Joycelyn Lacy (Somerville)

Margie McRae (Reed)

Kenneth Davis

BIRTH ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS
 TO 
LORETTA LUSBY THORPE

     There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul. There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.

~Edith Wharton~

Kenneth Davis

    T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N  

TODAYS WORD - THANKSGIVING

     What choices are you making in your perception of the events around you? We choose how we view our times. There is a pinch of pessimism in our culture now. Counter it with small acts of optimism. Pick up a piece of litter that isn't yours. Show some extra grace on the freeway. Give to your food bank. Smile at a child who is in your way. Help someone you know. Help someone you don't know. The accumulation of small, optimistic acts produces quality in our culture and in your life. Our culture resonates in tense times to individual acts of grace. What's your choice? 
     We have so much, yet many Americans feel dissatisfied. Somehow the full table, symbol of abundance to the pilgrims, is not enough. We yearn for something far beyond the material satisfaction. Find your place in history this Thanksgiving by stretching beyond your table. Celebrate your survival by offering peace and sharing with your neighbors. Make the shift from an illogical feeling of lack to the recognition of abundance. Invite the Spirit to your feast and prepare to feed the world.

~Jennifer James~

IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER

Joycelyn Lacy (Somerville)

Margie McRae (Reed)

Kenneth Davis

  T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N  

TODAYS WORD - THANKFUL

     Life is so great in its opportunities and possibilities, that you should rise confidently above the inevitable trifles incident to daily contact with the world. Life is too precious to be sacrificed for the nonessential and transient. . . . Ignore the inconsequential. Today is the day in which to attempt and achieve something worthwhile. To get the most out of your life, plant in your mind seeds of constructive power that will yield fruitful results. The great things you intend to do some time must have a beginning if they are ever to be done, so begin something worthwhile today.
     New habits make new horizons. Silently and imperceptibly, you are forming habits which will ultimately determine the degree of your happiness and success. Closely guard the quality of your thoughts, that they may lead to right habits and thence to right living. Recognize and use such supreme qualities as courage, faith, humility, loyalty, temperance, and integrity. Let your intentions be good - embodied in good thoughts, cheerful words, and unselfish deeds - and the world will be to you a bright and happy place in which to work and play and serve.
     This is the time to speak the word of appreciation. Be grateful for the joy of life. Be glad for the privilege of work. Be thankful for the opportunity to give and serve. Good work is the great character-builder, the sweetener of life, the maker of destiny. Let the spirit of your work be right, and whether your task be great or small you will then have the satisfaction of knowing it is worthwhile.

~Grenville Kleiser~

WELCOME TO 
SMOOTH
 CONTEMPORARY JAZZ 
FRIDAYS

Kenneth Davis

   T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N 
TODAYS WORDS - EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE

     When we are being compassionate, we consider another's circumstance with love rather than judgement... To be compassionate is to move into the right here, right now with an open heart consciousness and a willingness to be supportive. We can all learn that we can take full responsibility for what thoughts we are thinking and what emotional circuitry we are feeling. Knowing this and acting on this, can lead us into feeling a wonderful sense of well-being and peacefulness. My favorite definition of fear is: False Expectations Appearing Real.
     I'm an advocate for whole brain thinking. I'm not an advocate for the right brain or the left brain. The two hemispheres of the brain are two very different places and they don't share any cell bodies. They are completely separate entities. Can we think more than one thought at the same time? Most of us know we can't do that. Both hemispheres are always working all of the time. But one of them is always dominant.
     For me, it's really easy to be kind to others when I remember that none of us came into this world with a manual about how to get it all right. We are ultimately a product of our biology and environment. Consequently, I choose to be compassionate with others when I consider how much painful emotional baggage we are biologically programmed to carry around. I recognize that mistakes will be made, but this does not mean that I need to either victimize myself or take your actions and mistakes personally. Your stuff is your stuff, and my stuff is my stuff. The better we understand the choices we have been making, either consciously or unconsciously, the more say we will have in the world we create. Neurocircuitry may be neurocircuitry, but we don't have to run on automatic.

Kenneth Davis

  SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns

November 26, 2023: I have sanctified and set you aside for Myself, separated from the world and worldly values to spiritual and eternal values. I am raising up a people whose hearts wholly belong to Me without compromise or hypocrisy. You are called by My name and no other. Be one with Me, says the Lord. Isaiah 43:7 Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.

