The Optimist’s Roundtable

By Martha Sykes

“Count your blessings, Name them one by one, Count your many blessings, See what God hath done”. These words are from a song that we sang a lot in Sunday school over the years.

As we celebrate our flaming foliage weekend, number 74, it reminds me how blessed we are to live here, nestled among the beautiful mountains!!

As a kid, I can remember being so excited to go see the parade! So many great memories of my whole family getting together and standing by the railroad tracks on fifth street by my aunt’s house in anticipation of watching for the Mummer’s and the many floats and bands!!

Flaming Foliage is such a great time for our community as it is such a wonderful time to welcome home old friends and relatives as well as meet some really nice queen contestants, their escorts and families. Being part of the festivities is such an honor and it will be great to have an extra day this year to enjoy more time to get to know the girls.

God has blessed us with all that He has created for us to enjoy while we live out our earthly lives. I can recall a saying that “ Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, and as we celebrate another festival, may we all realize that there is a lot of beauty around us, not only in our surroundings, but also in every person that comes into our small town to join in our biggest event of the year!!

To our queen contestants, crafters, vendors, and many visitors, we welcome you to our community. May you take a little blessing with you as you go back home knowing that your visit has made a difference to our little town!!
In the midst of whatever is going on around the world, May we find peace in knowing that God blesses us every day!!