SOL 6/31: Discoveries while Breaking my Rule!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, Melanie, and Lanny

for hosting this meeting place each day in March

and for nurturing our writing lives.

I really try to keep my new rule, no reading slices until you've posted your own slice.  But almost every single day, I break it.  Today I woke at 4 am ready to write the slice about my disappointing sophomore year that's been sloshing around since one night last week when I took a memory stroll in the middle of the night.  But I made the mistake of grabbing my phone first to check my email and there was a slice from Elsie.  And who can resist her slices?  Especially one about food?  It's bound to come with some pics.  I click and I'm not disappointed.  

Resolutely, I set down my phone and reach for my computer.  Ready to write the slice about sophomore year.  Except that when I open my computer, up pops a blog that I was planning to comment on last night when my computer had to be charged.  I'll just take one minute for a quick response to Write 4 Today's "Sunday" post.  

And then my eyes stray to Michelle's sidebar, a Twitter link to Cathy Mere's poetry!  I don't think I've had a chance to stop by Cathy's blog since I read her post summarizing why she almost didn't join the challenge this year.  I'm weak, irresolute and totally unable to resist the lure of "Each Sky."  I click, read the poem, and sigh with satisfaction.  

And just like that, today's slice switches tracks.  

It's Sunday morning, I dash downstairs, almost ready to leave for church when I spy blue sky.  I promise myself I'll snap a pic on the way to church.  Who am I kidding?  I'm already running late.  So I stick my phone up to the window and capture a "through the window" shot.  

We've just finished the worship service and are transitioning to Sunday School class when I stop to chat with Jared, Melissa's husband.  She's a nurse and working for the second Sunday in a row.  They are new to our congregation, and I have a note for Melissa (and chocolates) that I failed to deliver last week.  I head to the car to retrieve it.  As I turn from the car to return to church, I stop in my tracks.  A beautiful blue sky!  I'm so glad I have my phone in my hand.  I capture this anomaly and return to church.  I hand Jared the envelope and share my blue sky pic.  (And when I leave church two hours later, our gray skies have returned.)

I celebrate Cathy's love letter to the sky and how it led me to share my Sunday sky pics with you. 

"Every single time 
my breath catches.
. . . 
each sky
a gift."