Thoughts Along the Journey

Amazing Grace - Connie Talbot

While I was growing up, I always had a pet.  Since we lived on a farm, we tended to have several "barnyard" cats of the mixed breed variety.  I had aquarium fish and gerbils. There was seldom a time when I did not have a dog.  When I left for college, the dog I had was Buddy, a German shepherd.  (My dogs were ALL my buddies.)  Buddy died shortly before I returned home after my freshman year. I don't have any actual photos of Freddy, but this little guy looks a lot like him! A couple of weeks later, my dad brought home a scrawny, malnourished puppy.  He had found it near an irrigation system .  I immediately adopted the little guy, and named him Freddy.  He flourished, and was romping around our yard with me within days.  About three weeks before I left for college, Dad got a phone call.  The man on the line said, "I hear you found one of my puppies?"  Dad affirmed that we had been in possession of the dog since May.  The...

I want to share a very personal story with my blog readers.  I was blessed by a total stranger today.  This woman will never know how much she impacted my life. Now that I'm in the "over 45" crowd (and have been for a couple of years!), my doctor is strongly urging me to undergo some of the tests I've been avoiding because I felt I was too young.  Or, to be more honest, I just didn't want to go through them because I'm a needle-phobe and have severe white coat syndrome.  This is no joke.  The doctor (I'm seeing now) is the first who hasn't made my blood pressure go up just by walking in the room. Most recently, she made a very convincing argument for the necessity of a mammogram. I have no knowledge of a woman who enjoys this procedure.  However, there is some history of cysts in my family--no breast cancer I'm aware of--so I figured it was better to make the appointment and just get it over with.  Three to four days of pain, and I would be f...