Missing The Seasons

Todays weather pattern across the nation reminds me of winters when I thought the sun would never appear again. I was always anxious for spring to bring out that glorious sight of the sun breaking through the clouds. Oh, how I would be so glad not to hear that crunch of snow under those overshoes sending chills up my spine. Being a normal weather complainer, it wouldn't be long before the snow would be melting

and then one would be knee deep in gooey mud. In my day there was no such thing gas clothes dryers so our Levis hung out on a clothes line to dry and had to be laid over an open oven door to thaw before we could dress for school. Of course the daily morning chores meant that the first one up had to build a fire in the kitchen stove with wood and coal.

Residents and visitors to that winter wonderland of Pagosa Springs with ever changing weather are lucky to live in the 21st century with all the modern gadgets. Snow tires and four wheel drives diminishes the challenge of driving those country roads and if one gets lost there is always a GPS. The old long johns with a trap door in back have been replaced with thermal underwear and overshoes with steel clasps are seldom seen anymore. Oh how I wish my dad would have had a snow blower, but I guess the old shovel didn't do me any harm.

These new digital cameras really bring out the true beauty of landscape, the old point and shoot black and white kodaks took a good eye and steady hand to get the perfect shot so there wasn't a lot memories captured like today.

If anyone reads this and longs for a memorial vacation be it summer, winter or fall I don't think they will find a more beautiful area in this great country to visit. Just be prepared with charged batteries in the camera and ready for any weather change.

Bring Back Morality

I often wonder just where my generation failed when it came to teaching our off springs the meaning of self respect, to honor their parents, the reward of dignified employment to know the difference between use and abuse. With the world as a whole in so much turmoil of wars, poverty, famine, storms, why would any person try so hard to take advantage of elderly poor parents. In my own family there are some who believe that parents, no matter how old, sick or frail they become somehow have the means to provide for children well into the golden years themselves.

Each of us as we age look for the day when all we have to worry about is our own health and happiness. Love is a very emotional burden, yet the bond of love that binds a family together can sometimes be the very thing that destroys a relationship.

Every parent tries to provide all the worldly goods to their children that was never within their reach during their youth. Sometimes this seems to make the relationship strong until one day a crisis arises and the so called money tree no longer produces good fruit. When such things happen and the children feel cast off they soon retaliate by doing and saying things they know will destroy the root of the family tree.

Looking for a cure to such relationship illness can bring on a nervous break down but really there is no cure. One must find the strength to cope with such heartaches through divine guidance and learn to say NO with conviction.

Children who become adults and find the need to call their parents foul names, continue to move in and out at will, expecting the care they recieved as infants, will one day answer to a higher power than those they abuse. I firmly believe those who disreguard the ten commandants like "Honor Thy Mother and Father" will forever suffer on earth and beyond.