In a harsh and troubled land
Wait for someone to take my hand
Be it friend, or be it foe
Probably follow wherever they…

Had to be so far away
Embrace another place to stay
Air’s so thick, it’s hard to breathe
Where we watch each other, bleed

Where’s the beauty gone ?
Where’s the beauty gone ?

In the shadows dark and grim
Wait for someone to come in
All alone, tried to cry
But those tears have all run, dry

Thought again about my life
What she did just cut like a knife
Light’s so dim, it’s hard to see
What you should have been to, me

Where’s the beauty gone ?
Where’s the beauty gone ?

In a cold and tortured soul
I find I have nowhere to go
Hurts so bad, how could one say
Tomorrow can’t be no worse than to-day

Hard to face what I’ve become
All that which can not be un-done
A pall so thick, can hardly see
All that this once meant to, me

Where’s the beauty gone ?
Where’s the beauty gone ?
Where’s the beauty gone ??
where’s the beauty gone ?

OK, a dear friend of mine discovered the corpse of her mom in a closet when she was guite young. She was the 2nd youngest The mother shot herself. The family was then raised by the oldest of the four daughters and a severe alcoholic father. Anyway, I found to nights ago the youngest, dealing with addiction most of her life, took her life the same way leaving behind an eight year old daughter, now 10, and an older teengage boy. Two different fathers. She was sober when she took her own life. My request for your prayers would be that the cycle stops here and her left behind children would get the help they require, and anyone else still around caught up in this mess.

Peace !

And sending you my love, Jonny.

Peace !

God bless you today, our brother jonny.

In a harsh and troubled land
Wait for someone to take my hand
Be it friend, or be it foe
I’ll probably follow wherever they…

Had to get so far away
Embrace another place to stay
Air’s so thick, it’s hard to breath
Where we watched each other, bleed

Where’s the beauty gone ?
where’s the beauty gone ?

Through the shadows dark and grim
Wait for someone to let me in
Tried to cry, no tears could come
It’s all the same when said and, done

Thought again to take my life
What she did cuts like a knife
A light so dim, it’s hard to see
What she should have been to, me

Where’s the beauty gone ?
Where’s the beauty gone ?

In a cold and tortured soul
I find I have nowhere to go
So depressed, it’s hard to say
Tomorrow won’t be worse than to-day

Have to face all I’ve become
And all that which can not be un-done
A pall so thick, it’s hard to see
All that this once meant to, me

Where’s the beauty gone ?
Where’s the beauty gone ?
Where’s the beauty gone ??
Where’s the beauty gone ?

I can remember being sick when my children were small….and the doctor telling me to go home and go to bed and stay there. You know immediately that doctor was a man. How can a woman possibly go to bed when she has small children and a work-tired hubsand? But I’ll tell you something….I used to think (at least sometimes) that I was carrying the load….until he wasn’t there anymore ….and then I realized how much he really did do.

Thought I would give this a nice ending for Jonny.

When our first son was born he was waiting in the waiting room with all of the other expecting fathers when the nurse came in a told a dad he now had a baby girl….but my Jimmie thought she had the dads mixed up and was giving his baby girl to another dad, whose name was Floyd (ours is Lloyd) so he caused a little innocent commotion about that until the dads were formally introduced.

He sailed through our daughter’s birth like a pro.

But when our younger son was being born, I couldn’t deliver him normally and had to have an emergency procedure. As I was being wheeled to the operation room with Jimmie by my side, a nurse called him over to her desk and asked him to sign a paper. As he was walking back and trying to catch up with me on the stretcher the nurses at that desk started howling. Jimmie had signed a paper for me to be circumsized. Thank goodness, he went back and signed the right paper!

Okay. I’m over it now.

I found a sweater today! It was at our local “high end” Goodwill Store. That’s right—-HIGH END Goodwill! There’s a huge outlet mall about five miles from our house and they just opened a Goodwill store that carries the “good stuff” people donate, much of it still with the tags on it, and I found a suitable sweater to make a pumpkin with, I think. And it was half off! I’ve gotta find some something for the “string” part. I’m getting excited now!

jonny, I like your song! It’s a bit “dark” for me, but I guess a really cool and brooding rock star type wouldn’t wanna sing, “You Are My Sunshine”, would ya? I was just going to say I liked the line that Tori quoted, but she beat me to it. Sometimes things we once thought would make us happy turn out to be disappointing……….like, for me it would be Weight Watchers. Let us know how you decide to finish this song.

Seems to be God’s timing on working on these again, whatever the reason.

And did you wish your dad a happy Finnish Fathers’ Tori, or would that have been too much for him to comprehend presently ?

babygirl– Hey, so is one of my favorite friends, Rev. Becca Stevens!

Momma Lloyd–I love the thought of Jimmy sitting there waiting for his feet to be rubbed while his kids/grandkids scattered! And yeah, I get it with the cap story– I’d rather have him here and whining then gone… (But don’t think I haven’t entertained the thought of shipping him off to you!)

Small-j-jonny–(According to Google it can be ‘whiny’ OR ‘whiney’!) Don’t you love it when you find something you wrote a long time ago but never finished? I bet 20 years of perspective will make this a very different piece than it would have been back then. (And I personally like “A light so dim I can hardly see all that this once meant to me.”)

