Random Thoughts of Amy Potts

Be encouraged if you woke up today, someone didn't. Be encouraged if you can read this, someone can't. Be encouraged if you can smile at another, they may have forgotten how. Be encouraged if someone smiles at you, because they gave you simple joy. Be encouraged if your clothes were clean, someone has been wearing the same clothes for weeks. Be encouraged if someone expresses hate, you made them feel safe enough to be honest. Be encouraged if you can't sing a note, the song in your heart will always be heard. Be encouraged if your vision is impaired, most of us look too far ahead anyway. Be encouraged if your well of tears has run dry, someone will cry for you. It's a simple message today, because I didn't know what else to write.  I am simply grateful and somehow putting it in print makes me realize how much I really do have and how much my friends near and far need to be encouraged. Maybe my purpose in putting my thoughts out to the world is to simply

Some days I simply want to go home.  I want to sit next to my husband on the couch to watch the "Sound of Music" to hear those familiar happy tunes or maybe watch "O Brother Where Art Thou" to laugh at the same lines again and again.  Or I might wander off to my room to play piano and sing.  Whatever it is, whenever it is I just want to be home. Until two years ago that home was in Iowa.  Iowa had been my home for nearly 50 years and suddenly I found myself moving to Kansas.  Kansas where the sunflower is it's state flower.  For the Iowa farmer and those of us who grew up pulling weeds from soybean fields, the sunflower was an evil predator.  But you know what?  When I see those flowers growing wild in the ditches today, I am taken back to a place of my youth.  A place that is largely responsible for shaping who I am today.  Pierson, Iowa, at the time, had a population of about 200 people.  They may have even included our family pets in that count just to keep