The Journey, by Mary Oliver

“The Journey”
by Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice-
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.

It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do-
determined to save
the only life that you could save.

-from Dream Work

Remembering my father

My Dad

On this day in 1977 my dad died. I was 21, he was 58 and my oldest son was not even a year old. I wish my sons had been able to get to know their grandpa. He was quite a guy. He had an incredible personality. He towered over everybody, he was 6'4" my mom was 5' 2". As big as he was his personality was bigger.

He was engaged in life and loved to live it. He was a natural story teller and could make whatever he was telling you come alive. He was opinionated and was not a person you wanted to argue with.

He was a railroad man and seemed as big and strong to me as the locomotives he ran for the Southern Pacific. I have a friend who lost her father not too long ago. She pondered if the pain and emptiness in her life would go away. I am sorry to say, after 33 years without my dad, no it does not.

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After the Toy Store

I am at the toy Store with Owen

We left the girls at home...

What about me?

To view video click on image.

Rick, who works where I work, shared this video on Facebook. It is a wonderful video with a concept, I think, that resonates across all cultures, schools of thought and religions. It is almost a great truth and touches on a noble truth.

If you watch this watch it all the way through. This spiritual video is about finding yourself by letting go of yourself. I really like this video and have shared it with many of my friends. Of course, we live is a narcissistic society and what this video proposes is hard to do.

None of this will make you happy unless you do one simple thing...

Looking back at a great vacation

Click on photo to enlarge.

Late Sunday, the fourth of July, when fireworks were starting to go off, we landed in San Francisco. Youngest son Kenneth picked us up at the airport. It was a great vacation. It ended with hanging out with Susie's college friends in Burlington, Vermont. They are a great bunch of ladies. In the photo above, left to right, is Bertie, Sally, Sheree, Sue, Susie and Sheree & Richard's daughter Jordan. We watched third of July fireworks from a great venue in Burlington, then flew out the next morning. It was a lot of fun. More photos of the vacation:

Album One

These are mostly photos from the time we were separate and I was on my own chasing trains and being a tourist in New York and Pennsylvania.

Album Two

These start where the previous album left off. But, these are mostly photos from the time after we met at JFK airport in New York City and cover our adventures in Vermont, Quebec City and were staying with our friends Sheree and Richard.

I hope you enjoy the photos. It was great to go and it is good to be back.

Hello from the Ben and Jerry's Factory

Back in the USA

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This photo is from Canada. We are back in St. Albans, VT. Having a relaxing day in Vermont!

To see more photos from Canada click here.