International Juggling Scene

We all have many balls in the air and I realize the ones I'm juggling aren't nearly as colorful, important, or interesting as yours. Reading, writing, puzzling, knitting, exploring, and unpacking are pedestrian pursuits at best and positively embarrassing when I think about all of you spending your days addressing our nation's transportation problems and discovering a cure for cancer while volunteering nights and weekends in aid of society's most helpless, hopeless, downtrodden members. I would salute you but I don't want to risk dropping any more balls than I already have. Simple tasks are no easier to juggle than complicated ones.

Your definition of "task" and mine are probably worlds apart but, after all, I'm the one writing this blog or, rather, not writing this blog, which is the point I was thinking of making when I got diverted by the juggling metaphor and hundreds of photographs of Japanese temari balls. In case you haven't noticed, the unpacking ball and the writing ball seem to be incompatible. Whenever I get a good grip on one, the other falls to the floor and rolls under my bed where it takes up long-term residence with all my other good intentions.

Today, because a man I have never met sent me an e-mail, I crawled under my bed to find my blogging notebook. This man found my first blog while searching for information about Kobo Cottage, the Japanese orphanage we supported during Mike's CO tour. Bill and his wife would like to visit the orphanage when they travel to Japan next March but he needs some help finding the place because his 1953 adoption papers are written in Japanese.

Now I know you're not supposed to open e-mails from strangers but I don't have any regrets about opening Bill's. Investing two minutes in connecting him with Kobo Cottage will put a spring in my step for at least a week, meaning I might actually meet my deadline for finishing this infernal unpacking.