Happy 11th Birthday Kayleigh!

Quote of the Day-"Don't go through life, grow through life." ~Eric Butterworth

Back in Time

Over the week of spring break we went on a pilgrimage of sorts. We traveled to central Pennsylvania to the beautiful countryside near Lewisburg and the historic Susquehanna River. My husband's genealogy search led him to discover the location where his first immigrated ancester settled after arriving from Germany. We drove the country roads of the little surrounding towns and I discovered what it means when places are described as "rolling." You can't quite describe them as mountains, and yet they can't be called hills either. It really is stunning. It rained most of the time we were traveling there but as we arrived at the farm where the cabin of his ancestor once stood at "Fort Overmyer", the rain stopped and the mist lifted and the sun came out. We stood on the property surrounded by the hills and trees with the sun shining on us and I could feel the pull of time and the nearness of spirits and it was a bit surreal and very touching. It made me think about my own history and how people are so busy moving forward and trying to get ahead that they forget to look behind them and remember all that has passed in order for them to be where they are today. The passing of time and the legacies left behind are remarkable and awe inspiring and I truly hope that I don't forget to stop once in awhile and take a look over my shoulder.

Quote of the Day-"In each family a story is playing itself out, and each family's story embodies it's hope and despair."

~Auguste Napier

Spring

Spring is here!
It wraps around me like a warm blanket
The daffodils are finally waking up
And
Bowing
To the sun
When I step in the mud, the mud rains on me
And the birds glide like little paper airplanes
The sun is a
Giant
Yellow
Ball
That I can grab.
I love the Spring!

By Kayleigh O.-Age: 11 this month
Spring 2006

Remember when the days were long..

My life is a soundtrack. It’s sectioned off in segments of time and there is music to match each and every little bit. My brain must be stimulated by auditory sounds, namely music, because I have always been this way. If you name any given time in my life, there is a song (or songs) that can take me back there in a heartbeat. I don’t know why I am like this but I have never known anything else. Today I was doing laundry and my daughter had her radio on. On a daily basis songs will come on the radio or TV that momentarily but instantaneously take me back to a different place and time. This seemed different somehow. This was a song that became popular back in the summer of 1989. It was at its height of popularity when two friends and I set out on a journey across the country that took us all the way to the west coast with a tent and a Volkswagen Fox. My friends were by no means pop music lovers at the time, but that song was inadvertently on any and all radio stations our whole trip out and each time this particular song would come on there would be a collective groan from my friends and a flip of the channel. Today the irony of that song becoming an anthem for that trip hit me for the first time. The song was Don Henley’s “The End of the Innocence” and back then I didn’t have a clue that it really was the end of innocence in a strange way. It was the trip of a lifetime for a young person of 22. I hadn’t done a lot of traveling so I saw parts of this country that I didn’t even know existed. Thank goodness I was wise enough to appreciate the power of mountains and oceans. It was a magnificent experience and I learned more about myself and what I was capable of. I didn’t know that it would act as a sort of nightcap to my true youth. What followed in the next year were real jobs and significant others and broader horizons. I wonder if that song repetition wasn’t some cosmic representation of the genuine end of innocence for me? I really can't say....maybe it was just a coincidence...

Quote of the Day-“Innocence dwells with wisdom, but never with ignorance”
-W. Blake