Sunshine and Starshine......................

Yes, if it is "Sunshine" during the day, then it would be "moonshine" for night. That doesn't sound at all cozy and encouraging so I am using "Starshine" and that is also my dear friend Linda K.'s nickname. By the way.........her birthday is on Saturday, the 23rd, so hop on over and send her birthday greetings. Just click on her name, it will take you to her site, then scroll down for her email addy on the far right. It would be fun if she could get one for every year of her life and I'm not telling, but I will say, it is over 25. We better get busy!!

Now back to the Sunshine and Starshine....... It is that time of year that we start to wind down and get in what I call a "blue funk". It is mostly because we don't get enough sun light so I take Vitamin D to help the cause. What helps the most though is encouragement from friends who make me smile or get me to do "something", and for the most part it doesn't matter what it is. I have a little book-type calendar entitled, "One Day At A Time", by Pat Simmer Dobosenski. I gave it to my Mom on May 3, 1984, right after my Dad passed away. There is no publisher, or contact information about the author anywhere. I would like to have you read her introductory Page:

Dear Friend,
I have suffered the loss of someone special to me. I asked why, cried, felt that life was not worth living and shared many of the same feelings you are experiencing. I know too how hard my mother took my father's death. So I wrote this book for her, for me and for people like us who need to do something to make our lives meaningful again. This book is to be read one page at a time-- one day at a time. Savor the saying of the day, do your best to accomplish the assigned task, and be pleased with yourself. You are someone important. Your lost loved one would not want you constantly suffering and lonely. There are others who need you when you're ready. I hope this book will help you get ready to live and give again.
My love, Pat Dobosenski

If it is okay with you, each day I will enter the next page of her little book. It is only 4" x 5". You may not have have a loss of a loved one right now.....it may be a divorce or estrangement, or just the loss of YOURSELF. I can't tell you how many times I have done page 1, but it is many. When I don't need it, I forget to look at it, but at least when I do need it, it is there and I use it as a foothold to pull myself up.

Please note the pic of the little girl with the pumpkin and candle on my Blog page. Yep, it is from Starshine's collection, but that saying has always meant so much to me, starting when I was a child. It is Starshine that pulled me out of my last "darkness" and you just never know when your "light" will help another make it through another day.
Wishing all of you a lot of LIGHT! Below is Pat's first page:


"If I cannot do great things-- I can do small things in a great way!"

Clean out a drawer in the kitchen today.

(On this page she has a little hand drawn picture of a smiley face.)