Tag: gratitude

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His music will live forever.

[brightcove vid=1417354856&exp3=10172910001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=59121&w=300&h=225]

I came across this on MIchael Jackson’s website tonight. It’s been a bit over three weeks now since we learned of Michael’s death. It’s hard to believe he’s gone. I was not a Jackson 5 fan, but I became a Michael Jackson fan in the 1980’s when he released Billie Jean. He just captivated me with his artistry. His music had a spirit that transcended nearly everything. He was electric. He was without peer.

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Taste of Buffalo

Today I made it to the Taste of Buffalo for the first time in my life thanks to my daughter. She’s working in Buffalo now and living close by and thanks to her invitation I actually ventured into the big city to taste some of the hundreds of different items there were to sample from Buffalo and Rochester area restaurants. It is the largest two-day festival of its kind in the United States. Fifteen dollars got me twenty tickets which in turn allowed me to sample a number of items. The more memorable tastes were “deep dish garlic bread” from Jack Astors, “Caprese skewer” from Cecelia’s Ristorante “Pork Slider” from Dinosaur Barbecue and a chocolate covered banana from Landies Candies. I completed my visit with a chocolate chip cookie which was delicious too.

There were thousands of people there today thanks to wonderful sunny skies. I think I’ll return next year and I’ll be happy to recommend the Taste of Buffalo to my friends. I’m glad our daughter lives in the Buffalo area and recommended the festival.

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Life in the country

I got this quote in today’s mail and it made me grateful for my own life and even the past two days which were spent not in my own country but in the lake country of Canada. Diane and I spent a weekend at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario at a lovely bed & breakfast called Blueberry Gate. Our hostess treated us very well and we’re likely to return. We got to enjoy a couple of performances at the Shaw Festival and very little television and only sparse internet, enough to send some text messages to our children and an update or two on Facebook.

This will give us some idea of the proper preparation that the contemplative life requires. A life that is quiet, lived in the country, in touch with the rhythm of nature and the seasons. A life in which there is manual work, the exercise of arts and skills, not in a spirit of dilettantism, but with genuine reference to the needs of one’s existence. The cultivation of the land, the care of farm animals, gardening. A broad and serious literary culture, music, art, again not in the spirit of Time and Life-(a chatty introduction to Titian, Prexiteles, and Jackson Pollock)-but a genuine and creative appreciation of the way poems, pictures, etc., are made. A life in which there is such a thing as serious conversation, and little or no TV. These things are mentioned not with the insistence that only life in the country can prepare a [person] for contemplation, but to show the type of exercise that is needed.

Thomas Merton. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. William H. Shannon, editor (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003): 131.

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Well pleased

Tonight our daughter called to inform us that she has been awarded an Excellence in Student Teaching from the State University at Fredonia where she will graduate in nineteen days. Dara has excelled in her four years at college. Beginning with three semesters at Nazareth College and then the last five semesters at State University of New York College at Fredonia. Dara is our daughter in whom we are well pleased. Many young people dream of 4.0 semesters and some even attain those marks.  My best undergraduate semester was a 3.2 and I was quite proud of that. Dara’s overall GPA is 3.97 and a 4.0 in her major. Add to that she’s a charming and attractive young lady who is very sensitive and highly regarded by her peers and her teachers.  In other words she’s not a square. She’s athletic and continues to run eight to ten miles a week.  There is a quote from the Gospel of Matthew 3:17, “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Tonight let me paraphrase that for our daughter and say, you are our beloved daughter in whom we are well pleased.  Deo Gratias!

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Spring Break

I’ve been on the road this week. I work in public education and one of the frills is these nice breaks we get every spring. I’ve spent mine traveling all over hell’s half acre. I left home early Monday morning headed for Clemson, SC. I got there in fourteen hours, spent the night at a Sleep Inn there. I drove eight-hundred miles only to awake to rain and gray skies. There’s a bit of humor in that for a guy who lives in one of the grayer spots on earth. I did make lemonade with the lemons that day and spent part of the morning and early afternoon trying to visit the campus of Clemson University and the South Carolina Botanical Gardens. They are beautiful and though I had to dodge quite a bit of rain I did get to see some of them.

