Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "The Journey: A Calendar Book"

Basking in this wonderful Southeast Missouri fall weather.  There's so much in this world to enjoy and be grateful for.  Hope your week is going well as well.  Calendar Books by Allen James' reading for October 6th and 7th respectively:

"Have meals around the table as a family" (James, 2012), and
"Catch lightening bugs in the summer and put them in a jar" (2012).

There are so many of my daily readings, I see more so now than when I wrote them down initially and published them into book form, which directly related back to and springboard from my childhood, my upbringing.  I am reminded of the Bible verse, "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs, 22:6).  How those words return to me now I am at the latter end of this verse.

Yesterday's and today's readings both are from childhood experiences.  Mealtime was a big deal at the Harryman house; every meal time.  We often had big breakfasts, especially on weekends; this was an almost theatrical event with all seven children, parents, and grandmother each taking part.  And the rules to be followed at the table during mealtime were just as vital to the cooking of the meal for the production to come to completion without major errors; follow the table rules or be sent to the living room to await the completion of the meal by all the others, or be sent to the kitchen to eat alone there;  it depended on the infraction in the mind of Daddio I gather.

As much learning which certainly came from this experience which taught discipline and structure, just as much came from our second reading to teach team work and the importance of kicking back from time to time, "Catch lightening bugs in the summer and put them in a jar" (2012).  This was always a big event for us kids during the summer months which children used to spend outside; there were no air-conditioners and the window fans seem to only suck in hot air during those humid Kentucky summer months.  The adults seemed to enjoy watching us enjoy ourselves as we enjoyed catching the lightening bugs.  And there were always those few June Bugs which we'd catch along the way, tying a length of thread around one of their back legs and then letting them fly tethered to our dreams and attached to our fantasies.

Great lessons from long ago which teach the same today, but through memory.  Keep looking up. : ) AJ