literacy is a very good cause...even if you don't go to the ball

“Literacy is a bridge…to hope. It is a tool for daily life…It is a bulwark against poverty and a building block of development…Literacy is…the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.” – Kofi Annon

Imagine a world without words or numbers, or a world filled with words and numbers you do not understand. Then imagine the courage and determination it would take to journey out of that world into a new one, a world in which you can read. Every year some 530 adults in Barrow County accept that challenge and become students of the local Adult Literacy Program. And, every year many of them succeed by learning to read or advancing their basic skills, preparing for their GED exams, achieving their GED diploma, or going on to college or technical school.  

Local learners have not always had this opportunity.  Twenty two years ago, 42 percent of adults in Barrow County over the age of 25 were illiterate. A group of educators and concerned citizens in the Winder Woman’s Club decided to do something about that, and do, they did.

What started out as a few people with a burning need to help others learn grew into volunteers toting books in their car trunks to meet with eager students at local libraries or during a break at work. A GED class made up of three students came next and the local Adult Literacy Program grew from there.  

Currently, the adult illiteracy rate in Barrow County is below 20 percent. The Adult Literacy Program, in partnership with Lanier Technical College, offers about 15 classes in Winder, Auburn and Statham. These meet at various times of the day and include classes for beginning readers, adult basic education, English as a Second Language (ESOL) and GED exam preparation. The Adult Literacy Program also works to encourage literacy at all ages, supports drop-out prevention programs and family and community literacy efforts.

Since the program began, over 1.5 million dollars in matching grants have been received to assist teachers and students. And, a community partnership which has included the cities of Winder, Auburn, Statham, and Bethlehem; the Barrow County Schools, the Barrow County government, the local industrial development authority, Lanier and Gwinnett Technical Colleges, and the Jackson EMC Round-up Foundation have provided generous support.

I taught a local GED class for a time and never have I been around a harder working group of people. Some start with reading levels in the lower elementary grades and math skills to match; others begin from a relatively advanced level, needing only to brush up on a few basics in order to pass the GED exams. All of my students shared a commitment to learning and a level of dedication that never ceased to amaze me.   

Theirs was a challenging, sometimes difficult journey. Most of them had jobs; many had children. Money was always tight and time was at a premium. Yet, they found the will and the way to show up for three hours, two nights a week to face the task of learning things that often lacked relevance in their day to day lives.

Their goals kept them going – a better job, a more learning-oriented environment for their children, admission to college or technical school, or simply bettering themselves. And, so they continued on, one lesson, one step, one test at a time.

As for the faculty, staff and volunteers of the Adult Literacy Program – there is no more dedicated, hard- working, hope-filled group.  

A critical source of funding for the program is the annual literacy ball – A Novel Affair. The 22^nd  Annual Literacy Ball will be held at the Winder Community Center on Saturday, Jan. 24 beginning at 6:30 p.m.  Cornbread & Caviar will serve hors d’oeuvres and dinner at 7 p.m. Live music by Band of Gold, dancing and the awarding of raffle prizes will go on until 11 p.m. Top Dawg Tavern will host a cash bar. Black tie is optional.

Proceeds from the event are used to support adult and English literacy instruction, GED exam scholarships, college scholarships for GED graduates, matching funds to secure grant funding and community literacy activities. I can tell you from experience, the Adult Literacy Program runs a tight ship, so these funds will be used frugally and wisely.

 

Tickets are $75 per person ($57 is tax deductible) and event sponsorships are available. For tickets or more information, contact event chairperson Lynn Hammond, 770-307-8450 or Adult Literacy executive director Ron Saunders, 770-868-4089, rsaunders@laniertech.edu. Tickets are also on sale at the Adult Literacy Center, 89 E. Athens St. in Winder.    

If gala events are not your cup of tea, please consider making a donation to help support this important effort. After all, an investment in adult literacy is an investment in our local economy. Tax deductible contributions can be made to Adult Literacy Barrow, 89 E. Athens St., Winder, GA 30680 or delivered to Saunders at Suite 101, 89 E. Athens St.

To learn more about Adult Literacy Barrow, go to www.adultliteracybarrow.org and the organization’s Facebook page.

Is 2015 the year for the new normal?

“I am still learning.” – Michelangelo

 

Now is the time for resolutions – the traditional way to start the New Year, right? I’ve never been much of a fan. Like bad companions, resolutions are big and loud and lofty. They’re full of themselves and many, if not most, are destined to fail.  