I  left Clemson Tuesday afternoon and drove toward Charleston and the South Carolina low country. Among other things I wanted to visit Mepkin Abbey at Moncks Corner, SC. I spent the overnight in Summerville, SC at another Sleep Inn and had lunch with some old friends who live in Summerville. It was a treat to meet our friend Michelle and her husband Mac. After lunch at Panera Bread in North Charleston, I made the trip to Mepkin. Having never been to the Abbey I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but I was left without words to describe the beauty and the peace of the surroundings there.  I left Mepkin after spending most of the afternoon there and headed north toward Virginia but exactly where I wasn’t sure. A call to my wife convinced me that I should stop along the way in North Carolina and so I spent the night at a Microtel Inn at Wilson, NC.  Yesterday morning I rose early had breakfast and headed north on Interstate 95. I hadn’t driven but ten miles when I saw a sign for Cape Hatteras National Seashore. I had heard of Hatteras, Nags Head and Kitty Hawk but never been there. I’m glad I made the trip. It’s beautiful there, but yesterday it was extremely windy. Maybe it alway is. I visited Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers Memorial and took the tour and then headed north on US 158 and later NC 168 toward the Virginia border. I connected with Interstate 64 and drove to Williamsburg, VA where I am now. Williamsburg is one of the constants in my life. I started coming here in 1961 with my parents and though I’m here alone this time it is a family favorite yet. My wife couldn’t make the trip and I miss her and the children. Coming here at 56 years young and alone is different, but I still love the flowers and the smells that make Williamsburg a special place in my heart.

I got up early this morning and attended a prayer and meditation meeting at the Parish House of Bruton Parish. I walked from the hotel where I am staying the nearly mile and a half to Bruton. It was a lovely morning for a walk as the sun rose and the birds were flying and singing. It was great to be alive this morning in the quiet peace of early morning in Williamsburg, VA.

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Devin, Kevin and Kyle

Yesterday afternoon I was able to witness a great basketball game between the Blue Devils of Fredonia State and the Golden Eagles of Brockport State for the championship of the State University of New York Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball division. I spent much of four seasons following Devin, Kevin and Kyle around New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey as they competed for Fredonia State and though I didn’t always like the outcome I thoroughly enjoyed those times. Here they are seated in the front row.  Yesterday I was also able to join Kyle’s father John in the bleachers once more as we raised the decibel level at Laker Hall in Oswego cheering for the Blue Devils.

Brockport eventually prevailed but not before Fredonia gave them one heckuva’ game. Final score was 64-59 in a contest that saw Fredonia come back from two deficits of 17 points in the first half and 14 in the second half. With 1:31 left in the second half Brockport led by only three. Take nothing from either team though as the men from Fredonia State acquitted themselves well and the men from Brockport State gave us a clinic on quickness and outside shooting.

Congratulations to Coach Kevin Moore and the Fredonia State College Men’s Basketball team for a wonderful season at 18 wins and 9 losses and their first post-season appearance since 2003 and their first appearance in the conference finals since 1993. Go Blue Devils!

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Sweet Victory

I’m in Oswego, New York this morning. I’m sitting at a Macintosh in the new campus center. I came here last night to watch the Fredonia State Blue Devils compete in the SUNYAC Men’s Basketball Championship. The Blue Devils prevailed in a close contest winning in the final 8.5 seconds on a driving layup by Junior guard, Brad Coooper.  I brought an overnight bag in case they  won and I got to use it. I stayed overnight at the Scottish Inn near the college. I’ve stayed there a number of times when our son Devin was playing for the Blue Devils. I miss seeing Devin play and wish that his basketball career could have lasted longer. I never would have thought that my allegiance to Fredonia State would have continued, but it has. I’ve been a member of the Fredonia Boosters since Devin was playing and I’ve continued my membership. 

I’m really delighted for the young men of this year’s squad and happy that they can be in today’s final game which will be played at Laker Hall on campus here at SUNY Oswego. This afternoon’s opponent for the Blue Devils will be SUNY Brockport. Brockport’s got a great team and they’ve prevailed against Fredonia in two earlier meetings this year. Nonetheless, whatever happens Fredonia State Head Coach Kevin Moore can take pride in his team’s accomplishments this season.

After last night’s game I text messaged my wife, my daughter Dara who is a Fredonia State Senior and my son Devin who is former Blue Devil player. We were all excited and happy for the team and especially for  Kevin Moore.  Like all coaches Kevin has had his ups and downs and I was happy to see him so elated with last night’s victory. I’m hoping that the Blue Devils can upset Brockport today, but even if they don’t I’m glad that I’m in Oswego this morning even though it is only 7 degrees above zero.  Life is never what we expect. It is full of pleasant surprises and ironies and this morning I’m sitting in a building that didn’t exist thirty-seven years ago when I was in the middle of my second semester at SUNY Oswego, but I’m in full sight of the campus that did, the dorm I lived in and the buildings in which I attended classes. Thirty-seven years ago I had no idea that I would be transformed from an Anthropology major to a Hospital Corpsman in the U.S. Navy in less than a year. In the ensuing thirty-seven years I would complete an enlistment in the U.S. Navy, meet a lovely young lady, get married, have two children, finish college, work in public school for over thirty years and be considered by some a geek. Those items weren’t on my plate or even in my imagination in February 1972. 

I’m trying to say that you ought never put limits on what can happen. Whatever God you believe in or don’t has plans for you. There is a force in the universe that works for good even though sometimes the good is hard to see.  I don’t know what today will bring but I’m going to try to be open. Openness and flexibility are the keys. Godspeed Fredonia State!

