Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. - Morihei Ueshiba

On New Year's Day, I took a longer than usual walk along the Coosaw River with my beagle Toby. My mother was sick with that bronchitis-type bug that seems to have invaded Beaufort County, if not the entire country, so a trek down to Hunting Island wasn't really in order.

When I was a senior in high school, I was captain of the rifle team.   Practice was held in a rifle range carved out of concrete under the swimming pool in the physical education building. Four team members – Fred, Jack, Glenn and me – went on to win the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic state championship in 1976 at the end of the season.  

If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough. – Meister Eckhardt

As Sandy passed by the coast of South Carolina, crashing into the northern seaboard and clearing the way for her wintry, nor’easter sister Athena, I was awestruck by the damage the storms left in their wake, and yet grateful that our Lowcountry was spared once more. However, I am not proud of this kind of gratitude. All too often, my gratefulness is of the garden variety, “there but for the grace of God go I” type, and I wonder if that is really any form of gratitude at all.