The Melbourne Cup is being run this week. It is the "race that stops a nation" for 3 minutes! People all around the country (and sometimes Aussies around the world!) stop what they are doing to watch the tv, or listen to the radio, or actually watch it live at Flemington to see which horse wins and if the horse just "wins by nose" or by a greater distance. Perhaps the bigger the nose, the better!

May we
too each day take time to "stop" and think about all our many daily blessings. May we be thankful and encouraged and joyful…all three at the same time! What a great "trifecta"!! Horses enjoy a simple meal of an apple; may we take much delight in "everyday" blessings too! And just as many race watchers barrack for their favourite horse, may we too seek to "cheer on" our loved family and friends and all who we may come into contact with day-by-day.!!

Geraniums are such lovely flowers! They just grow wild in our garden, and are nicer and more beautifuller than any flower you could ever buy from a shop. They just seem to yell out to me "home!" From when I was very little, geraniums have always played a special role in my life. When I was very little, Mum and I would go out to the garden every few days and pick a little posy of these flowers, wrap them in foil (it was always foil! Such a homely comforting touch when I remember it.) And then Mum would bundle me into the pram/stroller and off we would go on our way as she pushed me around the different streets and up and down hills to visit my grandma/grandpa (Mum's parents) who lived not too far away, with me proudly holding my little posy of geraniums tightly in my little hands to give to Mama and Papa. They may not have looked as good when we reached our destination as when they started off from our house, but they would always be delightedly received and placed in a vase, until they needed to be "disposed off" a few days later…and then we could
again pick another posy for them! We went to visit my grandparents every day so we certainly kept their house full of these little posies! In fact, I think that originally when Mum and Dad bought our house, they planted the geraniums from an off cut from my Papa's own geranium bush, so really the flowers were returning to him!

Geraniums give out a lovely fragrance too. The scent remains on your hand when you are carrying them, and also fills the room where they are placed. When I think of geraniums, I think of homely, warm, comforting things…of family memories…of joy in the little things…just a tinge of sadness because I miss my grandma and grandpa…of how love and kindness and care leaves a beautiful
fragrance on the hands of both the giver and the receiver. May we treasure our family and friends, treasure the little homely things of life, and treasure all the fragrance that our loved ones add and give out to us in our lives!

It is just a week before Christmas Day! I have been thinking about the first Christmas Day night. I don't think that it would have been a very quiet night. I can hear the angels singing praises the most melodiously than could ever be sung. I can hear the shepherds talking to each other excitedly about what they had heard and seen. I can hear all the animals around the manger using all their animal mouths to cheer and praise and celebrate too. And I can hear Mary and Joseph tenderly and softly talking to our loving Lord Jesus. May this Christmas time be a very special time for you. I send

loving thoughts to each of you, and please know that you are all extra very, very special to me and to our loving Lord, whose birth we all celebrate!!

Many students are going back to school this week. It is a fun time filled with a sense of "newness" about it. New books, new subjects, new classmates, new teachers, new things to learn. Some students are starting school for the first time, or other ones are starting Secondary school, whilst there are also students who will now be attending a new school because their families have moved houses since last year. But every person is always a student in everyday life. Each day we learn something new, or see or read or hear something new that we never knew before or makes us think or surprises us or

encourages us. May we all continue to enjoy learning new things each day, and take delight in the little and big things of life!

I was thinking the other day about cheese slices. Every day, there must be literally thousands of cheese slices eaten by people around Australia, whether it is in sandwiches or in a salad, or used in recipes or in a hamburger or on dry biscuits or perhaps grilled on toast ! Cheese slices usually all look the same,although when you taste them they can sometimes have quite different flavours.

We are not like cheese slices, because everyone looks uniquely different and are uniquely special. We all have different likes and interests, things we prefer to do, are good at doing some things and not so good at doing other things. We are all different in many ways. But at the same time, we are all the same! We all laugh, cry, smile, get tired, feel happy, and have times of sadness. And we all want to have people who love us and whom we love. It is good to be different…it is good to be the same ...it is good to be uniquely you whom no-one else could take your important place in this world ❤️

I heard the other day someone mentioning about our "Fallsum weather". I was wondering what they meant by that? Then I realized that it referred to a mixture of Fall (American version of Autumn) and Summer weather!! It was said when we were experiencing all that very warm weather last week, but it really was officially Autumn/Fall season time. The word now makes sense! Our days and lives too

are made up of a mixture of times when we are happy, sad, tired, excited, fearful, and glad. Through it all, we are always encouraged by the love , care and support of our family and friends. Love is like air, it is a part of each and every season, and it is very great to know that we are loved and to love each other !!

