So, What's Been Going On?

Last week I mentioned that a lot had been going on in my life. It's true. There have been a fair amount of changes around here. All of these changes are good and will hopefully bring further good as time passes.

The first thing that came our way was the news that our daughter and her husband are expecting. They will become parents toward the middle to end of August. Not too very long afterward came the news that our son and daughter-in-law are going to be parents as well! They are adopting a baby boy who is slated to be born sometime between the middle of July and the beginning of August. So, all of a sudden we have gone from having no grandchildren to expecting​ two! God has answered a lot of prayers.

In the midst of all this wonderful news, I began a new career as a legal assistant for a good friend of ours. This was an answer to prayers that have been going up for the last two years, so needless to say, I am very grateful and happy. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but so far I think I'm learning a lot of new tricks. I'm looking forward to going in to work on Mondays for the first time in quite a while. It definitely has been an adjustment and is much more challenging than anything I've done in a while, but it's certainly not boring.

Hopefully, I can be forgiven for not posting as much lately. If not, that's okay too. Sometimes certain things have to take a back seat to life. I'm going to try to be more regular in my writing, but I'm not going to make any promises. Life is good, and it marches on. I hope all of you faithful readers have good things happen to you as you continue on your journey.

A Poem: Home Again

I wrote this one a couple weeks ago.

HOME AGAIN

It’s been said that you can’t go home again

I decided to see for myself, so I went back

Back to the places that shaped me

The places that for so long defined my life

They were still there, still the same

Yet somehow different, somehow changed

The house I grew up in seemed smaller

The tree in the front gone, the shed in the back dilapidated

The elementary school still stands, but it too has shrunk

So have the baseball fields where I used to play

The junior high is now a community center

The posts with dirt on top replaced by benches

My old high school has been torn down

Replaced by a new one that looks like a prison

The small town has grown into a sprawl of suburbia

Where it takes forever to drive anywhere

The chicken house has no chickens or eggs

The “giant” hogs are gone from the pen

The path up the hill through the pasture is overgrown

Just a few cows still wander the hillside

The old house has hot water now

You don’t have to heat water on a wood stove for a bath

Cell phones have replaced the old crank wall phone

Where you listen in on other folks’ conversations

The old mules are no longer around

And the smell of Paw’s pipe is long gone

The old wooden church we used to visit is gone

Replaced by a larger brick building

Family names still dot the old graveyards

New ones have been added

They say you can’t go home again

You can, but it’s not home

Weekend Wanderings

It's been a while since I've posted a links post. A lot has been going on in the world, and a lot has been going on in my own life (that's for another post). Without further Ado, let's get to the good stuff.

This is cool.
This is sad.
This is strange.
This looks like a cool place to visit.
A list of the best commencement speeches ever.

This is a shame, but I think it's much more common than it was when I was coaching.
Good question.
Progressive political theology.
Interesting fashion sense.
This is terrible.

Wow. Just wow.
A good reason to not complain.
Good article about transhumanism.
Who's a good boy?
Want more self control? You may want to rethink that.

Life milestones. Some of them are good.
Subversive supper.
I agree with this post.
Moral grandstanding.
Bottling the tears.

Have a blessed week!

A Little Bit of Poetry

Here is a poem I wrote last month and read at a local poetry reading:

A Sunny Day, Three Teen Boys, and a Fishbowl. What Could Go Wrong?

It was a beautiful sunny day,

But the crawfish had long since ceased to be.

The teacher said, “You and your friends take that out!”

“Go to the creek to clean that nasty fishbowl.”

So, off they went, three teen boys headed down to the creek,

On a sunny day, with a fishbowl.

What could go wrong?

The cleanup was surprisingly quick,

Considering there were three teenage boys down at the creek.

After a minimum of horseplay, it was time to go.

Back to class, to finish the day.

So, off they trekked.

On a sunny day, with a fishbowl.

What could go wrong?

Nearing the building, they came across a gym class.

A girls’ gym class, playing softball.

So being teenage boys, on a sunny day,

They decided to stop and watch for a while.

 After all, it was such a nice day.

Who wants to be stuck inside?

What could go wrong?

Where to sit?

There were only posts, with dirt

Where the bench used to be.

The young man had new pants on, so that wouldn’t work.

“I know,” he thought,

“I’ll turn the fishbowl on its side and sit!”

What could go…

Crack!

Oops!

Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong.

The fishbowl had splintered into jagged shards of glass,

Some of which were now embedded

Deep in the young man’s thigh.

Since they now couldn’t stay,

The three teen boys began the trek

Up two flights of stairs.

After the ambulance ride to the hospital,

The young man tried to explain to his mother

Why he thought sitting on a fishbowl was a good idea.

What could go wrong?

‘Tis strange but true,

This little story,

About a sunny day, three teen boys and a fishbowl.

After his brush with death

The young man recovered and

Lived to tell the tale.

Boy, I miss that fishbowl.