The day that altered history

 

(image courtesy of Google)

I don't remember a lot about November 22nd 1963 but I do remember one thing that will forever stand out in my mind.

We were living on a Navy base in southern California and we were let out of school early that day, when I got home my mother was sitting in our tiny Navy housing living room crying in front of the RCA black & white TV. Little did I know at such a young age how history had been forever altered and the sadness of that day would change the sweet innocence we knew...

Do you have a significant memory of that day in history? If so, I'd love for you to share as your day is as much a part of history as that moment in Dallas, Texas 1963...

Ta-Da!

PICK 'YUR PUNKIN', 

SCOOP IT OUT,

STUFF 'ER WITH FLOWERS

THEN SET 'ER OUT!

...a little diddly I just made up in my head played to the tune of "Swing your pardner, round and round"

 

Happy October everyone!!!

Inspiration from Strangers

So when you think you are all you have, 

Remember, your Angel is always watching over you...

Have you ever had the feeling that some people enter our lives for a reason or that they happened upon us at a time when we needed them most?

I had that very thing happen just recently. Let me start by telling you, not by choice but by necessity I now have "comment moderation" on. Most bloggers are already on board with this practice but for me I naively thought I didn't really "need it" because after all, the blogging community I've had the pleasure of knowing are all pretty upstanding people and a wonderful source of knowledge and ideas.

Unfortunately now I understand more than ever the reason's behind comment moderation after having malicious comments from spammer's left prior to me installing this feature.  

At first the down side of this feature was I honestly disliked the whole scenario of having to approve comments because it sort of takes some of the spontaneity out of blogging along with the innocent fun it should be. It makes it feel more like I have to be the "hall monitor" by having to ask for a hall-pass from anyone walking by! 

However as with all things in life there is a silver lining you just have to look for it. The upside of comment approval is it gives you the opportunity to see that someone has posted a comment when you receive an email notification. For a person like me that has little time to post and/or check for comments from months ago, its a great feature!

So the other day I received an email notice from a women by the name of Carol from Wichita, Kansas. Carol was trying to leave a comment on my blog as well as become a follower. However since Carol didn't have a blog account it was showing up as "unknown" which meant I had to find out if "unknown" was real or a "Spam-bot"...yes that is a real word...I think or maybe I just made it up :) That very day Katie Couric was discussing the evils of Cyber-space and how even if you think its a nice women you're talking to it could be something far worse, SCARY!!!!!!!! 
So needless to say I was overly cautious!

But I digress...when Carol and I finally established that she indeed was a "real person" it really made my day as she has to be one of the nicest people I've come across in a while. We exchanged a few emails about who she was, her hobbies, her family and it was like talking to a girlfriend. 
I must say from the start Carol was just a delight to "talk" to, we had oodles and oodles in common so much so that if she lived closer to me, we'd probably be good friends!

Anyway the whole reason for my prattling post is just to say this experience once again reiterates for me, there are wonderful people in the world and things aren't always as they seem...thank you Carol for reminding me of this today! 

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers;
for thereby some have entertained angels unaware."
Hebrews 13:2

~ Author Unknown ~

T. H. I. N. K.

Way back in 2011 I posted the photo (below) of me taken in my senior year along with a poem I came across in a box of old high school memorabilia.

Today as I was sifting through old posts' on La Bella Vie I came across a disturbing comment in that particular post with a time stamp of June 8th, 2012.

The poem in the post had been written on a very yellowed with age piece of binder paper which was more than likely pulled out of my "Pee-Chee" folder we carried around back in 1975. 
The handwriting in my own script, was all cute and flowing with lots of little curlicues. It looked exactly like what a 17 year old girls' penmanship would look like. But truthfully I really had no recollection as to where those written words came from on the little yellow piece of paper.

Did I write them in English lit. class or maybe my writing and poetry class, did I hear it in a song or read them in a book? I didn't really know or recall, but since it was in my own hand I was sure I had to have written it and it was never a priority to research it, it was just five lines from a young girls' past.

The poem itself also looked exactly like what a 17 year old girl might write in high school in 1975. It was moody and emotional and could have easily been written either before, during or after some "traumatic break-up" with whatever high school jock I was dating at the time.
As time marched on, that little piece of paper was tucked away in my little box of memories for safe keeping. 
Fast forward to 2011 when I came across that little piece of paper again with that poem during a very tumultuous time in my life and posted it along with the picture [above] never thinking twice about its origin, just that it seemed as appropriate that day as it did thirty six years prior.

Today as I was sifting through comments a person by the name of "Anonymous" (I'm confident I know who "Anonymous" is) left a comment informing me the poem was from the song, "Conversation Love song" by Roberta Flack. Then "Anonymous" proceeded to post the full lyrics and the copyright date of 1973. The comment appeared as if "Anonymous" was accusing me of stealing the words when in reality, a 17 year old girl jotted down something that a 55 year old women had no recollection as to where it came from!

So the whole point of this post is for when "Anonymous" does go trolling and lurking again (and she will) she will see what my intent was which was not stealing! For the record anything I have ever posted, a photo, a poem, a song lyric, anything that belongs to someone else or is copyrighted material, I have always given credit for in my blog.

Thankfully because of my own moral compass, I would never, ever take credit for another person's work knowingly.
Oh and just for the record, if I have something to say or a point to make, I have the courage to use my given name and not hide behind a fictitious name like "Anonymous". 

I still have that little yellowed with age piece of paper written by a teenage girl from 38 years ago with those few lines of what I now know to be song lyrics. 
But as of today that post has been omitted. Not because of a mean-spirited person that cowardly goes by the name "Anonymous" but because my life today is so richly blessed in a way I could never have imagined and there is no need to have dark shadows lingering where there is now lightness and joy...

I'll end this by simply leaving you with something a dear friend shared with me. It's an Acronym that we could all be reminded of;

T. H. I. N. K. is it Thoughtful or Truth, is it Helpful, is it Inspiring, is it Necessary, is it Kind?