Looking Out A Window

  It's nightfall in a strange town a long way from home. I'm watching the lights come on from my hotel room window on the 35th floor.  I'll be right back.

 I'm afraid you are in for a little bit if philosophizing of you don't mind. Some of these broadcasts have to be put together while I'm out on the road traveling what I call the mashed potato circuit. In a little while I'll be speaking to a group of very nice people in a banquet hall.

  Right now however I'm looking down on a busy city at rush hour. The streets below are twin ribbons of sparkling red & white. Tail lights on the cars moving away from my vantage point provide the red and the headlights of those coming toward me the while. It's logical to assume all or most are homeward bound at the end of a days work. I wonder why some social engineer hasn't tried to get them to trade homes. The traffic is equally heavy in both directions so if they all lived in the end of town where they worked it would save a lot of travel time. Forget I said that & don't even think it or some bureaucrat will try to do it.

  But I wonder about the people in those cars, who they are, what they do, what they are thinking about as they head for the warmth of home & family. Come to think of it I'm met them - oh - maybe not those particular individuals but still I feel I know them. Some of our social planners refer to them as "the masses" which only proves they don't know them. I've been privileged to meet people all over this land in the special kind of way you meet them when you are campaigning. They are the "the masses", or as the elitists would have it - "the common man." They are very uncommon. Individuals each with his or her own hopes & dreams, plans & problems and the kind of quiet courage that makes this whole country run better than just about any other place on earth.

  By now, thinking of their homecoming I'm counting how many more hotel room windows I'll be looking out before I'm in the rush hour traffic heading home. And yes I'm feeling a little sorry for myself and envious of the people in those cars down below. It seems I've said a thousand goodbyes, each one harder than the one before. 

  Someone very wise once wrote that if we were all told one day that the end was coming; that we were living our last day, every road, every street & all the telephone lines would be jammed with people trying to reach someone to whom we wanted simply to say, "I love you."

 But doesn't it seem kind of foolish to wait for such a final day and take the chance of not getting there in time? And speaking of time I'll have to stop now - OPERATOR I'D LIKE TO MAKE A PHONE CALL - LONG DISTANCE.

Ronald Reagan

January 27, 1978

Radio broadcast called "Viewpoint"

As recounted in the book;

Reagan - In His Own Hand

Skinner/Anderson/Anderson

The Free Press

From A Distance

I am continually brought to tears over the distance of, you, my friends and family. Not that it lingers in a debilitating way, but that I get that pang of sadness knowing that I cannot just hop in the car and be in your presence (without traveling for days!) and get "filled up" with what each person pours to my life.  

But the knowledge that I am loved and I know how to love is a big "aha!" that has grown in me since my departure from the Northwest. It all, of course, stems from my Heavenly Father's presence in my life; I love because He first loved me. Which assures my place with Him and that His "best" is pursued here in my physical life. 

That proof that He gave me (that He loves me) was demonstrated by God sending His Son as the final sacrifice to be paid for me. He provided the final perfect "lamb" to end all future question. And His simple direction of loving my neighbor as the greatest command comforts me that His best is on my heart.

In simple words; I miss you. It's not a trite phrase to me from the state of Tennessee. It comes from deep within me that allows me the fruit of sorrow, the happiness of emotional pain. I am one lucky girl who cherishes the fact that I can say, "I'm homesick for you."

Sunsets and Snow

A few evening's ago we had this view of the day winding down from our kitchen dining room. It's not the first that we've had but the first that we didn't remain so mesmerized that we couldn't get the camera! Make sure you kind of blank out the telephone poles and the houses... it's still lovely, eh?

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead... ~Romans 1:20

This morning we woke to a pretty blanket of snow on the ground. The white flakes kept coming for most of the morning and then around noonish it tapered off. So by 5pm the sky was blue without a cloud, the sun was shining off of the white ground covering. It's always so refreshing in a lot of ways, really. The snow always slow people down, muffles what noise there is, and gives the landscape a new perspective. All of the sudden one can see right into the middle of a greenbelt or even the houses tucked behind trees with their roof tops highlighted with snow. Yeah. Snow is nice. 

John 10:27 - 30

"My sheep hear my voice, 

and I know them and they follow Me. 

And I give them eternal life, 

and they shall never perish; 

neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 

My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; 

and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. 

I and My Father are one."