Holiday Blessing

We will be visiting with our daughter in Virginia for Thanksgiving but here is an early Thanksgiving blessing you can share at your thanksgiving dinner. I wrote it for work but it works for family gatherings as well.


Holiday Blessing

Dear heavenly Father,
We are gathered here today
To bow our heads in thanks to you,
Respectfully we pray
Thankful for the blessings
You have given to us here
Thankful for the friends and family
That supports us year to year
Thankful for the folks at work
We couldn’t do without
Thankful for the soldiers
Who defend us without doubt
And bless this food before us
And all we do today
We bow our heads in thanks to you
In silence now we pray

---Pause---

Amen

AND – for a little lighter poetry – here is another Thanksgiving treat

Thanksgiving Waltz

This is for the older readers - - - with apologies to the writers of the Tennessee Waltz - - -

I was dining with my darlin’
On the Thanksgiving feast
When a ball game came on the TV
There were lions, there were cowboys
And what they were doing
My darlin’ explained it to me

I remember the game
And the Thanksgiving feast
And the way men were glued to the set
Yes I lost my little darlin’
To the game they were playing
At the annual Thanksgiving feast

Mother Nature

Eleven, I betcha
Lets count them down
Nine on the roof
Two more on the ground
Vultures just waiting
For booty they found

It's worse than I thought
It's a turtle that's dead
Squished by a car
From tail to his head
Staining the pavement
In greens and dark red

That's just how it is
And that can't be undone
With its insides exposed
And now cooked by the sun
The vultures now gather
Their lunch has begun

I can't bear to look
It's just nature's rule
What's gruesome to some
Makes other things drool
But it all seems to work
Mother Nature's no fool

mdailey   11/16/09

A Question for Tiger or Phil

I’ve got a question for Tiger or Phil
What do you do when just over the hill
Your ball comes to rest near the tail of a gator
Do you pick it up now or think maybe later
Do you call the official and show him the lie
And think to yourself, it’s not my day to die
So you just drop a ball where you hit the last one
And hit a bit softer and hope it don’t run
Do you dare turn your back on that gator to putt
Follow the rules or follow your gut
Tiger or Phil, please answer my call
What do I do with this gator-tail ball?

Mdailey 11/16/09

Leopard’s 15 – Gator

I haven’t seen it but know someone who did
And that alligator makes mine look a kid
He’s long and he’s fat and often is seen
Sunning himself out on Leopard’s 15
His size can’t be gotten by eating just fish
A gator this size gets to eat what he wished
Just the other day, right there at the pond
A deer was just drinking and then he was gone
Our friend said she saw legs fly up in the air
She blinked, when she looked, he was no longer there
Oh – this gator is quick and this gator is mean
She said it was gruesome and almost obscene
And this gator she says watches people walk by
And they can’t see a thing except maybe his eye
For he’s hoping somehow someone may just trip
He’ll be there in a flash, get them tight in his grip
Pull them back to the pond and then pull them under
If you’re out on 15 don’t you make such a blunder
In fact if your ball should land in that sand trap
Consider it lost and just say “oh crap!”
So you lose a ball, add a stroke to your score
It’s better than going too near to the shore
For the gator is there though he may not be seen
Keep yourself on the fairway on Leopard’s 15.

Mdailey 11/15/09

Veteran's Day Tribute

While driving through the gate to work at Fort Belvoir, VA one day, someone on the radio was talking about Washington and how America’s greatness was captured in marble and stone. About that time, I encountered a group of young soldiers jogging along the main road on post and thought to myself that America’s greatness was not in marble and stone.



America’s Greatness

America’s greatness is not marble or stone
But the soldier who’s willing to stand all alone
Out on their post with weapon in hand
Protecting the people of this great land

America’s greatness wears Army Green
Or the clothes of a sailor, Air Force or Marine
Their background is Asian, Hispanic or Black
Mixed or Caucasian they all have your back

And they’ll take their position and they’ll hold their ground
Protecting your life and all those around
For America’s greatness is not marble or stone
But the soldier who’s ready to lay down his own

Mdailey      02/17/09

Babies and Pumpkin Patches

Where do these ideas originate? Sometimes it is a word or phrase I hear, sometimes it is something I see. Sometimes it is just nonsense thoughts that creep in when I am not thinking anything at all. I think this is a case of the latter. My morning walks have been on the cooler side with lots of heavy dew on the fairways. By the time the walk is over, I have verses running around in my head.


I never had “that talk” with Mom
My Dad was not around
I never heard how babes were born
I’d heard that they were found
Somewhere in a pumpkin patch
In the early morning dew
If you were quite persistent
You might find one or two
But each morning when out walking
I’d stop at a pumpkin patch
I’d never spied a single one
There has to be a catch
So I took my one and only
Out on a morning walk
We stopped there at a pumpkin patch
And we talked about “the talk”
Then I felt an arm around me
And I heard “I’ll take you home
You’re spending too long looking
And thinking all alone
Babies are not found out here
Come on – it’s time you’re shown”
That day my eyes were opened
And it’s really quite a view
I know those childhood stories
Are not exactly true
So now we are with child
And we’re thrilled to the bone
We have a lot more fun these days
I mean – who would have known

Mdailey 11/8/09

Cormorant

He sits low in the water
Swims just like an otter
This water fowl we have in our back pond
Then he sits up on a piling
Searching but not smiling
As if he’s lost something that’s gone beyond
We looked him up on Google
He’s usually found in group
But he appears all lost and lonely
And thus his smile does droop
We think he is a young bird
That was somehow left behind
He twists his head from side to side
But no friends does he find
I’d like to somehow help him
But I know that I can’t
But I too search the skies each day

For a flock of Cormorant

Mdailey 11/04/09
We have a new bird at the pond.  He has been here two days and appears lost.