Category: Friends

One day, a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin. The professor handed out the exams with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers.

To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions – just a black dot in the center of the sheet of paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following: “I want you to write about what you see there.”

The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task. At the end of the class, the professor took all the exams, and started reading each one of them out loud, in front of all the students. All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet.

After all had been read, the classroom silent, the professor started to explain: “I’m not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black do – and the same happens in our lives. We have a piece of paper to observe and enjoy, but we always focus on the dark spots.

Our life is a gift, and we always have reasons to celebrate – nature renewing itself daily, friends around us, the job that provides our livelihood, etc. However, we insist on focusing only on the dark spot – the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationships with others, or the disappointment with a friend. The dark spots are very small when compared to everything we have in our lives, but they’re the ones that pollute our mind.

Take your eyes away from the black dots in your life. Enjoy each one of your blessings and each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a life filled with love.

Hat tip: Phil of Phils Phun
Image Credit: Mighty Line

We all had dinner at The Point Restaurant Saturday evening. The place was very busy that night. Right after dinner we went outside to watch the fireworks (it was Bass Derby Weekend) and we told Phil that we had the fireworks show done because of his visit. He knew that wasn’t true, but it was fun.
From left around the table: Jonathan, Nancy, Pam, Vince, Duffy, Georgia, Phil and me. Hubby was taking the photograph.

By the time the fireworks were done everyone was pretty tired and Phil decided he was ready for a good nights sleep. I think all of us retired around 10pm. Good call because we had more things to do the next morning.

Sunday finds us up and about getting ready for a big brunch at party central. Everyone brings something for everyone else to share. There were 20+ folks present. It’s Phil’s last day with us and little did he know what we had planned.
We enjoyed a great brunch and lots of talk and laughter. The video below was the surprise for Phil.

I want to thank past commodores Duffy and Vince for presenting the parrot (that Phil really loved). It’s a talking parrot and it has a clean side and a one that isn’t so clean. It’s most entertaining and he figures his Rotary buddies will get a big kick out of that bird. After this presentation there were things to clean up, more visiting and then it’s time to head out. It’s about 2 hours to get back to Willow Berm and then to the city to have dinner and drop Phil off at his hotel. He leaves early the next morning to begin his return home to Perth, Australia.

When we travel sometimes we have to open the bridges to get through. We did this day because the tide was too high to scoot under the bridge. The boat in front of us is Holy Moly. It’s Duffy and Georgia’s boat.
It’s quite the feeling to stop traffic so the bridge can go up and we can pass through. It’s not such a good feeling when we are the car on the road waiting for the boats to pass through so we can get where we are going.

Once we got back into the San Joaquin river we let Phil have the boat and he spent the next hour getting us back to Willow Berm. He did a great job driving the boat. I think he liked it very much too.
Once we docked back at Willow Berm we collected our things and headed out once again toward San Francisco. We had an uneventful ride to San Bruno and had dinner at a place called Jack’s that had really, really good food. We enjoyed each others company for a bit longer and soon it was time to drop Phil off at his hotel and head home. We snagged a few beers for him to enjoy along with some bottled water. There were hugs all around and soon we were headed back to our boat. What a whirlwind weekend. It was a pleasure to meet you Phil.

One of the things that stuck out to us (and there were many) was when we toasted (cocktail hour) he said, ‘All the best’. All the best to you too Phil, and you’re always welcome.

Image Credit: Rain Harvest