Singing from the Window (Dave Matthews)

Much to feel good about this week.  Through a series of interesting circumstances I reconnected with a sister of my best friend in high school. Mary still makes pottery, and I am going to order another piece from her soon.

Had an impromptu meet-up with Sarah, Colin, and Eric in the far parking lot of Sarah's apartment complex, where drawing/writing with chalk is the highlight.  I asked S if he sleeps with them, because he double-fists throughout. "He would if I let him", she responded.  Always a lift. He is so smart and adorable (not that I'm biased or anything...  ;-)

Thanks to my sister Mari (she called herself my "Facebook Cliffs Notes" but I changed that to "Facebook Guru") for telling me about the conversation with Indigo Girls, Glennon Doyle, and Abby Wambach last night.  Was hoping I could view through YouTube, but no...  Jumped back onto FB (temporarily) for 90 minutes of wisdom, tears, and smiles, as they all interviewed each other.  Actually found a link to share, and I plan to re-watch later today.

And today is NancyW's birthday!  We arranged a Zoom meeting with Nance, Judi, Suzanne, and myself... but little did she know we were surprising her with other friends popping in:  SusanP, Brian, Sarah/Colin.  Invited a few others who had to work or couldn't make it.  Conversation and laughter ensued, and of course there was cake, a card, and singing... 💖

So, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day/weekend/week.  Enjoy!  


~ Turning Your Backyard Into a Vacation Spot:  With summer camps shut down and beach vacations seeming risky, homeowners are investing in ways to create a summer retreat at home.


~ Simple Stretches to Combat All That Sitting:  Done correctly, these restorative stretches, working on muscles from your eyes to your toes, really do make you feel better.


~ For Those Who (Privately) Aspire to Become More Reclusive (thanks to Michele for this beautifully insightful article; also, check out The Book of Life website...  :-)


~ The End of Meat Is Here:  If you care about the working poor, about racial justice, and about climate change, you have to stop eating animals.


~ Kacey Musgraves sings "Burn One With John Prine" to John Prine


SONG:  Singing from the Window by Dave Matthews

BOOK:  Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

POEM:  Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on - on - and out of sight.

Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away ... O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.

QUOTE(S):  "Experience life in all possible ways ~ good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light, summer-winter. Experience all the dualities. Don't be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more mature you become." ~ Osho

“The shortest distance between two people is a song.” ~ Edith Barnard

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Elton John)

While reading Untamed by Glennon Doyle, I ran across the passage below (had no idea about this theory):

When we visited the Louvre, we entered the Mona Lisa room and found a crowd of hundreds pushing, jostling, selfie-ing all around her.

   I stared from a distance, trying to appreciate her. I really didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. I wondered if all the jostling people understood or if they were just acting like they did. A woman walked over and stood next to me.

   She said, “You know, there’s a theory about her smile. Want to hear it?”

   “Yes, please,” I said.

   “Mona Lisa and her husband lost a baby. Sometime later, her husband commissioned this painting from da Vinci to celebrate the birth of another baby. Mona Lisa sat for Leonardo to paint her, but she wouldn’t smile during the sitting. Not all the way. The story goes that da Vinci wanted her to smile wider, but she refused. She did not want the joy she felt for her new baby to erase the pain she felt from losing the first. There in her half smile is her half joy. Or maybe it’s her full joy and her full grief all at the same time. She has the look of a woman who has just realized a dream but still carries the lost dream inside her. She wanted her whole life to be present on her face. She wanted everyone to remember, so she wouldn’t pretend.”

   Now I understand what the fuss is all about. Mona Lisa is the patron saint of honest, resolute, fully human women—women who feel and who know. She is saying for us:

   Don’t tell me to smile.

   I will not be pleasant.

   Even trapped here, inside two dimensions, you will see the truth.

   You will see my life’s brutal and beautiful right here on my face.

   The world will not be able to stop staring.


SONG:  Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters by Elton John (everybody knows his version, so here's a cool cover by the Indigo Girls...  :-)

BOOK:  Katie and the Mona Lisa by James Mayhew

POEM:  The Aerodynamics by Rick Bursky

The night she walked to the house
she held a string; on the other end,
fifty-three feet in the air, a kite.
Wind provided the aerodynamics.
Does every collaboration
need to be explained?
She tied the string to the mailbox
left the kite to float until morning.
Every night this happens.
She sleeps, I listen, darkness
slides through us both.

