Dec
28
2013
I could not imagine moving back to NJ, where I had lived most of my life. It has been over twenty-five years in Central Pennsylvania. My roots are now here. I have fallen in love with this area. If you live long enough in one spot you develop roots there. You can’t go home again. You can’t go back.
Nov
27
2013
Things really do not make you happy. They really don’t. The only thing that does is love. The people who are in your life whom you love. I just came back from NYC where I met my sister and her husband briefly. We went to an outstanding art museum (and NY is full of them). First we had lunch or should I say brunch in an outstanding bagel shop. I had something that is almost impossible to get in Pa–a good salt bagel. I had come a long distance on Amtrak for this rendezvous to spend some time with my family or at least part of my family. Then we walked around and viewed art in a nearby museum. I was amazed how quickly I became tired. After an hour and an half we sat and ate at the restaurant in the museum. It was more to rest than to eat. I was glad to see my sister and her husband. They were in from California. My family this year threw me a birthday party. I can’t remember the last one thrown by my family. It was my sister’s idea. I did see the rest of my family that day at least my other sister and her husband. I no longer remember whether my nephew was there and his wife. I think they were. It was a perfect day. I will not forget it for awhile. I did see my nephew (and his wife) on this trip to NY. The train ride was fun.
May
3
2013
Having a childhood friend is a real gift. We have a history. He knew my parents and the sisters. We have a connection I do not necessarily understand but it is there. He is retired now. I am not working so I can visit him any time. He and I were on our high school tennis team. In our freshman year, in the county championship we played second doubles and won and the newspaper reporter covering the match called us ‘peanut sized freshman’. (???) He did grow up to be six foot. I didn’t. Now he lives with his wife in New Orleans. He used to live in Ohio and we camped in PA for at least five years in a row in a state park somewhat equidistant from our homes. We have seen each other at least the last eight years once a year. We had a long period we were out of touch–over thirty years. I did not know where he lived but my sister went to a high school reunion and I found out from her what city he lived in and I tracked him down. He still makes me laugh with his wry, understated humor. And I found out we still have a “connection”. We never run out of things to discuss. Not many people have that kind of history with a childhood friend. We attended the same grammar school grades and high school. I know he is a real gift.
May
1
2013
By the time I return home it will have become warmer: every day just about will be in the seventies. Spring finally arrived in PA.
Apr
30
2013
I did spot the first hummingbird. It was not in PA but in my friend’s yard. I was visiting a friend in another state. It briefly hovered over one of his two bushes of red flowers. The bird immediately disappeared. My wife did not see any hummingbirds in our yard. Usually by the end of April I see one. Today is the last day of the month. Still no hummingbird there.
Jun
18
2011
How many more opportunities will I have to see my sisters? We are meeting them both at the PA and NJ border. My one sister now lives in California and comes East maybe once a year. My other sister has a second home in Plymouth. We used to always go to her house for Thanksgiving in NJ once a year. Now she has it in Plymouth and that is just too far from us. I just wonder how many more opportunities will I have to see them together. We never know how much time we have so all I can do is enjoy the time He gives me. It is really not up to me. Time is a gift. And we never know when it runs out.
Apr
9
2009
I live in paradise. My house is on the edge of the country. There is a farm a quarter of a mile away. 
Within a mile a family has chickens, goats, and horses. I love seeing the baby goats when they are so tiny.
The view from my large living room window is another portal into paradise. I watch a steady stream of birds come into my view. Birds I have never seen anywhere appear at my feeders like the magnificent red bellied woodpecker. About once a year I see the exotic fifteen-inch red crested piliated woodpecker although it is far more likely I hear its wild cackle first.
We even had a brush or two from the local black bear who now stays away. Our four dogs who now are enclosed by a large wooden picket fence now frighten him away.
There is so much beauty here and sometimes I do not see it. I forget I grew up in the city–a large town. I can see cottontails play outside from my kitchen window. My two friends, a couple I have know for years, are going to visit us next week from NYC. To them this is wild country.
I now have to view the land from their standpoint, change my perspective. It is too easy to become blind to your surroundings. Somehow I need to lift the veil that has grown in front of me and again see the beauty around me.
I had fallen in love with Central Pa. I knew things had changed when once I was coming back from NJ (where I had lived for the past two decades) and I thought, “I am coming home”. It is paradise here and I have to remind myself of that fact. Every time I drive up the Juanita Valley, my breath is taken away by its magnificent view of the River and its surrounding mountains. Even closer to home, when I drive into town from the back way and peer down into the Susquehanna River Valley, I can easily imagine I am viewing the fjords of Norway. The universe is in my own backyard. All I have to do is open my eyes. It’s here. I do not have to travel to Maine, Alaska or Hawaii. It is all here. Paradise.
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