A good breakfast, and a rainbow to end the day...

I woke up late and made breakfast -- eggs and bacon on bagel with a collection of Bing and Rainier cherries to accompany it. Went outside to eat it sitting on a wicker chair that I've had for years and just enjoyed the heat and the lower humidity for the brief period of morning I had.

Had a few minutes to read what my friends have written lately. My friend Gene had as his status message today: "The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well." — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Reminded me of a conversation with my minister last year where he reminded me of our obligation as Christians to love your neighbor as we love ourselves. His point to me was that you need to love yourself, which I was obviously was my (and remains) greatest fault. It makes me work harder every day to get to that point in life and I am glad that I am better than I was.

It took me too long to realize that there is a balance between arrogance and self-love and getting there is more important than a lot of other things.

I had a number of friends comment on my weight/haircut comment from last week and I wanted to report that I have lost 10 lbs from where I was last week. I knew the traveling and everything else had caught up on me and it just took a return to schedule to get me back on the road to where I really wanted to be, weight-wise.

I am writing a note to a good friend that I lost because of my mistakes last year and may share some of it here but I was struck, in the last couple days, how we are all responsible for ourselves -- our emotions, our decisions, and our relationships with others. The most important thing I can be is honest and forthright and unashamed of how I feel and move forward from there.

Great rainbow over downtown Raleigh tonight at a friend's birthday part closed out the day.