Skip to main content

Summer Breeze

The sun just ducked behind the tall oak tree that signals its final descent toward the west on this Memorial Day weekend Sunday. The pool here in Leonia opened to nearly ninety-degree heat. The children are yelling and splashing in the pool behind me. My chair back is toward them as I face the sun and trees whose leaves shimmer and glisten in the summer breeze that has come early early to Northern New Jersey. Summer has a gentle beauty and pace that brings the soul to life if you let it. The rest of the year life's pace is relentless, but these two scantily clad months of untucked shirts and flip flops refreshes us weary ones from winter's discontent. Summer is the season that belongs to youth, who haven't a care in the world while the pool is open and the schools are closed. At least on the way home from work, adults can roll down the car windows, turn up their stereos, and remember their careless summers of days gone by.

The heat that arrived in May has stayed and the summer of 2010 has been one of the hottest on record. 
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

My Reflections on My UPS Career on Founders Day

We were given a choice whether or not those of us who were having a milestone service year wanted to speak on Founders Day in our department meeting. Since the one consistent feedback I have gotten during my entire 25-year career at UPS was that I don’t speak up enough in meetings, I thought I would make up for the whole thing here today. No one intends to have a long career at UPS. You come to work at UPS as a temporary thing while you are planning your life. Those plans do not include UPS. We come for the benefits, the tuition assistance, the non-standard hours that don’t interfere with classes or our other real jobs. Parents don’t envision their kids growing up and working for UPS. I think these are just the basic realities of life. I worked the majority of my career in Information Services Learning & Development or Corp HR Learning & Development. I would have never lasted 25 years had I been in Operations. I know exactly how long I would have lasted in Operations had I wo...
Read more

The Monotony of Commuting

I have spent most of the past twelve years commuting at least one hour a day: 30 minutes to work, and usually 40 minutes to return home. I have tried a number of things to avoid monotony, such as taking as many different routes as possible. I may be the only person in the world who uses a GPS to commute home from work because I try new routes and end up in unfamiliar places. To make the most of the commuting time, I have tried a number of things. I have listened to the Bible and prayed, although it seems a little irreverent to interrupt the prayer yelling at someone who has cut me off. I have listened to Christian radio, which means I have heard the song " I Could Only Imagine " over 5,000 times. I have listened to pop radio. I have listened to the music of my youth to somehow re-energize portions of the brain and keep my mind sharp. Sometimes, I switch back and forth between Christian and pop radio, alternating between joy and guilt. I have listened to talk radio and sports ...
Read more

My Prayer Life Is Like, "Whack" (-a-Mole)

 I’ve been a practicing Christian my entire adult life, and one would think that would result in a certain level of proficiency in certain practices such as what often occurs when one plays golf, tennis, or does various other activities on a regular basis. Prayer is not like this for me though. Prayer is like whack-a-mole. As soon as I knock down a mole that pops up--some sort of obstacle to my praying--another mole rises in its place. "Whack-a-mole" is exactly how I would describe my prayer life, a daily whacking away at things that prevent prayer.
Read more