Good Friday and Easter Sunday is coming up this week. I was thinking the other day about how many, many Easter hymns Dad would have played on the piano and Mum would have sung over the years!! Before Jesus and the disciples went to Gethsemane they sang a hymn. And I am sure that there would have been so very, very much singing on that first Easter Sunday morning when there was the hugely joyful occasion that our Lord had risen!! I think that the women who first saw Him would have had hearts and voices exploding into songs of praise!! And when Jesus appeared to the disciples in the room after he had risen, I like to imagine the whole room would have been filled with heartfelt rejoicing in song! And what a scene to imagine to think of the angels in Heaven looking on

and singing so wonderfully praises that "He has risen!!" We may not be able to always sing out loud, but our heart can always rejoice in "inner singing  " of songs at Easter and every day!! Christ has died! Christ has risen! Christ will come again! Rejoice!

In a brochure recently I saw advertised some bandaids. BUT…these weren't just "ordinary" bandaids. They were special ones as they were coloured and had little pictures of animals on them! They were labeled as "kids bandaids". They looked so cute! Perhaps it would make any cuts or any times that you  needed to use them make healing occur  quicker! Every time you would look at these bandaids , you would always have a little smile to yourself!  Sometimes people are hurting inside, and all you want to do is put a big happy animal colourful bandaid all over them and make things better. Of course, we can't do that. But we can throw a soft light quilt of love over people by caring about them and how they feel. A smile, a "thinking of you" word, an encouraging action, are all parts of a

patchwork quilt that can bring so much warmth to a person. Knowing that you are loved and showing your love and care to another are the most precious things in the whole wide world!!

The other day, we received a letter but the sender had accidentally forgotten to put a stamp on it! The address on the front and their own written address on the back were very clearly written…all that was missing was the stamp! The funny thing was that it was postmarked just the day before, so it had only taken the single day to reach us, and yet at other times letters can go missing for days and days even though they are correctly and clearly addressed and stamped! Names are very precious things. When we think of a person's name, it can bring so many lovely thoughts and memories and shared time remembrances into our minds. Thinking of the name of a loved is a treasured thought! And every person who we meet in our lives does leave a "stamp" on our life. Sometimes the "stamp"may be the footstep of a tiny ant, but it still is someone that we may remember years and years later. I am thankful for people who leave ant footprints, elephant footprints, teddy bear pawprints, and all other sized footprints in my life, for each print is a beautiful expression of love, joy and preciousness. Thankyou for the special stamps you make on each other's lives and hearts! ❤️

I was thinking the other day about the dilating eye drops that eye doctors put in your eyes when examining them so as to open up your eyes wider so that they can see more closely the areas of your eyes. For quite a while afterwards, your  eyes look quite wide open and bright! Perhaps we need to drop imaginary eyedrops into our own eyes each morning when we wake up, and have a look at

the world around! May we see the beauty in other people, look closely at our family and friends and people we meet that day with loving concern and seek to support them, and be ready to "stop, look and see"!

I was thinking the other day about the saying: "it is the best thing since sliced bread", and it started me thinking about all the different varieties of bread that can be bought! We can buy white, wholemeal, multi-grain, seven seeds, soy and linseed, pumpkin, white with added fibre, white with added calcium, herb, vienna, cob, sourdough, french stick... and the list goes on and on! There are lots of different varieties of breads, and they all taste differently, but they are all known as being bread. It is a bit like people! We all look differently, live in different places around the world, have different interests, likes and dislikes, have different jobs or go to different schools or unis or kindergartens. We all may spend our days differently, get up and go to bed at different times. BUT…we are all people…who love and care about others and are loved, who breathe and smile and cry and feel happy or sad or excited or fearful. We all have such special travellers with us on this journey through life. Thankyou, each one of you ,for being you, an extra extra special person!

With the cold weather now here, particularly with the low temperatures overnight and in the mornings, it must be quite a busy time for the RACV being called out to assist drivers who go outside to start up their cars when going off to work and school in the morning…only to find that their car won't start up because the battery is dead! Many RACV drivers  need to "come to the rescue" and get these cars going again!

Batteries are important to cars. In our own lives,
being loved and loving each other are what keeps us going, "motoring on" through the day and through our journey through life. Seeing a smile on someone's face is a bit like hearing a friendly "toot" of a horn as a friend passes you by in their car, and the scenery of life is always nice through life's front and side windows as we share our road trip travelling alongside of our family and
friends

We live in a very colourful world! When we look around us both outside and inside there are millions of different shades of colours that we can enjoy seeing every day! The colours of clothes, the flowers and plants outside,

the food that we wear, images that we see in a book or magazine that we are reading or see
when watching tv…all are very colourful sights for our eyes to see. We not only can say something is coloured blue, we can also see lots and lots of shades of blue, or shades of yellow, red, green, purple and other colours. May we all enjoy looking and seeing all these shades of colours. At the same time, may we be thankful so much to our loving Master Painter Whose
 paintbrush of love is beautiful in people and our surroundings

We have now started the last month of Winter which is great, because soon Springtime will be here! Springtime brings with it lots of colourful flowers, andnice gentle flower petals! As you walk down life's pathway, may you always

walk along a road of soft petals under your feet. Wherever your feet take you as you walk through each day, may the perfume of love and joy surround you as you walk on these petals. May the delicateness and fragileness of petals remind you of life, and may we all take each moment to love and care for each other!