Day 6:  Connect–There are many ways to interpret this theme: from a gadget to a handshake, from a bridge to a gathering among friends. What’s yours?

Do you ever play silly little games while doing a task?  I do…all the time.  Whether I’m vacuuming, cutting  grass or cooking there’s always some sort of competition playing in the arena of my brain.  The photo above, taken during the autumn months of New England, is a prime example of one of my games.  The mission (If I chose to accept…and I always do!) was to try to keep the peelings, of each apple, connected in order to form a continuous red ribbon.  I do the same thing when I peel potatoes.

This photo represents connection in another way.  I love to cook.  It is one of the many ways I release my creative energies.  It is also the conduit I use to connect to others.  It truly is one of the ways I say, “I love you.”

I’ve decided to start another silly game and plan to blog about it in Redhead Reflections.  I have this great desire to choose one unfamiliar ingredient and use it  to create a dish I’ve never tried before.  My plan is to do this once a week and will probably become my future Saturday posts.  (First on the list:  Corn Shucks!)

Also future Sunday posts will express something of my faith.  Not to worry, it will never be “religious” or “preachy.”  I hate religion.  It has never been a friend to me.  As a child I hated Sundays because it meant going to church, and going to church meant wearing a dress and sitting on the second pew from the pulpit.   Number one, as a tomboy, I hated dresses and number two, the loud screaming coming from the man behind the podium, frightened me and only served to alienate me from God.  My faith is based on relationship and not religion; on love and not fear, and on freedom and not bondage.

Just to give an example, my post yesterday (Sunday) would have been about Winnie the Pooh and his words of, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

I heard this during church (Yes, I like church now) and it stuck with me.  How fitting it was that these words were spoken.  After all, wasn’t it just “yesterday” I said goodbye to all my wonderful friends from NPC?  (National Passport Center)  Those goodbyes, each and every one, were hard for me to say.  I hate goodbyes they make me sad and uncomfortable, but in this life they are inevitable.

How blessed I am to have known and loved such wonderful people.  Thank you, God.

Once that kind of connection is made, the friendship can never be severed because they take up residence and live in your heart.

(Also I’m glad they’re only a text or Facebook message away.  Gotta love technology!)