Julanne's Village Jewels

A LAKE RIPPLES As you know, one of my favorite things to do in this world is to walk around the lake and then sit on my favorite bench and watch the ducks, the fountain and the marvelous RIPPLES that gently flow to the outer edges of the lake. They are constant! I notice I keep thinking at some split second in time, the RIPPLES will be different. Perhaps ever so slightly if there is a breeze, and depending on the light, but very little change. I struggle with the 2 words AFFECT and EFFECT . I never quite know for sure which to use where. It seems to me that the fountain affects the lake water, making RIPPLES, and that has an effect on me. My point is that when I say or do something, it has an effect on people and situations, and visa versa. Yesterday someone said something to me that was shocking, actually, and it had a RIPPLING effect on me for a couple of hours.   All it takes is some CONSCIOUSNESS and some CONSIDERATION for the moment to know how to send out a

NUN'S ORCHID QUESTIONS QUESTIONS is one of the most amazing words, it seems to imply a QUESTION in the very word. When I was growing up, I don’t remember asking a lot of QUESTIONS of my parents or in school. I was so afraid of ‘looking stupid’ I just sat back and wondered on my own, becoming a shrinking violet.  Somewhere along the way I ‘picked up’ this attitude. I had a very loving mother and my father was very non-communicative so there was virtually no exchange or conversation about the world around me. I don’t remember either of them really explaining anything to me, certainly to stimulate a QUESTION or a conversation. I do remember when I was 12 years old my mother saying to me “Aren’t you glad you don’t need to ask any QUESTIONS (regarding the Church), all the answers are there?” Those were her exact words! So . . . I remember ‘shutting a door’ and I didn’t ask QUESTIONS about much of anything. That experience seemed to have knocked CURIOSITY out of