Greetings,
What a beautiful October we have had. Now if it could only stay like this for just a while longer. But of course, by the time all of you are reading this, our 80 degree temperatures will be gone and autumn will be upon us. And that really is okay. It is such a beautiful time of year. The smell of the fresh fallen leaves and the sounds of them crackling as one walks through the woods is as good as it gets.
I cannot imagine living in an area where there was not a change of seasons. I tend to complain of the freezing cold winter and to be honest, I really do not like the cold, but I would rather have that than no change of seasons at all. I have had to learn to look beyond the obvious and find the beauty in each snowflake and the fun of getting snowed in, or getting wrapped up in a blanket next to the fireplace. The bottom line is that life is what we make of it, and all in all life is pretty darn good!
Besides, each season has something special to offer and look forward to, and I really like that. It is much like the work we do at NER; something different all the time.
I guess it is sometimes fun or maybe even normal to think it would be nice to live in a perfect world, one where the weather is always perfect and everything is just as we always want it to be. It sounds good, but it would really never exist, no matter where we’d go, work, or what we’d do. When it comes right down to it, it is really all about attitude. The better the attitude, the better everything is.
It is like the change of seasons, each is special if we have the right attitude. Just like our jobs and the people we serve at NER. Each day and each person we serve brings something new to experience. Never knowing quite what to expect, yet at the same time always knowing something special is waiting for us. It is hard to explain, but it’s wonderful. The key is looking beyond what is obvious. It is looking for the positive, especially when what pops out the most is what you like the least. It is then that the most beauty can be seen, and then that we are most able to appreciate all that God has given us.
We, as family members and employees, have all been blessed in a very special way. The children and adults we provide care to continually teach us more about compassion, total acceptance, understanding, and forgiveness than anyone we will ever know. All we have to do is listen, be open to the change of “seasons,” and be willing to learn.
While we open our minds to listening and applying what we have been taught, we not only do a better job in supporting others, we open our own doors to life-long learning.
Enjoy,
Corrine Schmidt, Administrator
761 765-0217 / cschmidt@nerinc.org
