An Invincible Summer - A Woman's Journey

This morning I watched the day start but it was Portland style. It was raining when I got to my “spot” at 5:15. The rain stopped and then the sky was ominously cloudy and still quite dark. I knew I wouldn’t see the sun rise but I’m used to that. I’ve decided to greet the new day as a whole and not specifically the sunrise (which would be self defeating here). The sky lightened for awhile and then, lo and behold, a heavy fog settled in so that I could barely see 10 yards in front of me.  After awhile that lifted, I watched a pair of birds that are nesting in a towering, still dormant tree. Their nest is huge but the birds are not that big. They are white and the size of big seagulls but their underbelly is dark gray. The pair are hunting for fish in the water below but I can’t tell if they are feeding chicks or just keeping the eggs warm. I wish them success and that a new generation learns to fly under my watchful eye.  Now, after an hour of being patient, the sun is shining. ...

Lord I was young. Not only young but my world was very small. I preface this story with that because it is important to give myself some leeway, allowing a little bit of grace. And maybe I am asking a little of the same from you. I am from a family with a great work ethic and we all have worked our way up to really decent middle class jobs but we were not especially informed or remotely political.  I had snagged a great job with a great local family and had been promoted to a position that had me pinching myself. My boss and I traveled to Atlanta to meet with a division of Donnelly Marketing. They were wooing us. They should have wooed us, we were a nice little bit of very consistent business. At the height, I was mailing about 60 million pieces of mail a year. So, more than a million cards were going out weekly. Yes....they were wooing us in Atlanta. Took us to come great meals. Put us up in a lovely hotel and set up a number of pressure filled meetings. We were asking for some th...

Today, when I went to work, my coworkers were putting an old golden retriever down in the parking lot. His mom was there loving on him, caressing his beautiful old grey face. I watched from the car because I didn’t want to disturb the process.  It reminds me of how short a time we have with these creatures that we give so much of our hearts to. And how lucky we are to get the ever-so-rare unconditional love from them.  Work is fine, I am fine. Fine is ok for now.