wednesday morning

This is a short week. This is a short post.
I'm sorry about the short post, but I love short weeks.
The geese are in flight. A friend of mine reported a hummingbird at her feeders this weekend, a full month before expected. Migration has begun. Get ready, all you yankees and midwesterners out there - they are on their way.

--Laura

Read this.

I don't live in California, but a friend of mine does. She needs your help. She needs hits on a website she set up to draw attention to a negative situation taking place between the school teaching her step-son and the mental health contractor providing services to the school.

It's simple. Go to the website. There is a link to the YouTube video there.

Moms and dads, unite for kiddos. Thanks.

---Laura

Happy Accidents

Just after the New Year, 2009, I was home alone. I had spent Christmas with family and friends, and was now on my own.

Getting out of the house, I decided to take a picture stroll somewhere new, so I chose to find Mansfield, Georgia, a city my parents and I had lived in briefly between leaving Missouri and returning to the Low Country of South Carolina.

The area around Mansfield is a scattering of rural communities connected by 2-lane side roads off the interstate. Unless you want to travel the interstate, which I should say is exactly the wrong way to view places like Madison, Rutledge and Social Circle. At any rate, I didn't do that. And as it was past the Christmas season, the height of small-town-Georgia-welcomes-all-tourists-to-our-quaintness-please-buy-something madness, most towns were quiet and empty.

On that trip, I took several snapshots, including the one you see here. About a week ago, I was contacted by someone who wanted to use it for an article she was writing about a Brenau University Alumn. Turns out, this alum, who grew up to head a major cancer research lab, had once climbed this water tower (or not, rumors have never been confirmed), in the sixth grade.

So, I now have a picture in a magazine. My first paid byline. For a fairly boring picture of water tower, which was made into a pretty nice opener to an article, and was even the literary hook in the written piece.

Happy Accidents. Good things can come from them.

--Laura

Trees for the 21st Century

In the interest of No Child Left Inside, here's a resource you may find helpful. Being a role model for a kid who needs more opportunity to explore nature can make a huge difference to that kid, one that can last decades.
The National Wildlife Federation has put together a bunch of kits which can be used with groups of all sizes to plant trees. Kits include:

• Trees for the 21st Century patches and DVD
• Activity Guide for Facilitators(by grade level)
• Tree Planting & Stewardship Guide
• Seedling trees (native to region and approximately 6"–12" tall)

Order kits for your kids or friends of your kids here.

Clean up free

You can go here to request your FREE sample of Olay Total Effects Body Wash.

Samples go quickly here, but if you find it is sold out, you can return to the homepage and view other free samples.

Times are hard.

--Laura

sunday

I miss the people I've lost.

In Memoriam: Lou Parr

In Memoriam: Lou, originally uploaded by lalapapawawa.

I don't have a better picture of Lou, pictured on the right. This was a familiar sight at our church. Lou was a volunteer.
I've only known him for ten of his 80 years. Because of that, I missed many of his milestones. That he joined the Navy, then the Air Force, and gave 20 years in service. That he worked for CSX railroad for an additional 30 years. That he married Rita and had 11 children, 9 who survived him.
I think many people will review these details of his life and come to this conclusion: Very traditional; Very Catholic. They'd be correct. But this would not begin to sum up his life.
I think the viewing I attended was a much more complete picture of him. As a man of service, the place was filled with people vying for the opportunity to serve him. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, who took turns standing attention around his casket. He was a member of the military, and members stood attention at the entrance to the chapel where we gathered to say a rosary for him.
As a family man with 9 living children and several siblings, the room was filled with people who bore a striking resemblance to both Rita and Lou. As we'd say in the south, there were lots of people who favored him in that room. And as we watched the slide show of pictures in the sitting area, each picture inspired laughter, occasional tears, and young voices asking, "Which one are you, mom?"
As a grandparent, his humor and acceptance were also in evidence. Nestled between friends and pictures of the milestones of his life, a handwritten sign on an ottoman in the sitting area. It read: Conductor Lou is leaving the station. All board! Next to it, a blue conductor's cap.
For a man who spent most of his life in service, and had such a large family - immediate, extended and formed through years of breaking bread together - it must feel odd for him to take this final journey all by himself. But I know one thing. For all of us gathered to pay our last respects to this gentle, good-humored, reliable, oak-tree of a man, we all knew more fully how to show our respects because of the examples he gave us with his life.
With respect...

In Memoriam: Toni

In Memoriam: Toni, originally uploaded by lalapapawawa.

In 2007, I took this picture of Toni, who'd shown up at the parish for our annual Trunk or treating night, complete with cobwebs on the trunk and a full trunk of candy.
Toni died this weekend, after a year's fight with lung cancer. Two weeks ago she was on her feet, and we were kidding around with her and her husband.
She was always laughing. She was always smiling. She loved water and summer, and she could make fun of herself. She was an awesome grandmother. She learned to be an excellent cook from her mother. She became an excellent nurse all by herself. She continues to be well-loved by a good man who also loved summer and water. She leaves a family grateful for the time they shared with her.
Cheers, Toni. I will never forget the spark of your life and the light it brought to mine.