My Christmas Card To You

                                                      Every name is a blessing

                                                      upon this list of mine

                                                      somewhere our paths have crossed

                                                      in another place and time

                                                      Perhaps it was years ago

                                                      or only yesterday

                                                      but every person on my list

                                                      has changed my life someway

                                                     A simple hug or conversation

                                                     a friendly smile or meal

                                                     a spoken prayer to God above

                                                     has helped me grow and heal

                                                     Perhaps God went through you

                                                     and wove his magic twine

                                                     in some small or kindly deed

                                                     to touch this heart of mine

                                                     You wished the gray clouds away

                                                     and prayed for rain instead

                                                     I raised my eyes to heaven

                                                     and found a rainbow overhead

                                                    Worldly things that trouble me

                                                     just seems to disappear

                                                     knowing you are always there

                                                     across the miles or near

                                                    You restore my faith, love and hope

                                                     a bond that will never cease

                                                     so many wonderful family and friends

                                                     brings to me an inner peace

                                                    Each day my list continues to grow

                                                    and each name I hold so dear

                                                    each one has brought Christmas joy

                                                    everyday of the year

                                                   This Christmas Card I give to you

                                                   is more than just a wish

                                                   it's a thank you to God above

                                                   for putting you on my list

                                                      © Susie Swanson 2015

Merry Christmas from my home to yours. I'm still having quite a bit of health issues and will be back hopefully soon and try to visit more with ya'll. May God Bless all of you. ~Susie

Christmas Memories

Christmas is a time for joy and happiness, spending time with family, remembering Christmas past when times were so different, simple but grand.
Sadly, a lot of the old ways have been left behind and Christmas has become a commercial holiday. Not so, back in the day when all we had to wake up to was an orange and apple or one present a piece if we were lucky. We felt rich as a king in our hearts. We’d search through the woods for the perfect tree and sometimes that took days and every year it looked the same. We had to tie the top of it to the curtain rod to get the star to stay in place. It was cut from cardboard with aluminum foil wrapped around it to make it shine. Our decorations were holly berries and popcorn strings wrapped around the little droopy tree. The stockings were hung near the tree the night before, anticipating our once a year Christmas treat.
Then as I grew older I noticed something was missing, mama and daddy never did get a present. I felt so bad on Christmas morning when we all opened our stockings or the one present that Santa had managed to bring each one of us. So one year I fell on a plan to make sure daddy and mama had a present. I started saving every little penny I could save, mostly pay from an older lady that hired me to come in the summer and do some house cleaning and yard sweeping. I put them in an old quart jar in my bedroom closet. I didn’t want anyone to know about them so I kept quiet as a mouse. When Christmas Eve rolled around I kept asking mama if she needed anything from the store for her baking or cooking. I knew she always made a black walnut cake from the walnuts we’d cracked and hulled out earlier in the fall. We always saved some for our Christmas cake. She also made a homemade apple sauce cake too. The rest of Christmas dinner consisted of food we’d canned from the gardens in the summer and fresh hog meat that had been killed just before Thanksgiving or Christmas.
I prayed she would need something really bad, bad enough to send me to the store. We always walked to the little country store just over  the road from the house. I kept asking are you sure you don’t need anything from the store and finally she spoke up and said, well if you want to hoof it bad enough I need a dozen eggs for these cakes. Just what I’d been waiting to hear.
 Since our hens didn’t lay much in the winter we only had enough eggs for breakfast if we had any at all.  I ran as fast as my legs would take me towards that quart jar and grabbed those pennies and put them in my pocket. Mama gave me a list to fill and I found out she needed more than she thought. I just about run all the way to the store. When I got there I gave the list to the storekeeper to fill as usual while I looked around. I already had in mind what to buy for mama and daddy’s Christmas present. When he got done filling the list and I paid him with the money mama gave me and stuck what little change she had left back in my other pocket I reached in and brought out the handful of pennies I’d saved. I handed them to him and said will this much money buy a small box of Garrett Strong Snuff and a pack of Camel Cigarettes? He said, well let me count what you got. He counted each penny and told me I had just enough, which I surely doubt today every time I think about it.
He put the little box of snuff for mama and the cigarettes for daddy in a small, brown bag and I stashed them in my pocket so they couldn’t be seen. I felt happy as a lark walking back home. I didn't even stop but long enough to sit mama’s eggs and stuff on the table and took off towards the bedroom. I took out the little bag and looked for something to wrap the presents in. I came up with a plan to wrap each one in a piece of brown paper cut from the paper bag  that I carried mama’s groceries in. I slipped in the kitchen and found the paper bag mama had emptied and grabbed some scissors and run back into the bedroom and cut a big enough piece to wrap each present in. I felt so much joy in my heart and couldn't wait to see their eyes come morning.  I was all set, come bed time I’d slip back up after everyone went to sleep and put mama and daddy’s Christmas presents under the tree. I laid there so quiet and listened to the old clock tick away until everyone was fast asleep. I had the presents hid under the bed covers. I eased up and tip toed into the living room and laid the presents under the tree. Then I slipped back into bed and finally fell asleep. The noise woke me up come morning and I jumped straight up and ran for the living room. Everyone was there opening their presents and we all got one present. Daddy and mama must have had a little extra money to pay Santa with that year. I got a puzzle cause Santa knew I loved putting puzzles together. After all of us kids had opened our presents I crawled under the tree and got mama and daddy’s present and handed it to them. They both looked really serious and said what’s this? I told them it was something Santa left for them. They opened it up and their eyes lite up more so than the tree. Daddy said, I wonder who told him what kind we used. Mama said, I wonder the same thing but I sure can use it.
At that moment I had the most joy in my heart and worth more than diamonds and gold. Now, I know a lot of folks reading this are thinking how did she buy that snuff and cigarettes and her being just a kid. You gotta remember it was a very different time and era and everybody knew each other. We’d patronized that little store so much and the storekeeper was kin to us. I remember sometimes when we went in there and he had some bananas that were getting to ripe to sell he’d give us a bunch. Times sure have changed today and like I said the old ways have fell by the road side, left behind to fade into the past. Christmas is not about buying presents and spending big bucks just to make sure the kids are happy. It’s about love of family, sharing, thinking of the less fortunate, being satisfied with what you have, teaching your kids the true meaning of Christmas. The little things are the most important in life, not the big things and putting God in our hearts every day of the year.  I cherish those long ago Christmases, although we weren't rich in money, we had wealth a thousand ways more. I wish I could go back to that simple old time when the little things were treasures and worth more than money could buy.

