So, it’s kind of like that feeling you get after the big Thanksgiving Day meal. You’ve eaten so much that you have to undo the top button on your pants. And while the weather outside can be rather chilly, you’re inside the cozy, warm house, resting on the couch, trying to watch the big game on TV. But you keep dozing off. Yet, this feeling doesn’t only come at Thanksgiving, it happens most days. Ah, the sleepiness of it all!

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same." ~Flavia Weedn

Last weekend, I said goodbye to two dear friends, who happen to be one of the greatest couples that I’ve ever met. While we don’t get together all that often, there is still that idea that they will be moving away.

It was a typical day at the ranch. We awoke before dawn so that we could get all of our chores done. Later that afternoon, while we were still finishing our backbreaking work, we could hear the sizzling sound of the Texas heat as the sweat beaded up on our brows. Off in the distance, a lone tumbleweed rolled by. As the day came to a close, my children, the good little Texans that they are, rode bareback as their stallions galloped off into the sunset. That night, as we ate our dinner by candlelight, we thought, “Boy howdy, we sure are roughing it.” Just another typical day at the ranch.

Or…maybe not so much.

A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.

The first time I heard those words, I was six and he was larger than life. Charismatic, confident, and courageous, he spoke directly to me and convinced me that, yes, Michelle, there is a time to dance. OK. So he wasn’t actually talking to me. (I was six. It’s OK to blur the lines of reality…when you’re six.) He was Kevin Bacon and he was quoting Ecclesiastes in the famous town council meeting scene in one of the greatest movies ever: Footloose.