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A Time to Embrace

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(Photo credit: Jennifer Cakert, “Jenn See”, 2006)

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
…A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
…a time to embrace…

~Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2, 4, 5 (KJV)

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the passing of one of my very first online friends, Jennifer “Jenn See” Cakert. Her death was unexpected and all the more shocking because of how young she was, 26, and how much life she had left to live. Each year since then I have written a post of remembrance. While there must be times that it seems like this just happened yesterday for her family and for those who loved and embraced her in life, life does move forward and times of mourning have and naturally should turn to times of dancing…times of embracing. This is even more true for someone like me who only knew her through her words, her pictures, and the sharing of thoughts on those seemingly trivial things that make us who we are and make life our own unique journey. I don’t say this to trivialize grief in any way. I have not lost a child, a parent, a sibling, a lover or even a really close friend who I’ve known for a long period of time. I won’t pretend to even be able to imagine that kind of grief. No doubt one unfortunate and not-looked-for day in my future I will become intimately acquainted with the kind of grief felt by Jennifer’s mother, her siblings, and others who spent their days with her.

But on this day I don’t want to mourn. I don’t want to post something that will compel people to try to come up with words of comfort or sympathies for loss. It is a day to celebrate life. Mourning has turned to dancing. Let me show you how:

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In the Good Ol’ Summertime

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(Photo credit: Olga)

Heat, ma’am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.
~Sydney Smith, Lady Holland’s Memoir

It is June 21st and Summer is officially upon us. This year the date holds no special magic, Summer temperatures roughly pushed Spring aside many weeks ago. How ironic then that today, at least in my corner of the world, the high temperature is predicted to be 81 degrees and it is an absolutely gorgeous Spring-like morning? No matter the heat or humidity, Summertime has begun. And with the seasonal change comes a desire to make lists, set goals, plan events. I know everyone is not like this and I find no fault in you if that be the case. I have come to acknowledge that I am a seasonal list maker and a voyeur when it comes to the lists of others.

Recently Debi posted her Summer Goals. I laughed and cried with her as I read it, seeing the reflection of a kindred spirit in her desire to accomplish a mountain of tasks–some pleasant and some that can only be defined as “work”–while acknowledging that Summer is fleeting and in the end much will be left undone. Her bold foray into Summer list-making touched off my own mental list which will now be made public, so that you too can have your chance to scoff at the kind of goal-setting dementia whose blame I lay squarely at the feet of the hot Summer sun.

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Challenges

Once Upon an Ending

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As Spring makes way for summer (something she seems to have done in reality many weeks ago) thus ends the 5th annual Once Upon a Time Challenge. This is the longest challenge that I host. The three months always seem as if they are going to go on forever yet inevitably the time rushes by in a complete and total blur. For the first time in many years I am ready for Spring to give way to Summer, but again I think that is largely to do with the fact that summer weather moved in early this year. While I anxiously await the more tolerable autumn weather, I am excited about projects I would like to get done these next few months, books that I want to read, etc. But more on that in an upcoming Summer post.

As we close the door on the Once Upon a Time Challenge I want to recap what I myself did for the challenge, give you an opportunity to post links to any wrap up post you may do (not required, but please share it if you do one), and of course end with an opportunity for a prize!

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Father’s Day

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“Any man can be a father, but it takes a special person to be a dad”
~Anonymous

I found this video a few weeks back on the blog of artist James Hance and knew immediately that it would be my Father’s Day post. Although my dad didn’t drive a JCB, before retirement he spent 40+ years at a job where every day was a “bloody hard day”. I am thankful those days are passed for him and have always been proud of him for the kind of dad he was, and the kind of dad he remains–a strong example of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a dad. And whenever we get together we enjoy a “top laugh”. I love you, Dad.

For all of you dads out there, Happy Father’s Day! You mean the world to us.

Enjoy the tune everyone, lyrics after the jump if you need ’em. (I especially like the part near the end when the song picks up speed) 🙂

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Film

Super 8

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The summer movie season has come to be defined as a time when the big blockbuster films are released. The kind of movies that demand to be viewed with a soda and a large bucket of buttered popcorn. Movies that have big budgets, are full to bursting with special effects, and occasionally have a story worth the telling. In a summer filled with superheros, swashbucklers, sex and sequels, it is refreshing to see a movie that celebrates the magic of summer itself–that unbelievable gift of time we were given as children in which to roam and adventure and dream.

Among other things J.J. Abrams’ latest film, Super 8, is an homage to the glory days of summer during that time of life where boys and girls have one foot firmly planted in the innocence of childhood and are just beginning to step with the other over into the world of adolescence. Super 8 takes place in 1979 and follows a group of friends who are spending their summer filming a zombie movie in the super 8 format in the hopes of having it picked for an upcoming film festival. On a surreptitious night shoot at a train depot the youth find themselves the benefactors of a real train passing, something they hope will lend realism to the scene. When an accident occurs that causes a colossal train wreck, the night’s shoot is ruined and something unexpected is released into the small Ohio town that will change the lives of its residents forever.

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Eclectic Musings of a Renaissance Geek