The next morning
the string still curved into the sky
but the kite was gone.
This was the morning
newspapers announced
the Mona Lisa was stolen***.
This was the morning
it snowed in Los Angeles,
the morning I wore gloves
to pull from the sky
fifty-three feet of frozen string.

***From The Writer's Almanac:  On August 21, 1911 the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The theft was pulled off so well that no one even noticed.

The next day, an artist named Louis Béroud went to the Louvre, intending to paint a girl doing her hair in the reflection from the pane of glass in front of the Mona Lisa. He wanted his painting to be a commentary on the debate around putting glass in front of paintings in the Louvre.

But when he got to the wall where the painting usually hung, it wasn't there. He asked the guards, and they said it was probably being photographed. But it wasn't with the photographers. The director of the museum, Théophile Homolle, was out of town — a man who had said the year before, "Steal the Mona Lisa?You might as well pretend that one could steal the towers of the Cathedral of Notre Dame." Finally, museum officials got together and the police were called in, and everyone realized that the Mona Lisa was really gone.

The Louvre was shut down for a week to search every inch of it for the missing painting — since the Louvre takes up 49 acres, it was no easy task. But all they found was the frame and piece of glass.

More than two years later, in Italy, the thief contacted an art dealer and offered to sell him the Mona Lisa for $100,000. The art dealer met him, along with the director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, explained that all he wanted was to return the Mona Lisa to Italy where it belonged. He said he would sell it as long as the men promised to hang it at the Uffizi and not let it go back to Paris. Peruggia was, of course, arrested, and the Mona Lisa was sent back to the Louvre … but not until it went on a tour across Italy.

QUOTE:  "Is the Mona Lisa an 'accurate' representation of the actual human model for the painting? Who knows? Who cares? It's a great piece of art. It moves us. It makes us wonder, makes us gape - finally makes us look inward at ourselves." ~ Tim O'Brien

Pie for Breakfast (Ellis Delaney)

[thanks to PeterF for this wonderful graphic!]

It is Memorial Day, a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning military personnel who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. I should be using In Flanders Fields (which I recall memorizing in sixth grade) as today's poem. Thank you for your service... ❤

Obviously, no picnics are happening, both because of the coronavirus as well as the torrential downpours experienced today and yesterday.  I continue to be in hibernation mode, segueing from this weekend's Sex and The City marathon to The Starless Sea novel, which still captivates.  We were supposed to have a family meet-up this morning and now, instead, hubby and I will pop over to the Hollybrook library (like I need more books, right?), which re-opens today.  One person at a time. Understood.  One of us will browse, while the other stands in the doorway, then switch...  :-)

Had the most wonderful experience Saturday night, when I was invited by my long-time friend BrianW (The Breadman!) to a Virtual Campfire of Camp Jews Don't Camp (his tribe in real-life every year at the Kerrville Folk Festival, which normally begins every Memorial Day weekend and goes on for 18 days).  What?!?  Yes!  I went once, in 1999 (with BW), only for the weekend, and the memories are forever warm and vivid.

So, Brian and a few friends organized an event on Zoom, from 10 p.m. to after midnight, one tune per person, just like a song circle, which takes place post-festival until the wee hours.  I was mostly there for those whose music I've loved and admired for decades:  Eric Schwartz, Annie Wenz, Eric Gerber, Ellis Delaney, Cliff Eberhardt, David LaMotte, Chris Chandler, Dan Pelletier, Chuck Brodsky, Gina Forsyth, Gregg Cagno... and semi-newbies Kirsten Maxwell, Kora Feder, Scott Cook, Louise Mosrie, Shanna in a Dress.  The songs pendulumed between hilarious and heartwarming, and I finally broke my two-month non-drinking streak with some hibiscus-cucumber sparkling sake I had in the fridge (hey, I wasn't alone, right?).  The entire evening was positively (on so many levels) soul-filling, and Brian did such a great job coordinating and emceeing.  I was so wired that, when I finally opted out about 1 a.m., I staying up for another two hours watching the aforementioned SATC marathon (the second-time-around Aidan years:  "you broke my heart!!!").

Speaking of Ellis, before she sang the subject song (my new sig line)...

"strange days we're living in, 
like some kind of dream
we've got the world in our pocket, 
popping up on little screens
I've got a distracted mind, 
wrapped up in a restless heart
how do we break free to see the lighter side 
of the way things are?"

