I'm here with Saturday's Facebook video. I missed it again this week and will have to re-watch either here or on YouTube. UPDATE: I watched the YouTube version and it was crystal clear without any pauses or stops so I decided to link only to the YouTube version. You can check it out HERE.
I do have a few photos from Honey Bee and Taylored Expressions. Both are featured in the video.
Here is Taylored Expressions.
Saturday was a difficult day for many Americans. It was especially hard for me because even though we were living in the Finger Lakes during 9/11. I'm originally from the downstate area, Long Island. New York City is my city. Saturday we traveled back to Ithaca to attend a 'Celebration of Life' for an amazing 27 year old man. I've told a lot of people how I'm a very 'in the box' thinking person. In the late 90's, when we were living and working at Keuka College, I had a boss who was very 'out of the box'. Todd was so far out that I often had trouble seeing his vision for how to do things. Todd and his wife Mary had two children, Elizabeth, a sweet little girl and Daniel a rambunctious, mischievous little boy who was six years old. The first Halloween that we had Alexa Todd and Mary held a Halloween dinner with Trick or Treating after dinner. Alexa was dressed up as LaLa from the Teletubbies and was very uncertain about this going from house to house deal. All the other kids would run from house to house and Alexa just hung back and watched. Daniel took Alexa up to a house after all the kids ran off and pushed her toward the door. As the gentleman opened the door to put candy in their buckets, he said something like, "What do we have here?" and Daniel with his arm around Alexa's shoulders told him "She came all the way from China for Halloween!" It is one of my favorite stories of all time.
The family moved away to Ithaca when Todd got a job at Cornell but we've kept in touch through Facebook. This family loves the outdoors, service and education. One post and they are in Guatemala the next they're in Hawaii, the next Alaska, climbing mountains, rafting down rivers, exploring jungles. So we were shocked when Mary posted about a 'Celebration of Life' for Daniel. Apparently, Danny was living and working in Flagstaff, Arizona with marginalized and at risk populations and had died suddenly from a previously unknown and undiagnosed cardiovascular condition.
We hadn't seen the family in about 20 years but felt compelled to travel to Ithaca for Daniel. We learned what an amazing young man Daniel became. His compassion, empathy and determination to actually make a difference in the world not just pay lip service was amazing. It was a joy to learn about the lifetime of achievements Daniel had accomplished in such a short life. Along with this joy was the aching sadness to know that he was gone way, way too soon. The celebration was in a park outside of Ithaca in a beautiful glen surrounded by trees, walking trails and a creek, Daniel's kind of place. There were easily one hundred or more people there. A true testament to the lives Daniel touched.
We came home to see the Yankee/Met game and the ceremonies honoring 9/11 before the game. Stories were shared all through the broadcast about where people were when the towers came down and many of the heartening actions created to honor those who were lost. The image below has been seen by millions since 2001, USA carved into a huge corn field in Penn Yan, NY. We lived about a mile from this perpetual memorial created by a local farmer. The family has kept this field as a memorial for 20 years. It can easily be seen from Rt. 14 as you head from Penn Yan to Branchport near Keuka Lake. I'll always have fond memories of our time in the Finger Lakes for many, many reasons. This and Daniel are just two.
It's still a good day for a funny. I have had Frank Sinatra singing "Love and Marriage", the theme from Married with Children buzzing in my head for days!
Thanks for listening to my personal ramble. I'm looking forward to being back to work this week coming up. We'll see how the knees feel about it. Have a crafty good week everyone and above all Stay Safe!
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