The Gift

This past Friday, December 23rd was another of the many beautiful days in my life. I suppose you could call them "special", "important", "meaningful"...I just like to use the word "beautiful". It was rather warm (at least compared to what we've been having here in Columbus all December), and sunny. I was on my way over to our church to help set up chairs for the Christmas Eve services the following day. I stopped at our mailbox on the way down the driveway and picked up the mail. I quickly sorted through the stack of envelopes while getting back in the car and took notice of the name and address on one of those envelopes. It was from one of my tenants, and just seeing her name, I knew this would be a special one to open. I laid the pile of mail on the empty seat next to me and drove on over to church, all the while pondering what was in that particular envelope.

Upon returning home from church, I sat down at our kitchen table and pulled that envelope out first for opening. My wife Barb was in the family room breast-feeding our adorable daughter Chloe. We were getting ready to host some friends at our house in a few hours and Barb wanted the house tidied up a bit, but I just had to open that envelope before getting started.

Inside was a beautiful Christmas card and a two page hand-written letter. I read the letter and did everything I could not to cry. I said to Barb, "this is the neatest letter. You've got to read this." She could judge by my facial expressions that the words in the letter were very moving and said "I don't want to read it. It's going to make me cry." She was concerned about having her mascara run as our guests would be over in just a short time. I read the letter out loud anyway and if I'd been wearing mascara, my face would have been a mess! Hers was.

The woman that sent the card and letter has been a tenant of mine for a number of years. She's a wonderful single mom. If there was a definition of what a mom is, this woman would complete that definition. She does everything in her power to see that her kids are given the best possible upbringing a kid could be given. I see it in the brief moments each year while managing her property, and you'll see it in an excerpt of her letter below.

Earlier this month I received a call from her apologizing for being late on her rent. She was doing everything she could to round up her money, but this particular month had been tough. She had just discovered that she had been diagnosed with cancer. This happened right on the heels of a very close family friend dying suddenly. Her kids would not be getting much this Christmas. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was having a very rough go of it. I told her to keep her rent money this month and spend it on her kids. They were more important than me getting her rent money. She was obviously very suprised and taken aback.

There's a reason I titled this entry "The Gift". All through our lives we are presented with opportunities to provide "gifts" to others that will aid them as they continue to fulfill their life's journey. How many of those occasions are simply shrugged off to continue on our own busy path? I hope this little message will act as an inspiration to keep your eyes more open to these opportunities to provide your own gift - not just at Christmas, but at any time. It doesn't have to be a material thing, it could be something as simple as a hug. Sometime down the road, that gift will come back to you. When it does, it will be more valuable than when you gave it. Such was the case with this particular gift. Read below and see just how valuable the gift I gave has become. And not just to me, but to a number of people...

I wanted to take some time to let you know what a huge blessing you are to my family. My whole family was greatly encouraged by your act of kindness. I believe there are no small acts of kindness. Everything we do touches the lives of people around us and spreads like the ripple in a stream.

I have a very large family also. I have five brothers and I am the only girl. Every year we get together for a holiday party. Except this year with the death of our friend and my problems, it just didn't feel like it was right to celebrate. That is until I told them about what you did. And it reminded us of all the other ways God has blessed us this year. My brothers and I met to have a small celebration remembering we still have each other. We decided to do this every year and they had a toast to you. You know when you think you might never see your children grown or get the chance to meet their children, you start wondering what memories and traditions you're leaving behind for them. I wanted to know they understood the spirit of the holiday. I had already explained to them there would be fewer gifts this year and they understood. Then your act of kindness happened and I thought they would be thrilled at the idea of a few more gifts. I was wonderfully surprised when they decided they wanted to share this gift with someone.

We heard of a family with great needs and they decided they wanted to meet some of those needs. The older ones even offered to do without so I could buy more for the younger two. I can't tell you how proud I was to know they understood. And to be able to call them mine and knowing they would watch out for each other makes the weight lighter.

One of the things this family asked for was a Bible. When the father received it, he stood there and cried. That blessing could last for generations to come. My daughter says she has never received a gift that made her as happy as his reaction did.

So I guess I just wanted you to know that the blessing that started with you has grown wings and now has a life of its own. And from the bottom of our hearts we want to thank you and to let you know we will keep your family in my families prayers and ask Him to bless you all greatly.

Again, I hope this little entry will act as an inspiration to you. Feel free to forward this link to others and as my tenant put it, let the ripples continue across the stream. Hoping you had a wonderful Christmas this year and wishing you a Happy and prosperous New Year!
Dave.

What is going wrong with our city???!! Round 2

Leave it to Glenn Beck yet again to bring national attention earlier to our city today after yet another atrocity...this one occurring at the National Conference of Black Mayors held and hosted here in Columbus by the absolutely inept mayor of our city, Michael Coleman.

As I stated in an email yesterday (and picked up by Mr. Beck - he had to actually confirm that the pdf document I had attached was official), this conference touted a "youth day" event to be hosted by rap artists ludacris and Mos Def. Several hundred public school kids were given the day off today and invited to attend this event. That's what makes this whole affair outrageous!!! Kids were invited to see the creme-de-la-creme of of filth-laced rap artists.