...she related it to the times we were in, stating that people were baking now more than ever.  Oooh, pie!  This recipe sounds yum, and easily veganized...  :-)


SONG:  Pie for Breakfast by Ellis Delaney

BOOK:  Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

POEM:  Self by James Oppenheim

Once I freed myself of my duties to tasks and people and went down to the cleansing sea...
The air was like wine to my spirit,
The sky bathed my eyes with infinity,
The sun followed me, casting golden snares on the tide,
And the ocean—masses of molten surfaces, faintly
      gray-blue—sang to my heart...

Then I found myself, all here in the body and brain, and all there on the shore:
Content to be myself: free, and strong, and enlarged:
Then I knew the depths of myself were the depths of space.
And all living beings were of those depths (my brothers and sisters)
And that by going inward and away from duties, cities, street-cars and greetings,
I was dipping behind all surfaces, piercing cities and people,
And entering in and possessing them, more than a brother,
The surge of all life in them and in me...

So I swore I would be myself (there by the ocean)
And I swore I would cease to neglect myself, but would take myself as my mate,
Solemn marriage and deep: midnights of thought to be:
Long mornings of sacred communion, and twilights of talk,
Myself and I, long parted, clasping and married till death.

QUOTE:  "The only cure I have ever known for fear and doubt and loneliness is an immense love of self." ~ Alison Malee

I Dare You (Kelly Clarkson)

When last I wrote, I was in a bit of a funk, so yesterday I headed to the kitchen.  Spent a few hours immersed in cooking and music (two of my favorite things), with my old-school iPod on shuffle, sequeing from Dar Williams (duh!) to Richard Shindell to Joni Mitchell to Dave Carter to Carlos Santana to Stephanie Mills (disco!) to Will Kimbrough to Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, etc.

Made chick'n salad (chickpeas pulsed in the NutriBullet, adding vegan mayo, chopped apples, sliced grapes, diced onion, and chopped walnuts)... brownies (with JustEgg)... and lettuce wraps (I scaled back/substituted to make it substantially easier than the recipe calls for).

I also experienced two very successful grocery deliveries this week, both from Whole Foods.  They actually had *everything* on my list, including JustEgg, which has become very hard to find and, believe it or not, their prices are more in line with reality.  I am forever grateful to Publix Instacart, but it's nice to have another option.  Maybe alternate between the two?  Still pondering.

Had a lovely, extended phone conversation with my friend KathyB, whereupon we bemoaned the sh*tshow that is our leadership (both federal and state) right now, and vowed to get together in their front yard for a Social Distancing Happy Hour!

Oh, I also toe-dipped back into retail therapy.  Returning to my moratorium on spending, but all three (a tiny silver nose ring, purple yoga capris, a vampire book!) lifted my spirits.

So, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day.  Enjoy your weekend! 


~ The Joy of Regrowing My Scallions — Yes, Regrowing My Scallions:  You’ll have to trust me. It’s more thrilling than it sounds. (thanks to Nancy for the idea, and then this article came up on my radar, so I sent it to her, and now I'm sharing it here...  :-)


~ With the World on Pause, Salamanders Own the Road:  Traffic is down, thanks to the pandemic. That’s good news for amphibians looking to migrate safely.


~ Hug guard for Nana:  I want someone to invent this for me...  💓


~ The Many Masks of Nancy Pelosi:  The speaker of the House has relentlessly, and strategically, made masks a part of her platform.


~ 10 Sneaky Ways Your Coronavirus Anxiety Is Coming Out:  COVID-19 is messing with everyone's mental health. Here are subtle signs it's affecting yours, plus advice on how to cope. (thanks to Sarah, who got it from her friend Nicole!)



SONG:  I Dare You by Kelly Clarkson (thanks to BrookeB for this wonderful song...  💖 )

BOOK:  Zen as F*ck Journal by Monica Sweeney

POEM:  Things That Are Changed—March, 2020 by Kimiko Hahn

A bandana. A cardinal. An apple

No. 2 lead pencil—the mechanical pencil, now empty—appears more vivid 

A box of toothpicks—now that I’m baking bran muffins

Rubber gloves: that Playtex commercial “so flexible you can pick up a dime.” I tried once and it's true. Thankfully, I have yellow rubber gloves—like those Mother wore. We never had a dishwasher. No, that was her, the dishwasher. Not even this gloomy daughter was assigned the chore. Though I did learn in Home Ec. to fill a basin with warm water and soap; wash glasses before the greasy dishes then silverware and finally pots and pans. Rinse. Air dry (“it's more sanitary”). And I do.

