I am enjoying Henry County and my life and I love my church and being a part of our choir. We are blessed to have some new singers and an amazing pianist/ choir leader. I always pray as we get ready to lift up His words to our family in the pews. We still have a good pastor who never loses my attention as he delivers his morning sermons.

That wonderful Sunday morning blessing doesn’t cost me a dime! There are a lot more freebies in Henry County and my next favorite is checking out books at the library. I begin at the aisle where all the newest books are and then start looking for favorite author’s names. Last week I checked out some that weren’t as good as I expected, and actually had some BAD four-letter words. I dropped those into my cloth Publix library bag and returned them, unread. My favorite author is John Grisham, who never loses me plus never has any bad speech in any of his amazing books. When I had finished off my other library tomes, I don’t want to waste gas checking out more readings so I looked at my own John Grisham books and re-read Camino Winds. Don’t think I read it after I bought it, maybe because it wasn’t based on trials and lawyers, but it really amazed me. It was based on a beach town suffering after terrible winds, rain and tornadoes.

I was glad to have something to read, and that one wasn’t free – I actually paid for some of his writings, back when I had a job. I’m still downsizing, off and on, so I no longer buy books anyway. After my latest library trip down the new book aisle, I strolled over to the long rows of fiction and chose a few favorites from the James Patterson aisle, a Fern Michaels and a Danielle Steel. I am glad I grew up with a library card, which is now a neat little plastic card on my key chain. I keep a written list of new authors I’ve discovered in my library bag and check out the aisles for those writers.

I did have some Christmas fun with family and then enjoyed my New Years Day ritual of eating black eyed peas, greens, cornbread and some Curly’s BBQ pork. I actually cheated this year, by buying some canned veggies, and heated some Savannah hushpuppies for my bread. It was delicious though, and of course I rinsed the veggies to dispense with the salt. I had to do the same with the BBQ as it was loaded with sodium! I fell asleep before midnight on New Year’s Eve but did record it and was able to watch via my DVR. It was neat seeing some parades and other fun via the internet and Facebook. I thought it was interesting that my usual disc jockeys were off New Year’s Day, but I got to listen to their sister station and they play country music, which I love. I heard a lot of fireworks going off on New Year’s Eve but couldn’t see them at all. I did make my New Year’s resolutions and saw I didn’t complete my 2022 wishes.

I learned something, again, as I listened to my 92.1 Jackson radio station. DJ Don played a song by Allie Sherwell, and that 17-year-old has an awesome voice. Keep on teaching me WJGA!

I’m still praying for peace to come over this world, our nation and of course for our elected officials to do the right thing. I am very pleased with how our governor is handling things, and wish Biden would get the memo. I am VERY thankful for a safe, caring town and county too. Keep it going Henry County!

Beverly Wittler has four children, eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. She lives in McDonough.