Here comes the sun!

Today's morning update email from The Grand Rapids Press is full of good news. First they say it will be in the high 70s, maybe even hit 80, on Sunday. Can't wait. And then there's a delightful story about Markell Barnhart, a 13-year-old boy from Wyoming,Mi., who just got a heart transplant and a new lease on life. Actually, it's his second new lease. He was born in Haiti but adopted by a West Michigan family. Hooray for Markell and the whole Barnhart family. Praze to the doctors, the donor and a gracious God. Ain't life great?

Praze the sssssssssnake!

Some stories are good enough to be told twice. There's a great piece in The Grand Rapids Press today about the capture of an escaped circus python in Walker in 1978. The retelling is inspired by a similar tale this week in New York. The modern day story had the world a-twitter, but in a less technical age it was a story of a bike ride, a prayer group, and a man who wouldn't let go. What a great story! Thanks, Ted Roelofs, another former journalist, for telling it again. You made my morning!

Blooming memory

I really miss the flowering tree that used to be right behind my deck. In a couple of weeks it would have been covered with pink flowers as it was every year around April 15. What a fantastic tree it was. And what fun, last Easter, when my daughter-in-law Angy and her neices and nephew climbed up in the tree for a picture. And then last summer, the condo association decided it was time to cut it down. Its roots were tearing up the yard and making it dangerous to mow the lawn. We were out of town that week, but Kym was staying here and when she tried to take a photo for me, her 2 year old grandson Gabe locked her out. Then it was panic time trying to get a key from Angy so Kym could get Gabe. Oh, I miss that tree. So I made this picture my wallpaper and I look at the tree every day. Can I hear a Praze for technology and trees?

Praze basketball!

Well, most folks would say you don't have to look any further than the Page One headlines to find today's good news. For the second year in a row, the unlikely Butler Bulldogs have made it to college basketball's championship round on Monday, up against the University of Connecticut. The sports writers say the Bulldogs are like a Disney movie, the little team that should, and maybe this year they will win the championship. And UConn is no slouch either, judging by Saturday night's action-packed 56-55 win. So it will be the good guys against the better guys, and only Monday's game can determine which is which. I've never been one for sports much, but I can see that in a world of earthquakes and radiation in Japan, violent protests in Afghanistan over a burned holy book in Florida, and continued fighting in Libya, sports is a good alternative. At least somebody always wins.

Praze chocolate!

I don't get most of what happens in the news, but this one I totally understand. Researchers have found traces of chocolate in Pueblo Indian pottery unearthed in the American Southwest. Problem is, the chocolate was a Mexican drink that comes from cacao plant that only grows in the tropics, about 1,000 miles south of Arizona. Which means even 1,000 years ago Mexicans were coming across the border, but nobody minded because they brought chocolate, the drink of the Gods. Think I'll go make some right now!

Hooray for April Fools!

Even electonics get snippy on April Fools! This morning when I tried to do my usual yoga routine on the WiiFit, the board teased that it wasn't working. This silly Japanese game knew what day it was and was playing a trick, for gosh sakes. It got me off on the right foot. How about you? Anybody play any tricks today or get a trick played on them?

Friendship flowers

A bountiful bouquet of roses on my kitchen table greeted me this morning, a gift from last night's dinner guest, Kym Reinstadler. Kym is one of the many talented journalists out of work these days. She's learning some new tricks, making a promotional movie for Holland schools and working on web stites, but mostly she's enjoying a break from juggling work and family resposibilities. Now she can spend more time with her mother in Midland and her father in a nursing home there. She's been able to enjoy vacations with her daughters and will spend the month of April in Newport News, Virginia, caring for her grand children while daughter Whitney trains for a new job and Whitney's husband is away on a Navy assignment. Unemployment is ugly but if it gives us more time for what's really important -- friends and family -- maybe it is worth it. Praze unexpected blessings!