Year: 2008

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What do you see around you?

Today I saw a slave cemetery. I learned that prior to a particular date graves were laid down in any direction then at a later date headstones and footstones of granite were placed at particular compass points (east and west respectively I think). I saw this when I pulled into a parking space and noticed an iron fence within the trees hidden away by shrubberies. Curiosity caught me and I wandered into the woods to discover a Greenways trail I did not know about and a sign describing the cemetery.

We walk through our lives often without seeing. In college, I read a poem that cannot remember but basically said we walk on the same path daily and never see our surroundings. To and from work or class we walk the same path with our minds constantly on other things. All the while, the dogwood tree goes unnoticed. We see it all the time and mentally block it, forget about it for it is constant, predictable and comfortable. If we force ourselves to walk a different path, then we start to notice the details and beauty around us. I try to keep this in mind as I go about my day and I see things!

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Mobilizing the family

How do you mobilize a family of 7 with one car? The details have been published. Here is a typical evening for us:

  1. 4:00pm Wake sleeping two year old. Send 5 year old’s guest home. Dress 2 year old as 11 year old and 14 year old arrive home from school. Instruct 11 year old to grab homework materials for the car and shove some Tylenol into him.
  2. Tommy stayed after school for LAN Club. No one brought games so it is basically canceled. Must go to high school to pick him up then zig zag through rush hour traffic toward downtown to get Sarah to her last climbing practice before their final meet.
  3. 4:40pm Sarah has been dropped off. Make a U-Turn and proceed to the exact opposite side of town to drop 11 year old off at Karate practice.
  4. 5:20pm 11 year old at karate practice. Take leisurely drive to BFE so 17 year old can have his horse riding lessons
  5. 6pm Drop Tommy at S.T.A.R.. Barn cold and unsafe for little ones so we speed off to shop in Turkey Creek. The cable to the upstairs television quit working so a new run of wire has to be installed before Lost at 9pm!!
  6. 6:30pm Call 14 year old to confirm she got transportation home otherwise rework schedule.
  7. 7:00pm shopping is complete and picking up 17 year old from barn. Good weather and they run late.
  8. 7:20pm leaving S.T.A.R. to pickup karate kid.
  9. 8pm Karate kid in hand rush home to install cable while wife gripes that we are going to miss Lost and it won’t be on the DVR.
  10. 8:30pm install cable
  11. 9pm Watch Lost
  12. 10pm resist urge to collapse and return to programming.