   T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N   
TODAYS WORD - VALUES

     You can't be who you are going to be and who you used to be at the same time. Being angry is human. Staying angry is foolish. Sometimes what makes us insecure and vulnerable becomes the fuel we need to be overachievers. The antidote for a snakebite is made from the poison, and the thing that made you go backward is the same force that will push you forward. 
    There are no college courses to build up self-esteem or high school or elementary school. If you don't get those values at a early age, nurtured in your home, you don't get them. Real value isn’t in what you own, drive, wear or live. The greater value is found in love and life, health and strength, friends and family! It is your passion that empowers you to be able to do that thing you were created to do.
     I think it is important that we rebuild an atmosphere of forgiveness and civility in every aspect of our lives. When you make a decision to forgive it's a decision that you have to make intellectually. We think that forgiveness is weakness, but it's absolutely not; it takes a very strong person to forgive. We develop our propensity to forgive or not to forgive by what we see illustrated at the early ages of our development. If you learn how to forgive others for not being strong, then people can learn how to forgive you for your own issues.
     I have certain standards for myself so if something drops beneath that standard or if the opportunity doesn't fit who I am authentically at my core - I don't invest time where my brand isn't respected or where what I have to offer isn't appreciated. So though there are many things I would have done differently, I submit to God's sovereignty and His purpose in my life and I thank Him that He brought me the way He brought me and gave me what He gave me when He thought I could handle it. I don't think that you can let the storms of life overwhelm you. When you do that, you are no better than the craziness that caused you to be under attack. Resist your fear; fear will never lead to you a positive end. Go for your faith and what you believe.

Kenneth Davis

  T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N  

TODAYS WORDS - ONE DAY AT A TIME

     I'm really not tailored for responsibility. My teacher said I would either be a hoodlum, or a great entertainer. If anything, I consider myself non-violent, I'm from the hippy era, peace, love, groovy. I mean, Rick James was just a man-made image, the image I created. Just trying to live Rick James almost killed me. I'm a long way from Ike Turner. I had always been a free spirit and always gotten what I wanted. I was angry about the fact that my father would beat my mother on a daily basis, that my mother would take it in turn and beat on me. I was an abused child. I was mad about all those things, very bitter and very angry. Whether you're rich or poor, life's still cold-blooded.

     After I saw Kiss on stage, I wanted my show to look like the fourth of July. The persona of Rick James was wild and crazy, sex, drugs and rock and roll. KISS hammered home the importance of high drama...I decided to design my show with the same goal; I wanted my fans to remember my show for the rest of their lives. 
     I wanted to play the Apollo because I didn't think I was going to be on the earth long. I didn't even think I would make it that long. I thought I would drug overdose, like Jimi Hendrix. I'm trying to change the root of funk, trying to make it more progressive, more melodic and more lyrically structured.

     I thank God every day to even be here. I'm too old to do crazy things anymore. I'm finally locked into the now, and it's great. If I told you Jesus Christ was black, you're going to be afraid of me because I'm telling you the truth. That's where I always come from. I'm not part of the Hollywood scene. I don't run around with 30 women. I have a very calm household. I'm surrounded by my grandkids and wonderful friends, and I consider myself very lucky. I believe everything happens under God's plan anyway. I just live one day at a time.

IT'S TIME FOR 
JUST JOKING MONDAYS

Joycelyn Lacy (Somerville)

Kenneth Davis

SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns

     November 28, 2023: This is a time to be prudent with your resources. I speak of your time, energy, and finances. Take care to not overestimate or extend beyond what is reasonable. Set your parameters and do what you can to stay within those boundaries. You will be glad you did. Proverbs 22:1-3 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. The rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all. A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.

T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N
TODAYS WORD - PRUDENT

     Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. When anger enters the mind, wisdom departs. If we live in peace ourselves, we in turn may bring peace to others. A peaceable man does more good than a learned one. If you want to learn something that will really help you, learn to see yourself as God sees you and not as you see yourself in the distorted mirror of your own self-importance. Always keep a good distance between yourself and lying, quarreling, detracting, insulting and gossip. The person who can do that will some day learn to enjoy the silence.
     He has great tranquility of heart, who cares neither for the praises, nor the fault-finding of men. He will easily be content and pacified, whose conscience is pure. You are not holier if you are praised, nor the more worthless if you are found fault with. What you are, that you are; neither by word can you be made greater than what you are in the sight of God. Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be.
     Forasmuch as many people study more, to have knowledge, than to live well, therefore ofttimes they err and bring forth little fruit or none. Whatever you do, do it with intelligence, and keep the end in view. It is better to have but little knowledge with humility and understanding, than great learning which might make you proud. For a person's merits are not to be estimated by having many visions, or by knowledge of the bible, or by being placed in a higher position; but by being grounded in true humility, and by seeking always, purely, and entirely, the honor of God. Love is active and sincere, courageous, patient, faithful, prudent and manly.

