h/t to Superhero for this gem
Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
-Mary Oliver
The photo above is of a red leaf lettuce plant in my garden. Yum!
Our CatGirl on her bike on a day that’s (surpisingly) cool enough for a fleece jacket. Biking is our main form of transportation around here and her old garage-sale-BMX bike will be replaced soon, I suspect. But I love that it still gets her where she’s going. 🙂
A pic of GameBoy with Brian Jacques, the author of the Redwall series of books.
What a joy it is for us to attend booksignings and for our kids to be inspired by the writers of their most beloved stories! Brian Jacques did not disappoint–a salty old Brit, his storytelling had the whole plaza outside the bookshoppe reverberating as he yelled the battle cry, “Eulalia.”
Two years ago today, I was just returning home from a whirlwind trip to China. It seems so very long ago now!
What I remember well:
–the air: how wet and misty and ethereal it was.
–the food: excellent and scary sometimes (I stopped asking what I was eating and just tried everything. I learned to love SPICY!).
–the shopping: I was so tired of Chinese touristy crappy stuff by the end of the trip–I came home with suitcases nearly empty except for cheongsam for CatGirl and myself and a few trinkets.
–the bathrooms: thinking LAX toilets were just heavenly after 2 weeks of squatters and no TP
–the people: endlessly interesting to watch, to listen to their voices, to attempt communication.
–fun: crazy taxi rides to the night markets with Dora, Mom and new groovy friends
–the massages. ’nuff said there….
–the escape: getting away from everything familiar for enough time to find parts of myself again.
🙂
This is just one section of one of the bookshelves that we have in our home. You can see from this picture how we’ve tagged all of our books (like a library). Tagging and cataloging our books is my secret weapon.
We have thousands of books. There is no better way to know exactly where each of them belongs. Before organizing our books I couldn’t find them when I needed them, and John & I had unecessary duplicate copies of many of our books.
I know it’s geeky to do stuff like this. But I’m okay with that.
I picked these strawberries in my garden this morning. Along with a bagful of lettuce for my lunch salad. I also picked a zucchini and some basil for our homemade pizza dinner tonite.
Yum 🙂
UPDATE: This really was today, this is not a ‘classic’ post from summertime!
The leaves here don’t really change colors like in the colder areas of the country. Rather, they just turn brown and die during the Santa Ana winds.
But they still make for a fun photo opportunity. I love how GameBoy’s arms look super long and strong as he throws up his bundle of leaves.
Picture: Close-up of a small purple flower with pink stamens.
Recently we watched the movie “Amazing Grace” (which I highly recommend to each of you). The main character, Wilberforce, realizes that he could easily spend his life enjoying nature–studying spiderwebs and gazing into flowers. He find so much satisfaction in his communion with the natural world. Yet he comes to realize that this isn’t his mission in life. Instead, he becomes a politician and is instrumental in ending the British slave trade.
Some days I feel like I lose myself in a flower. Time flies by while I’m in my garden and I start to only care about growing things. The rest of life seems so mundane in comparison. Yet I also have this feeling that I am supposed to do so much more. That gardening is important, even bedrock, for my life. But it’s not the whole of it. There are books to write, and children to raise, and friends to meet. And the flowers will continue to grow. Whether I am wholly absorbed in them or not.
Here’s how John and I ended up looking at JourneyGal’s Halloween bash last night. I never found any vampire teeth so I went as a goth gypsy. 🙂 And I should, of course, mention that this is one of the very few times you’ll see me in make-up. I typically only wear it for Halloween and I only dress up every few years. It’s always such a surprise to see myself with dark smudges at my eyes and with red-stained lips.
John, a priest, won the costume contest along with a friend who dressed as a pregnant nun. Very cute photo op with the two of them together! GameBoy dressed as a ninja and CatGirl was a cat (no surprise there!).
Sam took this pic–his awesome camera made me green with envy even under all that makeup….
Because EllyCat is THE QUEEN around here, and she knows it oh-so-well.
I am reading Assassination Vacation right now. Can I just say that I feel like I’ve made a new friend who loves the ghoulish bits of the past maybe even as much as I do? Her visit to the Army Medical Museum (or whatever it’s called nowadays) made me so jealous that I had to physically restrain myself from not scrawling on the copy of this book that my Friend loaned to me. That is MY MUSEUM–even thought I’ve never been there and have just fantasized intensely about the day I’ll actually get to visit.
People, Sarah Vowell is one of my people. And it’s so comforting to know that I’m not alone in this big, dark, history-apathetic world….
And to Johnw/H: you rock. Thank you for loaning me just the right books at just the right times….
