The Cinderella Gourd....

Once upon a time there was a lowly gourd...just your ordinary garden gourd..as far back as she could remember her family members for generations had been used for bird houses...her own daddy hung high above the garden like his daddy before him...hole cut out in the middle and covered with bird poop..this was all they ever knew...this was their destiny...and from the time she was a seedling she was told it was to be hers...

But the lowly gourd refused to believe that there was no other way of life out there somewhere...she had heard the farmer's daughter read from a little book about princesses and fancy ballrooms and happily ever after life...she tried to talk to her brothers and sisters about it but they laughed her to scorn...even her cousin the pumpkin refused to turn into a carriage for her....she even heard the little girl read about a princess who slept on a pea..wow..she could do that...so she rolled over on the blackeyed pea and it might have worked if the pea hadn't screamed so loud that the farmer came out and rolled her back over...

She heard about a princess kissing a frog and he turned into a prince...well forget that! She kissed a frog once and he turned into a TOAD...had so many warts even the bullfrogs refused to sit next to him...she heard the farmer talk about a movie he saw where magical things happened in a corn field...so each day she would yell into the corn field for her fairy godmother to rescue her..and each day she heard the same husky voice answer back.."How many times I gotta tell you....I'm a scarecrow and their ain't no fairy godmother in here...you've already made me the laughing stock in front of the crows...now cut it out!

But the lowly gourd refused to give up her dreams...even the ornamental gourds got to go to holiday tables and be treated like royality....was there no hope...was she destined to hang from a pole...the day came for the opening of the Farmers Market...the garden was alive with excitement as the farmer gathered up his finest harvest and last but not least he gathered the lowly gourd and her siblings....her heart sank at the thought of hanging from a pole for the rest of her life...

The market was packed with customers..loud laughter and talk of needing rain...the stalls emptied out quickly and nearly all of her siblings had been sold....then it happened...she felt a hand softly touch her...she even heard a soft squeal....she heard the country girl say 'I'll take this one!'...the farmer begin to tell her how to cut out the middle and make a bird house but the country girl stopped him and said 'Oh no!' This one won't ever be cut..this one will be a treasure in my house!' What!!! Did the lowly gourd hear right...did the country girl say she would be a 'treasure'!!!!!! Was she her fairy godmother...was this the dream she had always hoped for...

The country girl bought the lowly gourd and even bought the last three of her sisters...she gently placed them in the trunk of her car...she took her to a place called Picketville...she took her inside the house and cleaned her up and made her feel so pretty and special...the country girl talked and laughed as she carried the little gourd all thru the house...

She placed her on tables and little chairs and talked of the holidays and how beautiful she would make the little gourd in her tablescapes...the little gourd choked back tears...what was this new feeling she had inside...something she had never felt before...

It was hope....it was joy....it was happiness...it was love...no place was off limits to the little gourd...the country girl showed her to everyone that came in the house ...even some men she kept calling the Burly Boys...and the babies...woowee the country girl had alot of babies always coming in and they were always laughter and hugs and kisses and food...lordy was there food and plenty of people always hungry..

Yes the little gourd had never felt so loved and welcomed..the country girl begin to gather things on the table and the next thing she knew...her and her sisters were being 'decorated!!!

Lordy she squealed again! There was talk about Thanksgiving and Fall leaves and oh my word don't look now but that country girl even makes a baked bean can feel special!!!!

Boy if those fancy smancy ornamental gourds could see her now....they'd shrivel up with jealousy...

This country girl sure does have alot of stuff she calls treasures...lordy if the farmer's wife ever saw that butter mold sitting under that glass thingy like a crowned jewel she'd faint..

the little gourd was in heaven...even the country girl's chickens welcomed them to their hen party..

Yes dreams do come true...the little gourd realized...she wouldn't be cut open....she wouldn't hang from a pole for the rest of her life...she would live here in Picketville....always loved and always treated special...hearing and seeing all the love and life that goes on in this country girl's home...

Sometimes in life we feel like we are destined to follow a pattern that has been handed down for generations...we came from the wrong side of the tracks...a long line of alcoholics...abusers..drug users...proverty...divorce...hatred......so we give up...accept the hand fate has supposedly given us...lose all hope...but this is AMERICA!!!! A country that was built on hope and dreams...a freedom that was paid for by the heart and soul and even the lives of many of our loved ones...you don't have to settle...never lose hope...never give up...no matter what you have been thru....you survived it ..that's all that matters....there is still a God in heaven...who still hears and answers pray....there are still happily ever afters...there are still true love stories...there are still goodness in mankind....if God has to send an angel by your way...you look for it...your whole world can turn around in a 24 hr time period...you hang on...having done all....stand!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY MY BROTHERS & SISTERS...THANK GOD WE HAVE LIVED TO SEE SUCH A DAY..THANK GOD WE CAN STAND ON THIS AMERICAN SOIL AND RAISE OUR HANDS UNASHAMED AND CALL HIS NAME....MUCH LOVE AND BLESSINGS TO YOU AND YOURS....Love you guys...Picket