I really love something about this picture. Our hotel room overlooked lake Minocqua, and I viewed morning from above. Trees look so big and sturdy from the ground, but I like the silhouette of the delicate leaves and berries captured in this shot.

As the old adage goes, "Pink sky at morning, sailor take warning." A few hours later, storms rolled through. The moments before the end, when you know the end is coming, always seem to be the most beautiful. Maybe it's just that I appreciate them more knowing my time is limited, I don't know. Spending the weekend in a place where I have so many family memories was bittersweet for me in 2007. Two years later, the memories were only sweet.

Coming to the realization Saturday morning, irony set in as one of my mother's friends approached me at Belle Isle later that day. What are the odds that two non-local parties should meet in a little city on the same weekend, at the same sports bar? I did not recognize her at first because I was not expecting to see anyone that I know, but I can only believe that it meant something more.

Simply, my mother was absolutely likeable. I remember being nervous that her visitation would not be long enough for everyone to pay their respects in that little church. She touched a lot of lives, and to this day, sneaking up on four years since she passed a way, people that she knew still come up to me to say hi. I guess nice begets nice, and just thinking about all of them makes me smile.

She's left her mark. Even now, looking at this picture of the sunrise, I hear her saying (as she always did), "God paints us some pretty pictures!" Thanks, Mom.