Monday is the most likely day to hear it. Every kid always seems to ask it once a week.  The perennial question in our home is, "Why do I have to go to school  today". The answer is always the same....because. I  retell the kids that we all had to do it, like it or not. This photo reminds me that generations have also had to miss out on their valuable playtime to hit the books.  But as I boot the kids out the door, I can't help but wonder, "why do we have to go to school today?"  Over the years, I have spent many hours in schools watching kids learn about the three R's.   I have seen the benefits of an education up close and personal while I taught prior to having kids. As an adult however, what I remember about school is now such a blur. Being food obsessed, I remember Friday was pizza day, Wednesday we had grill cheese, and the luckiest day was when we got American chop suey, a pasta concoction with mystery meat, but delicious. Food aside, I learned how to write  expository papers...lots of them. Most importantly I learned how to jockey the fine line between acceptance, friendships, conflict and resolution. While I can't pinpoint many examples, I know I learned how to manage these things in school. This blog is proof that I can't spell or figure out the correct use of apostrophes, and I know I can't do fractions, so I may have come up a bit short in school.  But still, I appreciate the effort that has been endured by so many so that our youth have a fighting chance.  I think that what makes a child successful in school is a result of what happens at home. Home life and school life create an indispensable partnership in the raising of a good citizen.  I read in yahoo today about a school in CT that has has an incredible decline in just about everything, so bad that the state has made it the priority project. The truth in the decline seems to be a result of a culture of  parents taking the school to home relationship less seriously and as a result, the ship has begun to sink. When we bring a child into this world, we have stamped our signature on a invisible contract that says, "We commit our effort to the success of our kids". Step outside the classroom and we are the teachers. Just this weekend, Kate had a learning opportunity as she hiked with her good friend and her family as she unknowingly learned about nature and our place in it.   Out in the yard, the kids built a fort and in some ways, were learning how to build their future life. Even at the dinner table last night, we chatted over my mediocre meatloaf, built a fire, sat down and learned about the importance of unity. These examples of learning are just the tip of the iceberg.  So as we send them off to the bus, I realize that school is a just a continuation of our commitment to our kids. It brings out the civil in civilization. With that thought, kids, enjoy your day at school. Parents your day at schooling starts when they come and you complete the circle.

In the living room yesterday, Gunther cat sat in the sun meditating.  I smiled when I looked more closely and noticed his tilaka on his forehead. I guess if Madonna wore a cross while wearing a bra outside her shirt, then I shouldn't scold the kids for testing cultural waters by playing around with the meaning of the tilaka.  If you think about it, who better to wear a tikaka than a cat who sits around all day meditating . He probably has had more deep thoughts than all of us combined. One thing is for sure, Miles the dog probably shouldn't wear one because he hasn't experienced much enlightenment in his happy go lucky life.  All he thinks about is kibble.  I have a friend that started meditating recently and she tells me she is seeing things more clearly now than ever before. This little view in my living room made me wonder about the real meaning of the red dot. I'll foolishly admit I had to go onto wikipedia to find out more about the world view behind the symbol. "The symbol of the tilaka symbolizes the third eye, or mind's eye, that is associated with many hindu Gods and the idea of meditation and spiritual enlightenment." I determined that it must in fact be a tilaka because Gunther is boy, and I think that only males wear them. What we see on beautiful Indian woman is a bindi, which I think signifies their marital status or a special event in one's life. But in the same way Madonna made the cross a fashion accessory, many Indian woman now wear it to be fashionable. I have a Facebook friend that I met at a photo seminar last year, who photographs Indian weddings. She has the most beautiful photos. When you see the brides in colorful attire with their faces and body painted in fantastic art, you are immediately drawn in by their vision of beauty. When I look at her photos, the bindi on the bride's head seems to draw you directly into the bride's soul.  I often find myself looking at her work trying to expand my own world vision. Perhaps someday, I'll get to see the beauty of India, but for now, the closest vision of India sits on my couch basking in the warmth of the sun through the window.  When you live in podunk, it is a stretch to understand other cultures from around the world.  Perhaps the next time we schedule a trip to Disney, we should reconsider and book the next flight Bombay.  For now, to Wikipedia I go to solve life's  many mysteries. 

