Let’s face it, sometimes we can really hold up a single contrast, look at it from different angles and enjoy it. Other times, however, so many different things collide at once that we have all we can do just to pay attention to the “Clang! Clang!” going on all around us, like cymbals in an orchestra that we’re not even playing ourselves.
This patch of days has been a time like that for me. About to depart for a “New Bishops and Spouses/Partners’ Conference” in Virginia (which may be stimulating in a variety of ways and, at the very least, provides an opportunity to be with my husband) I have had to get a number of things in place, including, but not limited to: dog arrangements, preparation for a substitute for my classes –one of which is brand new as the semester shifts, grading due into the computer, and – this was a tough one– absorption of a setback on the house search front. Toss in providing transportation back and forth to school for one child over the weekend as well as my own required attendance at an athletic event (a tennis match) and you have a heap of trouble. A rich and full life, yes, but also at this particular juncture when I’m trying to do it all, a heap of trouble.
So, taking my cue one last time from Hamlet, I will say that — for this post anyway– “The rest is silence.” But after this conference, I’m guessing I might have a thing or two to say.
I will leave you with one picture of my beloved dog Rocky, partly because he’s black on white in the snow – my daily dose of contrast 
— and partly because his perpetual need to get a stick, push it at me so that I will try to take it from him and throw it as far as I can during our walks is something that he just doesn’t seem to get over. And why should he? It’s a dog’s life, after all.