A Day in the Life


It’s Sunday morning, and I’m delighted to be able to loll about. The sky is that brilliant blue that signals chilliness and jackets that are only worn for the first thirty minutes before you’re warmed and ready to roll.

My sweetest is at the gym, and when he’s all gymmed out and feeling pumped,
we’ll grab a bite of something and people-watch.
It’s Sunday morning, and I’m delighted to be able to loll about. The sky is that brilliant blue that signals chilliness and jackets that are only worn for the first thirty minutes before you’re warmed and ready to roll.

My sweetest is at the gym, and when he’s all gymmed out and feeling pumped,
we’ll grab a bite of something and people-watch.

This afternoon my baby and her babies will visit as the sun warms us enough for naked toes.
We’re carving a pumpkin.

Babies love to be naked. So do adults, but we’re trained against that simple joy and we’ve learned our training well.

I’ll finish a mosaic I’m working on after looking askance at it for a couple of years. It feels ready.

And I wonder how long the average person takes to complete a piece of art. How long do you look at it? How long do you breathe it in? How long does it take to meld both thought and action into one mind? And does the waiting, the considering, take more time than necessary, or the exact number of hours to blossom?

And so I’ll laugh with the babies and their babies, and then I’ll return to silence that is never the silence others anticipate, but the beautiful melding of vision to brain to possibility to creation.

September Sand

I wasn’t a huge September fan until I became a hardcore beach girl. As children, we always headed out smack in the middle of the heat and loved every minute. Of course now July summers are hotter than hades and a bit less attractive. I might still be willing to go … my mom did it … but I don’t. Instead I dig my toes into sweet September sand and let the softer sun have at me. She loves me, and boy do I love her.

And here’s a secret about September — the beach is almost completely empty. And that is surefire motivation.

The best fun is hanging out with our gaggle of girls, a stash of every kind of art supply, and burying ourselves in all-day creativity (and sometimes all night), conversation, and laughter each week.

And so we come, and we cook, and we eat, and we create, and we walk the empty beach and smile at the wiggly periwinkles trying to dig back into the sand after being disrupted by a wave, and ogle the starfish. But mostly, we laugh. Indeed laughter is so very good for the soul, but it’s also so much more than that — it’s healing and renewal.

Photo: My Mom and Dad on the beach when I was just a tiny thing.

Home from Ireland

And then she was home, happily laden with:

  • three new (heavy) sweaters that I’ll surely need again next time,
  • the thick gloves and ear muffs that were a godsend,
  • not quite enough leggings,
  • a new pair of shoes to replace the two pair that fell apart as soon as I got to Ireland,
  • a baggie full of beautiful stripey rocks (WAY fewer than I wanted to bring home),
  • several sets of broken pottery that I haven’t yet had time to reassemble into something fabulous,
  • notes for my next trip to Ireland,
  • 215 emails that need responses,
  • the joy of laughing with favorite old and new friends,
  • the opportunity to try new things: new art, new hikes, new food,
  • a brand new grandson who sleeps like clouds from heaven,
  • beautiful gardens all gloriously blooming and a sweet husband who keeps them that way,
  • and several handfuls of notes for my next trip (to Barcelona in June!)

Because we’re not getting any younger.

Love to All!