A Story of Thanks

Stan Benally, a man whose torch burns brightly from within. To know him is to be blessed by his joy, love and compassion. His story of thanks:

Since birth I’ve been in many homes… I’ve been disown… Been homeless… Been abandon… Been told things I don’t wanna repeat… I’ve been left at boarding school for months on end before someone would come and check on me… Gone with out eating for days until I was so hungry I would eat out of the trash… Had clothes with holes and not washed for weeks…  Got so use to living life like this for the beginning of life for me… I for sure though there was no change for me…

Stan Benally, a man whose torch burns brightly from within.

Yes!!! I have stolen… I have broken into homes… I have robbed… Just to eat and bring food home… But that was the normal life I was use to… Seen so much domestic violence… Witness legs and arms being broken… Watched helplessly as people I love being hurt… Or even hung by their neck… Things I still awake too in fear…    Through this dysfunctional life and all the hardships… Just living life on a day to day life… All I had was my brother and sister… My grandma was my hero…

Then one day I was picked up by the police and was told I was gonna be put in a home where I can go to school and be watched over… Basically a home with parents… After being in so many different places to live even juvenile hall and group homes… These homes actually had dinner as a family with prayer over the food… They even studied the scriptures at 6am in the morning… This home was so different… Couldn’t believe there was a home with family that loved one another… Then I’ve live in two other homes with good teachings as well…

Thank You Kalauli family, Lusk family, Teare family for showing me love… Showing me something you only see on tv… Thank you for feeding me… Thank you for washing my clothes… Thank you for never judging me… Thank you for loving me… Thank you for teaching and helping me understand the gospel…

Thank you for giving me a chance to see life… Thank you for taking me as is…
Thank You

{With his permission copied from his facebook post, Nov. 25, 2020.]

Advertisement

CATastrophe

This afternoon my kitten managed not only to swipe my phone off the bathroom counter but with precise aim, to drown it in the toilet.
Sadly, I will be out of touch until I can get this figured out. 

Be on alert for this vicious phone destructor, surely her next path of destruction is already underway.

Veteran’s Day

It was different standing there, touching the stone memorial in the courthouse yard of my late Uncle Julian. “He was killed in the war,” was what I heard growing up. A name, a memory, a sacrifice of a man that could have been part of my life, but wasn’t.

Uncle Julian W. Farrior, buried in Normandy, the memorial in the town of Burgaw, NC. where he and my mother were born.

Feeling the sadness today, of freedom paid for by a story so short and a lifetime of experiences that didn’t happen.