1/20/21

 1/20/21 - I am not a runner, but I was thinking today of the sermon, given by one of the clergyman who officiated at my wedding, in the small Baptist Church a few weeks before my wedding. He spoke about his first time participating in the Boston Marathon. The challenges with the weather of the day, the tiredness and discouragement he felt, and getting to the twenty mile mark and Heartbreak Hill. I don't remember every word he said, but I do remember the look on his face, when he spoke of cresting that hill and knowing that he would make it to the finishing line. That is how I felt today, cresting that hill....1/20/21 - The Inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.

First Draft

 I have been struggling to work on this workplace bullying chapter that I agreed to do, for an upcoming library textbook. Despite writing my graduate thesis project on workplace bullying in libraries, despite presenting on the topic at library conferences, despite getting an article published, it still felt like an insurmountable task. The words are there, the research is there, but the underlying pain that this topic brings is still there. So I have spent months running from it. Sometimes though, you just have to start and before you know it, first draft. Needs so much work, so much yet to do, but first draft. One bridge crossed, still lots of the journey to go.

Christopher

 I don't talk much about today's anniversary. I keep it close to my heart. But this year reading about Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's loss of their son Jack, brought all those memories flooding back. When you feel your placenta fails you and you can't do your most basic task, and your pregnancy is lost. All your hopes, your dreams, that child you imagine as part of your life, so vividly you can see him grown, falls away. You never forget and we will never forget our dear Christopher, born to soon, on this day, all those years ago. You are always part of our family, and we will always love you.

2010 Memories

 I couldn't help looking at those pictures on the television last Wednesday, and remember the summer of 2010 and attending a library conference in Washington. We took our two youngest sons and got to do a little bit of sightseeing, the most exciting for me, to get to visit the US Capitol building. Through our Congressman, we were able to go on a tour and actually got to sit in the gallery. It seemed to me a sacred place, and a privilege to view the place where so much history had been made. So it was in horror, I saw the mayhem, the mob, the destruction and disruption of that sacred place. It is a sight that I will never forget and none of us ever should. It can never happen again, and we as Americans, need to make sure it never does. We need to take back, the phrase, God Bless and Keep the United States of America, and all that it means to be an American.