TGIF

Happy Friday to all my readers!

I hope you are ready for the weekend ahead.   I mean, who doesn't look forward to the weekend?   Right?   Here are a couple of things I have coming up over the weekend.

* I'm walking in the North Charleston March for Our Lives tomorrow.  It starts at 3:00pm with the march, and then it will have speakers and music at the end of it.    Want to come along?  Let me know.  If you live elsewhere, then find your local march.  Do it for the kids!  Do it so we can make schools a place of learning, and for sports and the arts.  It should not be a place where our kids and grandkids fear for their lives.  Schools should be safe havens.   Home, church, school. 

* Sunday is Palm Sunday - or also Passion Sunday.   I'm looking forward to the happy start of Holy Week on Sunday.  Waving the palms and singing joyfully.  Of course the week goes from joy to total darkness on Friday, before the joy again of Easter and God's expression of total love for us: the showing that physical death is not the end.  Bringing Jesus back from death and conquering death.  The promise of eternal life.

This year the spring blooms are lining up with Easter Sunday.  The azaleas are opening and by next Sunday our area should be full of beautiful colors of nature!  Another sign that life comes back!

* Did you watch Anderson Cooper's interview with Karen, the playboy model who had the affair with Trump?   If so, what did you think?   I watched.  She seemed pretty believable to me.   And, really though, what does it matter?   We all know Trump was an abuser of women, or cad, or whatever you want to call that type of male.  He used his position and power to have sexual encounters.    But, he is our president now.    And...he is not our first president to be a jerk.   People love to point out that both Kennedy and Clinton were womenizers.   And, there were probably thousands of others in political positions who were also.      I'm wondering... do people really even consider a candidate's personal moral values when voting?  Does it matter?            It still matters to me.   In fact, I think that how a person treats ALL people (peers, the opposite sex, those with different opinions, etc.)  means something to who they are in their core - and I think it will reflect in their decisions.      Oh, and then they lie about it -and try to cover up that it even happened.  And in doing so it becomes a 'he said/she said' on air media spectacle.   Demeaning.  Lowering value.  Wasting time.       Yes, it matters to me.

* I attended a series at my church about forgiveness.  This past Wednesday was the last class.   Each class started with a short film of a real life situation and then told of how the victim learned about forgiveness.  True forgiveness.    And, sometimes how the abuser/criminal also felt the forgiveness.  Thankfully, so far in my life, I have not had a major terrible event happen to me by another person where I feel unable to forgive.   Nothing major.  But, almost daily small things are done, or not done, that create hurt... and my/our reaction says a lot.  Forgiveness doesn't mean forgetting it.  But, forgiveness means realizing we ALL make mistakes.  We all do things, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident, that wrong someone else.   It's really hard to forgive at times.  But as I rationally know, and the class reminded me, we are not to judge - and we have God's forgivenness for the asking.     It's a process.   Forgiveness is freeing.   Forgiveness is an expression of love.

*  Switching gears...        Facebook.     Are you going to stay with it?   I have heard from a couple of Facebook friends who have decided to leave it due to all the information stealing, and the political underhanded messages.    Yes, it is upsetting.   Hopefully, the information that was taken from accounts will not be used to do personal harm.   I think from what I hear on the news it was mostly used to try and change our presidential election outcome.     I think when my account was looked at, those behind it saw a very assured person, who will not be swayed by false messages.  Seriously, there was NO WAY I was going to change my opinion of the candidates - and more importantly about my moral and ethic beliefs.   So, I'm not leaving Facebook.  I still love the sharing of family and friend pictures. I love the positive messages I read.  I love getting local news.  I love the funny jokes.   I might be naive but I think I am independent enough that I will not "go with the crowd" or just believe anything online because it is there.    Saying that, I will also NOT become cynical. I will not fear being on social media.  I will weigh the value of technology to the concerns about it.

*   Friends.   How many do you really have?   How many people do you consider "real" friends?  And what makes a true friend?     I can count on one hand those who I consider true, positive, life-long friends.

Gosh, reading that back sounds sad.  It wasn't meant to be.  I mean - I have many wonderful, caring people in my day to day life that I consider friends... people that I like to be around, that can make me laugh, that share a lot of what I believe in.   But, there are just a few who "get me" and even if they don't always, still accept me - no questions asked.    Maybe it goes back to forgiveness.

*  Which of course makes me think of MANY songs about forgiveness.  Since I started this class, and since I have been driving back and forth from Raleigh each week listening to music, I have heard lots of songs about forgiveness.   Don Henley sings about it in "Heart of the Matter."   Of course Tim McGraw sings about it in "Live Like You Were Dying"... the lyrics: And I loved deeper, and I spoke sweeter, and I gave forgiveness I've been denying.     Really, so many songs out there are offering or asking for forgiveness.

I think I have reached the end of this post.  So, forgive me (get it?)  for bringing up heavy issues on this TGIFriday.   Some days are like that.    Enjoy the weekend. I'm ready for it!  Bring it on!!

Peace and joy to you.