Woven leashes, Wet concrete, Why not?

The other day, a girl by me on her sleek silver scooter (the one you always had from grade school, but had kept in the garage the minute you started middle school and then grabbed off the wall in a fit of fancy as you started college). Apparently, and for some unknown reason, she hadn't strapped a certain doggy companion down tight enough. And at the end of a long woven leash, Fido dragged and bounced across wet, cold and probably very hard concrete.



I felt a pang of sympathy for the dog, as its beady eyes looked pleadingly, no with humiliation at me. I'm glad it wasn't my dog. It might lean a bit to one side after that excursion.

. . . . .No the dog wasn't real. . . . .I hope.

This made me laugh.

The other morning, I was sitting in the spare room, looking out at a dark and brooding Wasatch Front. Dawn was there, its brightness masked and cowled by cruel clouds. My heart darkened with foreboding, as if the morning would be choked out and yet another day of gray would be hunched over us.

With my confidence as high as a chopped down tree, I turned to begin my day. But then a beautiful melody came through our not-very-sound-sealed windows.

A single robin song sang into the graying dark. Innocent, sweet and completely disregarding all around it. And with that, the sunlight burst through, huge golden shafts splintered errant gray, darkness fled, burned right from the sky.

Life seemed to finally unfreeze from winter and every bird outside burst into song.

I felt like singing. I think God was teaching me something.

Notes from and Optimist

The other day someone called me an Optimist.
I took it as a complement, seeing that there are tons of other things they could have called me.

Thinking about the encounter, I couldn't help singing a song.
One that gets me up in the morning, and pulls me through my day.


1"Don't let go, you've got the music in you"
2"Don't give up, you've got a reason to live"
"Don't give up. You've got the music in you"

3"Can't forget,we only get what we give."

"Wake up kids we got the dreamer's disease."
"First we run, then we laugh till we cry"
"We're flat broke, but hey we do it in style"

"This whole damn world could fall apart, you'll be okay, follow your heart."
"You'll be okay, follow your heart."
"Your in harms way, I'm right behind."
"Your going to get what you give."

"Fly, fly high."

"You've got the music in you."
"One dance left, you got to get what you give."
"You only get what you give."

-The New Radicals

Spring Has Come

Today is Spring, I don't care that its actually two weeks away. I woke up today with a blue sky and the sun rising over snow capped mountains. I could actually see my wife's face in the blue light of dawn.
We made pancakes and listened to Keith Urban, a sure sign that Spring is here, and enjoyed the morning together.

I feel like the back of my winter has broken, spring is here, and is not going anywhere for a while.

We got new neighbors the other day. They have a candy apple red Mazda, when we opened the door to our apartment, we almost went blind it was so bright.

The other day on the bus, we stopped at a spot that had a bunch of rough looking people all around. It was in the middle of the city, busy streets, and everything. So I had a good view of everyone, but one scene gave grabbed my attention.
There in the shelter of the bus stop sat a mother and two little girls. They were bundled to the eyes but all three were concentrating hard on a book. "Gram the Pig".
Mom was reading it with gusto, facial expressions and all, I could almost pick out what she was saying, and both girls reading along, with big smiles on their faces.
Here was a beautiful family, full of innocence and love, surrounded my the roughened lives all around them. A smooth patch among the rocks of life, a rose among the thorns. So beautiful.

Spring Among the Snow

I have to say, the weather has been changing these past few weeks. I can feel spring just around the corner, waiting with a sea of green and sky of blue.
The other day, while on a bus, I sat enjoying the view of the sun-lit sky, huge puffy clouds rolled above, and all around was bathed in just the right amount of heat. One couldn't help but share a smile. I probably looked like an idiot smiling at everything, but I just didn't care.
As my bus came to a round-a-bout, a panorama was mine for an instant. An open park, with naked trees, brownish grass, and vacant jungle gym laying contented in a pre-spring thaw. It was empty, save for one figure, energetically swinging back and forth, back and forth. Oddly enough, the figure seem a bit to large for the swing. (In a grown up sort of way) My mind shifted gears not used in years, and I felt my inner child surface.
It was her smile I saw first: toothy, from ear to ear. Then her hands on the chains, her feet pointed straight before her, then sharply bending back, pushing her higher and higher. Eyes wide open, taking in her jubilation, she swung higher and higher, seeming to giggle with the feeling of weightlessness.
Beside one of the poles, leaned her bike, discarded. A symbol of this woman's adulthood, her reality,and experience, patiently waiting, grounded by its own sense of responsibility.
Again, my inner child connected with the feeling, the need to be free, careless, and unguarded. I wanted throw my responsibility aside, to jump off the bus, to laugh carelessly, to touch the sky, just like her.
But then my bus slid along solid lines of adulthood. My view shifted, and that stupendous view of childhood contentment was gone.