Subtly is a great skill if you can make it work.  Unfortunately for me it is a skill I was never any good at.   Like the song says subtle as a chain saw, that is me I just put it out there and more then once that has gotten me into trouble.   I can be blunt, direct, brutally honest, sarcastic and down right aggravating at some times, but subtle is something I do not do well.  

     Some people can hint at something and people will correct the problem, but that does not work for me.   I say things as I see them, and sometimes people do not like the way I word things.   I have had to be assertive all my life if I felt I was right, and the fact of the matter is 80% of the time I am right.   It is the other 20% when I am wrong and I think I am right that makes people mad.

   My Aunt Gin and I once had words because she did not like how I said something to her. She said I had an authoritative tone in my voice and that I should not speak like that.   The irony of the situation is I learned that manner of speech from her.  Everything she ever said she said like she knew she was right and mom said I was just like her. lol   So if anyone is looking for subtly from me they are looking the wrong place.

I have been thinking about the past a lot lately.   I had a friend in the past who taught me a lot about how to be a good td.   She said if you make it and mass it they will come.   Before I met her I did not know how valuable a good messenger list was to a good td.   She would say if they know you have a tourney they will come play.   If you do not mass it they do not know you are here.   Before that I was one of those tds that would just sit in the room and wait for people to tome to the room.   Fact is if people know you are running a tourney they will come play.   I have seen many days a td would sit in a room with 3 in a tourney and not get a 4th for hrs., when all they needed to do to get the 4th was pm someone on their friend's list, and let them know there was a tourney up.   If we would all just pm a friend instead of setting around waiting for people to come to us more tourneys would be ran.   We should all earn from the lessons of the past to improve our future.

      I have made this remark many times many paces and I firmly believe it.   Everyone is entitled to their own little piece of happy in this world.  If they can find it.   At this time of year it becomes clear so many people try to fake they are happy in an attempt to generate the feeling.   The problem with that is happy is not a time of year, or a place you can go.   Happy is a feeling that lives within your heart.   If you have it, it is with you no mater where you go, and no matter what time of year it is.   Some times forces will work to try to take your happy away, but what these outside forces do not realize is, they can not ever touch your happy if you do not allow them into your heart.   We should all have a little happy for ourselves, but sometimes we let it slip away from us.  

     I was watching an old TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL rerun this morning.  Have any of you ever seen this?  It is a show about angles that walk among us.   They were singing a song on it today, and one of the lines dealt with being a believer and turning your back on the deceiver.   That line touched me, because so many of us do not know how to do that.   We fall for the deception sent to us by the devil and in doing so allow our happy in our hearts to slip away from us.  

     If I had just one wish to be granted to everyone this holiday season and all year round it would be that everyone find their little piece of happy and hold it tight within their hearts for every, because we only get one go around in this world.   Some of you may know I have a nephew who passed away a couple weeks before his birthday in September from a long battle with cancer.   He fought it 4 times and won 3 of the times.   The fourth time the cancer won.   I am not telling you all this to bum you out.   The reason I am telling you this is right up till his last day my nephew did what made him happy.   Just 2 days before his death, all though he could hardly walk he wanted to go to the races with his brother.  His brother is a race car driver.   His brother and his family did everything they had to do to make it happen, and if anyone sees my nieces face book page they will see a picture on it tagged off to the races.   It was taken that very race day, and stands as a testament to never letting go of what makes you happy no matter how bad things get.   My nephew knew he was going to die and still he held onto his happy till the last.   I have never seen a cancer patient with as much life in him as my nephew.   For a long time he would take his chemo and  then go to work right after, but the day came when he could no longer do it.   His body was shutting down but the love of life and the happy in his heart never left him.   So if there is one thing I can wish for you all it is that you hold onto your happy when you find it as hard as my nephew held onto his.   Never let anyone or anything take it from you .

   HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON.   And if you have not found your happy yet do not stop looking it is out there waiting for you to allow it into your heart.

     Have you been watching the story from Thailand about that soccer team trapped in a cave for nearly 2 weeks so far?   I had been getting bits and pieces of it as it went along,, and I really got to ask WHAT THE HELL WAS THEIR COACH THINKING?   He took the kids into a cave that has been know to flood in the rainy season.   I personally would not go 2 miles into a cave in any season.   This is a soccer team not a cave exploration team.   They had no business that deep in a cave or even in the cave at all in the rainy season.   If I was these kids parents I would be a wreck with worry.   When you sign a child up for a sport you never think it will end up with them being trapped for weeks inside and underground cave with no food and little air.   I think we should all pray for them that they  get out of this cave alive and as healthy as possible.   These poor kids will probably need therapy after this.   I now I would .   Of Corse  I would not be in this position as I never go into caves,   I am betting after this many of these children will not go into another cave again either.

     I do not know maybe I missed where they told , but I am unclear why they could not have drilled a shaft somewhere  closer to where the children are so they would not need to swim so far to get to freedom.    I know originally they had talked about maybe leaving them there till the water subsided.   That would have been a horrible solutions on so many levels .   Thank God they were found.   That fare in the cave this could have ended much worse then it already is.   I just hope they get them all out and they all recover.   It is sad about the diver who died when he ran out of oxygen on his way out of the cave.   To say he died a hero is little consolation to his family, they can take comfort in the fact he died trying to save children., but that is of little comfort when you have lost a love one, and it did not need to happen.  If that coach had just used common sense and stayed away from caves that were know to flood, no one would have needed to try to save them and that diver would still be alive.   

     It is one thing to die when it is our time or when it is unavoidable, but I really hate it when someone's death could have been prevented.   I just hope everyone learns from this.   Always know where you are going and what the weather will be and always take plenty of supplies with you even if you do not think you will be gone long.  The fact of the matter is people love to explore the world, but sometimes things turn dangerous, and being prepared could mean the difference in being alive or dead the next day.  

     I really think it is messed up that these young children are trapped in a cave for weeks because the adult who was supposed to watch over them decided to take them cave exploring in the rainy season.