Stating the Obvious: It's the Littlest Things In Life That Make the Largest Difference. Every Once In A While....

I made it to my office yesterday by 8:30 a.m. and quickly bulldozed through helping Ellen with the POW! Anthology of student writing, class preparation, a slurry of emails, and final touches on a site profile report...

...yes, one of those days when I don't take the time to look up...

...but I did. I asked the university to provide a monitor to attach to my upgraded laptop (which, as an upgrade, is four inches smaller and difficult to read). I'm getting used to using two screens, but I'm loving it, especially as the wider screen randomly selects photos from my lap top to display. It's like my own personal museum.

And when I looked up, I saw a picture of Abdi and his little sister at his high school graduation. I also saw the award given to me by my alma mater and a photograph from the first Writing Our Lives conference that I loved helping to create. I had this strange moment where everything in my life made sense - the chaos, the hard work, the constant quest for answers, the inability to get to 1/4th of them, and the schedule I keep.

Seeing Abdi and his little sister in this photograph on the screen before a wall I painted Orange (yes, Go Cuse!), I felt centered.

Everything has been evolving at exactly the right time. I've tried to slow down to enjoy the journey, but the pace I keep rushes me forward.

This quick moment made my day. The screensaver changed, of course, but I had a glimpse where everything made a tremendous amount of sense.