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Good morning to you
Good morning to you
We're all in our places
With bright shining faces
Good morning to you!

Morning!

Good morning.

Good morning from a chilly Mishawaka IN. 42° and overcast this morning. Sharon, you are still in my thoughts and prayers. Have a good day everyone.

Good Morning from ann arbor

Folks, my husband Tom Heyde has lost his job. Please pray for us during this transition time. Not many folks will hire a 55 year old. Thank you.

Margaret; you and Tom hang tough! Just last year at this time the same thing happened to me. A door opened! A different door, but a door, and it is all good! Keep your heads up high and go forward. Peace.

Margaret: LZ from MI. said it best. Hang tough!! A door will open, different, but still it will be another door. And always go forward. The unknown is always scary, but trust your instincts and ask the good Lord for guidance.

Margaret, I am so sorry to hear that your hubby lost his job...and so close to retirement. What field is your hubby in? Carole and LZ are right though, another door always opens...as hard as that may be to believe right now.

Good luck Tom and Margaret.

Margaret, Amarillo, TX
I lost my job after 13 years and I was in my late 40's. Starting over at that age was something I never thought would happen but did. I networked through former coworkers and friends and landed a great job and now I'm working at a different company in yet a better job so as the above ladies mentioned before,Hang tough. By the way, I'm 4 years younger than your hubby so he'll find a better job, wait and see.

Thanks folks, you know each day you are in my thoughts and prayers too. Tom began by working for IBM for 19.5 years as a customer service engineer--lost that baby! Now he has been with a school system here in TX and doing their computer work. New guy in town (superintendent) and he wants his own cowpokes around. We will hang tough.

Margaret, Amarillo, TX
Been there, done that. In my late 40's I lost my job at GE where I'd spent 22 years. A casuality of down-sizing and reorganization. Trust me, when the Lord slams the door... He opens a window. My current job is even better than I could have imagined! Nice co-workers, great company, great benefits and a better salary. I would have never made the move if something hadn't pushed me.

Margaret, Wonder if Tech needs someone with Tom's experience :) Believe it or not, more companies nowadays will readily hire an older employee because they are dedicated and because of all the experience they can bring to their company;) There are many people who change careers in their 40's...and people who obtain new careers when they retire.
I was 40 when I found myself without a job..and I thought it was the end of the world. As a matter of fact, I was crying so hard, that I couldn't read the want ads, and my friend had to read them to me. ;) I didn't know it then, but it was really a blessing.

Margaret and Tom, Hang in there, things will work out! I'LL be praying for you. Always remember- pain creates change. Good things will happen for you.

Margaret,
I have a poster with this poem hanging in my office. It has helped me alot over the last 4 years.
Keep your chin up, good things come to those who wait.I know!

Don't Quit,
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill.
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow --
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out --
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit --
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit!

Kevin, so you too are a poem collector. This poem was given to me by an officer, when I had to make one of the hardest choices in my life...knowing that doing the right thing would end my career.

I don't know who wrote it. I still keep it posted on my fridge, the original fax that it came to me as.

I hope you gain as much strength as I did from this Margaret.

There are times in every life
when we feel hurt or alone...
But I believe that these times
when we feel lost
and all around us seems
to be falling apart
are really bridges of growth.
We struggle and try to recapture
the security of what was,
but almost in spite of ourselves
we emerge on the other side
with a new understanding,
a new awareness,
a new strength.
It is almost as though
we must go through the pain
and the struggle
in order to grow
and reach new heights.

Margaret and Tom: Here is a poem that has taken me out of some terrible things that happened to me. It was written for a Man/son but can apply to a woman/girl also:

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling

Hi everyone,My computer is o.k.now and I am so glad to be able to join all of you wonderful,caring,people. Thanks everyone of you for all of the prayers and kind messages during my husbands hospitalization and death.It means more than you will ever know. Please keep us in your prayers.

Margaret,I will pray for you and Tom during this stressful time. Bless you.

Sometime, seniority with a company dosen't mean
anything. If the company wants you out, they will do it. It's too bad they don't recognize the honest, hard working employee who has dedicated many years. Good Luck Margaret & Tom, God will protect & watch over you!!!

If life gives you dandelions, make dandelion wine.

Welcome back Fran. Have been wondering where your were, but did not post my concern out of respect for your great loss and time of mourning.

Thanks everyone, will keep you posted. There are somethings the "outside" world can't give you and that's friends, from a distance, who can support you in bad times. That's what you pasty camers do; Thanks ahead of times. I forgot to mention, I liked the robin's nest.