“Life presents us with many choices,
the ones we make reflect our values.”

When you leave the marina in Havre de Grace, MD and set sail for the waters of the Northern Chesapeake you follow a series of channel buoys that lead to Turkey Point, where you tack starboard and head south.  As you sail, the red and green buoys provide information that is designed to help you safely reach open water.  In addition to marking the sides of a navigable channel, helping to avoid sand bars and other hazards, these buoys can also identify restricted areas, show the safe side to pass a hazard, and on wide bodies of water, mark the safe centerline.…

“We must be free 
not because we claim freedom, 
but because we practice it!”  – W. Faulkner

Each week I receive Maria Shriver’s insightful blog entitled, “I’ve Been Thinking”.   This week’s piece included a Birthday Letter to America that is both timely and thought provoking. I wanted to share it with you.  My best wishes for a safe, healthy and happy Independence Day

Happy Fourth of July, dear America!  It’s your birthday! Happy, happy birthday to you!

Lucky are those of us who live within your shores and get to call you home. …

“As steady as the tides, life continually
discovers the treasures within us!”

It’s late afternoon when we finally decide to go down the street to the beach.  The routine is familiar; the wolf pups ride ahead on their scooters and leave them in the sand at the edge of the path leading to the beach.  There is a sense of familiarity that returns as I arrive and survey the landscape.  A southwest wind greets me and the salt air has an immediate calming effect. …

“A man is not old, until his regrets
take the place of his dreams”

The Cicadas are dying!  For the past four weeks their “Hum” was the first sound that greeted me each morning, and as I drank my coffee, read the morning paper and planned my day, their steady chorus became part of a growing symphony that included birds, lawnmowers and morning traffic.  Soon they will be gone and be but a memory, until they re-emerge in seventeen years.  I’m adding that to the bucket list, “Listen to Brood XI Cicadas”. …

“Sometimes when something just comes out of left field, it actually becomes a defining moment in your life.”

Over the past few years I have come to enjoy baseball more and more.  I think what impresses me most is the reaction time exhibited by so many players.  The third baseman who dives to his left and snags a line drive, the shortstop who deftly handles the grounder and initiates the double play, and of course any player who can hit a ball thrown at over 100 mph from 90 feet away. …