Choosing to See the Bright Side
Facing Tall Grass Trials
When I walk in my neighborhood, there’s a stretch of road with grass that rarely gets mowed. There’s no way around that area. I simply have to walk by it to get home, wondering the entire time what scary creatures may be lurking in it. I have no trouble picturing a rattle snake coiled up, … Continue reading
Don’t Neglect the Rehab
A few years back, my daddy had knee replacement surgery. It was a long and painful road for him to get to that point. He had considerable pain in his knee for quite some time, but it was a pain he was familiar with. The surgery was a different kind of pain altogether and it … Continue reading
Sea Turtle Lessons
While my family was vacationing recently, a shop owner asked us if we were going to attend the sea turtle release. We hadn’t heard anything about it. She told us that a sea turtle had been injured by a boat propeller five years earlier and that she had been in rehab at the Pittsburgh Zoo. … Continue reading
Little Bitty Pieces
My son is going to be a freshman in high school next year. He is taking an honors literature class and the folks in charge of that class have decided that he needs to have a reading assignment over the summer. Don’t even get me started on my feelings about the school’s intrusion into my … Continue reading
Breaking Free from the Herd
My daughter attends a very high achieving high school. It gets ranked nationally each year. The SAT scores are high and there are a huge number of kids who take Advance Placement courses or AP for short. The teachers and administrators really push these classes and harp on the fact that the kids can actually … Continue reading
Dandelion Faith
When children see a dandelion, they often see a wish for the making. They will blow on all of those little white seeds and make a wish. When adults see a dandelion, they often see a weed that must be killed at all costs. Beauty, I suppose, is in the eye of the beholder. The … Continue reading
The Healing Power of Kindness
We had to have our dog, Sadie, put to sleep on Good Friday. It’s taken me until now to be able to write about it. It wasn’t completely unexpected. She was a hundred fifteen pound dog and she was fourteen years old. She had long outlived her life expectancy. Still, she was healthy and although … Continue reading
And a Child Shall Lead Them
Facebook has been all abuzz with news of the rioting in Baltimore, Maryland. A suspect died in police custody and the streets filled up with angry protestors bent on revenge and violence. Houses and businesses were destroyed. Buildings were burned. Rocks and bricks were thrown at the police who were trying to keep order. Monday … Continue reading
A Technology Black Out
Last night while we were watching television, our cable froze. It was a riveting show too, a Simpson’s rerun. I went ahead and did all of the troubleshooting tasks, unplugged the box, etc… and still nothing happened. I went upstairs and asked my daughter if her cable was working. It wasn’t. I was going to … Continue reading
Simply Saying Thanks
Have you ever had one of those days that was pretty close to perfect, where everything seemed to go right, every light in your path was green? I had a day like that yesterday. I was reminded of the television commercial that was out several years ago where it was a character named Bob’s day. … Continue reading