With a gloomy sky kinda day, yesterday wasn’t the prettiest of views here in our small town in Wisconsin. It’s already ‘daylight savings time’ of year and the clocks are set back. Whoah…in a blink of an eye, a distraction here and there, and things around here have changed.
Not only have the seasons’ changed, but the trees, grasses, and fields have all adjusted to their pre-winter colors. The trees turned from their vibrant beautiful colors of earlier this fall to their drab browns and dark rusts. It’s hard to find trees that stand out, they mostly blend into each other.
The pops of the distinction between all the browns are the pampas grass with white tops and the pine trees which stay green.
I love the fall. This season brings out sweaters, jeans, coats, and football events for the school-age kids to attend. And, we can’t forget the hunters. We love hunting season around here. Hunters know to wear bright orange to stand out so they don’t blend into the surroundings and they can stay safe. We teach our youth how to stay safe in many ways in our community.
In the fall, volunteer teams to pick up debris from the side of the roads in preparation for the winter. They are taught to stay clear of the road, and like hunters, they’re given brightly colored and reflective vests to wear so they stand out to drivers on the roads. While my kids helped with spring clean-ups in our downtown area, they never participated in the clean up by the side of the roads in the fall.
We’re a trusting town here in Chippewa Falls, we believe in the good each other has to offer, and we want our roadsides to reflect that we care. I would’ve been one of those parents that joined in or signed my daughters up for the activity had they wanted to participate. It’s important to teach our youth responsibility and how to stand out while working on projects. It is a good thing, right? We know a small effort made by everyone makes a big difference.
It also helps our kids learn how to take care of the community and keep our roadsides clean. Sounds innocent enough, just like 4th graders are. Kids and parents alike don’t think to help out will result in anything less than a good takeaway feeling. We all appreciate feeling that way, don’t we?
It is with such a heavy heart that I share that innocence was struck with tragedy yesterday. Read articles here by clicking the 1st and 2nd link.
In a blink of their eyes, everything good they were doing stopped. The driver didn’t intend to do harm, at least, I hope his confession shows that.
My heart breaks for everyone involved.
This accident happened just miles from where we live. We’ve driven this road so many times. Our daughters were in Girl Scouts, we volunteered for events much like this, we know they were told how to dress to stand out, how to keep safe by remaining in the ditch, and yet, this senseless tragedy happened.
Not a single person in our community will come away from this type of shock unscathed.
Our community will gather together to support and carry on, we’ve seen tragedies and loss of life here before. We will take time to heal, though. Please send your prayers, and thoughts of healing to our community.
Post inspiration: Lens-Artists – Blending In Standing Out and Sunday Stills Time
PS – Thank you for reading and for your thoughts, our community appreciates your kindness.
So tragic. I too was in the Girl Scouts and we painted fire hydrants along the roads through our town.
I’m unable to read the link as it is blocked here in Europe but have seen other reports. Thoughts and prayers are with everyone there. ♥
Thank you, your thoughts and prayers are appreciated. Thank you for letting me know the link is blocked. 🙁
😘
The link is only blocked in the EU as they put in touch laws that not everyone in the U.S. wants to deal with.
Oy…I’m glad blogs aren’t blocked, and that we’re able to still connect! Thank you for the clarification.
♥ The link is only blocked here in the EU as they instigated new tough laws that a lot of people in the States and elsewhere don’t want to deal with. It means making changes to their websites to be compatible here which obviously costs money. If their normal audience isn’t over here then it is not worth it.
Thank you for the clarification. 🙂
So tragic, God bless the families. The EU is awfully uptight.
Thank you, John. Yes, it appears they are!
I will add the families of this tragedy to the church prayer list. So very sad.
I do find the weather this time of year gloomy with all the gray but I know its a time of rest and I do love football so I guess its all part of it. Have a great week.
Thank you, Anita, your prayers are appreciated. I hope you have a great week, too.