Kenneth Davis

  T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N  
TODAYS WORD - WAVERING

     If thou art master to thyself, circumstances shall harm thee little. There is a limit to enjoyment, though the sources of wealth be boundless. And the choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation. The wise man knoweth where to stop, as he runneth in the race of fortune, for experience of old hath taught him, that happiness lingered midway; and many in hot pursuit have hasted to the goal of wealth. But have lost, as they ran, those apples of gold--the mind and the power to enjoy it.
     How beautiful is modesty! It winneth upon all beholders; but a word or a glance may destroy the pure love that should have been for thee. Spurn not a seeming error, but dig below its surface for the truth. Life is as the current spark on the miner's wheel of flints; while it spinneth, there is light; stop it, all is darkness.. 
     Man liveth from hour to hour, and knoweth not what may happen. Influences circle him on all sides, and yet must he answer for his actions. For the being that is master of himself, bendeth events to his will, but a slave to selfish passions is the wavering creature of circumstance.

WELLNESS WEDNESDAY
 
Is Peanut Butter Good for People with Diabetes?
Story by Carrie Madormo, RN https://www.tasteofhome.com/

     Rich and creamy with the right amount of salty sweetness, peanut butter is a staple for a reason. It adds a punch of protein to quick snacks and keeps you full until dinnertime. It's also a high-calorie food, so it can be confusing for people with diabetes. Here are a few tips to keep in mind before scooping up a spoonful of healthy peanut butter.
Is peanut butter safe for diabetics?
     Yes, in moderation. Natural peanut butter is considered safe for people with diabetes. It's best to avoid the "low-fat" varieties of peanut butter. They sound healthy—but most brands simply add more sugar to make up for less fat. This can spike blood sugar levels and leads to more daily carbohydrates. Studies have shown that when people with type 2 diabetes follow a low-carb diet, they can reap health benefits from adding peanuts to their diets. By replacing certain foods with peanuts or natural peanut butter, it's possible to lose weight, improve blood sugar control and regulate the amount of fat in the blood (also known as blood lipid level).
     Peanut butter also helps control blood sugar in those who don't have diabetes. In fact, eating peanut butter may even lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Peanut butter is rich in unsaturated fats that help the body regulate insulin and blood sugar levels. Peanuts are also rich in magnesium. Research shows that diets rich in magnesium can be protective against diabetes.
Peanut Butter Nutrition Facts
     Peanut butter can get a bad rap for being high in calories. A two-tablespoon serving of peanut butter contains about 188 calories, 7.7 grams of protein, 6.9 grams of carbohydrates and 2.4 grams of saturated fat. When enjoyed in moderation, peanut butter can be a healthy part of your diabetes-friendly meal plan.
Will peanut butter raise blood sugar?
     No, natural peanut butter will not raise blood sugar. In fact, it could stabilize your numbers. A 2018 study found that eating two tablespoons of peanut butter with white bread and apple juice led to a significantly lower blood glucose spike when compared with white bread and juice alone. The protein and healthy fats in peanut butter help our bodies avoid a blood sugar spike (and eventual crash).
     Adding peanut butter to your breakfast routine may aid in blood sugar control throughout the day. A 2012 study found that when women with obesity ate peanuts or peanut butter in the morning, they were more likely to be able to manage their blood sugar levels throughout the day.
Best Peanut Butter for Diabetics
     Peanut butter is a high-calorie food, so it's important to enjoy in moderation. Try replacing some refined carbs or processed meats with peanut butter. This will help avoid adding too many calories to your healthy eating plan. When choosing peanut butter at the store, opt for a natural variety with as few ingredients as possible. Avoid any brands that add sugar or other sweeteners. Ditch any low-fat varieties because they are typically loaded with sugar. Some brands use partially hydrogenated oils in their peanut butter. These oils have been linked to heart disease, so skip those as well.
How to eat peanut butter if you have diabetes
     You can eat peanut butter with all kinds of healthy diabetes snacks, like spreading peanut butter on whole wheat toast or using peanut butter as a complimentary dip for green apple slices. For breakfast, add a spoonful into a smoothie bowl or yogurt parfait for a fulfilling meal that'll keep you full until lunchtime.

