Beech Tree News Network

The United States Bureau of the Census (1999) reported that nearly 700,000 women lose their husbands each year. I have seen my grandmother, my mother, and many other women learn to deal with this painful transition. It is a lesson of necessity – like much in life.

Since losing my husband a year ago, I’ve been learning about an up-close-and-personal kind of grief. Anyone who has lost a loved one – not necessarily a spouse – can attest that these lessons are hard won. I have not mastered the six lessons mentioned below, but I am gaining perspective within each area.

Ode to the hospital gown:

As the nurse brought me mine it looked familiar, it had more gown at the top than the bottom. It should be called a "keister" gown; they tend to show a lot of that.

They tell us there has been more technology progress since 1900 that there was all time before that. That's probably true . . . with one exception: THE DREADED HOSPITAL GOWN. If you HAVE NEVER BEEN SO BLESSED, a hospital gown would not be a good candidate for a "bucket list" (pun intended).

Make It Count: There was a news story this week about a young girl who entered a national science competition.  She wants to be a marine biologist.  The prize for the winner totals $100,000.  None of this is unusual.  What is unusual is that the girl lives in a homeless shelter with her family.  Because the media focused on her and her plight, a social agency in the state where she and her family live, offered them a house.  During an interview, with her family and government officials present, the girl expressed gratitude for the generosity of others.  “This is al

Today I got on the scales and weighed 241 pounds ... and that's without my gallbladder, which I had removed in November.  After the traumatic experience of weighing, I needed to go to church to confess and repent of gluttony.  That's simply too much weight for me to be packing around.  I'm not 6'4."  So, I've decided, once and for all, to finally do something about it.  Yeah, I've gone on diets before and have lost weight at times but I've never really been committed to it.  Now, I am.

Since the beginning of time human kind has been a part of argument.  At first the argument may have been between two cavemen discussing what shape wheel would perform the best, but now has evolved into the elaborate framing and delivery of information.  Ramage explained argument as not a fight that ends in anger, but he states that argument “is a creative and productive activity that engages us at high levels of inquiry and critical thinking, often in conversation with people we like and respect” (p.2).  Much like the way early humans would have engaged in healthy argument, so too do people

I am sure you’ve heard or read about our “aging population” trends.  Population aging occurs when the median age of a country or region rises. This usually happens because of rising life expectancy and/or declining birth rates.

Greg Boyington (Col. Gregory Boyington, USMC, ret. . . deceased), said he was never mistreated badly by the Japanese guards who could speak English. It was the illiterate and the ignorant who were brutal. That's interesting but not surprising. Eric Hoffer once wrote, "The unintelligent are often frustrated with their own shallowness, therefore they lash out at others."

Boyington, famous for the Marine Black Sheep squadron he commanded in the Pacific in World War Two, was shot down and taken prisoner by the Japanese near the island of New Britain in the South Pacific.

Personal Legend: With no exception, every time I’ve ever shown a baby or toddler his or her face in the mirror, the response has been the same: sheer delight.  Children are so excited by their own reflections, and not in a narcissistic way.  They like what they see.  Their self-view has not yet been tainted by those around them.  They, themselves, set the standard by which they are measured, and it will be one of the few times in their lives that they truly measure up.

I'm sitting in my living room right now.  I have the luxury of a live baseball game happening in front of me. Mac is the pitcher and Tucker is up to bat. Of course I'm not crazy! The ball is a plastic, like the ones in a ball pit. The bat is none other than a drumstick! 

Many objects mimic the role of what should be the real things at our house. I've seen socks rolled into a ball,  shoes on hands turn you into a big bad wolf, pillows and blankets become forts, and the stairs become a slide. These are just a few of the ideas that my three year old can come up with.

“Where do you draw the line?”

Rep. Mike Harmon, R-Danville, posed that question to statewide smoking-ban proponents on KET’s final “Kentucky Tonight” show of the year.

It’s the right question. It’s also one that those who baptize themselves in waters of government nanny-ism have little interest in discussing.

Harmon pressed the issue with activist Betsy Janes, who’s employed by the American Lung Association and who lacks aversion to any proposed government regulation deemed as “protecting our health.”