When your Cheap Divorce is Granted

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(From a Child in the Eastern States to her mother, temporarily absent from Home on a supposed visit to relative in the West.)

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When your cheap divorce is granted,

Mother, and you leave the West,

Shall I stay with you or father?

Tell me, mother, which the best?

He'll be much surprised, I fear me,

When he knows what you have filed,

And, unless you hover near me,

He'll appropriate your child.

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Mother, if the move was needful;

If the income you and he

Shared so long, at last has bred an

Incompatibility;

If you'll be his wife no longer,

When returning from the West,

Which am I to love the stronger?

Tell me, mother, which the best?

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- Robert Henry Newell (1836-1901)

Covered kitchen stools

My mother has been wanting some kitchen stools for many years. I have long thought of painting or stenciling some for her and at long last got around to it recently. I was going to paint the legs white, but the raw wood matched so well with the kitchen wood that I ended up just putting a sealer on them. Instead of stenciling the tops, I covered them with the same fabric I used on the kitchen chairs. They are just simply done with a circle of batting and the cloth gathered around the top. There is no doubt a more professional way to do them, but me being me; . . .they are as they are.

Love

To feel pride in your heart when you stand up and sing, that's not love.
To feel sad inside when the mourning bells ring, that's not love.

To enjoy your time when new places adorn, that's not love.
To feel fuzzy within when new life is born, that's not love.

To look in the eyes of someone adore, that's not love.
To feel the feeling you ne'er felt before, that's not love.

That's not love.


To free someone else and you pay the cost, that's love.
To show someone the way when you end up lost, that's love.

To give of yourself when it causes you pain, that's love.
To forgive someone else when they might do it again, that's love.

To give till it hurts, and then keep giving, too, that's love.
To give your own life to save one who hates you, that's love.

That's love.

© Daniel Lorimer - Used with permission.