A little goodbye party for the Nance family -- why does everyone keep moving away???

Tiny Twinges

I felt a tiny twinge --
to give a friend, 
who was feeling down, 
some flowers. An
easy enough charge

with the flashy
tiger lilies
screaming for attention
over in the corner,
the clematis curling
seductively round the
garden gate,
the fluffy zinnias
beckoning
with their toothy,
multi-hued smiles.

However,
 I stayed inside,
quieting the
karmic jabs with
flimsy excuses,
leaving the friend
to sit alone
and the floral fete
to be enjoyed
solely by the
bees.

Summer Storm

Phin was so sad when he looked out the window this morning. He cried as he told me how much he loved that trampoline. I said that we can probably get a new one and he assured me that it would be okay if we got a smaller one. Sweet boy.

The other storm casualty... Charles came out from work and the street where he'd parked had flooded! The water seeped into the car and reached the seats, etc.

So Civilized

Can I tell the tale of
humankind?
My story is a biased
one, just one
individual in the
collective mind.

A chimp will not eat a grape unless
all the chimps have a grape.

History is pocked --
great craters of
devastation, terror,
and
Enlightenment!
minuets, sonnets
(clubs, spears)
The Pieta, a perfect rose
(rifles, drones)
survival of the fittest
(maddest, meanest)

We are so
so civilized
compared to
the chimpanzee.

Still Spinning

In other lifetimes, 
it took years 
to crisscross 
this glorious globe,
but as the distance
diminished, knowledge
expanded and
we know (we KNOW)
that all of us want
the same things:
peace, safety,
love...

This Earth,
so buried in
grief and confusion,
is somehow,
somehow,
still spinning.

Still producing
fresh green cucumbers
and fireflies
that dart in and out
of the hydrangeas.
Little girls still
selling lemonade
on Sunday afternoons.

How can it all be so
exquisite? So beautiful?
How can it all be so
(crushingly) sad?

A Summer Morning

A chubby four year old finger
tentatively touches the space
between my eyebrows -- 
flipping a switch
the chattering squirrels already deep into 
the negotiations of the day,
the birds concluding their dawn chorus

stepping outside with a stretch,
an eight year old garden nymph
stirs up the mint, oregano, and sweet pea,
my skirt brushes past the roses

I sit in a pale slant of sunlight,
the laundry fluttering dreamily in time
to the scales floating through the window

A summer morning garnished, sliced, and served

getting older

Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes! We had a wonderful day -- out for breakfast and then to Springfield for a little Frank Lloyd Wright, playing at the capitol building, running around the Botanical Garden where we climbed trees and found a labyrinth(!), shopping, and a yummy Vietnamese dinner. Matthew knows what makes me happy 😀

::nice duck face


::happy to be back climbing around historic buildings


::we are the champions!


::It was hot hot hot and humid! Which made for some crazy hair! 


::how does this bell work?


::their only speed is RUN


::a labyrinth! recent memories from Bodhi! 


::Ibby meditating in the center, while Matthew makes his way around. We then all sat on that bench and watched a wedding in the nearby rose garden.