Come Saturday morning
I’m goin’ away with my friend…
We’ll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles…
[Dory Previn]

My friend’s name is Toby. Here he is with his Saturday smile. I’ve learned a lot since he came to live with me. He learns simply from activities of daily living. When the phone rings, he jumps down from my lap because he’s learned that I’m going to get up to answer the call. If I go to the door with my keys, he runs to the car when he gets outside. If I have a letter in my hand, he leads the way to a mail box. I didn’t intentionally teach him any of that.

Who knows how a dog thinks? We often ascribe human characteristics to a pet because we interpret some behaviors as love or loyalty. I guess it doesn’t really matter. He brings out the best in me and rewards me with puppy kisses and Saturday smiles.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin.
[Matthew 6:28]

The first part of Chepstow Castle in Wales was built in 1067. I was duly impressed. The flowers didn’t seem to be though. I was enchanted that they took up squatter’s rights in the nooks and crannies of the old stonework. One yellow bouquet looked like it had been planted in a window box, but was simply hanging on to a ledge. This pink-flowered plant clung to a vertical wall. It gave a new meaning to another flower quote, “Bloom where you are planted.”

A thousand daily little things
make their offering of pleasure
to those who know how to be pleased.
[Henry Ward Beecher]

Home is the place where I can unpack my mental suitcases — the place where I can let my soul catch up with my body. I hope yours is too.

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
[Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet]

Over a decade ago, I spent four years editing and producing a magazine for an antique farm equipment association. Half of the content was about steam traction engines. Interest in this topic is world-wide and I received a magazine from England about steam engines in Great Britain. It included information about steam rallies in the British Isles — gatherings similar to the many tractor shows held in the U.S. I joked that, someday, I’d go to one of those steam rallies. I wasn’t really serious since I couldn’t imagine actually traveling to the United Kingdom, especially since it meant flying on an airplane.

Not long ago, my oldest daughter and her husband moved to Wales. Shortly after, they had a baby so I got up my courage and we went for a visit. My daughter’s mother-in-law, Jane, met the plane, showed us a bit of London and drove us to Newport, Wales. Our days were a flurry of sightseeing — Roman ruins, castles, canal boats, ships, museums. One morning, Jane announced that she and I were going someplace special. We drove through the Welsh countryside to a charming town named Abergavenny. I smelled coal smoke and commented that someone must have fired up a steam engine. I was right. She took me to the Annual Abergavenny Steam Rally. It was wonderful — a hesitant dream come true.

What touched me the most? A lady I barely knew spent her morning taking me to ooh and ah over spectacular steam engines at a country fair. In addition to seeing my daughter and holding my new grandson, Jane’s thoughtfulness was one of my best memories of that trip.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
[Winston Churchill]

My mama wore a T-shirt when she was 95 that said, “Don’t give me your attitude. I have one of my own.” I’m convinced her attitude is what made her survive to be 95. I keep having to adjust my attitude so I use my memory of her as my model. We all need a mentor.