I learned, during a most difficult time in my life, that we have a choice each day as to how we will perceive life and that God gives us small joys when we most need them if we only have eyes and a heart to see them. It's where we choose to put our focus each day that can make all the difference.
He gave me a bird's nest just outside my window that I would watch every day as the eggs hatched and those tiny miracles were fed by their mama. He gave me a small child who needed me when his mother had no love for him who was the sunshine of my life for many years. And during a time when my children and I might have lost everything, He blessed me through others who, seemingly miraculously, gave of themselves in answer to our needs. And I felt a closeness to Him that strengthened my faith.
It was during that time that I began using the internet. I had to pick an id for Yahoo and I thought and thought, what name would embody who I was to the world? I became choose_joy_today and that name has allowed me to share my outlook on life because of those dark days and the way God blessed me to many over the years when they ask what that name's all about. Some time later I created my e-mail signature:
In all of life's joys and trials, we can either choose
to be thankful for our blessings or curse God for our misfortune.
Choose joy!
May your today and every day be filled with the same joy!
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!
JOHN MC CAIN: My friends that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.
SARAH PALIN: BECAUSE, PRAISE JESUS, I WAS GONNA SHOOT HIS SORRY LIBERAL ASS OFF FOR BLOCKING MY VIEW OF RUSSIA !
HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.
GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.
DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?
NANCY PELOSI: Under this administration there has been an alarming number of chickens displaced and I intend to stop it. We must pass a chicken crossing bill before all the chickens become displaced and this IS a crisis!
COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.
BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of crossing?
AL GORE: I invented the chicken.
JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.
AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens!
DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.
OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.
NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.
PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.
MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmers Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.
DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.
JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth? That's why they call it the other side. Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay, too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.
GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.
BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.
ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.
BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never crash.
ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?
COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?
Tags: Humor
I did not post any blog or bulletin or comment in commemoration of September 11th. Two reasons:
One, I do not find it something I wish to recall yearly; it happened; it struck us deeply at the very core of our beings and the heart of our nation; I want that feeling to not continue, as to allow it to continue is allowing those who committed that act to keep us in fear.
Two, I find that too many have used that horrific act to stoke the fires of the prejudice they have held in their hearts even before this date and now relish feeding into a fiery frenzy toward any who seem different than "americans" (whatever that is..as we are all but our Native American citizens, from someplace else at the least in the roots of our heritage).
That said, I would like to share something to which I was directed on Snopes.com, the "truth on the internet" verifier site. It is a speech given by a veteran in the fall of 2001:
Please Click Here
May God bless and protect and guide according to His plan this great country...America.
