May Day

"the earth laughs in flowers"
- e. e. cummings

Kite Flying

See that speck in the center of my reel? That's the kite. At full extension. Sigh.

19th Amendment

"We shall someday be heeded, and–everybody will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people think that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses always were hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon today has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past."

~Susan B. Anthony

Backyard

In the past seven days the weather broke loose with a heat wave. All that melted snow turned into a bog and, most recently, a green-scape.

With four weeks left of my Spring semester classes, I took my textbook outside last night. Leafed through the pages, crunched numbers into my calculator, and nursed a beer on the back deck. Naomi played with the neighbor girls in the yard.

By any measure, it's been a grueling winter. Years ago I read some lines about how winter inspires you to remember the tune your bones play. Mark Strand, maybe? Anyway, it's an image that arrived with the snow and sat on my chest all winter long.

It's nice to feel things lift. The welcome chatter with my neighbors. I marked a moment feeling grateful last night for the pleasant feel of bare feet, the bright sun, and the color green.


______

Yes, I'm that geeky...but...it bothered me to spend a whole winter plagued by an image but not be able to place it in a fuller context. The tune your bones play comes from this poem by Mark Strand. Whew, I feel better now. Thanks.

...the upbreathing air

With the recent infusion of sun things lighten up, a little, at work. My Monday meeting was filled with more zings and ready laughter than I’ve heard in a while. Something is bubbling up and out from this wet ground.

I spent my morning coffee break taking a short walk outside. Squinted into the chilly wind I reveled in a single thought: winter is almost over.
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Dinner Line Up: Kedgeree & Spinach Salad
Currently Reading: The River of Doubt by Candice Millard
Reading with Naomi: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
Personal Soundtrack: What I Got (Sublime)
Recent Goodness: Seeing my friend, Jennifer, take every available news outlet by storm to urge Lincoln to Vote YES on the Haymarket Arena project.

Leprechaun Trap

Just before bedtime on March 16th Naomi insisted on constructing this leprechaun trap in her bedroom. Cut and taped the whole thing together in a flurry of inspiration. Tried to use a magic marker create "gold" coins as bait at the base of the trap. Then she giggled and plotted under the covers having a hard time falling asleep.

Sadly the trap stood empty on St. Patrick's Day morning. Naomi sighed with a heavy, defeated sigh saying. Genuinely disappointed she said, "I just wanted to prove that leprechauns were real."

Just By Looking

Naomi was wandering around our cold house without any socks or slippers. My foot empathy factor was just going berserk. I kept asking over, and over: don't you want some socks or something? She'd decline. I'd grow more insistent.

Finally, I flung some clean socks at her head without further instructions. She put them on and shot me a look.

Me: So that's the 'Mom, you've-gone-crazy-with-this-preoccupation-with-my-feet' look?
Naomi: No.
Me: No?
Naomi: That was the "I-could-see-perfectly-well-those-socks-were-headed-my-way-thirty minutes-ago. You-could-just-walk-them-over-to-me, you know. No-need-to-toss-them-at-my-face' look.
Me: That's a lot to say in a look.


Naomi: It is. But I'm pretty good at saying what I mean just by looking.