Yesterday it became clear that winter was over. I think many of us feel relieved  unlike the snowman in the photo, to see the sunset on winter. Having one of the oldest and coldest houses in Middlefield makes you really appreciate this weather change.  But my house has something going for it. When you walk onto our little front porch, you are greeted with a beautiful view of field that makes you feel like you're in Kansas.  On the porch, sits and old rocking chair that just invites you in to enjoy the view. Chris had a sleepless call the other night and was welcomed home by the old rocking chair.  Gunther the cat who waits for him to come home jumped right into his lap to assume his usual place. The old red clapboards of the house were warm to the touch. On a weekday, while the kids are at school, the old house has a quiet settle to it. As we sat on the porch you could hear everything like you were in a sound proof studio. Virtually no traffic passes by, nature seems to be playing Beethoven's symphony, Ode To Joy.  The birds in the massive maple trees are the main instrument section while the the cat purrs as the percussionist.  We  look down and see hundreds of little bees buzzing around in the purple crocuses playing their part in the orchestra. Today's little miracle is right in front of me as my husband's comforting voice talks of good things. We are lucky to have these moments and I am happy that spring will invite more of them. I hope that everyone has lots of these as they bring happiness without all of the unnecessary extras. I wish spring could last forever.

Life is like a billboard full of clutter of both good and bad. I like this particular photo because is de-clutters life down to the two most important things, love and peace.  Sometimes you take a photo and don’t see it’s meaning until much later.  I hope that everyone finds love and peace on this beautiful spring day.

Not sure if you noticed. Today is St Patrick’s Day. We are supposed to wear green and celebrate our Irish heritage whether we are Irish or not. Truth is…I see Irish everywhere, everyday.  Being a half-blood, it is apparent to many that I have the Irish fire within me. Let me first correct something, I am a quarter Irish, quarter Welsh and half Italian. I must be thankful for the Welsh because it tones down the feisty Irish side of me.  My welsh also keeps the proud Italian and fighting Irish from duking it out every day in my internal dialog. Either way, I wear my freckles proudly. As I was saying, seeing Irish doesn’t happen on just one day a year. Seeing Irish is a fortunate every day occurrence. First and foremost, I see Irish in my daughter’s beautiful face, mapped out by cute freckles, each with a story waiting to be told.  My husband can’t mistake my Irish cooking as I have often been chastised for putting a baked potato on a plate and calling it dinner.  When we play outside and step barefooted in the lawn, it is a constant reminder of the splendor that is the Irish countryside that reflects emerald green like no other.  On this St Patrick’s Day a bit of Ireland waits on my doorstep, as a contraption designed at catching a real live leprechaun awaits a quick little fellow. In my own town, I am often reminded by Irish heritage even if it is a bit interpreted.  While the rainbow in our neighborhood may end at Lenos, the best Italian deli in the world, it is filled with Irish faces making wise decisions in finding gold in their canolis. I see so many children running at Go Far crossing fields in true Irish fashion.  Friends meet for a laugh at Time Out Tavern to share a pint of happy.  We may not have as many stone houses but we have a quaint village where faces are friendly and familiar. I am also reminded by the beautiful horses that dot our landscape that a bit of Ireland is here for us to see each and every day.  Perhaps it is the luck of the Irish that I look out the window and see a gorgeous day awaiting me.  After a cold and hard winter, Ole St. Patrick is calling upon the green to come back into our lawns and cover our landscape. On this St Patty’s day may the old Irish proverb give us wisdom, may an Irish limerick give us the ability to laugh and may an Irish blessing send you off to enjoy this beautiful spring day.  St Patrick would probably share this sentiment:

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.
May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.
May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.
And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.

 Gas prices are going up! As I say this, my husband smiles from across the table.  Now before we vilify him, I try to look at things from his perspective.  On any given day, the average American will jump into the car and cover 33 miles.  Chris commutes 50 miles every day, but he has a clean carbon footprint on his conscience because he rides a bicycle to work. I remember when he got his job in New Haven, he took a compass and stretched it out 25 miles from the needle and said we could live anywhere on the circle.  Amazingly, he has commuted by bicycle almost every day since he has finished med school. He tells me that he always chuckles when going over the highway crossing seeing people cooped up in their cars while sitting in traffic during rush hour.  With the stress of life and death being in the palm of his hands every day, he says that the ride home is a time to decompress so he can leave that hospital stress at the hospital.  He also says that it makes him feel like he has a better equilibrium when dealing with life and all of its challenges.  Here are my two observations at a result of our adventures in commuting, he eats like a horse and he has some great legs.  It wasn’t until I started running to school with Peter a couple of years back that I understood the perks of getting there on foot or by bike.  For the two of us it is a great time to connect and talk freely with no wall between us.  We almost always find something cool during our commutes; a flower, a tool or even money!  We often arrive to Lyman School and give Jim the custodian, a share of tools that we have found in the sand along the road.  Over the years, we have increased our mileage so that we can take the least trafficked route to school. Peter’s favorite thing to do while on his commute is to wave to the busloads of kids while they zoom past him.  I think that it empowers him as he gets confidence from the activity and it ensures that his brain is awake and ready to take on the school day. Usually I will carry his homework in a baggy and he’ll throw a Powerbar in his pocket. Until next year, when the backpack fills up, we can still enjoy these commutes together.  Next year, we will need to go to plan B…whatever that is.  For both my Chris and Peter, it isn’t uncommon to see an eye roll coming from a car as they pass, even from people we know around town.  I once was scolded by a neighbor that yelled that we should get out of his way while he was driving.  I know our method is unorthodox to some people, but I know that when my child is old enough to drive, he will understand that when he is behind the wheel of a car, the road is not solely his.  When someone gets from point A to B by their own power, they begin to understand the nuances of how to stay safe on that road.  I often wonder if a child that gets his license is really prepared to drive on a road when they have not learned how to safely walk down that same road. Peter will have had first hand experience at seeing people drive too fast around him and as a result he hopefully will drive more responsibly.  At 9 years old, he has been taught how to safely travel by foot on country roads as I have instructed him over and over on how to do so.  I hope that those that pass us by realize that sharing the road is a responsibility what we all have.  As the weather improves, I also hope that others are willing to try commuting in something other than a vehicle.  It is a great opportunity to feel good on the inside and out .

