A Kinston friend mentioned in a sermon that the old fellow gout messes with him sometime.  Years ago a retired nurse, Prudie Joseph,  suggested that I get some cherry juice to give my father for his bout with gout. It proved to be a magic elixir.  Of course, he didn't want to drink the unsweetened kind as recommended.  So he drank the better tasting one. Still it helped.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Normally, what is on the inside of a person will somehow reveal itself.  We just have to pay attention. We cannot rule out little hints of a person's true character. My mother used to say, "If you squeeze a lemon, lemon will come out."  In other words, don't squeeze a pineapple or a pear and expect to get a cup full of grape juice. Popeye said I yam what I yam.

I want to share with you a column written some time back because the person I wrote about was just funeralized on August 8th at Sharon Church in Kinston.

I had planned to write about something else today, but there was such an outpouring of support about my last column that I had to pivot. More people could identify with misplacing things than I expected. Like me, some folk were feeling like their possessions had simply gone puff into thin air without rhyme or reason. Their things, too, were successfully hiding wherever they were.

Many years ago, when my adult cousin was a teenager, she told me that I had influenced her to put things in their place. She said I had encouraged her to let all of her things have a designated place and to always put them there. That way, our rooms will be organized and neat. And, moreover, we won't have to waste time looking for misplaced items.

It's a challenge in this busy world to pause from daily routines and just be still. Even when we schedule a vacation, we scurry to pack everything we may need, and then we scurry to get to our destination. Then we scurry to see all the sights. And finally, we scurry back home to begin our old daily routines again.