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Vacation

Today is the first day of my winter vacation.  Last year I went to Arizona and I miss not going there, but I will travel soon to Washington, DC for DrupalCon. This morning I went to the gym with our daughter, Dara. Dara’s home this week because she’s been student teaching in the nearby Hamburg Central School system.   I worked out on the eliptical machine, which I’ve been using religiously lately. This morning I did 4.5 miles in forty minutes. I was happy with that. I compete with myself, trying to improve each day. I did the math and that’s less than nine minute miles.  After getting home and showering I had my a bowl of rice krispies with milk and honey. Today I’ve been relaxing, watching “Dances with Wolves,” and napping. What a life.

I haven’t written here as much lately, but I’ve been busy.  I researched and built a new Ubuntu Linux Terminal server on our network. It is a virtual server. That means that it resides inside one of our VMWare ESX servers.  Because it has been virtualized it can be shared more easily with others.  It is one of my ways of contributing to the open source community. The teachers and students who came to rely on our older Linux terminal server and who waited patiently while this one was built and configured are very happy.  I’ve also been learning how to use and deploy Drupal.  My life has always been about reading and learning. It’s been my passion and it continues to consume me.

Yesterday a friend wrote a very nice recommendation. I had asked him to recommend me on LinkedIn and I was humbled by what he wrote.  It is nice to have friends who think highly of you.  Here is part of what my friend Frank Pirrone wrote.

Don is one of those creatures who by temperament or by choice inhabits the cutting-edge of whatever he finds himself working on or engaged by. He has done tremendous work implementing novel technology solutions for the Franklinville school district as well as the surrounding community.

There is a chance I might retire from the school district. I don’t have to, but I’m eligible.  I hope that those of you who read what I write will pray for God’s will to be done. I will try to listen to his will. I’m trying to determine what that is in all of this.   Next month I will have worked at school district for thirty years.  Add to that a couple of years of military service and some other public service and I will have nearly thirty-five years of service. I suppose that is enough,  but I don’t want to sit around collecting dust. Life is to be lived.

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Gratitude

My heart is filled with gratitude tonight. I’m grateful for life in general, but also that we witnessed a peaceful transfer of power today in our land.  I wanted to watch the inauguration on television but that didn’t work out so I listened to it on NPR and perhaps that was better. I was driving back to work from a morning meeting at the University at Buffalo. I wept a lot and they were all tears of joy and happiness. I thought often of my nephew Tom and how proud I was of him and how proud my Dad would have been. Dad’s been gone almost thirty-six years now. He checked out early at 46. He missed a lot.

I listened to the swearing in. I really loved Rick Warren’s benediction. I thought he did a great job. I loved the orchestral arrangement. It was a lovely piece and captured the grandeur for me. I loved Dr. Lowery’s final blessing. I was sorry to see that some people booed former President Bush. I thought that was poor taste.

President Obama’s speech was the best inaugural address I’ve ever heard. I think it will rank up there among the top. His delivery was impeccable and maybe it was because I listened to it on the car stereo but he seemed to thunder like a clap of lightning. It was magnificent. I’ve watched more television in the past few days than I have in a long time.

Tonight it seems like morning in America again.  I’m glad I lived long enough to experience this day.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.  The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation:  the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

–President Obama

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Tom

Today I drove to Mt. Irenaeus for Mass.  It’s part of what I usually do nearly every Sunday. On the way I placed a call to my nephew Tom who’s a member of the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard in Anacostia, DC. Earlier this week my brother called to let me know that Tom would be marching on Pennsylvania Avenue on Tuesday accompanying our new President. I wanted to call Tom and let him know how proud I am of him and that he would be in my prayers and that I hoped he would be able to stay warm despite the bitter cold that grips the east coast of our nation.  I left my message on his voice mail and continued to drive to the Mountain.

My trip this morning was a bit more exciting than normal because the road to Mt. Irenaeus was not completely plowed and my little PT Cruiser couldn’t quite make the final hill on the first try. I decided to back down the hill and wait for my friend Duane Karl who has a four-wheel drive pickup. After backing down the hill and getting my car parked on Weatherby Road I looked up and my guardian angel arrived in the person of a snow plow and sander for the Town of Wirt. The plow cleared the road and the sand provided the necessary traction for me to make the grade. Once I arrived I made my way to the chapel and Mass.  After Mass I turned my phone on and discovered that I had a nice message from Tom. He told me that he had been practicing for the inauguration and that he’d be carrying the California flag at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday afternoon.  My heart swelled with pride as I shared this news with the Friars and other guests.  I can’t think of Tom nor his part in the upcoming inauguration without becoming filled with pride and choked up a bit with emotion.

I did get home in time to see Tom on HBO. As with most of this historic event I watched it on my laptop computer.  I missed the first part of the show but saw the California flag at the end of the event and though I couldn’t see Tom I knew that he was up there. My daughter sat next to me and we both agreed that this was a special moment for us and especially for Tom.