While Jeanine was in Burlington I spent some time completing projects around the house. For the master bathroom, I built a wood frame to surround the mirror, added new light fixtures, and hung various artwork. For the laundry room, I built a two-level, ten foot long shelf above the washer, dryer and laundry sink area. I tend to spend more time on indoor projects as the winter months approach.

My outdoor soccer season concluded today on a redemptive note. We won our first game of the season beating Canton, the divisional champions. I created several scoring opportunities, forced a number of turnovers, and left the field very satisfied with my play and totally spent. Our record for the season was 1-5-4. An optimist would conclude we only lost half of our games and beat the top-finishing team in head-to-head play. The realist would observe we failed to win 90% of our games, resulting in relegation to Division 2 next season. As for me, I am happy with any season that ends with my ability to walk unimpaired.

Yesterday while at Maya’s game, I was approached by a parent from the opposing team. She asked if I would be posting the images. I explained that I was not a professional and was only taking pictures of Maya. She gave me her e-mail address and asked if I would send her any photos that happened to include her daughter, the goalie, in the same frame. I got the sense that this woman probably had few, if any, pictures of her daughter in an athletic setting and decided to shoot a small series which I sent to her yesterday. Today, I received a very nice thank you note which ended in the following quotation and left me very moved.

The man said ”Don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach, with starfish all along it? There’s too many, you can’t possibly make a difference!” The young girl bent down and picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea and said…. “made a difference to that one”