 It’s go time. The wheels are rolling for the Go Far Go Fast running event on June 18th. When I started this blog a couple of months, my goal was to look for little every day miracles that are all around us. When I look at this video I am so inspired by all the kids that participate in Go Far. Witnessing it from the ground up, I see the everyday efforts of the mentors that carry the program to the little lessons learned by the children as they train for their marathon.  Watching our mentors guide the children brings me joy and hope in our relationships. I have seen the gamut of emotions that children experience on the journey. Every now and then, a child has had to swallow a cup of failure when caught over-counting laps because of the desire to get ahead.  I have seen kids that seem destined to struggle in life overcome the odds and achieve personal success at Go Far.  I have seen my stronger runners grab the hands of the slower runners putting their own goals aside to help others. There is nothing like awarding a child his or her first marathon and watching the victory lap out on the field.  So while you think these kids are just doing recess at school they are really achieving great things. Go Far helps a kid find strength on the inside and out. The program goal isn’t simply to keep us from going soft. They are learning the value of accomplishing a long-term goal.  In my life I have been in every form of physical condition. I understand what it feels like to be running like there are rocks in the bottom of your pants. I have also had a few experiences of the feeling you get when there are wings on your feet.  Either way, most of us are somewhere in between, but Go Far gives you the hope that you can be better.  The photos from this video inspire me to keep working at this endeavor because I just know it feels right.  If you want to get on the Go Far train, please contact me. You can donate time, money or just give those involved the old hooray of encouragement.  Today and everyday, these kids are a miracle.

 I’ve got ten minutes, so don't mind the typos. After that I’m just busy. A busy week begins and this Daylight Savings thing isn’t being very helpful. Unfortunately, it makes for a great sleep aid when you need to wake early.  Over-sleeping sucks. My poor daughter always gets shafted being the first onto the bus in the morning. because of my inability to wake up early to prep lunches, she often gets a granola bar and an apple thrown in her bag and must fend for herself by eating a questionable school lunch.  I get to do lots of things today and like everything in my life, nothing seems to go together.  It’s like every day of my life is plagued by a miss-match of plaids and stripes being worn together. Meeting with the first selectman, getting your hair done, doing a photo-shoot, hitting the super-market, and editing last nights shoot among all of the regular stuff all must be done in short order.  I also have to make sure that Kate has invented something that has never been done before for the invention convention while also choosing to write about someone that has had a great impact on the world for an upcoming paper.  I need to try to talk her out of her choice of writing about the creator of white-out, because in her mind, this person is up there with greats like Ghandi and Shakespeare.  But we all have these interesting and not so interesting task…just fill in my blanks with your blanks and see the crazed deer in the head-lights look in any mirror.  When I have a busy day ahead, I am destined to have a crazy non-sense dream that makes me wake up in a panic and get a crappy sleep for the rest of the night.  You know those. Chris gets them all the time. We have both had dreams where we get to the start of the Ironman swim and realize you don’t have any goggles. Even worst, it has actually happened to him. Those anxiety dreams are par for the course when the busy day lay ahead.  Last night I dreamed that I was driving with the kids in a Ferrari which was super cool until I got my foot stuck under the pedal and played Frogger at 120 mph down the  Merit highway that happened to be littered with thousands of bicyclist doing a MS bike ride.  God only knows why we have these anxiety ridden dreams, but I guess it just means tomorrow is important for some reason, otherwise we wouldn’t have them. Perhaps Kate can invent something that helps make the day flow well with relatively few hiccups.  Sure enough, it is Monday again. Last week’s Monday blog was plagued with all sorts of woes of the day and tuned up with the song, "I don’t like Mondays".  Don't get me wrong, I like Mondays and I am sure I’ll enjoy today, just not the thought of all that things that need to get accomplished.  I guess it’s just another manic Monday.

