It’s Easter Sunday and there is light. Let’s set aside dark and heavy for a day, and focus on light instead.
Last night, O called attention to the lake shore and the evening’s sunset. B and I walked to the shoreline to watch the sun set over the lake together with O.
I have been taking sunset pictures for longer than I can remember. Continue reading light
It’s Good Friday. As i reflect on the past few weeks I am grateful there is a much more good than bad. of course, we are still in lockdown which really means we should stay home and not gather in large groups but, we are healthy and safe.
Orchestrate: To arrange or control the elements of, as to achieve a desired overall effect.
Our schools are shuttered until April 30th, at least until April 30th. Several states have closed schools for the academic year, but Illinois has not. Yesterday, I spoke with my colleagues and my principal via Zoom and while it’s great to see them and talk with them, it doesn’t replace the spontaneous interactions of popping next door into their classroom or the conversation at the end of the day about something amazing a student did or said, or simply asking what my colleagues were looking forward to over their long three day weekend. I miss the girl in my last class of the day who always asked me what I was doing over the weekend. That’s what I miss the most.
After the first couple of weeks of quarantine and e-Learning, spring break started. It was an eerie beginning for a spring break. Our plans to travel to the Florida Keys and warm weather were cancelled by the virus, so we decided to travel to our lake home in Michigan to visit for a couple of days. We were only planning to visit for a couple of days so we took what we needed to survive for a few days – clothes and enough food for the five of us (me, my wife, daughter, and our two puppies) to subsist without contacting the local population.
The next day we spring cleaned the yard and moved purposefully – yard work and a long walk. Continue reading Orchestrate: Our Lake
The sun is shining brightly today. It was cold this morning, but the sun melted the early morning frost and has warmed the open spaces.
The lake ice is melting and the open space between the shoreline and the ice has more than doubled since Sunday. Soon the ice will be gone, a distant memory, until next fall when it reclaims the lake for another winter. Once the ice melts, the lake will be open for summer.
Our Brittany puppy, Fern, tested the waters wading into the lake along the shore up to her chest earlier. She discovered how cold the water was and was quickly back ashore. The earliest I’ve been in the water is late May and there is a chill even then. The lake is at its warmest in early August and the docks and lifts come out Labor Day weekend.
It’s been a great day and it there is more in the day to come.
Making the days Count, especially when the sun shines and the lake is melting for the season.
Where are you today?
Today’s post is inspired by the daily prompt at WordPress’ Inspiration – Open. In these days of lockdowns, closures, and physical distancing, what does Open mean to you?
It’s the third week of self-quarantine and I am as hopeful as I was when I penned my last post, Abundance.
Yes, I AM hopeful. Positive. Confident. Certain.
When I started writing and blogging at Making the days Count almost ten years ago, it was a choice. It was a choice to make my day better every day, even when I failed or fell, or came up short. I chose to look at the ways I could do better. I am still learning.
After I clicked PUBLISH on Abundance, I called upstairs to my wife, B,
“Church at 11,” I made another cup of coffee and went upstairs showered and dressed for church.
It was a bright sunny day. It was a big blue cloudless sky. When I started the car, Coldplay’s song “Everything’s not lost” began to play.
My car’s radio and my iPhone connect and sometimes a song from iTunes begins to play when the car starts. iTunes selects a random song, most of the time I stop the music, that morning I let the song play.
….If you ever feel neglected
If you think all is lost
I’ll be counting up my demons yeah
Hoping everything’s not lost
The church we attend is a short drive and the song, “Everything’s not lost,” was almost over when I parked the car. Chris Martin crooned,
I don’t let it stand in our way
‘Cause my head just hates when I think of
The things that I shouldn’t have done
But life is for living, we all know
And I don’t wanna live it alone
That Sunday’s church service was uplifting, and I left church knowing that everything’s not lost
Since that service on the Ides of March, we’ve been to e-church and we will continue to do so until the COVID19 crisis is over.
In full disclosure, I started writing this post yesterday, and I am finishing it today on Wednesday. I am not playing an April Fool joke on you by posting a Tuesday’s Tune on Wednesday. Continue reading Tuesday’s Tune – Everything’s not lost
It has been a strange week, rather it’s been a challenging year or so.
A week ago, I was in Mississippi helping my elderly stepmother transition from her home to an assisted living facility. I spent almost half of February in Mississippi. My last two posts were from or about my trips to encourage and assist my stepmother.
Even further back, one year ago I was mourning my mother who passed away after a brief illness on March 2, 2019. I wrote about it last year in my post, Where do I start?
However, my church or rather my faith has inspired this morning’s post. My mother was a woman of faith – she had to be. Raising three boys single-handedly – all born within three years of each other and getting all three of to adulthood could be considered a miracle. But she had help, her faith. For the past several years, my church has asked parishioners to write a Lenten reflection to be shared daily. This past Tuesday morning, this year’s post landed in my In box and I re-read my Lenten reflection. It is my second piece of published writing. My first piece was published in 2017 – you can read (or re-read) it here.
