Yesterday I attended a lunchtime gathering, a celebration of sorts. A gathering in the sense that a volunteer group I belong to with work (EAP Referral Agents) came together to hear a few words and meet our new "boss". A surprise celebration of and for two people in attendance, one celebrating a soon to be new life that will come into her world, and the other, with only 22 working days left in her 35 working year career and she will soon be celebrating a new phase in her life (enjoying retire-dom and soon to be a grandmother). Changes can be exciting, stressful, hard to anticipate, full of promises ...

Anyhow, back to the gathering - two very simple words eloquently spoken by the new boss, directed to each and every one of us : "Thank you". And that afternoon, emails started circulating with THANK YOU in the subject line. Well combined with this weeks' upheavals it made me pause for a moment or two to think and well you know me... reflect on how it's possible that these two very simple words can mean so much n'est ce pas?

As with all celebrations there was cake with the simple message "Circle of Life"... yes, indeed, did you stop at that too, just like me ? Cake. I could smell it from the hallway ! HA ! Goshdarnitall, why is one always surrounded by things not to eat when one is not eating certain things??? Damn....

Circle of Life. Now that's a mouthful too!

So Dave and I just received the prep work for next weeks' debut of the Coastal Navigation Course. Oh, who am I kidding, the prep work sounds alot like homework that a professor would give just before the end of class, oh students, btw, read chapters 18-35. And write an essay. For tomorrow. Ok, so we don't have to really write an essay. But we do have to read a helluva lot of stuff. Gee thanks Professor, it IS the weekend you know :)

The course will span two days a week, on alternating weeks for the next 3 weeks. Bring a pencil (and quote unquote "a big eraser" !!) It will surely be a nice refresher into navigation and chartwork and back into learning mode (again!) and not a word about electrical gizmogadgets thank you very much.

So here's to a not having cake, being grateful, and large erasers.
Merci, hvala lepa and muchas gracias ! De nada.

PHOTO : Sort of feeling like it's the calm before the storm, I thought that this photo taken from Banyan's cockpit this summer, at the LeHave Marina perfectly reflected a still moment in time. Make your time, your Circle of Life, count. Thank you.