 

According to a recent poll, the Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions are: 1.) Have more fun. 2.) Relax and reduce stress. 3.) Spend more time with family. 4.) Eat better. 5.) Exercise more. 6.) Reduce spending. 7.) Save for financial emergency. 8.) Make more time for yourself. 9.) Reduce debt. 10.) Lose weight. And, while that all sounds pretty good, of the 90 percent of Americans who make resolutions, only half have achieved any of their goals six months later.

 

I used to make resolutions, but then gave it up because I was simply recycling the same ones year after year. Occasionally, I made baby steps towards lasting change, but mostly I was just extending and renewing my resolve like an almost-read library book or a movie that always puts me to sleep.

 

This is why a show I heard on NPR this morning (“What heroin addiction tells us about bad habits”) made me sit down, pour another cup of coffee and really listen. It was about how research done on heroin addiction among soldiers in Vietnam during the early ‘70’s resulted in a shift in thinking about how to change habits.

 

Apparently, at the end of the war heroin use was so common among U.S. soldiers that President Nixon commissioned a task force to help these servants of our nation return home un-addicted and resume productive lives. At that time, 20 percent of soldiers identified themselves as heroin addicts. They were detoxed then followed in a study for years. Surprisingly, 95 percent of those soldiers did not become re-addicted once they were home. This was not what had been expected, given the highly addictive nature of heroin.     

 

Up until the ‘80’s, the way to change behavior was thought to be to change attitudes. It turns out that works for behaviors we don’t do frequently. Things like giving blood or not drinking and driving can be encouraged by public health campaigns because we don’t do those things often, if at all. But, if we want to change behaviors we do all the time – things like smoking or binge eating – simple attitude adjustments don’t work.  

 

"Once a behavior had been repeated a lot, especially if the person does it in the same setting, their behavior doesn't follow their intentions," psychologist David Neal explained. 

He goes on to say that our physical environments shape our behavior much more than we’re aware of. After a while repeating the behavior in the same physical setting outsources control of the behavior to the environment. Surprisingly (or maybe not…) about half of what we do every day is repeat behavior in the same environment.

“For a smoker, the view of the entrance to their office building — which is a place that they go to smoke all the time — becomes a powerful mental cue to go and perform that behavior," Neal says. The same for the act of sitting on the couch for someone who over indulges in ice cream, etc. “Over time, those cues become so deeply ingrained they are very hard to resist, despite our best intentions and resolutions.” 

 

That explains a lot, including the incredibly low re-addiction rates among the soldiers who used heroin in Vietnam. Once treated for their physical addiction, they returned to a different environment where there were no longer any cues to shoot up.

 

One way to battle behaviors we wish to change and/or make those New Year’s resolutions come true is to disrupt our environment in some way. Another psychologist, Wendy Wood, said even small changes can help — something as simple as eating the ice cream you don’t really want to be eating with your non-dominant hand.

 

“This disrupts the learned body sequence that is driving the behavior, which allows your conscious mind to come back online and reassert control,” she said. "It's a brief window of opportunity – to think, 'Is this really what I want to do?' "

 

How does this affect our New Year resolutions? It gives us a whole new way of noting what triggers our behavior and offers tools for change. To achieve any of those things on that Top 10 Resolutions list, we need to move out of our comfort zone, ruts and routines and shake up our environment a bit.  

Instead of going straight home after work and settling into the evening routine, why not go the gym or walk the dog or go outside and play with the kids. Then, instead of ordering take out or going for fast food, make a healthy meal. That, coupled with not going to the mall for entertainment and stepping away from online shopping, should help with spending, saving and getting out of debt. It turns out, if we really want to make a change, we have to alter our behaviors and environment so that new behaviors can follow. This does not sound easy – not at all.

For years I worked the “baby steps” method for change. I focused on process rather than goals and was content with slow steady progress. However, this show makes me think if I’m serious about changing some of my outsourced behaviors and working towards a happier, healthier, more productive 2015 I need to let go of some of my routines and do things differently, starting immediately.

Robin Sharma said, “As you move outside your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal” - a radical thought, but one worth exploring, especially while the year is still so young and the desire for change comes more easily.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choose Hope!!!

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul…” - Emily Dickinson

 

The packages have been opened and the leftovers are gone. The house – so full of life and noise only a couple of days ago - is quiet again. The end of Christmas always makes me a little bit sad. So much time spent getting ready and such anticipation - then it’s over in what feels like an instant – a wonderful precious instant – but an instant nonetheless. That’s why I leave the tree up for far too long and take the decorations down gradually – it’s a way to let the shadow of Christmas linger and brighten up some of these gloomy January nights.

