Happy Birthday, Peter!

 Today my brother, Peter, would have been 50 years old!  He died 20 years ago, when he was only 29 and I was 27.  Below is a picture of him with my daughter, Shannon, who was only about 7 months old in this picture!  This morning, I set out for a bike ride, training must go on, and I got a calf cramp half way up this hill...route 57....It was still a little early, and quiet on the road and while I was stretching my leg and catching my breath, I looked around at the beautiful trees and listened to the quiet.  I love riding my bike out in the hills and quiet areas...it is one of my favorite experiences.  Peter spent a considerable amount of time out in the woods...he hiked a large portion of the Appalachian trail, and this is what I thought of this morning while riding.  I also thought about life and how we choose to spend it.  Recently, someone was trying to convince me that I should be more patient and that 'things take time'.  And while I don't disagree with that in some areas, I have been thinking about it lately.  One thought is that time is not magic, things don't just happen with the passage of time.  So, although perspective could change with time, pain can lessesn with the passage of time, things don't get accomplished with the passage of time in and of itself.  I thought about Malawi and the fact that their average life expectancy is about 54 years old.  So it occurred to me that time may be very different to those in countries like Malawi, where their average lifetime is 54 years; in the U.S. our average life expectancy is about 30 years longer than that.  It makes me wonder how our perspective about life might be different with that reality.

Below I am pictured with a dear friend,  J.R. Allen, Rocky, who has been a supporter of Educate Malaiwi for several years.  He owns the building in which my Internship is taking place, The Carson Center, and he invited Stephen and I to participate in the 25th Anniversary of the building that houses Carson Center and many other woncerful businesses.  It was a networking/celebratory event that was thrilling to be a part of.

Stephen and I set up our table and displayed our items and talked with people about Malawi and what we are doing and we were warmly received.  Rocky donated raffle ticket proceeds to us, to be split with the Carson Center Kamp for Kids.  We are grateful; and I feel like these words are not sufficient to express it adequately.  So there it is...our exciting day 8-14-2013.

Peace to all!