CHECK YOUR MIRRORS

As with most of you, I have thoughts about January 6 and the events at our nation’s Capitol. Of course, I want to write about “it.” My gut is telling me not to go there this time. Yes, I did write last June about George Floyd's incident and its aftermath relating to race.

New House speaker lays out challenges

The 87th session of the Texas Legislature opened Tuesday with COVID-19 encompassing every aspect of what the lawmakers do, according to new House Speaker Dade Phelan. “COVID, obviously, it will be a blanket over the entire session,” Phelan told his hometown TV station, KFDM Channel 6, in Beaumont.

Old Glory News

WOW, isn't this beautiful. That is the most snow we have gotten in a long time. So beautiful, large flakes, and it seems to be sticking to everything it falls on, but it's melting some. I just want it to melt off all the electric lines, I don't want to be without electricity again.

2 CENTS WORTH

Wow!!! the wind is blowing in Aspermont this morning and it's cold. That old north wind makes my bones ache!!!!!! Joe and I put up on the Christmas Decorations last week, and got ready for 2021, sure hope this next year we get rid of this Covid, I know all of you are as tired of it as we were.

Faces & Places

“Annie turned away, her eyes glittering. ‘Here’s what no one tells you,’ she said. ‘When you deliver a fetus, you get a death certificate, but not a birth certificate. And afterward, your milk comes in, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.’ She looked up at me. ‘You can’t win.

Action and Transformation 2021

In my first essay shortly after New Year’s Day last year, I wrote “I want 2020 to be a year of action. By making it so, we can make this a new decade of transformation.” Then, 2020 happened. On the day I wrote that essay, very few of us had heard of COVID—19.

SHEPHERDS OF THE FLAME

There must be a strong pull for people who grew up in Merkel, left to have successful careers, then returned to their hometown. I met a bunch of them recently. They are confident, poised and happy to be back home. One is a former NASA scientist who is now writing poetry.

Will you choose to be a Victor or Victim in 2021?

Last week we spoke of the choice to make 2021 a better year and not remain stuck in our past. To act as if you have no power to change the course of your life only becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we want 2021 to be a better year, we must do something to make it so.

CHECK YOUR MIRRORS

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

New year can’t yet shake focus from COVID-19

It’s a new year, but the news out of the capital continues to focus on COVID-19. Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted last week that “a significant portion of vaccines distributed across Texas might be sitting on hospital shelves as opposed to being given to vulnerable Texans.