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Pretty Irish Girl

3/8/2015

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Did you know Sean Connery can sing?  Not like Pavarotti, or Crosby, or Strait.  But he can sing.

And his song reminds me of her…

My mother joined some ladies group at church and made a friend.  She was the mother of two boys, very active, very fun, and red-headed.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, being a redhead is no easy task.  And, top that with being the ONLY redhead in a family of five and you’ve got one sad girl who hated her hair.  I blamed it on everything.  If I stubbed my toe, it was because I was a redhead.  If I got in trouble, it was because I was a redhead.  If we couldn’t afford a toy from the store, it was because I was a redhead.

And it didn’t help that my younger sisters got a lot of attention from strangers.  People would gush over them, saying how cute they were, how sweet.  And while they grinned and giggled, I pouted and blamed it on my red hair.  Boy, was I self-centered!

But then, one day, I met her…

We will call her Grace.  It is one of my favorite Irish names.  It comes from the name Grianne, meaning love.  Which is a perfect way to describe her…grace and love.

I attached myself to her first because she was a redhead, and I knew no other person with hair the same color as mine.  Then, she became someone to talk to, someone to share my deeper worries with.  I didn’t trust many with my feelings.  I was too afraid others wouldn’t care and wouldn’t listen.

Even if you don’t know what to say, one should always listen when one is sharing one’s feelings.

And she was very good at that.  And very good at making me feel special.

And she made being a redhead look beautiful.  Effortless.  She gave me hope that one day I would wake up, and not remember that I was redheaded, that I would be able to step outside of the abyss that made me hate the way I looked.

There is nothing worse than obsessing over your own issues.  You cannot enjoy others.  You realize you are putting yourself first, and why in the world would you do that?  God did not put us on this earth to love and worry about ourselves.

But she gave me hope.  And as I got older, she taught without a single word, that yes, I was a redhead.  And yes, it defined me.  But it did not control me.  Or my fate.  And I was beautiful because of it, and in spite of it.

My Grace…

Thank you.

To hear Sean Connery sing, click here!
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4:1 -- My Dad Is Now Outnumbered

3/1/2015

2 Comments

 
The banty rooster has clucked his last cluck.

Maybe 3 to 1 wasn’t so bad, but now…there’s four of them in the house.

Hens…

Imagine…always being in charge of your hen house…being able to cluck and flap all you want…and those hens had to take notice.

And then, without warning, the rooster cock-a-doodle-dos and…no one pays attention.
In fact, the hens appear to not even hear the rooster.

Did he crow? Who knows?

There are things to do, feathers to groom, topics to be discussed.  Who has time for the macho rooster?  What does he do for us anyway?  Protect us from the fox?

The hens can scream their way out of any tight fix!

And so…the banty rooster pouts.  And pouts some more.

But no one pays attention to his comforts any longer.  He must evolve.

So, the macho rooster, in order to be heard by his hens, must his raise his wing to speak…and wait patiently to be noticed.
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    Kara O'Neal

    An author who has too much to say is dangerous.

    The subjects on this blog:


    Monday Memories -- My Childhood

    Wednesday Words -- Books!

    To be a guest on my blog:

    Contact: kara@karaoneal.com

    Monday Memories: Cast

    Kara -- Me
    Maria -- sister
    Wendy -- sister
    Bill -- brother

    M'Lynn -- mother
    Drummond -- father

    Grace -- mother's redheaded friend
    Liam -- Grace's husband
    Gorgeous (Georgie) -- oldest son and friend
    Phillip -- middle son and friend
    Andrew -- last child and friend

    Jo -- mother's "big idea" friend
    Noah -- Jo's husband who builds things
    Jack -- oldest son and friend
    Roxi -- middle daughter and friend
    Lela -- last child and friend

    Alex -- friend who travels the country and lives in Dallas
    Blossom -- friend who lives in Dallas and sells houses

    Miss Holly -- next door neighbor
    Kirk -- middle son
    Scotty -- youngest son

    Lou -- uncle on my dad's side who likes baseball
    Evaline -- my dad's sister who's crazy funny
    Luke -- oldest son and my cousin
    Han -- younger son and my cousin

    Clark -- my mother's brother who bleeds maroon

    Alexander -- my eldest cousin on my dad's side

    Dawn -- cousin on my dad's side that is the same age as Maria

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