Happy New Year

I love a New Year! All shiny and bright and empty, like a smooth field of snow that nobody has walked all over yet.

I had a wonderful Christmas, I stayed in the Manger almost the whole time. 

On Christmas Eve Bebe, Cinnamon Bear, Willie and I went to Willie’s friend’s house for a sleepover. She is a very fun lady! 

Willie's friend and the man

 We all got presents! I accidentally opened mine a little early.

I got sort of carried away.

Now all the presents are put away, and the dangerous killer snowman is put back in the cupboard.

His Opinel knife is really sharp.

 He was a present from the lady’s brother. She loves him, but I gotta tell you, though he means no harm, he sort of gives me the creeps.

I hope you have a peaceful January, and that it just gets everything started off right!

Love,

Earl

Everybody Dies

Now I hate to  shock you  like that, but seriously, I need to sort this out and get it over with. This one thought has been consuming my mind.  It is a large part of what Willie and I talked about for so long. I think if I just figure it out, I will be able to move on and tell you about other things. 

No matter how many fun times I had this summer, whenever I relaxed I could not enjoy myself, because I  kept thinking about someone  who had died, and who I missed, or then someone else who is sick and getting sicker, or I would hear about someone else who had recently died. There was no letup.

 First I was just sad that Larry had died 

He got hit by a car May 1, 2008.

 and that the lady’s brother  had died 

Her brother John. He died May 25, 2008.

and that her Aunt Carrie had died. 

She was so smart. She died July 13, 2008.

She was a little girl at one time.

 Then the cat’s friend Matilda died. 

The cat just loved her. She died in early 2009.

 And Willie told me that where he had stayed to visit for a year, THAT lady’s husband had died 21 years ago, and she still missed him! 

He died in 1988. But in 1966 wasn't he handsome?

And when I thought about it, about who had died, I kept thinking of more and more other people also who had died, previously I mean. Like some friends’ babies, and other brothers and  dads, and Abraham Lincoln, and a favorite dog named Chuck.  And then I thought that my friends here will die some day, and their friends, and pretty soon everybody I know will be dead! 

It made my head swirl and it made me want to lay down on the pavement and just STOP and lie there and not move again. 

I hate to admit it but I was getting paralyzed. 

I give up.

So I wished for a magical bible verse that would snap me out of it. 

"You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing?"

I don't even have an Ox.

 I tried over-indulging in treats. 

Maybe another snack will help.

But nothing really ever did snap me out of it. There was no snapping. 

And summer was over, and the Christmas Cards started arriving. 

Did his Mom know he was going to die?

If  this sort of thing has been going on all along, then I must be able to go ahead and just live life,  and have some fun anyway.  I mean, everybody didn’t just start dying yesterday. It isn’t a new disaster. It’s that same old disaster we’ve had all along. 

And then somehow I did find a bible verse that seemed to help. 

"Thou art my refuge in the day of disaster."

So I’m taking  a little refuge break. I think I feel a little better.

"All" really is Calm. And Bright.

I think I'll just lie here for a while.

Willie

Hello! So, I started to tell you about Willie. Let’s get right to it.
Willie is one of the oldest friends here, and he is so smart, and so gentle, and so mysterious. I love Willie. I have so much to learn from him.

He is a Catholic bear. He has this great little medallion of the Blessed Virgin. He wears it to remind himself that the Mother Mary, the mother of JESUS HIMSELF, was a gentle servant. That’s what he says anyway. I think he likes it because it looks so nice on his stripey scarf, so blue and tiny.

Willie's medal on his scarf.

I don’t so much go in for that kind of thing. I do have a huge T-shirt with my name on it. I love that!

My shirt has my name on it!

Sometimes the man wears my shirt. It is ok with me that he wears it, but he makes it seem like it is his shirt and sometimes he almost doesn’t give me credit for letting him wear my shirt. I try to keep an eye on him. But really, he is very nice and so I don’t mind.

I am watching over him and the cat.

 

Anyway, Willie tells me the story of how he got here.
One day, about 25 years ago, the lady was in a toy store, a STUFFED ANIMAL toy store. Stuffed folks from floor to ceiling. He says that she was walking around, just looking, and noticed a shelf full of Willie and others exactly like him. All the same! BUT Willie stared directly into her eyes, and implored “GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!” She was so startled, she just scooped him up and bought him and brought him home! That’s how it happened!

I told Willie that is about how I got here. Only for me, it was just about three or four years ago, and she was in Sav-On, and she saw a shelf in the toy aisle that was really empty. ALL empty, no stuffed folks left at all, except for me. I was all alone on that shelf. Man! I’ve forgotten all about this by now. It gives me the creeps to recall it. Anyway, she was walking by, and all I could do was look right into her eyes, and hope she would notice me. She did! She said “what are you doing here all by yourself?” So she bought me and brought me home, too.

So now Willie is here all the time. I think he is good for the other monkeys. He keeps them calm.

I’m going to take a nap now.

Goodbye.

I Must Have Been Asleep

Well, all I can say is, it’s about time I got back in here to blog. I was so eager to blog when it all started. I had no idea what a committment blogging would be. Not so much a committment of time, but of honesty and loyalty. I thought it was all just saying blog blog blog! That is so great! But there is more.

I now realize that blogging is a way of letting everyone know all the important things I want them to know, but it turns out it is also a way of revealing my shortcomings. I have been contemplating this a great deal lately, and have been having many meaningful discussions on this topic with my good friend Willie. Perhaps I will tell you more about it later, but for now, there are some things I want to tell you about!

It can rain and the back yard can fill up with water, but the house stays dry, and birds don’t even care if it is raining!

Homemade gingerbread is a very good thing on a rainy day.

No matter how many trips you go on, it is always good to come home.

That’s all for now. I’ll show some pictures next time.

We Interrupt This Vacation for a Brief Update

Hello dear friends. You can tell that I have not finished the story of the vacation. I’m not actually on vacation. I have been sitting and discussing many things with my good friend Willie.

That's Willie on the left. He is a bear. A Catholic bear.

He was on furlough, staying with a special friend in another city.  But last time I went to visit him, he decided to come home again.

I am  glad he did. We have been sitting together, telling each other everything that happened over the past year. That is how long he was away. We have had a lot to catch up on.

So, I will finish the story of the vacation really soon. Even though vacation ended, it has stayed with me. I think of the Coast Starlight every day when I hear the whistle blow at 1:00 and at 6:00.

I miss the train. I love the train. I want to see the Coast Starlight man again.

I want to be just like the Coast Starlight man.

Happy Summer time to all!

Much love,

Earl