Happiness is...

Happiness is finding a long, lost friend and picking up where you left off. Yesterday I reconnected with my long, lost friend Heather. We met as neighbors when we both lived in VA in 1996. In a very short span of time we became fast friends and as close as sisters. She was the last person I hugged, the person I waved good-bye to, as I began the long drive back to Milwaukee after my marriage broke up. In six short months of friendship we had been through so much together. I believe God put her in my life to give me strength. She says I was the strong one. After I moved we managed to stay connected via phone calls and e-mail for awhile but then, between moves, name changes and life changes, we lost each other. On Friday night I finally found the breakthrough I needed and yesterday we talked on the phone for the first time in about ten years! With tears and laughter we caught up on each other's life - kids, marriages, jobs, moves, homes and just about everything else we could think of that happened since the last time we talked. We peeled away ten years of living like it was 10 minutes. We both said we had thought about each other often and missed each other. Although we're about ten hours apart by car, we're hoping to get together sometime soon. I am so happy that we've reconnected!

I agree...

I'm really not political... honestly... but I did watch the President's State of the Union address the other night. I watched mostly because it was on right after Biggest Loser and because there wasn't really anything else on at that time that I wanted to see. He said something that resonated with me (see my 2010 blog "I'm just sayin...") and I wanted to mention it here. He said we should celebrate the winners of the science fair like we celebrate the winners of the Super Bowl (paraphrase) and I just want to say that I agree that we (myself included) have placed a high priority on the sports entertainment industry, and entertainment in general, to the exclusion of more important things like education, poverty, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to sit here and spout off some idealistic rhetoric as if I'm not going to watch the Super Bowl next weekend; I'm just suggesting that we should be mindful of how we prioritize life and be sure to keep sports in proper perspective.