A couple of scenes from a delightful Mother’s Day walk around Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center on this beautiful May day! Lake Perez, marsh marigolds and skunk cabbage, American beech buds reaching toward the hemlock canopy, redbuds blooming against a blue sky, Tussey Mountain and the rain-swollen Shaver’s Creek itself. Not photographed: a trio of snapping turtles, a ground-shuffling ovenbird, and all the rest of Mother Nature showing off her springtime garb!
May is Mental Health month. Do yourself a favor. Give yourself a break.
I used to have an annoying tendency to agree to anything that’s far enough in advance…
My bad habit would kick in whenever I looked at my planner and found a blank space during the requested time. Nothing there? Looks like we’re good to go!
Then the future would show up, and I’d discover that once again I’d overbooked my time, attention and energy—to my physical, mental and spiritual detriment.
You’d think I would have caught on quicker, but it took me several decades to learn to reserve the necessary margin I need in my life.
I’ve finally come to view such demands differently, even when my calendar is open, because I can honestly answer that I already have another commitment at that time—to myself!
May is #MentalHealth month. Do yourself a favor. Give yourself a break.
Carol and I ate at a Cracker Barrel restaurant tonight, where it’s like dining in a museum—or a barn—what with all the old stuff hung on the walls.
We were greatly entertained by a nearby family with two young boys. The older one, at about 5, reminded us of our oldest son at that age: endlessly curious, amiable, energetic, chatty, and just ready for anything—to the ultimate exhaustion of the loving mommy!
The young boy pointed to a portrait on the wall above our heads of a woman in the 19th Century:
We get it. Our Andrew once had so many questions about a box of Keebler cookies and where it came from that Carol finally answered: “It fell out of the sky!”
Months later, as we drove past the Keebler plant on Route 22 in the Lehigh Valley, that absorbent kid, who couldn’t yet read, pointed to the green and red logo on the side of the building and exclaimed “Fell outta the sky!”