© Susie Swanson,2015

Merry Christmas everyone!!

We Walk In The Midst

We walk in the midst of beautiful flowers

They will return again come another spring

Though winter’s breath has quietly stolen

There is promise of new birth in everything

We walk in the midst of deep and darkened days

Of some that has become each our very own

The sun will shine through and return again

There will be another break of dawn

We walk in the midst of century old lands

As old fields do through storms and question why

Beneath the blinding sun and bitter rain

We too, should draw new strength as the years pass by

We walk in the midst of grassy hills, so green

Where the mighty winds of heaven blow

Straight from the breath of God, cool and clean

As anything the soul of man can know

We walk in the midst of memories and reflections

From another place and more simpler time

Hung upon the walls of many forgotten days

Are pictures of our ancestors they left behind

We walk in the midst of much anger and hatred

A thousand words can not describe

The soul is barren without peace and love

Hatred should never be inscribed

We walk in the midst of tears and heartache

Where pain, grief and suffering has no name

Without wings against the wind we tremble

For what else may come or still remain

We walk in the midst of blurred eyes and weeping

Crying out with hunger and homelessness

In a land where milk and honey flows

There should always be plenty and never less

We walk in the midst of wars and rumors of wars

Fulfilling the Bible more each passing day

The mercy of God is the most powerful sword

If we but only turn to him and daily pray

We walk in the midst of patience, trying to understand

And wonder how good is material things of earth

When we are gone, all of these will still remain

Just as it is from birth to death, what is it’s worth

We walk in the midst of each upturned prayer

Though agony may be to great for tongue to say

Even the unvoiced prayer he surely answers

If not in our way, in some better way

We walk in the midst of a troubled and lost world

Dying more and more with each passing day

Waiting for someone to unlock the chains

That someone is here, the stone has been rolled away

© Susie Swanson, 2015

Please continue to keep me in your prayers. I'm in the midst of a hard battle, the hardest I've ever had to fight.. I'm waiting for many tests to come back on all of my glands, etc. I miss you all and my visits with you but I can't stay on the computer long at a time. I hope to be back soon and catch up with everything. Like the old sayin, "If God Brings you to it, he'll help you through it". I'm claiming that every day. May God Bless you all. ~Susie