Ramblings

I rise at 4:30 a.m.  I don't mind rising at this hour, it was yesterday's that I minded!  It helps me get things done by being this early morning person.  By 9 a.m. half of my day is over!  I think and play at the computer, write, check out my facebook and other social networks.  I write (like now).

I found out Tuesday that Bill Stratton passed on.  Bill.  Let me talk about Bill.  Memories flood me.  Bill was the neighbor across the meadow.  My sister and I played with his kids, grew up with his kids, right here in Oxford.  Bill had a dairy farm.  I remember helping his kids pick the corn that grew in the meadow, and "helping" them sell it for 50 cents a bakers dozen, on the Route 12 roadside.  My Dad helped Bill out a little bit in his barn.  I can remember me and Terri going to the fields and calling the cows in "Ca Bossy, ca bossy!"  I remember Bill losing his arm in an farming accident.  I remember him not giving up.  He went on to school and got a degree in law.  The memories are sketchy, but they are there.  I remember coming back to Oxford 35 years later and him coming into my coffee shop.  I didn't recognize him at first, but then saw a man with one arm.  Shame on me for that handicap having to point out who he was.  I went around the counter to hug him, he who had been a dad, however remotely, yet very distinctly.  A man whose respect had been earned by me just by being there.  A man whom I came to asking for support to run for town judge, a man who gave me support and nominated me for that position (I did not win, it went to another, but nevertheless, it meant a great deal to me that Bill would do this for me).  My sympathies go out to his children, who are my brothers and sisters as well, his ex Ruth, who is like a mother to me as well.  I will never forget you Bill Stratton.

I think about myself, my future.  Yes, there is alot of living still to do over the next 20 years, I figure I will have that long to be able to remain active, so I might as well plot it out and hope for the best.

Jobwise, I went to the job fair yesterday in Norwich.  It was okay.  I did hand out my resume to a few companies, but was in and out in about half an hour.  Then I went to work and enhanced photography at home.

The headcold is winding it's way down.  Zicam really works!  Great stuff!

I'm rambling.

What I really meant to say this morning is this:  never ever give up.  When you least expect it, the wind hears your voice and your intentions and takes them and, like magic, can make them happen.  Things come your way and if you can recognize them you can take great joy in them, knowing that life is working for you.  And if life changes?  Unemployment, divorce (by your hand or your partner's), kids gone crazy, economic tough times, a death in the family...remember...like the sunset resting on your shoulder, that life is a mere shadow of that which is to come.  For what is eternity?  Life is about the journey, every day, that 24 hour period, is your eternity.  Live it for that day.  It's our only choice.