All is quiet on new year’s day
A world in white gets underway
I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on new year’s day
On new year’s day
I will be with you again
I will be with you again
Under a blood red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few
The newspapers says, says
Say it’s true it’s true…
And we can break through
Though torn in two
We can be one
I will be with you again
I will be with you again
——-
Yes we will.
Sun hovers over the Vancouver landscape. (Aug 2010)
This request really makes no sense except if you were in a bar and ordering a drink.
A mudslide is made with irish cream, and a few other adult beverage components.
Outside of the beverage department, you would never order a real mudslide.
Take a look at this photo. I wouldn’t even show this to you, except that this story has already been widely publicized and shown dozens of times on TV.
Mudslide carnage near Oliver, British Columbia (July 2010)
Take a look at where the mud levels got up to. Thankfully no one died in this slide. Many times that is not the case.
Some slides have very defined causes, some do not and some remain undetermined.
One thing is for certain. To the people whose homes and property and lives were altered, they were not expecting a mudslide that day.
The simple point is, we don’t know what is going to happen.
We can’t live like a mudslide is eminent every minute of the day, but when a mudslide happens it is the response that is generally measured.
The response by everyone around us from the inner circle to the acquaintances to those that don’t even know us has been and is spectacular.
During the recent 2010 British Open Golf Championship at historic St. Andrews, a story was told of Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris.
Old Tom Morris
Both were multiple time winners of the Championship and both have amazing stories.
At the height of the golfing season it seems theirs is a fitting story tonight.
Old Tom designed or had a hand in designing 75 courses and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. He won the Championship in 1861, 62, 64 and 67.
Old Tom had a son who was equally as prestigious. Young Tom Morris won the Championship in 1868, 69, 70 and 72 and was destined for greatness.
Why am I telling you this story?
You see Young Tom had a wife and child who very tragically both died during childbirth complications. Young Tom, aged 24, died just a few months later in 1875 from an unknown cause, but most people blamed it on a broken heart. Old Tom continued forward until his passing in 1908 some 33 years later.
The TV broadcast of the Championship included a re-enactment of Old Tom visiting his son’s grave and sharing some words with Young Tom who had died so young and at the very beginning steps of his adult journey.
Paraphrased, he stated, “Son, they say that you died of a broken heart. Only I know that is impossible.”
He was inferring that his own heart was broken. His son simply could not have died from a broken heart otherwise he would have suffered the same fate.
Old Tom, I sorta know how you feel. With broken hearts we carry on.
That is how Old Tom honoured his son, and that’s how I will honour mine…and I know so many of you feel the same.
“For true success, it matters what our goals are. And it matters how we go about attaining them. The means are as important as the ends. How we get there is as important as where we go.”
I think if he was living today, Old Tom just might add…Be The Best!
Wow. This throws my whole family history into a jeopardy. It could be because of the Mennonite heritage of milking the cows (I’ve never milked a cow but I’ve gathered a lot of eggs and caught a lot of chickens in my day…) and doing chores before breakfast or simply that I tend to be a ‘morning person’, ‘brunch’ has been consumed many many times before 10am in this household. As the Chief Brunch Maker in this family and for all those who believe brunch can be eaten before 10am, I may add an addendum to that Wikipedia site…
Yes, these are real pictures of today's 'brunch'.
In any event, Sunday breakfast/brunch was a big deal in our house. We not only had a big breakfast that got bigger as Max and Chris got older, but it was a family moment as well. We usually had our weekly ‘family meeting’ post brunch and then as they got older and schedules more difficult, the family meeting happened after Sunday dinner. It was a few moments in the week to discuss schedules, coordinate plans and discuss things.
Ingrid, Max and I have been talking weekly and coordinating our lives in the past few months, but I haven’t made a real solid Sunday brunch since March 25. But I did today. The reason it was so early (aside from personality/culture ‘issues’ as indicated above) was that Max had to head to the pool for Life-guarding duty. Ingrid, sensibly enough, is still sleeping.
I’ll cook her a more traditional brunch served between 10am and 1pm.
In the last few days the sun has had a very red glow due to the smoke in the air from this summer’s forest fires.
Be The Best. 