Good job, you.

There is a house in my neighborhood that I can see from my kitchen window. It sits on the corner lot across the street from my building and is painted a cheerful and friendly yellow. I don't know much about it's occupants; I think there may be a child and I know they use to have frequent parties. The house was an obvious fixer-uper when I first moved here. However, for many years, what - if anything - the owners may have fixed was less than obvious. But over the last few months, changes have abounded. There is now some kind of garage apartment. Simple, yet sweet, landscaping. Yellow paint. These people can stand in their front yard and have visual confirmation of the fruitfulness of their labors. They can pat themselves on their backs for an obvious job well-done. No one happening by would be inclined to doubt that they had, in fact, been very busy little bees.

Over the same period of time, I too have been busy. The first half of 2008 has been monumental for me. I have healed. I have learned. I have explored and I have enjoyed. I am renewed. But these things cannot be seen by the fly-by naked eye. My accomplishments are not so easily verified. Or validated.

Perhaps it's not too late for me to commission a commemorative t-shirt.

In hot pink.