Scissors: I cut up dish clothes to use as napkins. When I try sewing on the ancient Singer (1930?), the knee-lever doesn’t work so I abandon the hemming. Then hand stitch while listening to the news. I am grateful for a full spool of white thread. 

Scissors: where once I used these to cut paper, now I use them for everything. Including hair. Father always directed us to use the right kind of scissors for the task—paper, cloth, hair. Had he lasted into his nineties, how would he have dealt with sequestering? With belligerence, no doubt.

Empty jar: I think to grow beansprouts and look into ordering seeds. Back ordered until May 1.

Egg shells: should I start a mulch pile? Mother had a large empty milk carton by the sink where she'd add stuff to mulch. And now T reports that because they are making every meal, Our mulch pile is so alive.

Sleeping Beauty, yes, that cocoon—

Moby Dick, The Tale of Genji, Anna Karenina—I left Emily Dickinson—Selected Poems edited by Helen Vendler in my office

Notebook: March 20, 2020
A student in Elmhurst cannot sleep for the constant ambulance sirens. She keeps her blinds drawn but sees on tv what is taking place a block away—bodies in body bags loaded onto an enormous truck. The governor calls this The Apex. And late last night, R called—“helicopters are hovering over the building!” She remembers the thrumming over our brownstone in Park Slope on 9/11. And just now I learn that religious people just blocks from her were amassing by the hundreds, refusing social distance. And I am full of rage. Some communities have begun to use drones to disperse people. The president states he has “complete power.” And I am filled with rage.

Binoculars: a cardinal

102.7°F

Puzzling 

A neighbor goes out to pick up my prescription. I leave daffodils on the porch for him. I picked them with gloves on. 

QUOTE:  "Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.  We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it." ~ Arundhati Roy

Something to Get Through/The Beauty of the Rain (Dar Williams)

I have been doing so well with Acceptance, until this last week, when I have fallen into a funk.  Didn't sleep well last night, because of back pain as well as anxiety.  Being gentle with myself today, and tomorrow I will focus on re-finding the balance between peaceful and productive.  Many things on the To Do List, and I am in ostrich mode!

Speaking of rain, we had a family meet-up yesterday at our old neighborhood park, after days of deluges (which we needed, mind you, after our April drought).  Sarah attempted to keep Colin in the parking lot with chalk, but the "puddle pool" was too tempting.  He basically dove headfirst, and, after a few minutes, looked at me and said, "Lala in?". I of course had to take off my shoes and cavort with him for a while...  :-)

Twenty-four hours later, and the thought of it still makes me laugh!

It is raining again, hard, and that's okay.  Back to my book, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, which is absolutely exquisite (you may have read The Night Circus, her previous novel, equally breathtaking).  A recent passage, positively swoonworthy... 💖

“Spiritual but not religious,” Zachary clarifies. He doesn’t say what he is thinking, which is that his church is held-breath story listening and late-night-concert ear-ringing rapture and perfect-boss fight-button pressing. That his religion is buried in the silence of freshly fallen snow, in a carefully crafted cocktail, in between the pages of a book somewhere after the beginning but before the ending."

SONG:  Something to Get Through / The Beauty of the Rain by Dar Williams

BOOK:  The Gifts of Acceptance: Embracing People And Things as They Are by Daniel A. Miller

POEM:  Just Now by W.S. Merwin

In the morning as the storm begins to blow away
the clear sky appears for a moment and it seems to me
that there has been something simpler than I could ever
believe
simpler than I could have begun to find words for
not patient not even waiting no more hidden
than the air itself that became part of me for a while
with every breath and remained with me unnoticed
something that was here unnamed unknown in the days
and the nights not separate from them
not separate from them as they came and were gone
it must have been here neither early nor late then
by what name can I address it now holding out my thanks

QUOTE:  “Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.”  ~ Yasmin Mogahed

Show Us Your Books (Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show crew)

[My library books:  everything in the basket was checked out previously, and is now due back June 1; the five on the right had been on reserve B.C. (Before Coronavirus), and I was able to pick them up today...  :-) ]


I am positively hyperventilating.  Our library re-opened.  Well, only for walk-up/drive-up service, but it made my day/week/month!

- Beginning May 18, library staff will call customers with reserved items to let them know their items are available for checkout via our new Walk-Up/Drive-Up Service.
- When arriving to pick up materials, customers should call the library when they are in the parking lot.
- For Walk-up Service: Library staff will exit the library and place the customer’s items on a table. Customers can then approach the table and retrieve their items.
- For Drive-up Service: Library staff will exit the library and hand the items to the customer through their car window. To ensure a safe and efficient hand-off, items will be placed in plastic bags.
- Customers must wear a facial covering to participate in this service.
- Customers returning items are encouraged to deposit them in the library’s book drops. 