Off topic, started playing around last night with some lyrics I started around, or over twenty years ago. It was originally dealing with someone wanting to fit in with the world to the point of losing one’s innocense. I then tried for something dealing with a dark, lost and hard period in a couple’s relationship life. Lately a few believeer friends are turning away from various established ‘Christian’ related things. Some going more in one direction, others the opposite direction. I think the later has now influenced the rest of the opening verse. I’ve had the first part of the verse and chorus from the beginning. The second part of the verse is what has taken around twenty years, off and on, to get to. Oh, and the part in the Bible, “Ye though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death” has now also influenced this.

In a harsh and troubled land
I wait for someone to take my hand
Be it friend, or be it foe
I’ll probably follow wherever they…

In the shadows dark and grim
I wait for someone to let me in
Lit so dim, can hardly see
All that this once meant to, me

Where’s the beauty gone ?
where’s the beauty gone ??

The ‘dim’ line still is a question to me. I’ve also had “A pall so dim,” “It’so dim,” and “A light so dim.”

OK, back to the things that bug you about others, especially the men in your lives = ) Oh, speaking of which, tomorrow is Finnish Father’s Day ! Today for those of us in Europe = )

But even well, he was an invalid if he had to find anything as simple as ketsup in the refrigerator….in the door where it could be found over the years. A toddler learning his colors could have fund it before ‘ole dad.

My Jimmie was the baby of four boys and his mom had tried to keep him her baby for as long as she could. I mae up my mind that our boys would never be like that and I do believe that’s why I have a good relationship with my daughters-in-law. But I think our daughter married someone just like her dear ‘ole dad. Bless his heart.

Still, I am reminded me of a friend whose husband had a habit of throwing his multitude of caps here and there all over the house. One day she collectd all of them and put them in a box on the top shelf of a coat closet. As she went about her business that day, she thought of her recently widdowed daughter. She went to that closet, took out that box and scattered thos caps all over the house.

By the way, Tori, you can always send your ailing husband down here to me. I make good chicken soup and I no longer have children to run here and there, meals to prepare, a lot of laundry to do, and all of those things husbands think magical elves come in and do during the day. But, heck, he won’t be able to sing to me…….on second thought, I’ll keep praying for both of you.

Well, since you brought it up, what about the first Tuesday of November? (You can fill in the party of your choice.)

delightedabroad– Ha! When I’m sick, Russ just brings me tons of (unnecessary) takeout food and walks around with his sleeve over his mouth and nose so he won’t catch it…

chillybean– OK, I love the idea of the kid who drew a picture for his essay– and DO NOT mention that to Charlotte!

MostlySunny– I’m with ya. The midterm election season gives me a bigger headache than my too-tight ponytail.

blondemomblog– You are so right. Can you IMAGINE if the bigfattittybabies of the world were the ones giving birth?! Shoot, the last trimester of pregnancy ALONE would kill ‘em. And here’s hoping your #$%%!@ client straightens up!

I had to deal with a difficult client yesterday. Bless Her (#$%%!@) heart!

LindaB – your craft item. It looks like…Bless your heart!

I LOVE that line too, mariahmom—–“be quiet and die like a Christian”!

My husband whines with the best of ‘em when he’s sick, but not so much anymore. He just quietly retires to the bedroom and sleeps. But he does……..and I’m not sure what word to put here……..I guess he “amazes” me with his total lack of medical knowledge. Was there some class in school that he missed? He doesn’t know the first thing about medical ANYTHING! He went to the doctor once for a rash on his elbow and came home and told me he had “cirrhosis”. I gasped, “Cirrhosis of the liver”??? And he said, “Uhhhh…….yeah! That’s right!” And I said, “Oh no, honey! And you don’t even drink!!! How could that be??” And he said, “Well, he gave me a salve for it. He said it’ll be cleared up in a few days.” And I asked, “How can you put a salve on your liver”? To which he replied, “There’ll be directions on the salve, Dear. Don’t worry about it.” I found out, after talking to the doctor later, that he had “psoriasis”! And my husband didn’t even know what cirrhosis of the liver was!! Now, when he goes to the doctor, I go with him to interpret!

This reminds me of a joke that I’ve always loved! It’s about a man who wasn’t feeling well and his wife took him to see the doctor. The doctor checked him all out and then told him to wait in the waiting room while he talked to his wife. He shuffled out into the waiting room and the doctor explained to the man’s wife that her husband was very ill, but he was sure to recover with her tender loving care. He told her, “when your husband gets home, fix him a comfortable bed with lots of pillows, cook his favorite foods, cheer him up with witty conversation, give him whatever he asks for, and shower him with love and affection. And he should be his old self soon.” So the wife rejoined her husband and they got in the car to drive home. Once in the car, he asked his wife, “Honey, what did the doctor say about my condition”? His wife replied, “He said you’re going to die!” ROFLMBO OVER AND OVER!!! That one still cracks me up!!

mariajhmom– I am SO gonna use that”Be quiet and die like a Christian” line on Russ…

Bless his scared heart.

at least I turned away from him before rolling my eyes…not sure what he was thinking there…. bless his heart