Ahhh Nature...

Walking into my country house on Friday evening, I was greeted by my old friend Mickey. He really should be referred to as Mickey IV since I have killed off earlier generations of his mouse family. One of the many joys of having a house in the country with a VERY arable basement is the occasional visitors who stop by. I've gotten more comfortable with these renters and find that after a few weeks of bait, they generally disappear for a while. With the coming warm weather, they should be migrating outside shortly anyway.

The weekend continued with the tearing down of the family room wall. The family room is going to be converted into a new kitchen sometime in the future. Not much of a surprise, there was no insulation in the wall that was built in 1937. Given that temperatures routinely go below zero in my village, the lack of insulation makes things slightly cool. More of a surprise was the dead snake lying at the bottom of one of the posts. He was only a little 4 inch snake so nothing to fear. Next to him was his old skin that he must have shed shortly before dying. The old skin was in such good shape that you could see where the eyes were in the skin. A few years ago I would have been petrified of the mice and snakes but I have learned to shrug them off and appreciate the beauty that they present.

Lastly, I decided to take down a second wall this morning because the snow was coming down rather heavy and my 8 lb. car doesn't handle the slippery roads very well. In the wall next to my sliding glass door, I found a beautiful, two foot wide beehive. It was dormant and the layers of honeycomb were in perfect tact. I will try to add a picture of the hive to this post. The hive was donated to my neighbors for science class.

All in all, a great weekend communing with nature.

Life's Rich Pageant

Living near the ocean teaches a person quite a bit about "horizons". Looking out at the furthest point where sky and water meet is a beautiful, changing, and sometimes confusing sight. As the sun is rising and reflections exist in the water along with a thousand colors in the clouds, it is right to feel a sense of awe. The horizon is a hopeful place.

Today we embark on a new journey with that same hopeful horizon. I do not mean to put so much pressure on Obama as to compare him to the sun but it is clearly a new day for the people of this nation and, potentially, our worldwide brothers and sisters. Not every day will be sunny, we will continue to go through storms and rough waters but let us enjoy today and look forward to tomorrow.

Peace, in its many and wonderful forms, unto our nation and our world.

Scars from our past

Have you ever noticed that wounds don't heal very quickly as we get older? It is as if our youthful bodies are designed for the many cuts and bruises that happen as a result of playing and learning. Throw some antibiotic ointment on the wound and cover it with a band-aid, voila -- its gone in a week. Only the worst bicycle accident/tree fall/world record attempt resulted in scars and they were normally much smaller than the original wound.

This can not be said for the adult body. Last weekend my ring finger became friends with a century old nail as I was putting up insulation. It seemed like a rather innocent meeting at the time. The only reason I noticed it was the blood flowing down my hand. Yet, this tiny mistake is destined to leave a lasting mark as a reminder of my late start in learning carpentry. The lesson to be learned is to make each scar a meaningful one. The scars of our life show a significant portion of the journey we have gone through, make sure it is a journey that you will view with fondness.