Andy Smallman

I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was Melinda looking at possible places for us to stay in Nantes when we return this summer. Whatever the reason, I typed “Nantes Tan” in the search box at YouTube and found a handful of videos of my beloved tram in Nantes, including this one below of my Line 2. Laugh at me all you want. Be bored by the fact I’m embedding a video of a tram. But get a little bit of a kick out of the fact that this means so much to me. Yes, I miss Nantes.

Today’s Prompt: What is something you miss about a place where you used to live?

The racehorse in today’s photo is my favorite horse from when I was a kid. His name is Steelenson and I took this picture of him late one summer afternoon in the late 70’s at Longacres. He was a cheap, no-name horse. He wasn’t good enough to run in anything but claiming races. But I loved watching him run.

Why?

Two reasons. One, he had that great running style of starting slow and coming on fast at the end, what is called being a “closer.” And two, my grandmother (I called her Grammy) and I always bet on him ($2 to show). More often than not he came in for us. He typically ran in the last race of the day, sending us home with a great feeling that I can easily conjure up when I think of the two of them, Steelenson and Grammy.

Today’s Prompt: Share a memory of a grandparent.

We had friends over for dinner tonight, Deb & Peter and their daughter, Emma, age 15. This is the family of Alex, Chloe’s longtime boyfriend. Alex graduated from PSCS with Chloe in 2010 and Emma attended PSCS for a couple of years. The point of this is that, basically, our two families are all friends.

Fixing the dinner and sitting down to eat with good conversation got me thinking about Sunday night dinner rituals. Then that got me thinking about Melinda’s and my niece Stephanie, a graduate of the University of Washington. When she was a college student, she’d come over for a home-cooked meal nearly every Sunday and usually brought along a friend (or three). That’s her on the right in today’s photo as a little kid soccer player.

For me growing up, Sunday night dinner was the fanciest meal of the week.

Today’s Prompt: How about you? Got a Sunday night dinner ritual?

Melinda and I just returned from an event in Seattle called “A Call for Compassion: Collective Impact 2012” (learn more). Based on our work with PSCS and with Kind Living, we were asked to attend. Certainly, we’re all in favor of bringing more compassion into the world. And when we had a chance to talk about how we incorporate kindness and gratitude at PSCS, we had quite a few engaged listeners.

Anyway, I’m posting late tonight because of it and went searching for an image in support of it. I found this one, “graffiti” from our trip to Italy last spring.

Just like how I can get behind calls for compassion, I like graffiti like this.

Today’s Prompt: What does compassion mean to you?

I had a quick email exchange with my brother Scott earlier today (that’s him in today’s photo, after a fishing trip in the late 1970’s). I asked him if he enjoyed waking up and hearing a live Seattle Mariners baseball game on the radio. The Mariners are in Japan to start the baseball season and the time difference has had the two games they played there begin in the wee hours of the morning in Seattle where, of course, they are being broadcast live on the radio.

Scott is a stockbroker by profession. Living on the west coast, he has to get up early in order to be in his office by the market’s opening. But he takes it to an extreme, getting up each workday just after 3am, right about the time the two baseball games started. Perfect timing for him. Here is what he said:

“I absolutely love listening to live baseball on the way to work, but guess it won’t happen again for many years. Yesterday was certainly better than today. I put George Sherrill on a June 1st release date; I think he may be done.”

Today’s Prompt: Share a story about a sibling with someone.

It’s what’s called “block break” at Chloe’s school, Quest University in British Columbia, and Chloe is home for the night. Block break takes place from Wednesday afternoon, when the block wraps up, until Monday morning, when the next block begins. A large group of her college friends have worked it out to spend a couple of days at a cabin on the Hood Canal, a beautiful area south of Seattle. You might say they are “passing through” Seattle tonight.

Let me just tell you that Chloe is a great kid. If you need any more proof, just look at today’s photo.

Today’s Prompt: When has “passing through” been a great thing for you?

A PSCS student came to me early in the day today and told me she had met the mom of a former PSCS student on her bus ride in to school. That parent, who happens to be a bus driver supervisor, had noticed the student and deduced that she must attend PSCS. The student was so excited about the experience that she literally beamed as she passed on a hello to me from this parent.

I like this story. I like it a lot.

An hour or so later I got this email:

Hi Andy, I enjoyed meeting a PSCS student on the bus today. Was qualifying on a route from Duvall to Seattle, heard her doing math and noticed she rode the whole route. I figured any student that buses that far and deboards at 5th and Jackson just may be headed to your place. So asked and sure enuf, told her to tell you all hello. Take care and thanks for creating such a great place.

Like I said, I like this story. I like it a lot.

Today’s Prompt: Tell someone a sweet story, a true one from your life.

If you know me at all, you’ll understand that I believe everything is connected…

A few years back a member of the PSCS staff connected one of his friends to the school, a man who, as a member of the school’s Board of Trustees, has become an incredible contributor to the school’s success. A couple of years ago, the mom of one of our students introduced this man to one of her best friends. They began dating and then last spring, they were married. Two weeks ago I sat next to them at the annual school play. The woman and I started talking about the connections that take place that lead us to where we are, including how she and her husband met. Over the weekend she emailed me about a new TV show she had just watched, and referenced our conversation.

Melinda and I just watched the pilot episode and it made us cry. You could say it touched us.

Today’s Prompt: Share a connection in your life.