November 2009
Here I sit on the Back Porch. I have just lit up a Cigar and fed Bubba The Wonder Dog. I guess it's time to catch up on a few things, like emails, bills and life. I am reminded about my family and many friends that I have made over the years. All of them being precious to me. I have lost a few family members and friends this year. I look back on what each one meant to me. They all taught me something. I will surely miss them all. I also look back to my great-grandfather who at the time I just thought was an old man, but now I wish I would have talked to him more. He saw it all. He was a train engineer in the late 1800's. He saw the evolution of the telephone, radio, television, airplane, car, man in space, two world wars, Koren Conflict, Vietnam, Prohibition, recession and more. His father and uncle were in the civil war. I could have talked first hand about the Civil War with him. Now I am wondering what I am going to do without Miss Doreen since MIss Jeanie has passed on.
With the holidays upon us, I thought I would bring out an old poem I wrote many years ago.
Fallen Leaf
By Jim Stewart 1975
We all sat at the big oak table
On Christmas and Thanksgiving Day
Grandpa would carve the Turkey
And we would all here Grandma say
"God bless this food and the people here today?
Put another leaf in the table
We've got company on the way.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.
Jimmy
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July 2009
Well Bubba, It sure has been hot lately. Thirty days in a row with hundred degree weather. I see it has made you a little lazy boy. Oh, You're not lazy just imitating me. Well roll over boy and bake the other side.
Man this has been some kind of Summer for the Stewart Clan. First my Uncle Logan died (93 years old). Then my cousin Jeanette Rieger-Cornelius Died, During my summers I used to spend some time on my uncles farms, My uncle Logan was head of the agricultural department in Brown County, Texas. He used to teach me many things about farming and faith in God. He was a Baptist, a good Baptist, the Best Baptist. You know I never ever seen him get mad at anything. I guess it's because he found peace in his faith a long time ago. A week before he died he was tending to things on his farm. He raised peanuts for many years. My other Uncle Garth used to work part time at the peanut factory. One day the Preacher went by the peanut factory and asked my uncle Garth if he could get some peanuts. He told the preacher to help himself. He said, "Take as many as you want. Them are Logan's peanuts." I admired him for his faith and patience. My cousin Jeanette almost twenty years ago received a liver transplant. She recieved it just a couple of weeks after being told she need one. Man, the angels were with her. She too like my Uncle Logan had found internal peace. She was a farm girl through and through. She looked more and more like her Mama, Martha Jo.
I guess it is because of the Summer Season and their passing that I start to appreciate the simple things in life. Try not to take anything for granite, but live each day to it's fullest. They gave me the keys to life. Be at peace with your maker and you can then be at peace with yourself. I also appreciate how they treated others. Aways putting others ahead of themselves. Just knowing that you helped someone was a blessing.
Well I guess it's time for me to go back inside and put on a pot of beans and make some cornbread. Come on Bubba, let's go inside.
Jimmy
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March 2009
Well Bubba, It's already March. Boy time flies. I guess it's time for me to give you a bath. Let me go get that number 3 wash tub and some soap. Spring fever is right around the corner.
March has always been a mystery to me, one day it's cold and the next it's hot. This March I see a lot of people who are struggling to make ends meet. I also see hope in their eyes. As I go through this busy March I look forward in meeting new friends, seeing new art, hearing new poetry, hearing new music and helping more people. More and more people I know are finding out that they have cancer. I try to tell them of my plight in this cancer thing. I try to tell them to have faith. Without faith there is no hope. It was hope that got me through the storm. I see cancer as a March Day. One day you are doing fine and the next you feel your world is falling apart.
This March gets me out of the recliner and out on the streets. It is keeping me busy with alot of gigs, poetry and book signings. I guess March is just like it says, It gets you marching into new projects and gets the winter snow off of your shoulders.
Well Bubba tells me that I am starting to babble on. So I guess I'll just say, Hug somebody today and make a differance in their life. Now Bubba, let's get to your bath. No I'm not giving you a shampoo and a pedicure. Come on boy!
Peace My Friends
Jimmy
August, 2008
August is already here. This is a month where I think alot about my mother, Eileen. It was her birthday. I try to go out to the cemetary to pray and visit awhile on her birthday. It is in these short moments that a mysterious peace often comes to me. I leave feeling better about myself and about others. One of the things that her death brought to me was a feeling that I never really knew her. I learned more about my mother from her friends than I did living with her all those years. Her friends often tell me how they miss her and what she did for them. As her friends, she shared things with them that she never shared with me or the rest of her family. Over the years I have tried to solve a mystery concerning her childhood. She was born Eileen Violet Kennedy and soon adopted by my grandfather Victor Edward Lawrence. So she took on his last name. I also have three different birth years for her. One day I called up an old friend of the family,Dorothy. She gave me some insight. She used to baby sit my mother when she was young. She was going to share this insight with me, when she passed away shortly after our conversation.
You see my friends, life is often to short and we are to busy with our own life to sit down and visit. My Greatgrandfather used to come around alot when I was a kid. I used to think that he was just an old man. Looking back now, that old man could have taught me alot. His father and uncle faught in the Civil War. He was a Railroad engineer at the turn of the century. My opportunity was lost.
A few years ago my father, Delton, called me up crying. When I asked what was the matter, he said, " I have something that has been tugging on my heart for a long time. I have to get it off of my chest." I asked him what it was. He said, "When you were three years old, I told you that I didn't love you anymore. That is a lie. I never stopped loving you." I told him that I knew that.
You see my friends, with everything going by so fast, sometimes all it takes is a few moments in our lives to make a differance. All of these things have molded you into who you are.
Take care my friends
Jimmy
January 2009
With the sound of fireworks still in the air, I am sitting on the Back Porch and reflecting on the past year, but looking forward to the new year. I light up my cigar and Bubba is kicking back and watching the birds. Now all I need is my coffee.
As I look upon the horizon I see a new career for me. Yeah, This retirement thing can sure get old fast. So maybe there is someone out there that can use my help. In the mean time I have my book, music, poetry and family things to keep me busy.
New challenges, new year and new people to meet. But I will not forget about the many challenges that I went through last year nor will I forget the people that came into my life and now have gone on.
I hope that the new year will bring each and every one of you, my friends have a great New Year.
Well I guess this pen is out of words this time and so is it's user. Come on Bubba, let's go take a nap.
Happy New Year
Jimmy