I was so excited I couldn't sleep last night. Just think of the possibilities of starting over with a new career? It doesn't seem to matter that I've been retired for years, so obviously my age is not a factor. Why else would they send ME the e-mail requesting my help? Who am I to turn my country down when they need me? I would be proud to serve.

You see, yesterday I got an e-mail telling me that I could be a cop! Glory be!!! I admire cops and the police are my heroes. You know I'm a people person. Oh, I am so ready for this new direction.

I have skills. Forty years ago I was a sharpshooter --- I'm sure it would come back to me if I have the right corrective glasses and if the targets were large enough. Bad guys running away are big, right? With my orthopedic inserts in my sneakers, I could walk any beat --- dance to any beat --- as long as I didn't have to run or jump over fences. Especially, fences where mean dogs live. And I've told so many white lies I would be great under cover. My Momma Skills would come in handy too! I could guilt them into giving themselves up. Mommas have to be good negotiators and if all else fails, I could nag them into surrendering! I know this would work. But if it didn't and I had to shoot them, I'm a great Momma Nurse too. So see, I have it all figured out.

Plus I look good in navy blue! Any extra tips from my Streamer buddies would be helpful. Send them quick cause I'm filling out my application right now. I can't wait! They'll probably give me a billy club too so I better brush up on my twirling skills. I knew that would come in handy one day.

I need your help, Streamers. Which do you think is the greatest?

Faith, hope and love? The Bible says that love is the greatest of these. A movie I saw the other night had the main character answer that question with "faith." It made me wonder about these three words and why they are so important to humans. Each has power behind the word that is almost undefinable.


Faith is about things unseen. Religion is based on faith that things are believed as truth. Faith gives birth to prayer. Faith can heal a body. Faith can cause a person to rise up and overcome evil. Having faith in someone can be a powerful lifting force for both.


Hope is a seed in the heart of human beings. Hope is a desire that holds hands with faith. Hope makes people go on when all outward trust is lost. Prayer is an inward sign of hope. Hope is confidence in fulfillment of a desire. Like the other two, hope is unseen, but deeply felt.


Love must start with self-love and spread out to others. A sad few never get beyond self-love. After the selfish beginnings of self-love there is love of mother and father. An infant only needs and eventually loves those who supplies those needs. But as the child grows the love expands to outside oneself to include others --- family, friends, life mate, humankind, and ultimately to the Creator. It takes a maturity to love someone else. The highest love is sacrifice for another --- a powerful gift. So love is the gift of oneself.

Is love the most important because love can bring faith and hope? Perhaps they are all equal? Maybe it is a circle and they are forever linked?

My Thursdays are spent in a cafe as a hospital volunteer. I work in the Pink Tea Room, which sounds like an unimportant place in the machinery of a hospital. That thought would be wrong.

I was wrong too when I first became a volunteer. I wanted the surgery waiting room or medicine delivery or something else that sounded impressive. Somewhere where they couldn't do without me. It's hard to get volunteers for the Pink Tea Room and we recently lost two of them to death in a month's time. Now there's only me and another much older lady. At times the stress can get high and most older volunteers can't handle it. I've been there six years. Since I'm a people person, it's a great fit for me. I've never worked in food services before, but I think it is an important way to service others. Sometimes food is more than just food.


The Pink Tea Room attracts not just hospital personnel, but visitors, family members, and other people with business at the hospital. I see tired friends and crying strangers during stressful times. We offer a small haven, a room tucked away, with comfort food at all hours of the day or night --- served with a smile and some kind words. Sometimes more.

Last Thursday an older gentleman came in for breakfast and then came back and ordered two sandwiches to go. I didn't get to talk much other than to take the order, as we were crowded. He had that hunched-over, tired look of someone in stress --- sad eyes. I took his body language to mean that someone he loved wasn't doing very well. Later a nurse came in to tell us the man had lost his wife's wedding ring somewhere in the hospital! They were looking everywhere he had been --- I got out the broom and systematically began sweeping the floor, moving tables and chairs. I saw the guy looking out in the hallway with his shoulders still bent over, like he had spent his life looking down for something. Everyone got into the search as a big family would do. Nothing! Then we got a call that the diamond ring had been found in the corner of his wife's room. We lovers know a ring is more than just a ring.

1. My snooze alarm is a fabulous thing! Waking up to the jar of an alarm unsettles me, but hitting the snooze button gives me a few more minutes of light sleep. On a good day I'll hit it twice. It can make all the difference to my day! Being one of those morning people, my husband is not a believer in the snooze alarm. However since he's retired, he usually sleeps later and that's a good thing for me.

2. Reading the morning newspaper is a great way to start any day. I enjoy it so much I'll go out and up the driveway in the rain, usually still in jammies, just to get the morning edition, soggy or not. I'll de-bone it --- take out all the ads and sections I don't like --- then settle down to reading al the rest. Depending on the mood, morning coffee or hot tea are the best brews to sip while checking out the overnight happenings from around the globe. This peaceful beginning gets my brain stretching and me yawning the night's dullness away.

3. The freedom of having a "free day" full of nothing is ideal! You know, it's one of those days where everything, or just about everything, has been finished and the time can be filled with whatever suits the mood. A day for reading, creating, writing, golfing, shopping, walking, or a day trip --- all special things that may have been pushed aside during busy periods. Time is a luxury and, even though I don't have to go to work every day, I am aware of the specialness of each passing moment and I know how lucky I am.

4. The radio CD player I got a few years ago is one of my favorites things. I keep it in the kitchen and tuned to a favorite station, but I also have a stack of CDs of different artists who have caught my attention recently. Playing it loud is allowed and dancing is encouraged in my kitchen! After the addtion of XM Radio to my car, I enjoy daily errands and travel much more. I like the Mix station best, but sometimes I go back to the 60's and remember my early loves in music.

5. After having a pedicure earlier this week, I can say without a doubt, that I throughly love getting my tootsies and legs massaged! It is one of the best treats in the world. And then having the toenails painted and back into sandals feels so good. Bring on the summer --- I am ready! After my nap..............z..zzzzzzz..........zzz

This heading grabbed my attention because it made me think of ye old Captain Morgan! But no, the article was about William Sloane Coffin, another remarkable man who had much to tell us before we lost his progressive voice recently.

Spring is a good time to think about Coffin who made the statement that "Nature gets more interesting when you're about to join it." Over the years I've often noticed as people get older they become obsessed with gardening. Perhaps it's the ashes to ashes and dust to dust idea, we sense our origins and our future resides in the dirt.


Coffin's books were fountains of incredible ideas as he protested and spoke against war. He felt that once the world knew how to blow itself up, that humanity had outgrown war. There was no returning to innocence after nuclear weapons appeared. He felt that love alone was the gathering place, or hitching post, and that compassion can only unite people. Even though Coffin had a degree from the Yale Divinity School, he often said that some religious folk were dividers and set in their uncompromising traditions.

One gem he wrote was that every human being should live a life worth retelling. That really struck me --- it makes me think of all of us writers in the Stream and how I believe we all have something to say about our individual lives. We all have stories to tell. We all have a book inside us!