Happy Birthday...

Sixty-Five years ago today, my grandma was born.
I figure you can still remember someone's birthday after they've passed away.
30 January is alot more pleasant than 6 March in my book.

My grandma taught me so much through her actions.

She showed me what inner beauty was, and she was the most beautiful lady I've ever known or hope to know. She showed me who Jesus was, and what it meant to literally walk and talk with Him. She showed me what true love was. She showed me that the greatest sense of joy comes from selfless giving. She showed me what it meant to sing. Sing from the soul. She showed me what a smile is. She showed me what it meant to live.

Since I really do not know what to say to express how much she meant to me, I'll just give a quote from an article a good friend of mine wrote that included a reference to her and what she meant to those that knew her.

"I think of Dorcas Myers, a dear friend, a loving mother and a cherished grandmother. A lady whose smile could light up any room and who always made you feel like you were the most important person in the room. I can still see that smile looking through her screen door as she would wave to me. Dorcas Myers never made the cover of Vogue, she was never on David Letterman or recognized by the President, but she lived a life greater than herself. She lived a life for others and the fruit of her sacrificial spirit is daily seen in the life of her daughter, Mrs. Lenita."
--Jeremy Howard

Someday she'll show me what Heaven is.
Happy Birthday Grandma.

and then she was twenty...

my good friend jenny howard turned twenty last week.




it was also her boyfriend's [robert] birthday.



there were gifts...



candles



...and cake.







there were party goers...



...and parents.



congratulations and salutations were exchanged...


...and she was happy.

"Reminisce"

I wished last night I could escape
Into the years before,
Without the pain of loss and want
That brought me where I am.

To go beyond the yesterdays,
That curse my memories,
To go before the vigils of
The ones I loved occurred.

To reminisce of normal times,
Without the days of grief,
A luxury afforded not
Where sanity prevails.

I wished last night I could escape
Into the years before,
A childish thought, to hope so high,
For what I cannot have.

Travis Shillington
10-16-06

I wish that I could fly to where
The oceans meet the seas;
Where tides chime low the time of day,--
Yet wings can't carry me
To where the tides chime low the time;
Where oceans meet the seas.

I wish that I could harness hate,
And lock it in a chest.
Set peace aflame 'till every heart
Burned love within his breast,--
Yet flaming peace cannot burn love,
For hate's not in a chest.

I wish that I could blank the books
Of man's eternal grief;
Blot out the marks of joy removed,--
Bring finite man relief.
Yet I cannot blot out the marks
Of man's eternal grief.

I wish my pen could point to it,
And write where love began;
Or gently with my finger trace
God's face upon the sand.
Yet pen can't write, nor finger trace
The place where love began.

Travis Shillington
28-4-07

"Of Good and of Evil"

Mary Katherine and myself
Went wandering by the sea.
Lonely drifters dredged upon
This shore of Normalcy.

Nothing--save the sailing stars
Reflecting in her eyes--
Guided us, two independents,
Joined for a time.

Mary Katherine spoke of places
I could never know:
Lands where only dreamers and
The innocent may go.

Singing songs and telling tales
No mortal soul can tell,
Mary Katherine knows the tongues
Of Heaven and of Hell.

Mary Katherine left me at
The dawning of the day,
Yet not before she told me where
That fateful garden lay.

As I travel, seeking for
That one eternal tree,
Mary Katherine waltzes in
And out of Normalcy.

Travis Shillington
2-1-08