We’re back from a great weekend in Ohio – spending time with old friends (thanks Corey and Nathan!), taking a train ride through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and seeing the Artistic Luxury exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I’m so envious of people who live in an area with such a great mix of nature and culture. (Where we live is long on nature but very short on culture.)

I’ve got so much more to share from the weekend, but for now its back to catching up with home and work. Thanks to everyone for your nice comments on my last post! There’s still a little time to enter my contest, so please do!

This has been such a long, exhausting day that I can’t even bring myself to watch the PR finale. (Don’t tell me the winner – I’m DVRing it to watch tomorrow morning!)

This morning I went to a funeral for a man whose kids I went to high school with. This man was a community leader, well known and respected in our small town. He had eight children, the oldest of whom is in his 30s, the youngest of which is still in high school. To see the family at the funeral was absolutely heartbreaking – the man was killed in a car crash so the death was unexpected. Yet at the same time, to hear people talk about this man’s impact on the community was inspiring. He founded t-ball and baseball leagues, taught Sunday school, and founded an Education Foundation to support the local school district. All the while supporting his eight children, both financially and emotionally. I think all we can hope for in life is that when we die, people regard our lives and our contributions as highly as this man’s were. That we leave the world a little better than the way we found it.

The funeral was held in the church I attended as a child – a church I haven’t been to in well over a decade. I have viewed organized religion with much skepticism during my adult life, but I have to admit there was something moving about the funeral today. Standing in a church full of people, singing “Amazing Grace”, I really began to see that for many people the real value of a church lies in the sense of community it provides. And in times of crisis, that sense of community can be extremely important.

I’m calling it an early night and heading to bed, but I just want to remind everyone to cherish everyday you have with the people you care about, because they can be gone in an instant. And on that note, every time you get into your car (for those of us stuck driving because a stress fracture means we aren’t allowed to bike) remind yourself that shaving a few seconds off your trip or trying to drive when you’re tired or distracted isn’t worth your life or someone else’s.