Kenneth Davis

  T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N  
TODAYS WORD - CONJECTURE

     It is only in exceptional moods that we realize how wonderful are the commonest experiences of life. It seems to me sometimes that these experiences have an "inner" side, as well as the outer side we normally perceive. At such moments one suddenly sees everything with new eyes; one feels on the brink of some great revelation. It is as if we caught a glimpse of some incredibly beautiful world that lies silently about us all the time. We have reached one of the great stages in the adventure of thought … We are required to see the universe with new eyes, and it is because it makes such demands and also holds out the promise of realizing them, that the study of science is so supremely worthwhile.
     The hypothesis that life has developed from inorganic matter is, at present, still an article of faith. The mathematician is entirely free, within the limits of the imagination, to construct what worlds he pleases. It is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware of what we are, and therefore of what the universe in which we live really is. And since mathematics, in its own way, also performs this function, it is not only aesthetically charming but profoundly significant. It is an art, and a great art.
     If a man in order to shoot a hare, were to discharge thousands of guns on a great moor in all possible directions; if in order to get into a locked room, he were to buy ten thousand casual keys, and try them all; if, in order to have a house, he were to build a town, and leave all the other houses to wind and weather - assuredly no one would call such proceedings purposeful and still less would anyone conjecture behind these proceedings a higher wisdom, unrevealed reasons, and superior prudence. It is much easier to make measurements than to know exactly what you are measuring.

IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER

Kenneth Davis

  T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N   
TODAYS WORD - CIRCUMSTANCES

     If you could only play a record once, imagine the intensity you’d have to bring into the listening. Personally, I've found one of the more stimulating ways of playing in recent times has been to kind of move outside the free improvised area and work with people who are probably improvisers, but they have a particular way of working. I like duos with percussionists. I like the songs that percussionists sing. Even if it is difficult playing with other people - sometimes it's great, sometimes it isn't, but that is kind of the point of it. It loses its point playing solo.
     Free improvisation, in addition to being a highly skilled musical craft, is open to use by almost anyone - beginners, children, and non-musicians. Diversity is its most consistent characteristic....The characteristics of freely improvised music are established only by the sonic-musical identity of the person or persons playing it. I'm not much into current electronic stuff, what I think of as lounge electronics, mumbling electronics.
     Undeniably, the audience for improvisation, good or bad, active or passive, sympathetic or hostile, has a power that no other audience has. It can affect the creation of that which is being witnessed. And perhaps because of that possibility the audience for improvisation has a degree of intimacy with the music that is not achieved in any other situation. Playing music is not really susceptible to theory much. Circumstances affect it so much. I think the blues is fine for blues players, but free blues has never made much sense to me.

WELCOME TO 
SMOOTH
 CONTEMPORARY JAZZ 
FRIDAYS

James Stone

Kenneth Davis

DON'T FORGET TO RSVP

Kenneth Davis

  T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N   
TODAYS WORD - DISTRACTION

     When you were young, you thought time was a burden, something to be discharged as fast as possible so you could be grown-up. But it was such a bait-n-switch – when you were an adult, you came to realize that minutes and hours were the single most precious thing you had. As much as we have free choice, absolute destiny is immutable. What is meant to happen does, through one measure or another. Life has gotten in the way of our life.
     People going in the wrong direction will get like that. Round pegs just don't fit in square holes. But every once in a while, from out of the blue, someone reaches the quiet place where you spend your private time and changes the way you see yourself. Humans are threatened by anything different, and their response is to fight. They're bullies, picking on the weak, cowering from the strong. Fear of change was a weakness. Some things are destined to be -- it just takes us a couple of tries to get there. 
     There comes a time in everyone’s life when they realize that in spite of how hard they’d been running from themselves, everywhere they went, there they were: Addictions and compulsions were nothing but marching bands of distraction, masking truths that were unpleasant, but ultimately undeniable.