Glenn made mention of the scheduled affair on his nationally-syndicated program this morning in full-blown detail between 10:00-10:30. All of the local press was hot on his heels as Glenn was scheduled in to Columbus this evening for a sold-out event to discuss the Mifflin high school rape incident. A number of the local news stations carried audio segments of Mr. Beck's heated response to the mayor for inviting such an artist to a "youth day" event. Yet amazingly, not one local channel had camera coverage at this particular event today - an event that was to get underway at 11:15 a.m, and one that was thoroughly ripped on Mr. Beck's program...a great media morsel just waiting to happen!!!

Well the hundreds of kids at the event weren't to be disappointed. As was first reported tonight by a local fox station here in Columbus, some other foul-mouthed act performed (again - not a single local station had cameras available for the event today - now tell me how that's possible??). The act was the artist "dead-prez". According to the news report, this act played for nearly 30 minutes and had their sound pulled after the profanities started to roll, including "f... the police, f... the police." Yep, that's teaching our kids well - and all under the watchful eye of hundreds of young kids under the wings of hundreds of this country's mayors...AND THESE FOLKS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE LEADING OUR CITIES???? What is going wrong???
A very pissed off resident! C'mon folks, speak up! It's time to say enough is enough!

Here are a multitude of related links:

dead-prez song lyrics can be found here: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dead-prez/

city of Columbus (with mayor event schedule) here: http://www.cityofcolumbus.org/sample

ludacris song lyric can be found here: http://www.azlyrics.com/l/ludacris.html

What's Happening To Our City?

This week, Columbus and mayor Mike Coleman are hosting the 31st annual meeting of the National Conference of Black Mayor's. In light of the seemingly un-ending string of horrendous events occuring with the Columbus Public schools (including the big Mifflin high school incident), I was appalled at what I saw while perusing the agenda for this conference. I've attached a pdf file that details the agenda. The file can also be found at the city's website located here:
http://www.cityofcolumbus.org/

Take a look at page 2 of this document. Thursday's (today's) 11:15am topic is "Youth Day", featuring special guests Ludacris and Mos Def. I guess I'm getting old, but I've not heard either artists' (I use that term lightly) music, but have heard about the supposed vulgarity in Ludacris' music. Well, I searched on google to learn a bit more about Mr. "special guest" Ludacris, and what's linked below is what I found. I'll warn you, the language in his material is unbelievably graphic!! I cannot believe that a mayor of a city the size of Columbus, or any city for that matter, would have the gall to have such a topic of discussion hosted by jerks like this. No wonder our kids are becoming so screwed up! This is so absurd!

Ludacris lyrics here:
http://www.azlyrics.com/l/ludacris.html

Just one small sample of his music here (1st song on the list linked above), but it's all just like this one:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ludacris/ugotaproblem.html

Sorry to get on a soapbox, but this just ticks me off to no end.
Dave.

A Beautiful Day!

Monday, April 4th, 2005 will be a day I'll remember for the rest of my life. It was absolutely beautiful not only for the weather, but also for an event that took place at Riverside Hospital here in Columbus.

Having come back this past weekend from a trip to my dad and stepmother's in Daytona Beach, the day began as a normal ho-hum, back to the typical grind routine...nothing really out of the ordinary. I was a bit more uplifted in spirit than normal as the day had started with crystal clear blue skies and the birds were chirping up a storm outside. Today would divert a little from my normal routine, as Barb (my wife) had a 9:00 am appointment at Riverside Hospital to have tests run to determine any possibility that our baby may have neuro disorders due to our ages.

After running Christopher to school, Barb came back home and met up with me to head to the hospital. There was just a slight bit of anxiety on my end as Barb had mentioned that her belly felt a little weird. So I was a little concerned.

We weren't at the hospital for long when we were asked to head to the patient room. Barb briefly diverted to make a bathroom pitstop before having the ultra-sound run. While waiting for Barb, I sat in a chair next to the patient table and took in the sights of the room...photo's of the doctor's family, a neat little lighted, gurgling waterfall, large images on the wall of baby's in various stages of development, peaceful, soothing music playing on a radio on a table, and a large tv monitor that we would soon be watching images of our baby cross.

Barb arrived back in the room at the same time as the doctor. The doctor was female, and turned out to be just wonderful! She seemed to enjoy taking images of our baby just as much as we enjoyed watching them cross that large screen. Just as soon as that "wand" was placed on Barb's belly, beautiful images of a perfect baby came across that screen.



Initially the baby was very calm and not making much movement at all, however he was very much alive, as his little heart was vividly pumping away! The doctor continued moving the wand, prodding a bit to get the baby to move a little so that she could get pictures and measurements at different angles. It wasn't long before the baby became very active, doing little summersaults! The baby was going gangbusters, now making it hard for the doctor to get the baby in a "calm" position to get an accurate measure of his heart beat. The neatest miracle of all was when he actually yawned and then took a couple of gulps of amniotic fluid. It came across the screen as clear as day! And to think the baby is a mere 3 inches long, yet so perfect in appearance down to its little hands and fingers.





It was a very moving, wonderful and beautiful day for both of us. Though we had had a couple of ultrasound pictures already taken, these images showed that the fetus had grown into a baby. All day long I could not get thoughts out of my mind how amazing it is that the union of sperm and an egg can grow into a living thing. Life is wonderful and today was truly a beautiful day!