Do~Overs

[Carol Anne Kincaid~Paradis]

SOAR!!!!!!!!!!!

A great fruit cake recipie

You'll need the following: a cup of water, a cup of sugar, four large eggs, two cups of dried fruit, a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of salt, a cup of brown sugar, lemon juice, nuts, and a bottle of whisky.

Sample the whisky to check for quality.

Take a large bowl. Check the whisky again. To be sure it is the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat again.

Make sure the whisky is still okay. Cry another tup. Turn off the mixer. Break two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the whisky to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the whisky. Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the window, check the whisky again and go to bed.

 

Do~Overs...Even if you're not from Washington D.C. you may have heard of former

Mayor Anthony Williams. He has a remarkable story. Williams was born

to an unwed teen who gave him up. He was known as a "problem child"

in foster care. By age three, little Anthony had still never spoken

a word. It seemed that a pattern for his life was set, that is,

until two warm and caring people took a chance on him.

Anthony was taken in by an opera-singing postal clerk and her

equally generous-hearted husband. He soon began to speak and

eventually thrived in their home. He excelled academically and later

attended both Harvard and Yale Universities.

In 1998, he came from obscurity to win 66% of the vote to become

mayor in one of the world's major cities. In his inaugural address,

Williams said: "Forty-four years ago, my parents adopted me and gave

me a second chance. I feel this city has now adopted me and I will

give to it everything my parents taught me about love, service,

commitment."

It's no doubt that, had he never been adopted into his particular

family, his life would have been wholly different. He was saved by a

second chance. And haven't each of us been given second chances? He

got a do-over on his birth family. Haven't we been given do-overs on

relationships, jobs, blown opportunities and the like? Quite often

second chances are the result of the generosity of someone who cares

a great deal. And sometimes we are saved by those second chances.

Author Dr. Seuss says in his book THE LORAX, "Unless someone like

you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's

not."

I recently came across a story of a young American woman who was

saved by a do-over. During the second World War, she lost her

husband. He died in India of a tropical disease and she became

despondent. In time, despair turned into depression and she lost all

interest in living. She just didn't care anymore.

She booked passage on a ship back to America. On the voyage, she

became acquainted with a seven-year-old boy who, like her, was all

alone. His parents had died in the fighting in Burma. He seemed to

want to be with the young woman, but her pain would not allow it.

She wanted nothing to do with him and avoided him whenever possible.

She felt so ravaged by loss, that she was unable to get outside of

herself and care about anyone else. And she certainly did not have

the energy to take on someone else's problems.

Then one night the ship was torpedoed. The young woman made her way

to the deck and prepared herself to go down with the doomed vessel.

Some part of her actually welcomed it as an escape from her pain.

The child, too, came on deck. He shivered with cold and fright. When

he spotted the woman, he came over and clung to her.

That was when a lump of ice melted somewhere deep inside her. She

put her arms around the child and led him to one of the lifeboats.

For several days, as they waited to be rescued, she held him and he

held her. Years later her friends would say that they didn't know

whether the woman saved the boy, or the boy saved the woman. They

each gave the other a second chance at life and a do-over on love.

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going

to get better. It's not."

But it's the people who give do-overs who truly change the world

STAY STRONG ! LOVE AND BLESSINGS CAROL ANNE.