I wrote the reflection while sitting in my stepmother’s hospital room glancing out the window at the vase of yellow daffodils. It seems as if the theme of yellow has been in my life subtly for several years. Below is my Lenten Refection.
God will provide
Last spring when our mom passed away, my brothers and I gathered to plan our mom’s memorial service. The church provided a funeral service planning document with the order of the service with suggested Bible passages and hymns. We had so many questions, what would mom want? What were her favorite hymns and Bible passages? What was mom’s favorite color? What kind of flowers would she want? And so on. We had no idea. It was overwhelming. Continue reading Abundance
I took the photograph below somewhere between Memphis, Tennessee and Chicago, Illinois. It’ was Saturday evening’s sunset from a little more than 30,000 ft or 10,000 meters above Earth.
I was on my way home Saturday afternoon from a week in northern Mississippi helping my stepmother who had been living by herself since my father passed away in July 2009. It was my second trip and there are likely to be more trips in the future for my brothers and me.
Our flight attendant interrupted the quietness of the cabin to call attention to the evening’s sunset. I was seated in the middle seat and my seatmate to the left had to pull up the window shade to reveal the setting sun. I was struck by the beauty of the colors along the horizon.
The weather had been delightful on the last few days of my trip to Oxford. We had an early morning frost on Friday and Saturday morning, but the sun shined brightly and warmed to the upper 40s (about 10C) at the height of the day. Skies were cloudless Friday and early Saturday allowing a brilliant night sky I am unable to appreciate at home in Chicago.
I’ve been home for a more than a full day now and I am back to school this morning. I have missed working with my students and I am looking forward to a fresh new week full of excitement and learning. I know it’s gonna be a great day – full of curiosity and wonder, and a little catching up, too. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, one day at a time.
What is going to make your day count today?
Yellow is all about me and it seems to be a recurring theme.
These daffodils were picked by a friend of my step-mom’s – they are as a fragrant as they are beautiful. They bring brightness to her room…… and courage, hope, happiness, optimism, and warmth.
It is going to be a great day, I know it and I can feel it, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count one day at a time, especially one day at a time.
What brightens you day today?
Tuesday morning I was up early with the puppies, I glanced eastward and caught the moon rising as it was greeting the new day. The January Light is getting a bit longer each day and a few minutes earlier and the moon would have gone unseen. I am thankful for being in the right place at the right time.
Two days later the moon is obscured by dense cloud cover and it is lightly snowing painting the landscape a fresh coat of white.
It’s a school day and we are on a field trip tramping in the light snow along a planned route to highlight the Underground Railroad.
It’s gonna be a great day, I know it and I can feel it. So I’d better jump up, jump in and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, one early morning after another.
What did you notice this morning? Or yesterday
Good bye 2019. It has been a year. A lot of it has been good and some not so good.
Yesterday we were at the lake and this morning we are home.
I re-read my first post of last year – a first Sunday and two sunsets. Last year, I had planned to write more often but didn’t. There were a lot of distractions AND diversions throughout the year from the beginning until the end. Habits changed, life intervened.
In March, my mother passed away after a brief illness, in May we got a puppy, in August we got the midnight phone call every parent dreads, and in December it all came together and we finished strong.
These three seemingly disconnected events are connected by a common theme – the color yellow. I suppose the color of the year for me was yellow, but I am taking the color with me into 2020.
O has always wanted a puppy. The problem with puppies is they don’t stay puppies, they grow and mature into dogs. O got her puppy in Ivy but Ivy became my dog and she was no longer a puppy. Ivy is an amazing dog, but she isn’t a puppy
It started before Mother’s Day with a text and a picture. Her name was Yellow. She was the same breed and coloration of Ivy – liver and white Brittany Spaniel. The breeder used colored collars to tell the puppies apart, her collar was yellow so she was Yellow.
Then there was a four and half hour Saturday drive to Southern Illinois and back. O drove the first leg with one puppy and I drove the return leg with two.
When we brought her home, Yellow didn’t have an official name, yet. O wanted to call her Bailey, but B didn’t think she looked like a Bailey and there was already a Bailey in the neighborhood and bailey ended with a long E sound like Ivy and B contended it would be confusing. Continue reading yellow – it’s a new year
It’s Christmas morning and the puppies and I are the only creatures stirring. Ivy is content to lie beside me and stare out the window into the yard. A few minutes ago, Fern awoke and needed to go outside. Fern has discovered squirrels and enjoys keeping our yard safe.
This morning when I awoke after a fitful sleep, I peered out our bedroom window and was greeted by this morning’s sunrise. A few minutes earlier, or later and I would have missed it entirely. Timing is everything in life.
This past year has been full of twists and turns and I am full of gratitude. Timing is everything in life from waking at the right moment to getting the care one needs at the precise moment. I am thankful.
I don’t know what tomorrow has in store for me, but I do know today is a day to savor and share with family.
For unto us, a savior has been born and He is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2: 11)
It’s a day to remember what the day is really all about.
Today is going to be a great day, possibly the best day ever. So I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Carpe diem! Making the Days Count, one day at a time, using timing to my favor.
What greeted you the moment you awoke this morning?