 

Each year I get an incredibly upbeat Christmas letter from an old friend who uses a lot of exclamation marks. This year the theme of her letter was, “We choose Hope!!!!!” - she used the phrase in almost every paragraph. This woman is, and always has been, one of the most rabidly positive and optimistic people I know, so the tone of her letter was not a surprise. But, something about the phrase she used so often and so enthusiastically struck me. Can “Hope!!!!” be a choice we make? Can it actually be the anchoring emotion for the New Year?

 

For years hope eluded me, but as time goes on, it takes more and more energy to be bleak and less and less energy to see there is a bright side. One of the rituals that always makes me feel hopeful is filing away of the old calendar and the filling in of the new one. There is something so optimistic about those blank calendar pages stretching into the year ahead… and something so cleansing about throwing those old calendar pages away.

 

As I flip through the old year, transferring birthdays and anniversaries to the year ahead, I reflect on the events and details, trips, adventures and memories those old pages contain. I savor the passing of time, saying a prayer of thanks for all the good things that happened and licking my wounds one last time over the bad things that also occurred. I’m not an optimist, so I always say an extra prayer of thanks for yet another year I had more to be thankful for than wounds to lick. This ritual of sitting down with the fresh calendar and looking forward to the year ahead is one of the few times hope reigns in my heart, so you can see why it is so special to me.

 

This year a lot of bad things happened to friends and family. There have been infant deaths and sudden deaths and child cancer; a young mother died unexpectedly; one friend lost four members of her family. Two vibrant lively women who lived nearly a century have recently fallen ill and are now about to die. One friend remains out of work, for the fourth year in a row; one of our most beloved canine companions died…And, yet hope remains.   

 

The young couple who lost the babies has been well-cradled by their friends and so they continue to get out of bed every day and even occasionally laugh. The young mother’s infant child is being amply cared for by her family and by all reports is “a happy baby who never cries.” My friend who lost her sister suddenly rescued a fine dog to keep her company. The woman who

lost so many family members continues to take care of the rest of her family tirelessly; the grandmother of the child with cancer continues on with fervor, patience and grace even though her last spark of energy has long been spent.

 

Those vibrant, now passing women had great faith and will soon be reunited with their long-passed husbands…My unemployed friend’s husband just found a job…And, just today, a funny looking dog with a hard history, a big head and a huge heart found her forever home in our family…Life goes on, so much of it, in spite of the tears, lived so optimistically.  

 

So, yes, this year I choose hope and with no guarantee of outcome, I will make hope my anchor emotion every day.  Who knows, maybe 2015 is the year that hope turns into “Hope!!!” for me. Christmas 2014 may be over, but as all of us “old” folks know, it’ll be Christmas 2015 before we know it. Happy New Year!  

connections, continuity, casserole + 1 angel

“Christmas is not an external event, but a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.” – Freya Stark

 

The angel gracing the top of our Christmas tree is as old as I am. My mom bought her the year I was born because she thought the angel was beautiful and her cherubic face reminded my mom of my fat little round one. The angel has bright red hair, a sweet wise smile and golden cardboard wings. She floats on a cloud of tightly curled, shiny bright “angel hair” (a fiberglass substance no longer made.) To me, she has always been magnificent.

 

Carefully unpacking the angel and placing her on top of the tree was always one of my favorite Christmas memories. So when my mom died, I was happy to find the angel in my box of family ornaments. I knew that angel would hover as patiently, spectacularly and lovingly over my young family’s festivities as she had when I was growing up. And, even though my kids never saw what was special about “that old cardboard angel mom likes so much,” they understood putting something else on top of our tree was not a possibility.

 

When you think about it, it shouldn’t matter what perches on top of a Christmas tree. After all, it’s not the tree that matters, but the people who gathers around it. Yet little things like seeing that cardboard angel appear year after year warm my heart. They bring a sense of continuity and  connection between things past and present. They also provide a bit of predictability in the face of the uncertainly that lies ahead.

 

Tradition, however, should serve as a guide – not a jailer. W. Somerset Maugham said that and it’s a thought worth pondering as we make our holiday memories. The things we did in the past, no matter how pleasant and precious, may no longer meet the needs of the present. The things we call “tradition” currently may very well change in the future.

