Perspective

The past week has been filled with such strong emotions, feelings, thoughts, and reflections. We go through life so smug sometimes thinking that we have things together and know just what we are doing and where we are going. Then something meaningful comes along to provide us with the emphasis to make needed course corrections and perhaps reset our intenal compass to ensure we are where we want and need to be.

Memories mean so much more than meetings, Compassion so much more than appointments, Love so much more than promotions. I've been reminded this past week that the world will remember little of the things we do to earn a living, but our life's legacy will be considered and measured by how we loved those who surround us.

Life is sometimes too short and if we are not careful we end up letting fleeting but critical moments go by without doing what we can to lift someone who is down, lighten someone's burden that is heavy, support someone who needs strengthening, and care for someone who needs love.

Tomorrow is a chance to start again on that winding road that gives us experiences to learn from, opportunities to grow from, and situations to act upon. This past week has brought me a full palate of rich experiences that I hope to not soon forget. I hope the attached slide show will be of some benefit to those who were unable to attend Bill's funeral, but wanted to see a glimpse of the event.

Rochele

Rochele, an unusual name? For those of you who don't know, her name was a combination of Rock and Michele and means...."from the little rock". We thought that was appropriate. Rochele was always one of our more spirited children and was not afraid to get a little dirty in the process. When she was very young, Michele saw something stringy hanging from Rochele's mouth. Upon further examination, it was found that she had put a "daddy long leg" spider into her mouth. Thus Rochele's nickname that has stuck through her life.....Roach.

Being the 2nd child, I'm sure Rochele felt ignored from time to time. Being very young parents, we hardly knew what to do with our 1st child. With two in our home, it was just twice the fun. Rochele had some serious changing to do between her baby stage and her young adult stage. As a baby, she hardly made a peep. She would stay in her crib for hours on end with never a complaint. She could entertain herself without us hardly even knowing she was there. Even when we took her for her shots, she refused to cry. She seemed to make up for all that quietness as she got older. Once she could vocalize words, we were destined to an endless stream of songs, movie recitals, and anything else she could remember to spew out of her mouth. Until the day she got married she could perform almost any show she had ever seen. If you can't remember a Disney song....just call Rochele, she can sing it to you still today! Now we see her own daughter following closely in her mothers footsteps.

Click on the slide show and see the fun we had raising Rochele and learning to appreciate her zest for life. No matter how old she gets, or how many kids she has, she will still be "Our Little Girl".