For most of us the technical term of aloha means hello or good-bye. But in reality the term aloha represents a kind of spirit of life. When a person says aloha to you it represents their inner peace and their own willingness to share their love and affection. Aloha is about harmony.  When a New York City cabby says hello to you, do you get that sense of aloha? Probably not. Sometimes, living in CT  we feel about as far away from aloha peace as possible. To understand aloha, a trip to Hawaii helps! I have been fortunate to travel to Hawaii a number of times to watch Chris race the Ironman and see it aloha first-hand.  But honestly, we got this same feeling when we lived in the Caribbean island of Saba. While I never once heard a person from Saba utter aloha, the aloha spirit was undeniable. I think that when you are surrounded on all sides by water, you are forced to feel an inner connection between nature and humanity. I even felt it when I was a lone sculler out in the pre-dawn hours rowing in a paper-thin shell with a simple set of oars.  Water makes me feel vulnerable. Every rower spends a lifetime trying to establish a respectful relationship with the water.  When water is friendly and calm, it invites us to jump in and frolic, but water also has a voracious nasty side that warns us to stay away when bothered.  People that live the aloha spirit have an innate understanding of this connection because they have learned to live in harmony with the ocean. But as we have seen in the past few days, this spirit of aloha has been tested to the extreme degree in Japan and Hawaii. I see the destruction in the photos and find it hard to grapple with the fact that the ocean can unleash such anger. Perhaps, it is a warning to all of us that we need to wake up respect the natural world, because there is no question in my mind that mother nature is really in charge. As all of the twisted metal, floating cars and man-made crap flow back into the ocean, lets hope that this has been a reminder that we need to respect the earth that has been given to us. While japan grapples with this horrible disaster, I hope that they rebuild with a more harmonious relationship with nature in mind. Seeing the damage of the Kona pier is a small personal reminder that the tragedy in Japan is not so foreign, and that none of us are immune to the nature's wrath. May we learn treat our earth with the aloha spirit and hope that in return we get some aloha back. 

We all had dreams of what we want to be when we grow up.  When I was a kid I remember saying I wanted to be an artist and a teacher. Lets think about it…have you become the person you said you wanted when it was all but the dream of a child?  I have dabbled in lots of things. I failed miserably at Wall Street when I realized I was unable to do fractions.  I have been a lifeguard, worked on a dive boat, been a full time athlete, was an English tutor, a bike shop employee, a computer teacher, a coach, a spin instructor, a horrible waitress, a director of a running program, a photographer and that other little job…mother.  Perhaps the most amusing job I ever had was when I lived in Mexico. I was paid by a wealthy student to go to class for him. When they took attendance in the class, as long as your seat was occupied, you were considered present.  That semester, I read the entire Clive Cussler series while hidden behind a massive organic chemistry book.  I got to sit two seats down from my husband and pass notes to him; it was very romantic.  A day hasn’t passed where I lament on the fact that I missed out on graphic art classes.  So now I have been doing the best I can to try to learn what I need to know by trial and error, reading, watching you tube and hacking my way through the jungle of the digital age.  I know there is hope. Yesterday I learned how to make a custom brush in Photoshop. It was only a few clicks away, but the trick was in knowing where to seek out those elusive keys. I feel fortunate in some ways that I didn’t get the job first only to experience the stress of learning how to do everything on the job.  For me, photography has been an on the job learning experience. Sometimes I get it right and other times I fail miserably. Thank god for digital cameras or I would have never lasted this long. It is a good thing that I really enjoy the editing process and that’s mostly because I love to sit down with a nice cup of hot chocolate.  Beyond taking something out of a picture and putting it somewhere else, I haven’t yet ventured very far in Photoshop world. So here is my first reworked digital creation. Words and pictures fascinate me when it’s all in the same package. I figured I would pair up a photo of kate with her favorite thing...words. this girl loves to read.  I have seen some amazing pieces of art on line…just Google typographic art.  I have no shortage of photos to play around with, just a shortage of time.  I don’t believe it is ever too late to become what you have always wanted to be. In the prolific words from Dr. Suess’s,  Oh The Places You’ll Go, he writes “ Will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed. (98 3/4% guaranteed.)”. You don’t need to be just out of high school or a college grad to heed the advice from this book. So...be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!