What Was I Thinking?

"Gray skies are gonna clear up - Put on a happy face! Wipe off the clouds and cheer up - Put on a happy face! Spread sunshine all over the place, just put on a happy face!" These are some of the lyrics from a tune from the 1960s era musical Bye Bye Birdie written by Charles Strouse, and I thought I would share them with you on this gray Wednesday afternoon. I had a wonderful experience this morning in upper school chapel. Kathie Groenewold appeared in the room, standing at the bottom of the center aisle, and I spontaneously asked her, "Would you like to sing this morning?" Kathie slowly made her way down the aisle to the stage saying, "Oh, no. Not me. I can't sing. You know how I hate attention!" When asked if she would like a microphone, she declaimed, "Oh, no!" and then held out her hand for one.   Robert Bridges was on guitar and Jordan Myers was tickling the ivories when we began to sing "Because of Your Love." I let the guys va...

I don't know why. Maybe I am becoming bipolar or something like that. Who knows? It's just that last week - even up through Sunday evening - I was feeling rather low, but these past two days I have been almost aggressively cheerful. I have energy and a desire to be out and about amongst the students and cracking wise, as some say. These past two mornings when I've shared at the 7:50 am teacher meetings, I have ended up speaking in an exuberant manner, and surprising even myself with the intensity of the passion behind my words. No, I am not suddenly head-over-heels in love and, no, I am not on some sort of mood-altering medication. The Lord has been waking me up for the past two days with a song in my heart and a buoyancy in my spirit and it is such a 180 degree turn around from where I was last week that I am astonished - pleasantly so. Can I say something? I believe that I will. I love GGCA - warts and all. I'm hoping and praying that the Divine Dermatologist is going...

It has been a while since I last posted anything to this blog, mostly due to the School Daze mentioned in my last posting. I came down with what I can only call a very bad cold that knocked me off my feet and put me in bed for an entire weekend ad a day. That day was this past Monday when I woke up in response to my flashing Moonbeam clock alarm, started my morning in the usual manner (my morning Achiphex pill, multivitamin, and a swig of orange juice followed by a check of email and some time reading from the Bible), but when I got up to ready myself for work, I felt compelled to lie down again and rest for a moment. That moment lasted for quite a while.   I was wakened by a loud banging on my front door. I roused myself from slumber, pulled on a pair of jeans, and stumbled to the door to find my dapperly dressed brother Doug on my doorstep. know that I must have been a sight - three days growth of beard, major bed head hair, perhaps pillow creases on my face, and the bedraggled, ...

My brain is in a fog. I took two non-drowsy formula pain relief cold caplets this morning and now I floating from task to task in haze. Everybody is pretty much leaving me alone to do my work in solitary confinement, which is fine with me. I would not want anyone else to get sick. I feel like I am awake yet dreaming all of this. It is not altogether unpleasant, but I prefer being healthy and more alert. I am the apple of God's eye. I love that verse, because it makes me think of beautiful, ripe McIntosh apples, green and red skinned, waiting to be picked and chomped into, to release their sweet-tart, juicy goodness. I like to think that I am the McIntosh apple of God's eye. Okay. I'm cutting this entry short today, because my mind is not a lucid as I would like it to be for writing for public consumption...

I am sitting at the GGCA front desk as I write this blog entry, because our faithful Anna Braganza called out sick today and Mr. McFarland is in the classroom teaching apologetics. It will be my voice on the other end of the telephone line if you call, and I will be the voice crackling over the speakers when people call the office to be buzzed into the elementary school or call to tell me that somebody is being referred to the office for disciplinary reasons.   I get to sit and watch the parade of humanity that flows through the office. There goes Mike Veader, a smile on his face, Mr. Security himself. He does an awesome job watching over all of us. And there goes Scott Dubay, munching on something and flipping me a snack size Hershey's chocolate bar. I have known him since I was a young teenager and he came to visit my family at our rented camp in Maine. He had a true Maine accent, and I remember saying to myself four words I had heard him say - "It huhrts, because it buhrns ...

It is one of the parts of the school day I enjoy the most - the early morning hour before any teachers or students arrive. I have the opportunity to sit quietly at my desk and work without any distractions besides the ones my mind invents. This morning I suddenly remembered that I have been remiss in my birthday card duties, so that will need to be remedied today. It is in the quiet times that little things like this percolate up from the dim recesses of my brain and find the light. I had another birthday a week ago. I went to the doctor to continue my physical (it appears to me that it will have three parts altogether since the doctor is constrained to seeing me in fifteen to twenty minute increments of time), and discovered that everything was good except my cholesterol levels which I have to try and make better. I had already planned to purchase a bicycle to ride for exercise, so that will be part of my plan to elevate the good cholesterol (along with taking those fish oil capsules ...