Life...

All lives are made up of joy and sorrow, often times all rolled together. This week has been one of those. The sorrow comes from the loss of one my dear friends children. Two of my grade school/high school class mates' adult children were involved in a horrific accident Monday evening, resulting in the tragic death of one and critical injury to the other. Two young men out enjoying the company of one another. I imagine them sharing stories about their young children, one anticipating the birth of his second child soon. And in one moment two small children are left fatherless, and two will be waiting a very long time for their daddy to heal...both in body and spirit. Two sets of parents grieving for a what will seem to them, an eternity. My heart is so heavy sometimes it's hard to catch my breath. I ache for them all but take comfort that they have a relationship with the Lord...and I'm confident that He will help them through this darkness. My prayers are with them, now and in the months and years ahead, as they come to terms with their loss. I hope they are able to talk about Jason to each other. Share all the stories and memories they have and let him live in their hearts and memories, while at the same time he rests in the arms of the Saviour. God bless them all.
...Now for the joy. I spent the most wonderful morning visiting with another girlhood friend AND classmate. She is a recent widow and has decided to move back home. Her children are grown and off making their own lives so she has chosen to move back to what was familiar and closer to her siblings. We enjoyed reminiscing over several cups of coffee and determined that we're going to enlist the help of other former classmates and plan a 40 year reunion for next summer. I will look forward to that and hope that others of our generation will too. I have such wonderful memories of those last days in high school, although, at the time I just couldn't wait to be free. It's funny to think back to those days. If I close my eyes I can almost imagine myself walking to the bus stop and thinking, "I'll be so glad when I don't have to do this anymore!" Today I long for the opportunity to go back and smell the smells...hear the songs that used to go through my head,... feel the air on my skin as I strolled down the long drive way. I walk down the road in front of my house now, but it doesn't feel the same. I hear the old songs on the radio, but they don't sound the same. But, as I sit out on my back porch with the warm breeze blowing and the sweet smell of the sage brush circling all around me, if I close my eyes, for just a moment, I'm sixteen again, waiting for my life to begin. But, thank God, we don't get to go back. We forge ahead and enjoy the sweet memories and look forward to hopefully, many more years to remember the innocence of our youth and appreciate the lessons that we've learned along the way. Life...joy and sorrow, and everything in between.

A Fish

I grew up on a cattle and wheat ranch so my diet was built around beef and bread. My profession is in Child Nutrition (the nice way of saying I'm a "lunch lady") so again I'm used to basing a meal around meat and bread, but of course we have ridgid government guide lines we have to follow for our meal plans, which do include fruits/veggies. Now, on the off chance I'm offered a
fish, I'm all over it. I hit the jack pot this week! While visiting my sister and brother-in-law over the weekend I was treated to a nice home cooked salmon, on the bbq. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The next night my sister took mom and I out to dinner at a wonderful restraunt close by where I had prawns and pasta!!!! Again, heaven. Now this evening our neighbor came home with a huge, fresh caught Chinook salmon (which I got to watch him fillet) and he GAVE it to me!!! I was so excited! And then I remembered...I don't know how to cook it. I watched my b-i-l as he prepared his salmon for the bbq, I've watched Emeril prepare many a nice fish on "Live", and I know that the internet has a wealth of information available on how to prepare a fresh fish. I know all of this but I'm terrified I'll destroy this beautiful fish. So, I wrapped it with care and gently laid it in the freezer and plan on studying up this week so that I can do justice to it when I cook it next time my sister visits. I'll do my best when I present it for the meal but in the end...it is, what it is.