 

One tradition in our family is that everyone gets something cozy to wear on Christmas Eve. When the kids were little, the “coz” package was the only gift they got to open that night and it always contained new pajamas. My thought was that Christmas dreams are even sweeter when little dreamers are wearing something soft and warm and new.

 

Now that the kids are grown, we share dinner and open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve, then the kids spend the night. We still start with the “coz” package, but these days it contains anything from a new pair of hiking sox to a soft silky robe. As my son-in-law said one year, “How many pairs of pajama pants does one guy need?” 

 

The menu for our Christmas Eve dinner changes, but our Christmas morning breakfast is always the same. It’s homemade cinnamon rolls and a breakfast casserole my never-evil stepmother made for us for years - only on Christmas morning. The casserole is not that special, but eating it reminds us of times we had together, laughing, unwrapping presents and enjoying each other’s company.

 

We used to travel back to Colorado and spent Christmas with my family. And even though we haven’t done that for years, the taste of that casserole brings back those memories and joins us together again. Some years we call first - they’re eating the casserole; other years they call first and we’re eating the casserole. And, in part because of that casserole, it’s as if, for a moment or two, all those years and miles no longer separate us.  

      

Woody Allen calls tradition “the illusion of permanence” – I like that. While we know nothing is permanent, the illusion of permanence is a precious one, especially since we can’t know where, with whom or under what circumstances we will gather next year. 

 

 

Seeing that cardboard angel floating above the Christmas tree on her bright white angel hair cloud, ever beautiful and resplendent, lifts my heart and gives me a sense of hope and continuity…After all, every year now for 57 years there’s been a tree, a family and a branch for her to perch on.

 

“Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow…so have yourself a merry little Christmas now.” And, may your traditions, old and new, bring you the sense of warmth, continuity and connection that my cardboard angel and that Christmas morning casserole bring to me and my family.

do what we can, the best that we can...

“Life holds beauty, magic and anguish.” – Anne Lamott

 

Christmas Eve is a week away and in a few days we’ll celebrate the Winter Solstice, at least I will, because it’s easier to be hopeful once the days begin to be longer again. I had been clicking along, shopping, wrapping, writing cards and decorating - getting ready for the fun the holidays bring when I was stopped in my tracks. 

 

A young couple I know welcomed their second child, a little girl, last week and a few days later she was gone – suddenly and unexpectedly due to some complications they are still not sure of. As if this is not devastating enough, this same couple lost their first child, a little boy, a few hours after his birth last December. There are no words to speak of this…    

 

My heart is so heavy for them. I can’t imagine…No one can imagine…What the &#* and why? But this, as in the case of so many tragedies, has no “why” and, as Anne Lamott, my favorite author, says, “Why is rarely a useful question.” 

 

I was reading Lamott’s recent book, Stiches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair before hearing this sad news and it’s clear why the book is a New York Times bestseller. It offers page after page of hard- earned and gentle wisdom, different ways of looking bad things when they happen, plus guidance towards the healing that we hope will follow.  

 

Lamott says, “There can be meaning without things making sense.” She then talks about what we can do in times of tragedy, sorrow and chaos – we can “stick together and do what we can.”

 

“What good people can do in the face of great sorrow,” Lamott writes, “We help some time pass for those suffering. We sit with them in their hopeless pain and feel terrible with them, without trying to fix them with platitudes. Doing this with them is just about the most gracious gift we have to offer.”

 

And, what a difficult gift that can be to give. I was an emergency room social worker for years and one of my jobs was to sit with the dying and with the families of the dying or dead. I quickly learned there was, indeed, nothing I could say…All I could do was sit, hold a hand or offer a hug, pray, offer cold water or hot coffee and hand out Kleenex.  

 

Death is a strange thing that comes in many forms. Some deaths are sudden and horrific, complete and absolutely devastating surprises that leave people scarred for life. Other deaths, while no less sad or difficult, are (while perhaps never truly expected) much less shocking. A “good death” is gentle; it takes the soul with dignity. A “bad death” wrenches the guts out of everyone involved, especially the soul and its family.

 

I sometimes felt angels in the room…A calming presence, a lightness of being, a sense of love and quickening peace. Those were the easiest deaths for me. Sometimes the family shared my awareness, other times they did not. But knowing that the soul had a guide always comforted me.

I know there were angels to guide those two poor tiny infants when they died. I also know there were and are angels comforting their brave parents, ever present if sometimes barely felt. That couple doesn’t speak of angel wings, but they do speak humbly and ever thankfully about their friends and family, who draw close to them and do what they can, the best they can.

