It's Been a Week for My Dear Friend & Colleague, Beth, So Yesterday I Stopped By Her House to Offer Her Fridge a Few Meals

And I also was lucky to catch the light just right, as she lives on the estuary side of the Sound near where the Housatonic River drops into the Sound and where the Charles E. Wheeler Wildlife Area acts as a sanctuary for birds, fish, fox, deer, raccoon, and everything else that benefits from the brackish water. Last week I got news that Mikey, her dog, was going on doggie hospice, but today she learned that her 91 year old father is not doing well in the hospital and they're anticipating the worst. He's had bouts before but always triumphs and defeats all odds, but this time the tea leaves aren't looking good. She knows she'll need a little help from her friends and I jumped into that roll immediately.

Before knocking on the door and greeting Dan, her husband, I took a second to soak in the beauty of their backyard....she managed to find a semblance of the Louisiana wetlands that offered a childhood home. The lights, the scenes, the movement, and the bliss comes in cycles and I love looking out from where she lives. It's just beautiful.

I am thinking of my friends today and all who are holding onto time with hope. We're lucky when such news isn't in our immediate radar, but when it swings back our way we can only offer prayers and support. I learned, too, that the great Luda Dixon, also 91, of Louisville, Kentucky - the math teacher who guided my early career and understanding of education - passed this week, too.

He is and always will be a Brown School legend. Every minute counts.

I have only just a minute,

Only sixty seconds in it.

Forced upon me, can’t refuse it.

Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it.

But it’s up to me 

to use it.

I must suffer if I lose it.

Give account if I abuse it.

Just a tiny little minute,

but eternity is in it.