Hang on...

I took this picture at Queechee Gorge, Vermont, and it was one of the few pictures out of the hundreds I took that had a specific purpose. Queechee Gorge advertises itself as "the Grand Canyon of the East." I'd say...not quite...but even so, it was beautiful. We took a trail to the bottom of the gorge, and as we walked along the way we came to the spot in the picture. There was a series of small rapids, and the water was battered around as it made its way toward the Atlantic Ocean. As the water cleared the rapids, there were a few small rocks and such in the stream bed that disturbed the surface of the water, causing a few small ripples. After that, though, it was smooth sailing, and you can see in the picture that the water became as smooth as glass.

As soon as I saw it, I tried to get myself in a position to shoot down through the rapids, to enable the viewer to see the rough water, the water beginning to smooth out, and eventually the glassy water all in the same shot. My thinking follows thus, and you all know how profound I can be.

Life happens. Things come up, and often we wish our circumstances were different. It just seems like too much to bear, you know? Here's what I think we learn as we go through life. Hang on...right now you're going through the rapids, but eventually things will smooth out. It may not happen soon, and it may not happen the way you think, but smooth water lies ahead. I think I'll take that picture and have a big poster-type thing made out of it with this caption, "And it came to pass..." Christian comedian Mark Lowry talks about that. That comes from the first verse of Luke 2, which says, "And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered." Good or bad, it came to pass.

Whew, all this profundity is taxing! It's easier for me to be silly.

I'm going to Jacksonville for a few days tomorrow...unfortunately, that's Illinois, not Florida. In our insurance business we work with Diversified Services, and they are based in Jacksonville. I'm going down to meet with a few successful agents to get some ideas, some training, and so forth. My hope is that I can incorporate some of what they do that makes them successful into my business practices, unlike my time at The Valley. Our goal there was to take Best Practices (which is to say those things that are making good schools good) and perform plastic surgery so it worked...or rather didn't work...for our particular situation. The plastic surgery we performed commonly at The Valley was the type of surgery where you take a beautiful model and attempt to tweak her nose, but instead she comes out looking like Jerry Stiller. Oi. Anyway, I'll be gone for a couple of days, so if there are any bad people out there reading this blog, stay away from my house until I get back.

Early archery season starts today, and while I'm not taking time to go out today, I do have a goal for this hunting season. It's tempered a bit from last year's goal, which was to harvest a nice buck. My new goal is this: I'd just like to see a dadgum deer while I'm sitting out there with a bow in my hand! I've only been hunting (or, more accurately, taking my bow and sitting in a tree in the woods looking at the leaves, getting excited if a squirrel walks by) for two years, and thus far I have yet to see anything. That might lead you to think that there aren't any deer where I go, but I say to you that evidence points to the fact that our woods is Grand Central Station for the local whitetail population. Scrapes, prints, bedding areas...it's all there. I just have to be in the right spot at the right time. So, this year, a new goal: I just hope to see something!

My advice: enjoy a corndog today. Dip it in mustard.