 

“This is who I think we are supposed to be,” Lamott writes. “People who help call forth human beings from deep inside hopelessness…We help them to bear being in time and space during unbearable times and spaces.” 

 

Christmas, as bright as it is, is also a time of darkness and contrast. That bright star shimmering against the cold of the night…The Wise Men bringing riches to a baby born in poverty… The humbleness and promise of that birth… Glory and miracles juxtaposed against a newborn’s frailty.  

 

Christmas reminds us that we blessed with such bounty, yet, there is great need…I can’t imagine what Mary felt, holding her tiny boy and knowing his destiny…And, I can’t imagine how that young couple felt, giving up their child, not once, but twice…Life is beautiful, yet fragile and fleeting…Light and dark, cold and warmth…We are the shadow and the light.

 

And, so, Lamott writes, “We work hard, we enjoy life as we can, we endure.”  

 

“Keep our little girl in your thoughts,” the young father wrote. “Keep your loved ones close and take nothing and no one for granted”…Wise and powerful advice, not only for the holidays, but for all year long.     

 

 

 

keep it simple...

"Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts." - Janice Maeditere

After stressing over every detail on long holiday lists year after year, I changed my approach. These days my need for perfection and closure is replaced with a genuine enjoyment of all things holiday during this wonderful season – which at our house will stretch from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day. (No need to take down those lights or toss out that tree just yet…January and February are bleak and can benefit from some lingering festivity.)

I started my new approach to the holidays several years ago and each year it gets easier and easier to stay focused on what really matters and not stress about the details. Family matters; gifts do not. Gathering together matters; having an elaborately decorated house does not. Health, love, laughter and sharing matter; shopping ‘til we drop does not.   

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Grinch. I enjoy shopping for gifts and decorating the house. I like hearing non-stop Christmas music everywhere and I’m a sucker for holiday shows – I watch them over and over again. It makes me happy to hear strangers wish each other “Merry Christmas.” It’s fun to see the holiday wreaths and decorations appear. I smile in traffic when I see a vehicle with antlers and a nose, or a bow, or a wreath. It takes me forever to decorate the tree because I linger over every ornament, savoring the memory it brings back to me. I still send a holiday snail mail card and I genuinely enjoy reading the annual wishes we receive in return. Then there’s the lights - all those bright beautiful lights. They are my favorite - never too many or too gaudy - this time of year.  

As you can see, I love almost everything about Christmas…It’s just that I’ve learned to keep things in perspective. No overspending, no big pile of gifts. Keep things simple and do-able. And, no debt. When the feeling of Holidaypalooza begins to set in or a task starts feeling like a chore, I sit back, focus, breathe, then remember and re-seize the reason for the season.  

The Ghost of Christmas Present told Ebeneezer Scrooge, “There is never enough time to do or say all the things we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have.” Boy, did that ghost get it right.

The holidays are about light and hope, memories and magic - not about crossing every line off your list. “Everything changed the day he figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in his life,” my friends, the StoryPeople, say. I try to remember that.  

This holiday season is off to a happy start for me. I feel relaxed and thankful and like it’s time for the fun to begin. I started shopping early this year. The house is decorated and our Christmas trees look shiny and bright. My little dog Zoobie wore her Santa suit to the Christmas parade the other day and that made a lot of people smile and wave.

My mailman says he’s delivering more packages earlier this year than in any year he can remember. He says he’s stopping at houses that usually never get mail. His theory is the recession is finally over and people have more money to spend this year. I hope so. And, I hope they’re ordering things that make them happy to buy, not things to cross off their lists.

Christmas is the time of year when it seems easier for us to get it right – to laugh more, smile broader, hum a tune and believe in the best. It’s also a time of year when we feel like being kinder and more generous.

One of my favorite Christmas stories is about that grouchy old Grinch – how he stole the Whos’ Christmas and it came just the same. I try to keep our Christmases that way, too – not focused on packages and tags, but on each other and the many blessings we share.  

So, “Welcome Christmas, bring your cheer. Cheer to all Whos far and near. Christmas Day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be, just as long as we have we.”

 

give

“Just as a puppy can be more of a challenge than a gift, so too can the holidays.” – John Clayton

Mr. Clark and I just finished the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers, but we are by no means done being thankful. A few Christmases ago, Mr. Clark was out of work and things were grim at our house. There were no gifts. We had food, but it was simple and there were no leftovers. The New Year loomed large, scary and unknown…The simplicity and sadness of that Christmas has stuck with me, even though we are now blessed with bounty again.  

