Not What I Was Expecting Her to Say...

 On a recent plane to Philadelphia, the woman next to me said:

I'm an executive in a tech firm in Seattle. I love my job, but my heart lies with an orphanage in northern India, in Utter Pradesh. I've visited there every year for the past 10 years, watching those precious children grow up. They have so little, but they do so much. And I try to help every way I can. 

Talk about perspective, it gives me plenty.

 

...

All To Yourself

 

Do you have any favorite quotes, Mr. Rhymer?

      Yeah...Why do you ask?

Well, I have one. It's by my dad.

      Will you share it with me?

Sure. It goes, "True happiness is having something that you love that no one else loves, because that way it's all to yourself and you don't have to share it."

      Nice. What do you think it means?

I dunno. Maybe that it's OK to be myself and follow my dreams without worrying what others think about me.

      Your dad sounds like a smart man.

He is. 
 

...

Living Balls of Earth

Told to me before dawn in the rainforest...

 

This may be way too obvious, but I love frogs and toads.

 

Ever since I was a kid, crawling around on my knees on my grandfather's farm, I've loved them...finding them, holding them, watching them. Little living balls of Earth.

This is Where I Live