Oh, Shelley, this is so heartbreaking. (I read the articles & can’t believe he kept driving!). In an instant everything changes for these families. My daughter was also a Girl Scout and involved with similar activities. My Boy Scout son was too. I can’t even imagine….
I know, I’m still having a hard time comprehending the whole thing. My heart just aches for all of them…
Such a sad thing.
I’m so sorry, Shelley. Especially tough on a small, tight-knit community. Prayers.
Thank you, Rebecca, we appreciate your kindness.
It is such a tragedy…young girls and boys trying their best to do well…My heart goes out to their families and friends –
Thank you, Leya, your kindness means a lot to us!
What a horribly sad story Shelley, and while doing such a good deed. I’m glad the driver came forward
Yes, so sad. I’m thankful he did too.
So sad. Tears from Australia
Thank you, Brian.
That is really tragic. I feel for the children’s families, but also for the young driver. One moment of inattention and suddenly so many lives are changed.
Yes, I feel the same way – so many underlying emotions to this for all parties involved.
I’m sorry to read about this incident, Shelley. On the bright side, your photographs are lovely and it’s amazing to see how quickly the color drains out of everything. You are much colder and north than I am on the West coast (with high still hitting 80 today). But when it gets dark at 5:30pm tonight it will make a huge difference in our temps from here forward. Your images remind me of what Sacramento and Central Valley look like in January! Not looking forward to the gray trees, ground and cloudy skies!
Thank you, Terri – your support means a lot to me! 🙂
It is a terrible tragedy and these girls were doing good and had reflective vests on – such sadness in this world anymore, lives snuffed out in a heartbeat.
Yes, we’re all feeling the sadness of the unfortunate incident.
So many sad instances seem to bring people together these days … we had a sad incident here in nearby St. Clair Shores, Michigan. A K-9 officer was killed last night. A man with a handgun was lurking around a banquet hall where 70 people were attending a baby shower and a police officer told the would-be shooter to halt. He didn’t and the K-9 officer was told to chase the man who turned around and shot him. The police officer killed the shooter; the K-9 officer later died. I wept when I watched the police officers carrying the police dog’s casket and his handler was being comforted. The other K-9s were surrounding the handler and were subdued. People have come together to memorialize the dog, knowing that he took a bullet for a two-legged officer. The news is too full of sadness these days Shelley.
Oh, my, Linda, that is a sad story, too. I wish I could find words worthy of a fitting reply to the sadness and the injustice of preventable accidents like the ones we both shared. We put innocent people and animals in situations that shouldn’t be occurring in the first place. I found out later, as the girl scout story unfolded, that the young male driver had been ‘huffing’ and was fighting over the wheel with his passenger, caused the truck to go off the road, killed 1 9-year-old, 2 10-year-olds, a 32-year-old and injured another 10-year-old. They then fled the scene, hid the truck, went to a party with friends, and later confessed when the trail to the truck was discovered by a police officer. I hope the community you spoke about finds comfort in each other. You’re right, there is so much sadness in the news these days, I wish it wasn’t so.
The news here has been so full of mid-term election coverage that they never did a follow-up on this sad story of the Girl Scouts and the woman with them and I wondered what happened. I only knew the driver fled the scene, then later was apprehended. The community and other police agencies have rallied around the St. Clair Shoes policemen and their loss of Ace, whom they said was aggressive in the field, and a baby at the station. It is a very sad world today … a life, whether an animal’s or a human’s means nothing anymore. I agonized a few months ago when I found a baby robin on the sidewalk and saw no parents around … I stood there trying to decide whether to put it into a tree but I saw no nest. I took a picture of it and wrote a blog post and for days I worried about that little fellow. I don’t usually walk that way down our street and I purposely could not bring myself to walk that way for fear of seeing a lifeless body. I saw you had a bird strike your window and the bird died … we are bleeding hearts and the world just needs to be a more caring place overall.
I agree we’d benefit from finding our caring side and lead our lives by seeking that perspective out in life.