“Here, AJ, try this!” Aunt Sari said, placing a chocolate-covered ice cream bar into his eager hands.
The little boy’s big brown eyes grew even bigger as he took it, curiosity lighting his face. A moment of hesitation…then a bold first bite. His expression transformed instantly, melting into a big, big grin.
“WOW!”
That one word, that delightful smile, said everything.
Pure innocence. Pure joy.
Little yellow Fiat following a red brick road...Wouldn't it be fun to see a little red Fiat follow a yellow brick road? I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
Last Friday, activists lined the sidewalk outside U.S. Representative Mike Turner’s Dayton, Ohio, office with dozens of backpacks. The display, titled "Eyes of a Child", paired each backpack with a portrait to honor the children killed in a missile strike on a school in Minab, Iran, presenting them as lives remembered rather than statistics. The demonstration was organized by Veterans for Peace and the Greater Dayton Coalition for Peace.
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| Photo: Ty Greenlees |
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| Photo: Ty Greenlees |
In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, the iconic quote "Me and Jenny goes together like peas and carrots" is used by Forrest to describe their inseparable bond. Narrating his childhood and later life, Forrest explains they were constant companions -"always together" - an inseparable connection, even when Jenny was far away.
My dearest friend's birthday was last week and she and I "goes together like peas and carrots," too. A couple of our children are the same ages; preschool and kindergarten were the connections that brought us together. 35 years of friendship...that's over half of our lives.
On April 15, Facebook brought back several posts I’d shared on that same date in years past. It’s always fun revisiting those old memories.
April 15, 2020...In all of this Coronavirus craziness, our good ole tank of a washing machine is acting up. The UPS guy delivered parts to the house on Monday and Tuesday. Ted greeted him at the door yesterday and this was today’s delivery. It’s those little things...
April 15, 2021...
April 15...it's Monday AND tax day. There's a sucker punch for you!Went down to the accountant's office to pick up papers and lighten the checkbook. A young lady seated me in the conference room and asked me to review the stack of papers on the table. (WHAT?)
Do you think that happened with a view like this?
Last week, Aullwood MetroPark looked like a fairytale, with thousands and thousands of bluebells in bloom. Aullwood was once home to the Miami Valley’s own “godmother of the environmental movement,” Marie Aull, who lived an extraordinary life from 1897 to 2002.
In 1957, she approached former National Audubon Society president John H. Baker with the idea of creating Aullwood. It would take another twelve years before the Cuyahoga River fire in Cleveland, a bold symbol of industrial pollution, to help ignite the modern environmental movement. Even then, conservation was only beginning to take root. Marie Aull was already ahead of her time, a true visionary.
"This is a valley where nothing ever happens, where people simply live, where there is sun and slow peacefulness of day following day. Walk gently...and may some of its peace be yours."
~ Aullwood Garden MetroPark
"It was the small things she took pleasure in. The faint hum of a huge furry bumble bee busily flitting from one flower to another, oblivious to the fact that it was completing a task on which the entire human race depended." ~ Kathryn Hughes
