"...where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy..." 

I'm not suggesting that Saint Francis wrote these words; I don't know if anyone knows who did, but long ago, we aspired to love, faith, hope, light, and joy, and these sentiments, and more, hold true now. In this time and place of much confusion and many unknowns, these will be our essentials. It's challenging to stay on a path when the ground shakes, but our hearts know where to lead us: Listen carefully. Walk lightly. Hold on tightly. 
xo

​

December:  The first  

I'm the first to awake
 sky dark * stars bright
my wishes came true
*****
 the beds in the house 
filled with loved ones
there is time and pies
​
flowers from Victoria

xo

...and don't you, too, wonder?

what would happen if...

spread your body out on the sand,
allow your heart to open, close your eyes,
 remember a time that took your breath
and sent it on the wings of birds

 albino pigeon or one of the two egrets 
standing tall near the empty bridge
shrouded in ocean mist and salt air

what if you created a new you

xo

 September 2024

Oddly or not, I'm quite enamored by dying plants:
the way they let go quietly and how I continue 
to offer them water and carry them from 

sunlight to darkness

wishing for one more day
thanking them for beauty

I've always been in love with the unfolding

tulips as they surrendered their golden inners
turning themselves inside out & upside down
colors that fade & fall: I saved spent blossoms
kept them in glass jars and on windowsills

Now, I let them fall onto the kitchen table
I sit with them as I say my goodbyes

xo
​

Today, we celebrate the birth of Gramma Jeannette, 
and tomorrow, the birth of Grampa Fran, 
also lovingly known as Grampa Friend. 
We had these two elders for many years, 
yet still, it was not long enough

I have a photograph of them together
walking up our driveway, Gramma carrying a 
lemon cake in a faded Tupperware container, 
him with a folding green and white lawn chair
arriving at our annual summer party

In the background, the corn fields are past knee-high
& the sun is slanted and hazy like a good summer day
the kids are in bathing suits with muddy feet 
and their friends are paddle-boating amongst
 dragonflies, tadpoles, and milkweeds

I don't need the photo to remind me of the love

it lives in my blood and bones and breath

xo
​

​And just like that, the opening happened. The going big, the readying to shine. The invitation to witness this beauty, the quiet way of turning towards the light, even knowing what is yet to come. xo

have you ever read the story the Iris tells
the inscription that lives to share the truth
the slow writing of time & beauty & love
the scratched reminders of what has been 
what shall be in the slowings of all things
look closely, she beacons, touch my hand
with the stems of your intricate unfolding
she pokes her nose into the air and waits

xo

​Yesterday, I rediscovered a photograph taken some time ago
the way the light reaches is one of my touchstones
for this thing to silently cross my vision
encouraging me to look more slowly
to breathe more deeply
to be that love
xo