Uphill idealist

Yesterday I traveled about 2 hours southwest of my home to attend a class orientation for a new course in my seminary studies. The location I was headed was very close to a small amusement park that my family would visit each summer when I was a child: Conneaut Lake Park. While things never look the same as an adult as they did as a child, I was still anxious to stop by the park and see it - through adult eyes. The day before, I had another chance to unexpectedly visit my childhood, when I met my fellow classmates for the new class. I missed general introductions when the rest of the class had started before arriving, so I gave a short bio and introduction late. As I told the class who I was, where I worked and what I was hoping to learn a fellow student chimed in... Wait, you are from Warren County? Yes. Do you know where the Agway in Youngsville is? Yes - I grew up at the top of York Hill Road. York Hill? I live on York Hill!!! What? I'm Todd and I think I remem...

Image from Amazon.com. When my daughter was little, she loved the Richard Scarry book collection. Her favorite was the three story collection of Pig Will and Pig Won't. As you can guess, Pig Will was easy going and willing to help where help was needed and take care of things that needed to be done. Pig Won't - for the most part, wasn't interested in helping or doing much of anything. Scarry's books are filled with cautionary tales, but the endearing animal characters ironically humanize the conflict of each story. Years after reading these books, the lessons have stuck with me - as a parent and personally. While most of the time people fall in the middle of will and won't - the story of these brother pigs have reminded me how important my attitude and action (or inaction) are. Years ago, if my kids started out having a bad morning I'd say, "Hey, why don't you run upstairs, hop into bed, hop back out and start your day over again?" or when the...

Image from Homemaking blog. There are three different Christmas gifts I'd like to tell you about today. One was a mystery, another was unexpectedly good, and the third was good - but spoiled by my sneaking to see it too soon. If you could have one amazing thing for Christmas this year. what would you ask for? I suppose if I could ask for something besides something ideal like world peace - that was purely for the fun of it I'd ask for a full supply of paints, canvas and new paint brushes as well as the time I'd like to spend working on various art projects. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question to ponder: What did you say you'd like to have and why? What about this thing makes it so desirable to have? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mystery Gift: One Christmas morning, a long time ago in a land not so far away, I walked down to the living room to find a large shiny box under...

It's getting closer and closer to that wonderfully spooky time of year again. The grocery stores are filling up with Halloween candy, Tim Horton's is serving hot cider and I've begun day dreaming of what I'll be dressing up as for Halloween. My family loves this time of year. We have an extensive collection of Hammer Horror movies and usually spend the month of October watching through their stories with delight! I think at one point or another kids (and some grow-ups too!) become fascinated by mysterious tales about ghosts, vampires and UFOS. In about fifth grade, I went through a phase where the only books I'd borrow were ones filled with urban legends, ghost stories and other strange phenomena. I remember thinking how cool it was to read those books, but to be honest I think that part of the reason I'd read those books was to get a handle on what a true feared. This page posted below was printed in one of the books I used to borrow from the library. Perhaps ...

Doodle pattern a sample of Mary Corbet's drawing found at her blog: Needle-n-thread. When I was a little girl, I had a terrible time sitting still for any extended period of time. In light of this my Dad used to call me "Tigger", because I bounced everywhere, all the time! One of the most difficult places for me to sit still when I was little was church. It might have been the combination of the itchy lace on the collar and hem of my dress, the shiny patent leather shoes, and the big sanctuary that seemed made to run and romp through with it's high ceilings and all, but it usually took an act of God to make me sit still. My Dad was the person I'd usually sit next to. I suppose he might have been considered the muscle in this circumstance. Most of what I remember about sitting next to him was holding his hand, singing from off his hymnal, swinging my feet that were too short to touch the floor and doodling on visitor cards that were sitting in the back of ...

Image from blog Inadvertent Farmer. When I was little I used to imaging the wind lifting me up just that little bit to make me run just a little faster. Sometimes if the wind would be blowing hard and I was running down a hill, so fast that my legs would fall into place - one after the other - that I thought that was what it was like to fly. I so wanted to fly as a child. Some days as an adult, I think I still want to fly - but my motivation is more on what or how much I can accomplish... not the free-flowing-abandon-filled-sprint-down-a-grass-covered-hill-and-not-caring-if-I-fall-in-the-mud-and-laugh-my-head-off. I think that life may be filled with more wisdom if grow-ups took the time for flying lessons. I think our days would be much more lively and joyful too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See you later gators, I'm off in search of a steep hill, and strong gust of wind and that little girl with pigtails I used to know so ...

Image of Red Algae from Berkeley UCMP . Describe a color. It all started there- With the color red, my fifth-grade teacher that looked like Mrs. Claus and my composition book. I did not know the door I was passing through was the one that ever since has been my doorway home. It's a home that was new to me then, yet somehow it had always been. It's a place I can always travel to, no matter where I am. It's never too far away. To make this journey, all I need is a pencil, a notebook, and my memory of Mrs. H smiling as she reads what she finds written on the pages inside. T.L. Eastman 2010

Image from the blog: Nursery Rhymes Online I used to have a big picture book of nursery rhymes when I was a child. It was a gift from my Grandparents on holiday season and when I received it, I was shocked that they would get a big kid like me a book of kiddie rhymes. Truth be told, I ended up loving the book and read and re-read it many times. The illustrations were bright and cheery and most of what I'd discredited as nursery rhymes were really a quite interesting collection of poems. This morning while clearing the walk of the slush and snow and being blown all over the road by the wind while trying to take my dog for a walk, I remembered the poem/rhyme "The North Wind doth Blow" by heart. Here is a excerpt on the history for the rhyme as well as the verse. Today this rhyme captured the rainy, chilly, slushy morning that I experienced. While at one point turning my back to the gusting wind,I kept thinking - "I wish I were the robin in the warm barn, instead of o...