<p style="text-align:left;" align="center">Welcome with me our first guest blogger for <i>Company’s Coming</i> Thursday. Her thoughts on life resonate with me. I’m thinking they will with you too.</p>

<h2 align="center">Don’t look down!</h2>
<p align="center"><i>by Jody Payne</i></p>
Don’t look down. But it’s okay if you hold your breath while looking up. That’s what I’m doing today as I post this on Judythe’s blog.

I have to admit I have no idea why anyone would give a hoot about my opinion of anything, but I’m always willing to give an opinion.

<a href="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/jodys-blog-02-27-14.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4289" alt="Jody's blog 02-27-14" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/jodys-blog-02-27-14.jpg?w=300" width="300" height="199" /></a>Sometimes, I see myself as one of those pebbles you find on the beach.

I’ve been washed and polished and tossed ashore. Then, just as I start to feel the sun on my face, I’m thrown back into the ocean by a wave with the force of a tsunami.

However, next thing you know, there I am on the beach again basking in glorious sunlight.

Is this how you see your life?

Probably.

I do know this much; life, with all its troubles, all its anguish, is a miracle.

Yep, life is a total miracle to be enjoyed even when we’re in the deep, way over our heads and wondering if this time we’ll ever surface again.

Do this for me, for yourself and everyone you love: Vow to take time to understand you’re being cleansed and polished.

Trust me; next time you are tossed ashore, you will discover you are stronger and your life will be more beautiful than ever.

What’s going on in your life right now?

Can you remember a time when your life was at its darkest? And then, voila! You were thrown back on the shore to rest in the sun.

If you’ve never been in the depths of real trouble, never been afraid this time you’d never get a happy life again, I’m thrilled for you.

I also think you’re lying.

Tell us the truth. We’ll all feel better. I’m just sayin’…

<a href="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/jody.jpg"><img class="wp-image-4290 alignright" alt="jody" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/jody.jpg?w=150" width="150" height="150" /></a>Jody Payne is

a writer (fiction and non-fiction),

a horse woman (dressage, no less),

an animal lover (just ask her two rescue dogs Annie and Janie or my two four-legged boys, Toby and Buster),

and most of all she’s southern through and through.

Want to visit with Jody more? You can find her on FB: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jodypaynesays">https://www.facebook.com/jodypaynesays</a> or her website: <a href="http://www.jodypayne.net">www.jodypayne.net</a>