The holidays are such a wonderful time, yet also a time of such challenge for so many. The stark contrast between “have” and “have not” seems particularly clear this time of year. While I am wrapping gifts, others will have no Christmas. While Mr. Clark is busy preparing meal after delicious meal, others don’t have enough food to feed their families. While I set my thermostat at 70 and enjoy cozy fires, others are bone cold with no prospect of warmth.

It’s important to remember that, take a moment to reflect on our many blessings and the Christmas’ that lacked cheer. We can encourage those who are struggling. We can give, we can share and we can do whatever we can to help, especially during this special time of the year.   

Here are a few options:   

- Barrow County Cooperative Benevolence Ministries (BCCBM) has run the local food bank and helped those in need in many other ways for 30 years now. Recently food collected locally (in food drives conducted by non-local organizations) has been diverted out of Barrow County. This has left our food pantry shelves bare, so donations of food and funds are urgently needed. Donations can be taken to the Barrow Food Pantry, 41 E. Candler St. 4:30-5:00 p.m. Mon.-Fri. or left next door at the Clothes Closet Thrift shop, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Pantry director Al Brown will pick up large donations, call 770-868-7269. Funds can be sent to the BCCBM, PO Box 547, Winder, GA 30680. For more information, call Gwen Hill, 770-867-3925. (Donations are tax deductible.)

- Barrow County Holiday Connection is a cooperative effort between Barrow County Family Connection/Communities in Schools and churches and local service organizations. For the past 15 years, it has provided Christmas gifts for kids whose families otherwise would do without. Each year hundreds of families are helped - some are “adopted” by individuals, churches or other groups; the rest are invited to “shop” at the Holiday Connection store which is stocked with toys that are donated or bought with donated funds. Toys can be dropped off at the Barrow County Chamber of Commerce, South State Bank and any Barrow County School. Funds can be sent to FC/CIS of Barrow County, PO Box 278, Winder, GA 30680. For more information, contact Melinda Shealey, melinda.shealy@barrow.k12.ga.us or call the Holiday Connection Hotline, 770-868-4258. The deadline for donations is Dec. 12. .

- Winder Health Care & Rehab Center, 263 E. May St., collects donations each year for a Christmas Store where residents can shop for free for gifts for themselves and loved ones. New items are preferred and items for all ages are accepted. Suggested donations include: house coats, gowns, pajamas, pocketbooks, jewelry, slippers, sweaters, jackets, and sweatpants. The deadline is Dec. 17. For more information or to help with the store, contact Brenda Bramblett, 770-867-2108.

Our furry friends also need help during the holidays. Many pets are surrendered to animal shelters or simply “put out” this time of year. The volunteer group at Barrow County Animal Control, in partnership with Leftover Pets (the local non-profit spay/neuter clinic) helps animals who end up at the shelter in many different ways. Their efforts are not funded by the county and donations are tax deductible. For more information or to donate, go to www.BarrowPets.org or www.LeftoverPets.org and click on Donations. Funds to help shelter animals (marked “BCAC vaccines”) or for Leftover Pets can also be sent to Leftover Pets, 610 Barrow Park Drive, Winder, GA 30680.  

Also, don’t forget those who are struggling in silence – people who are used to taking care of themselves and giving to others who are now out of work or having trouble making ends meet, dealing with illness or death, or hit by some calamity. Often it doesn’t even occur to them to ask for help or a handout. Imagine what a difference a $20, $50 or $100, or a gift card can make in bringing them hope and helping them through tough times.

None of us know what tomorrow will bring. At any time, this glorious excess I am currently enjoying can be snatched by an unforeseen act of God, a death, an illness, or some harsh twist of fate…Pastor Liz on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion speaks of “giving what you do not have” which is certitude. “Give certainty to others as a gift,” she says. What a precious thought.

We can’t give the gift of true certitude, but we can offer a few moments of certitude, over and over again. Here, take this toy, this money, this gift card or donation…Take this ham or turkey or box of food…Give something for the animals…Offer up a blanket or a coat…Here are a few moments of certitude and hope, for you, from me…

Luciano de Crescenzo said, "We are each of us angels with only one wing and we can only fly by embracing one another." What a lovely thought, especially for the holiday season. There’s no better time than now to reach out and fly a little closer to each other.