Kenneth Davis

BIRTH ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS
 TO 
LAVONE COHEN BAUCHA

     The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. I was forced to live far beyond my years when just a child, now I have reversed the order and I intend to remain young indefinitely.
     Today is a new day.You will get out of it just what you put into it. If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You can start over any moment you choose.

~Mary Pickford~

Joycelyn Lacy (Somerville)

Estella Wright (Mayhue-Greer)

It is that time of year!

Kenneth Davis

Extending apologies to you all. The Class Creator Website was under maintenance, all day. Your administrators had no way to inform you. However, the show must go on....

SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns

     December 3, 2023: Cast down every thought that rises up to bring you into condemnation, and then position yourself under the protection and strength of spiritual truth. Those thoughts against yourself are counterproductive to your spiritual growth and well-being. If there is truly a need to repent do so, but do not allow yourself to get stuck in things of the past. 1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.

T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N 
TODAYS WORD - PROTECTION

     Be slow to speak, and only after having first listened quietly, so that you may understand the meaning, leanings, and wishes of those who do speak. Thus, you will better know when to speak and when to be silent. Try to keep your soul always in peace and quiet, always ready for whatever our Lord may wish to work in you. It is certainly a higher virtue of the soul, and a greater grace, to be able to enjoy the Lord in different times and different places than in only one.
     In the matter of learning, the difference between the earnest and the careless student stands out clearly. The same holds true in the mastering of passion and the weaknesses to which our nature is subject, as in the acquiring of virtue. We should love the body insofar as it is obedient and helpful to the soul, since the soul, with the body's help and service, is better disposed for the service and praise of our Creator and Lord. It is not the soul alone that should be healthy; if the mind is healthy in a healthy body, all will be healthy and much better prepared to give God greater service.
     Experience proves that in this life peace and satisfaction are had, not by the listless but by those who are fervent in God's service. And rightly so. For in their effort to overcome themselves and to rid themselves of self-love, they rid themselves of the roots of all passion and unrest. The more completely we focus our attention on our Creator and Lord, the less chance there is of our being distracted by creatures. Occupy yourself in beholding and bewailing your own imperfections rather than contemplating the imperfections of others. May the perfect grace and eternal love of Christ our Lord be our never-failing protection and help.

Kenneth Davis

T H O U G H T   F O R   C O N S I D E R A T I O N
TODAYS WORDS - FORGE AHEAD

          Success is doing the best you possibly can with what you've been given. To never aspire to excellence means to never fully comprehend the amount of work required to achieve it. There are an alarming number of wealthy failures in the world today. Most people who succeed in life have no clue that what they are trying to achieve is impossible. Why waste precious time and energy trying to be someone you're not when you can put it to much better use simply being yourself? Learn to put your troubles in your pocket, then leave them there when you do your laundry.
     As we age, the bright light of youth either burns out or burns stronger - it's our choice. ​Be who you were born to be - it's what living things do. Live the truth and everything else will fall into place. Some people burn all of their energy helping themselves, while some use all of it helping others. The happiest among us do a little of both. Take a step toward your dream today. No matter how tiny the step, it will give you the energy and desire to take another.
     ​​When suddenly you find yourself on the wrong highway, perhaps it's time for a new job, or some new friends. It's your life - live it. Don't judge people you don't know. You have no idea what they've been through, and you may waste an opportunity to make a new friend. To go where you're wishing you could go, first you must tie your shoes and step off the porch. When the road you're on begins to crumble, forge ahead - better it crumbles behind you than ahead of you. People who believe in ghosts think that dead people can walk through locked doors. Nonsense - they have to use a key like the rest of us.

   John Avery 

     Avery attended and played football at Asheville High School in Asheville, North Carolina and, following graduation, continued his playing career at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi. After two years at Northwest Mississippi Community College, Avery enrolled at the University of Mississippi. 

IT'S TIME FOR 
JUST JOKING MONDAYS

Kenneth Davis

BIRTH ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS 
TO
 ROBERT PHIFER

     Today is unique! It has never occurred and it will never be repeated. At midnight it will end, quietly, suddenly, totally. Forever. But the hours between now and then are opportunities with eternal possibilities. 
     The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Don't get older; get better: Live realistically. Give generously. Adapt willingly. Trust fearlessly. Rejoice daily.

~Charles R. Swindoll~

Joycelyn Lacy (Somerville)