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Gettin' together to smile an' rejoice,
An' eatin' an' laughin' with folks of your choice;
An' kissin' the girls an' declarin' that they
Are growin' more beautiful day after day;
Chattin' an' braggin' a bit with the men,
Buildin' the old family circle again;
Livin' the wholesome an' old-fashioned cheer,
Just for awhile at the end of the year.

Greetings fly fast as we crowd through the door
And under the old roof we gather once more
Just as we did when the youngsters were small;
Mother's a little bit grayer, that's all.
Father's a little bit older, but still
Ready to romp an' to laugh with a will.
Here we are back at the table again
Tellin' our stories as women an' men.

Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;
Oh, but we're grateful an' glad to be there.
Home from the east land an' home from the west,
Home with the folks that are dearest an' best.
Out of the sham of the cities afar
We've come for a time to be just what we are.
Here we can talk of ourselves an' be frank,
Forgettin' position an' station an' rank.

Give me the end of the year an' its fun
When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;
Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,
Let me sit down with the ones I love best,
Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,
See the old faces unblemished by wrong,
See the old table with all of its chairs
An' I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers.

Edgar Albert Guest (1881 – 1959) was a British-born American poet who became known as the People's Poet. His family moved from England to Detroit, Michigan when he was ten years old and he lived there the rest of his life. He worked for the Detroit Free
Press for 64 years. He published more than twenty volumes of poetry and was thought to have written over 12,000 poems. His poems often had an inspirational and optimistic view of everyday life. Of his poems he said, "I take simple everyday things that happen to me and I figure it happens to a lot of other people and I make simple rhymes out of them. "His popularity led NBC to produce a weekly 15-minute radio program, “Guest in Your Home,” which ran from 1931 to 1942. The Joplin Globe editorialized his passing by quoting Philip Coldren, the late editorial page editor who wrote that the key to Guest’s greatness was “that among the thousands of Guest poems, ‘there has not been a single one that has promoted wickedness or meanness or anything else but kindness and gentleness and peace and hope."

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 is a mere 10 million light-years distant in the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis. A sprawling island universe, IC 342 would otherwise be a prominent galaxy in our night sky, but it is hidden from clear view and only glimpsed through the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds along the plane of our own Milky Way galaxy. Even though IC 342's light is dimmed and reddened by intervening cosmic clouds, this sharp telescopic image traces the galaxy's own obscuring dust, young star clusters, and glowing star forming regions along spiral arms that wind far from the galaxy's core. IC 342 has undergone a recent burst of star formation activity and is close enough to have gravitationally influenced the evolution of the local group of galaxies and the Milky Way.

Photo by Steve Cannistra

What is a loss of life?
The loss of a single life
is insignificant, when compared
to thousands of lives lost during
wars, pestilence or starvation.

Is this the kind of world we
envisioned for our children
and ourselves? I think not,
yet here we are again still
engaging in these actions
due to water, oil, natural gas
or greed.
Indifference becomes intolerable.

When the Sun slips
into the Western Sea,
will my true love
return to me?

These are questions,
I wish to know,
the answer may
come too slow,

I will make
one more call,
to resolve the issue,
once and for all.

The dog ran free,
where he was at,
wanting to chase
his friend the cat

The Sun breaks
through the clouds
of the Eastern sky.

A beautiful sunrise,
brightens the morning
as another day begins.

What lot in life do wishes
which are filled with love,
have in our thoughts remaining
we may thank the one above.

Would I grant a wish
and change your life, a gift,
of love for you without
causing a rift.

For my love is lost on those,
no matter what you believe.
Life will change dramatically
when you start to grieve.

A glimpse of colors,
perhaps torn from a gown,
when I was looking
for clues and I found.

Some piece of material,
a part of a dress shoe,
captured my attention,
as I begin to pursue.

What could have happened,
to result in this, find?
I'll keep on searching,
for I need to know or remind

the others, on this team
about the need. What we must do.
Search extra hard,
to find evidence or a clue.

(to be continued)

A precipitous journey,
strolling in the rain,
and meeting someone you love,
then you will suffer the pain.

Redo your life
by boarding Life's train.
Fall in love once more,
remembering memories again.

"Your immune system requires a delicate balance to operate properly. When it’s out of balance, your immune system itself can cause disease. Healthy immune systems don’t need to be “boosted.” ... immunologists know that too much of an immune reaction could result in allergies, autoimmune disorders or chronic inflammation. On the flip side, too little of an immune reaction could result in illness or infection"  More at The Conversation ➜

Image credit: NIH NIAD (Scanning electron micrograph of a T cell)