Back To Our Normal Routine and a Poem

Well, as of Saturday, we're back to our normal routine. The girls started their next semester of Chinese Dance class. Today they went back to school. Tonight Anna has Brownies. Tuesday, I have band. Wednesday is religion classes for the girls. No work holidays until Memorial Day in May and I think it's next week we start our 3 months of 48 hour work weeks. Plus girl scout cookie kick-off is January 19th. Busy time of the year for me, but I seem to get the most done. Right now though I'm tired and don't feel like doing much of anything. My dossier is in the review room, but no November LID's have announced they've been questioned or more information was needed by CCAA. Rumors galore that referrals will crawl even slower. One even says they'll only get through Feb, 2006 in all of 2008. That's only 2.5 months for all of 2008. Please say it isn't true! I emailed my agency and asked for words of encouragement.

And here's a poem I love. It's called The Starfish Poem. I don't know who wrote it and I've seen it in several variations. Here's my favorite:

The Starfish Poem

Once upon a time there was a wise man
who used to go to the ocean to do his
writing. He had a habit of walking on the
beach before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore.
As he looked down the beach, he saw a
human figure moving like a dancer. He
smiled to himself to think of someone
who would dance to the day.

So he began to walk faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he saw that it was a
young man and the young man wasn't
dancing, but instead he was reaching
down to the shore, picking up something
and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out, "Good
morning! What are you doing?"
The young man paused, looked up and replied,
"Throwing starfish in the ocean."

"I guess I should have asked,
why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"
"The sun is up and the tide is going out.
And if I don't throw them in they'll die."
"But, young man,
don't you realize that there are miles and
miles of beach and starfish all along it.
You can't possibly make a difference!"
The young man listened politely.
Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it
into the ocean, past the breaking waves and said -
"It made a difference for that one."