didn’t know I could paint pictures until a friend asked me to take a college painting class with her. I didn’t know I could letter charts for preachers freehand without stencils until my brother encouraged me to try. I didn’t know I could crochet until I tried.

We’re God’s greatest creation. We can do more than we think we can, if we try.

Blocking crochet name doily

I learned to crochet when we first married. I think the first thing I made was a rug. Since then I have crocheted any number of things. One of the things I have seemingly crocheted the most is the name doily. I have crocheted them for all living Presidents and many other people.

All of the doilies are starched and blocked before they are sold to the customer. Here is an example of how I do that. I like pretty days so I can put them out in the sunshine to dry quickly.

Toni Permanents

When I was a little girl, possibly age 11 or so, mother gave me Toni permanents. She cut my hair the same length all over my head and curled it tight. This went on for many years. I guess I was happy with it for a long time. I may have been 9-11 years old here and was as happy as could be. We were at my grandparents birthday dinner out from Opp, AL. That was Herschel's studebaker I was eating on, if memory serves me correctly. I recall being fearful he might not want me eating on his car. He was very proud of it.

Going Home

I glanced out our kitchen window and immediately thought of how the lost child had returned home. There was no one there to greet him, but it was still home. He sat for the longest time on the little perch right outside the door. We’ve all done it at one time or another. Perhaps we have driven by our homeplace, and being so overcome with emotion we’ve begged to stop so we could look a little longer...and remember. Somehow home doesn’t get out of our system. We remember the good and somehow forget the bad over time. And somehow it becomes more precious as the years go by. Deep inside we always have a longing to go home just like the little bird did today.