I accidentally killed a chipmunk today. With my bike. I'm not kidding.
It was mortifying. I was just coming around the bend on the bike path near the Genesee River, when I saw the chipmunk. Yes, I saw the chipmunk. It was off to the side, not quite in the grass, but I thought it was instantly going to run further into the grass to get out of the way. But no, it ran in the opposite direction, across the bike path, right as my bike was passing. It all happened way too fast for me to stop before I realized the chipmunk had run right between my front wheel and bike chain. I think it even dinged a couple of times off of my pedals like a pinball machine before it stayed still.
At first I didn't think it was dead. I thought I had just knocked it over, because when I looked over my shoulder as I kept biking, it seemed to be moving, so I thought it was just having trouble getting up. I kept going, shell-shocked from what had just happened, but also thinking, What do I do? I decided that since it was alive, I should probably see if I can help or do something about it. I thought I'd call Nathan to see if he had any good ideas.
So I turned around and started biking back, grateful that the two older ladies who were walking together were ahead of me when I hit the chipmunk. As I biked, I kept hoping that I wouldn't see the chipmunk, that it had gotten back up on its own and managed to get off the bike path.
But no, I found the poor little creature in the middle of the path, lying still, and with a little bit of blood spattered on the ground. I guess what I had seen looking over my shoulder was its little body spazzing before it died.
Yeah, I know. Ew.
I felt SO terrible and SO grossed out at the same time. I just couldn't stay. I felt bad for the bikers and runners who would soon encounter this unexpected road surprise (hopefully noticing before they arrived) as they whizzed past me on my trip home. I really did. But there was just no way I could bring myself to move the little body out of the way...not even with a stick.
And that's how I accidentally killed a chipmunk with my bike today. The End.
I'm sorry, little chipmunk. I'm sorry I killed you and didn't give you a proper burial. I asked Jesus for forgiveness. I hope you'll forgive me, too.
Showing posts with label Random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random. Show all posts
Monday, June 17, 2013
Friday, October 5, 2012
The story of the Happy Book.
Once upon a time, there was a high school girl named Tammy. She had wanted to be an author and write a book since she was nine years old, so she often perused websites that would help her with her writing and her writing life. One day as she was looking through articles on the Writer's Digest website, she came across an article titled, "Create a Happy Book!" in the Personal Writing section. She was inspired to make her own, so she picked up a small spiral notebook and started to write. Thus, the Happy Book was born on January 19th, 2006.
Tammy thought the Happy Book was a brilliant idea. It was small enough so that she could carry it around with her without adding much extra weight, which meant she could write down things that made her happy when she needed a quick break from homework, was waiting in line or at a doctor's office, was bored on a bus or car ride, or just needed to focus on something that would help pick up her spirits.
One day, she noticed that she would run out of things to write at the moment, and since she was sometimes in the presence of friends and others, was curious about what made others happy. So she came up with another idea. She decided to try sharing her Happy Book with her friends, family, and even strangers! She asked others around her what made them happy and would proceed to write their initials or name next to it so she could remember who said what and to remember that it wasn't her own entry.
The Happy Book was bursting with good things. With her friends and family, it sparked great conversations and brought people together. She got to learn more about what made her friends and family happy, and in doing so, they were creating happy moments! Tammy found that the Happy Book created opportunities to make new friends and meet new people because she or someone else would ask what made him/her happy and invite him/her into the conversation. She also found that the more she and others wrote, the more she saw how the Happy Book documented where, when, and with whom she was interacting and the memories created in that period of time and space. It was becoming very much like a scrapbook of happy things that bound together memories, common ground, new ideas, the building of old relationships and creation of new ones.
Tammy and her friends and family wrote so many happy things that the list reached 1,000 entries. But of course, they kept going. Soon enough, they finished the entire spiral notebook with 2,999. But of course, they didn't stop there. Tammy and her community went on to fill 3 1/2 small spiral notebooks with 9,196 happy things!
As the Happy Book began to produce a whole family of Happy Books, Tammy's life was moving on. She graduated high school and began to make it through her first year of college. She kept writing in the fourth Happy Book all throughout her first semester, since there were so many things in her college life that made her happy. But soon she discovered that there were so many things to be happy and joyful about that the space the Happy Books created that she once appreciated was now already built into the contexts she placed herself in and the people she was surrounded by. She was immersing herself in living out the happy things, not just writing about them. And in that way, along with probably many other reasons, the Happy Books were almost obsolete and became artifacts of a season Tammy once had in her life.
I share this story with you, dear blog reader, because there has been very recent consideration that perhaps this is not the end of the story. Perhaps the Happy Book series is not entirely dead as many thought they once were. Perhaps is it not 'The End,' but more accurately, 'To Be Continued...'
I leave you, dear blog reader, with this - the inscription written on the first page of each Happy Book on the other side of the title page:
All the things
that make me happy,
my friends happy,
my family happy,
the world happy
to keep going,
reminding ourselves
how many little blessings
and BIG blessings
God graces us with
to conquer all the sad things
that burden our hearts.
Tammy thought the Happy Book was a brilliant idea. It was small enough so that she could carry it around with her without adding much extra weight, which meant she could write down things that made her happy when she needed a quick break from homework, was waiting in line or at a doctor's office, was bored on a bus or car ride, or just needed to focus on something that would help pick up her spirits.
One day, she noticed that she would run out of things to write at the moment, and since she was sometimes in the presence of friends and others, was curious about what made others happy. So she came up with another idea. She decided to try sharing her Happy Book with her friends, family, and even strangers! She asked others around her what made them happy and would proceed to write their initials or name next to it so she could remember who said what and to remember that it wasn't her own entry.
The Happy Book was bursting with good things. With her friends and family, it sparked great conversations and brought people together. She got to learn more about what made her friends and family happy, and in doing so, they were creating happy moments! Tammy found that the Happy Book created opportunities to make new friends and meet new people because she or someone else would ask what made him/her happy and invite him/her into the conversation. She also found that the more she and others wrote, the more she saw how the Happy Book documented where, when, and with whom she was interacting and the memories created in that period of time and space. It was becoming very much like a scrapbook of happy things that bound together memories, common ground, new ideas, the building of old relationships and creation of new ones.
Tammy and her friends and family wrote so many happy things that the list reached 1,000 entries. But of course, they kept going. Soon enough, they finished the entire spiral notebook with 2,999. But of course, they didn't stop there. Tammy and her community went on to fill 3 1/2 small spiral notebooks with 9,196 happy things!
As the Happy Book began to produce a whole family of Happy Books, Tammy's life was moving on. She graduated high school and began to make it through her first year of college. She kept writing in the fourth Happy Book all throughout her first semester, since there were so many things in her college life that made her happy. But soon she discovered that there were so many things to be happy and joyful about that the space the Happy Books created that she once appreciated was now already built into the contexts she placed herself in and the people she was surrounded by. She was immersing herself in living out the happy things, not just writing about them. And in that way, along with probably many other reasons, the Happy Books were almost obsolete and became artifacts of a season Tammy once had in her life.
I share this story with you, dear blog reader, because there has been very recent consideration that perhaps this is not the end of the story. Perhaps the Happy Book series is not entirely dead as many thought they once were. Perhaps is it not 'The End,' but more accurately, 'To Be Continued...'
I leave you, dear blog reader, with this - the inscription written on the first page of each Happy Book on the other side of the title page:
All the things
that make me happy,
my friends happy,
my family happy,
the world happy
to keep going,
reminding ourselves
how many little blessings
and BIG blessings
God graces us with
to conquer all the sad things
that burden our hearts.
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