Chickenpox...

Chickenpox. It's one of those diseases that many of we older folks lived through, but for which there is now a vaccine. Even my own children had to deal with the blisters and the proverbial itch, but manyof their friends just a couple of years younger did not. It's one of those strange time warp sorts of things.

In my day, the only remedies were calamine lotion, oatmeal baths, and love from mom.

This past work week was one of those that just threatens to make one's head explode. Every one of the "hats" I wear seems chock-full of detail work. Stressful. Wearing. Like being sick with something only time can cure. Enough said. Though I seem to digress, I promise I am not. Work with me.

Working for a non-profit organization often means that the lower monetary compensation is offset by knowledge of the intrinsic/extrinsic value in what you are doing - what you are working for and toward. That said, in an attempt to get creative with low-cost, but meaningful Christmas gifts, I began a project of scanning many of the smaller pictures in the family archives. Going back through family records just seems to put so much in perspective. Hence the picture above.

And then, being right there at the computer, I decided to burn a cd of songs discovered listening to Pandora at work (to keep said head from exploding). Commute-time is music time, and I needed something new. Yesterday, one of the tunes to come up was "How We Loved", a hauntingly beautiful piece by Beth Nielsen Chapman. "All that matters in the end, is how we loved."

It's also a birthday week for me, which can turn into an introspective thing, if you are that sort of person. Why yes, I accept that I am. Ultimately, my family, past-present-future, and my Father in heaven - these are the ones around whom my world has revolved, and will continue to revolve. Everything else will be tossed about in the blender of life, and possibly, periodically explode. But when chickenpox, or it's equivalent raises its troublesome head, love will be what carries us all through.