Sunday, November 7, 2004

Sorry about this

Sorry about all the alerts today. It seems that I keep thinking and I start writing!

I started thinking about things that have happened in my life. Christmas and Thanksgiving have a great deal of memories. Thinking of the holidays have made me think of those less fortunate than me. Or rather those that are less fortunate than I am NOW.

When I was a young mother I had problems. I was apart from my family and had a small child. Money was very tight. There was never enough for the bills and I knew that I was not going to be able to fix a dinner for Thanksgiving. How do you explain to a 7 year old that there will be no turkey like the rest of the kids are getting? I tried to ignore the fact that the holidays were coming up. I was allowing my pride to get in my way of seeing my family for the holidays. On that Tuesday before Thanksgiving I had a knock at the door. There were 3 people standing there with several large boxes of food! I did not know any of them. I told them that they must have the wrong address.They handed me a card that simply said with Love to Celeste. I asked them where it came from and they just said a friend. To this day, I do not know who sent me that food. I was able to fix my daughter a good meal at home. There was enough food for several weeks.

I knew that I had to face my pride and see my family. That Christmas I was at my Mama's with my family. Santa came for my little girl. Everything was not perfect, but I never allowed myself to be totally separated from them again. No matter what was going on in my life, the holidays would bring us together. Sometimes we had false smiles on our faces, sometimes there was anger there, but we did come together.

Thanksgiving is coming up and it will be the first one in a long time that my daughter will be here. It will probally just be the 4 of us. My family is apart once again, scattered to the winds with families of their own and plans of their own. i will issue an invite to his family but expect the answer to be no. If they do say yes they is no guarentee that they will show up. They have done that to me, call after everything is ready and say not coming. They have also just not showed up too. I will not let it bother me. The ones I want to be here will be here. So don't feel sorry for me.

Anyway the point of this was ( I got off of what Iwas going to talk about) This Christmas and Thanksgiving do something for someone. There are all kinds of things you can do. Give to a food drive, every can helps. Do you have any old coats? There may be a coat drive near you. Check and see if Toys for Tots is near you or donate on line. Check with the Salvation Army . You can donate on line there too. There are Angel Trees  for the children of prisioners. Here we have programs where the fire department and sheriff departments do Santa toy drives. Ask at your Department of Family and Children Services for a needy family. Volenteer at a food kitchen, if only for 1 day. If all you can do is 1 can or 1 pair of socks, or 1 quarter, it adds up.

7 comments:

  1. I CAN OF FOOD , ONE QUARTER ADDS UP, YOU ARE SO RIGHT, I THINK THE SAME WAY AND I BELIEVE IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONES LIFE SOMEWHERE. I GIVE TO THE PEOPLE THAT STAND ON THE STREET CORNERS ALL THE TIME JUST TO KNOW THAT I HELPED, CAUSE IT DOES!
    KIM.

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  2. Very moving entry, I enjoyed reading it so much. You are right, we should help people, especially during the holidays...it's so sad to think some families go without...it hurts me to think about that...

    http://journals.aol.com/derasta/ADayInTheLife

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  3. Awesome entry!!!! & Every year I give to Toys for Tots, Salvation Army & local food drives. I feel the same way you do. Hugs to you Celeste!!! ~Ann : )

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  4. I volunteer at Christmas time helping give out the toys and food for the Salvation Army! Just to watch the faces of the parents getting the toys for their kids is great joy. I rember a few years ago I made a lady cry because she got what her kids wanted! So thank you for plugging Toys for tots and The Salvation Armyand the Angel tree it's because of people like you and your readers that make it a great Christmas for over 1,000,000 of kids every year! Faye

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  5. I too give to salvation army, toys for tots and several other charities......I have been poor all my life but if you  just look around, there are others there that are worse off than you are.....I hate to think of a child waking up on christmas with nothing under the tree....or maybe nothing to eat, or cold.....I remember how it feels, and though I have very little to give...like you said every can, every quarter helps...thank you Celeste for reminding me that there are still GOOD FOLKS out here willing to give to others less fortunate.

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  6. It sure made me think alot about the past and had me just shedding tears....hope you ha-ve a wonderful memory...

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  7. for several years now I have wanted to adopt a family for christmas and work on thanksgiving day at a food shelter - but I seem to be in the boat by myself.  I think maybe this year , I will just excuse myself and DO IT !

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