http://www.tinahasit.com/tfol/20100311.txt

To live with nature, understand nature, play with nature gave us a very happy youth. All our games were good for both boys and girls. We climbed trees. We plaid skip rope. We bounced a ball for hours either to each other or, if playing alone, against a wall. We admired baby frogs, picked up little snakes with no fear, watched bats hanging from trees up side down. I remember when I was about 6 there was a hawk flying over the little chickens. Mamma hen rounded them up and the old rooster rolled on the ground as if he had a broken wing. I asked grand daddy "Why is the rooster acting so funny?" Grand daddy explained me that the rooster wa doing that to attract the attention of the hawk and give the hen and chicks time to hide. Even in the animal world the male protects the female and the little ones endangering themselves. Ours were lessons of real life. As young girls we dreamed of a man that would take care of us and protect us like the rooster did. We always walked to school. We knocked at each other's doors early in the morning and we all walked to school together talking about our dreams, about the stars, the days of the week that took their names from planets and idle Gods. We sat under trees examining clouds and making pictures in our minds using the cloud's shapes. We saw dogs, cats, ice cream cones. Everything was in the clouds, all we had to do was just look and find it. We all pretend to have a motor in our bikes, so to imitate the noise of a motor we used a stiff postcard that would hit the spokes and make noises as we pedaled. We dreamed and pretended to have the real thing with our overflowing imagination. At times us girls would play dress up or make us a doll with old rags. We used hay straws for hair and drew their eyes, nose and mouth with crayons. Our days were full of discoveries, we were never bored. We sang, we wistled, we plaied ring around the roses. We were full of life, helped each other. We cried, we laughed. When we got hurt we did not go to the doctor, we were just warned to be more carful. If we had the sniffles or sneezed nobody paid attention. We wiped our noses with our sleeves and kept playing. Today when a child sneezes goes to the doctor to be checked for allergies. We did not even know the word allergy existed.

Our music was peppy and happy. The slow dancing music lyrics always talked about love, serenades, flowers or walks on the beach. Our music opened our hearts to each other. We loved everyone and lived honestly by the ten commandments. I'm sure there were ugly people in our days, but we were never exposed to ugliness or those kind of people. For us life was a rose bud waiting to bloom. We saw children born at home, helped the older women deliver  babies for in our times only midwives were available. We saw sickness and death at home. We helped wash the dead bodies and dress them for their final resting place. For us everything  was part of life. As growing children we realized the battlles of life and new that life was a rocky road to face, but we faced it with smiles and an open heart. We blindly believed in our Lord, even if at times we refused to go to church. I still thank the All Mighty for the beauty of nature, for my ability to walk, talk and see, even if with one eye only. I feel blessed for what is left of my body and my mind and for the joy I feel looking at the little ants, furry squirrels, lizards, lady bugs and all other form of life that surrounds me. Life is a gift to be treasured and savored with every breath.
I believe in God because I see God in every form of life. At time I wonder. Were the Egyptians right to worship the great planets? What would happen without the sun, or the moon or the rest of the universe above that controls our lives on earth. What would happen without the ocean tides. All the things that we ignore around us are just the things that keep life going. Men try to control overpopulation injecting sickness in the name of vaccins. Mother nature controls overpopulation with flood, earthquakes and oher disasters. Nature will always be the winner at th end for nature knows how to balance itself. Nature has a balance that men will never conquer.