Ark Valley News - The View from Sunflower Gardens

The View from Sunflower Gardens
By Marilyn Bentley
Last Updated: January 22, 2015

Paperwork is in everything

Paperwork: It's always with us!

We get the daily newspaper. Then the bills come in the mail and friendly letters.

Some, near tax season, fill out forms.

Then comes the grocery list.

Some of us keep a diary or keep track of changes in weather and our finances.

Some of us send letters and birthday cards and get-well notes.

I'm glad for all the books to read in our library. Also, we enjoy the puzzles.

Many folks have computers to use to fill time.

We take out trash collections. Also, we are glad to recycle lots of paper, envelopes and containers.

Some folks keep a set of files. We have magazines and catalogs.

All of this is paperwork.

Christmas and holiday and birthday gift-wrap is more paperwork.

"Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who put them into action are priceless." Anonymous.

Verse of the week: "The Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord giveth thee." (Deuteronomy 15:4)

Kansas poets make us aware we should be thankful each day for blessings of beautiful land and fertile soil. For jobs in oil industry and aircraft industry.

We have rain, snow, sunshine and wind to celebrate in Kansas weather. It is ever changing.

We still like our coffee chats, van trips and game nights, and our potluck dinners, Bible study, exercise days, special parties and walks down the hall.

We note changing of seasons and holidays here.

The "Our Kansas" River which flows through Wichita is sometimes sandy to view and sometimes a raging torrent.

There is still a great variety of Indian names to places, counties, rivers and areas. We have Neosho, Oswego, Towanda, Comanche, Kansas, Fox, Ottawa, Miami, Osage, Cherokee, Chippewa, Shawnee, Wabaunsee and Wichita.

Soon it will be Kansas Day on Jan. 29. We are glad to be a "free state" with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. It's a great territory.

We are glad for the many churches, schools, shopping malls, great restaurants and fast-food places, too. We like to see fields of wheat, still green and thriving.

We are glad for many good roads and interstate highways. For fun shows on TV and radio and good telephone service.

We now use new calendars; we have ample boxes of Kleenex nearby and paper towels.

Save our landfills.

Paper can be a useful tool in saving poetry and in keepsakes and photo albums, and in children's books.

Also, we all like paper money.

Use paper wisely. "This is a watchbird, watching others. This is a watchbird, watching you." Anonymous.

"Be kind, anyway." Mother Teresa.