It is Day #2 of our the House of Shine's 5Ray.  If you were recovering from your long weekend yesterday and didn't check in, then you should know that a 5Ray is a race to spread shine.  5 Days, five prompts - each prompt an invitation for you to pump some shine into your corner of the world.

Two words were randomly selected on Tuesday and runners were challenged to somehow combine them in order to create shine.  Yesterday's words were "brown bag" and "grocery store."  (hard to believe that was a random selection, I know).

I started off strong.  I used a brown bag to cut out the letters SHINE and then strung the letters from yellow string.  A poor girls version of Cheryl's fabulous idea from last Friday.  I also filled another brown bag with some shine treats.  Attached was an invitation for someone who shines to take the bag.

The best laid plans...

Matthew and I stopped at a supermarket on our way to his soccer practice.  Little did I know there would be no corral for the supermarket carts (the place where I envisioned hanging my sign and leaving my treat)?  What supermarket doesn't have a place to put your cart?  I ended up having to hang my sign from a tree on a median in the parking lot.  In addition... gale winds kept knocking my brown bag over (and popping the attached balloons), so I ended up having to wedge the bag of treats in tree branches.

I am not deterred.  No one said powering the planet with shine was going to be easy.  In fact, if spreading shine was easy, the planet would already be shiny and there would be no need for us or for our House of Shine.  No, powering the planet with shine is hard work and is not for the faint of heart.  In fact, the hard, hard work of spreading shine can really only be done by those who do shine.

That's us and that's one of the reasons you are visiting us today.  Jump in with both feet and join us for leg two of our 5k.  

Here we go.  With the apt help of my trusty assistant - Card #1.

And now, card #2.

And, today's winning combination for leg two of our 5Ray is...

A reminder of the rules: Spread some shine in your corner of the world by using your shine and creativity to somehow combine these two things.  Then, join us in the Community Forum, labeled 5Ray: Day Two in order to let us know what you did.

By the way... have I mentioned that it was Bannister who finally broke the 4-minute mile in 1954, despite everybody's belief that it was impossible?  And have I also mentioned that once Bannister broke the record, it was only 46 days later that his record of 3:59.4 was broken?

We - this growing group of committed people - can start a Rayvolution and power the planet with shine.  I know we can.  And 46 days later who knows what else can happen.

Do your part.  Join the race.

Shining off until tomorrow...