For the record, I will never be book-deprived (when the library closed in late-March, I had 25 checked out) but, previous to the self-isolation, I loved being able to reserve a book as I thought of it, which placed it on hold and sent it to my local branch, where I was able to pick it up at my convenience when they let me know it was ready.  That service has not been available for the last six weeks or so, understandably.  Going there today to return the 20 or so we had checked out (the book drops were closed during this time as well), and scoop some up on reserve, made me feel a bit closer to "normal" (whatever that means these days).

Also, you will notice A Very Stable Genius, the book about Trump, on the far right in my photo above.  Even more relevant now, right?!?

Speaking of relevant, I can so relate to the meme below.  I love my husband, but... this absolutely describes the scene on our balcony Every. Single. Morning.  Ack!

SONG:  Show Us Your Books by Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show Crew (song begins at 10-minute mark)

BOOK:  Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

POEM:  The House Was Quiet and The World Was Calm by Wallace Stevens

The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night

Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.

The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,

Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.

The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.

And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself

Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.

QUOTE:  “Solitude is the greatest treasure, and through it you can rebuild your life, reorder your life, and solve life’s problems.” ~ Sunday Adelaja

All Day Long (Chloe Langford and Paul Langford)

[ Google Doodle for April 21. 2020:  "Stay home. Save lives. Help stop coronavirus." ]


Much to feel good about this week.  I gave Sarah authorization to use my Costco card, and she found everything on my list (got groceries for herself as well). Nancy gifted me with some cherry tomatoes, a container of antibacterial wipes (cherished currency), a loaf of vegan carrot-banana bread, and four ripe mangos (which I peeled, cut up, and put in the freezer to make sorbet).  I finally signed up for a Hulu account, mainly because of all the miniseries based on books (High Fidelity, Little Fires Everywhere, The Handmaid's Tale, Normal People), and have already binge-watched the first two...  :-)

So, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day/weekend/week.  Enjoy!  


~ Tonight! (5/15/20), ElizaLive, Let's Get Political, Live Facebook Stream, 5:30 p.m. Central Time:  Over the years as things in the world and our country get more divided, I have been motivated to write socio-political songs. I’ve been slipping them into my records more and more confidently as I have slowly educated myself. This Friday on ELIZALIVE I will choose from my now fairly-long list and pick a variety of songs and perspectives. Please let me know any requests you have that fit the theme. ~ Eliza  


~ So You Had a Bad Day…  Here are some tips to pick yourself back up again, regain some dignity and soldier on after the lousiest of days.


~ Elmo's Dad Sends a PSA to Overwhelmed Parents at Home: "You Are Doing an Amazing Job":  Our beloved Sesame Street pals are social distancing right along with the rest of the world, which means Elmo's dad, Louie, can sympathize with all the families staying home. In a sweet PSA published on April 5, Louie applauded moms and dads for their tireless efforts to keep their kids healthy, safe, and entertained, but acknowledged this time can be "overwhelming." He encouraged parents to take a moment for themselves: listen to a favorite song, stretch, or just breathe.


~ Smash a Coronavirus Piñata. You’ll Feel Better.  If you cannot join, beat. Such is the resolve of creative people bashing piñatas to defeat a pandemic (or at least, excise some of their feelings about it).


~ Photographer Has Been Taking Free Family ‘Porchtraits’ to Capture SweetSilver Linings During Social Distancing:  Rather than letting social distancing keep him from his passion for photography, Dave Puente has found a way to join local families in celebrating the silver linings of quarantine.  The photographer from Minneapolis, Minnesota has been taking free family portraits that document the joyful part of community members being at home with their loved ones—and he does it all while simultaneously respecting social distancing guidelines.


SONG:  All Day Long by Chloe Langford and Paul Langford

BOOK:  A Mindful Year: 365 Ways to Find Connection and the Sacred in Everyday Life by Aria Campbell-Danesh, Seth J. Gillihan

POEM:  Japanese Aquarium Urges Public to Video-Chat Eels Who Are Forgetting Humans Exist by Sonia Greenfield

hey eels aka carpet of
writhing grass aka sinews
of sea floor aka silver speckled
& smiling sand spitters

the world has gone
bonkers & even humans
can forget humans exist like
that tiny grandmother whose

white hair looked like a moon
jelly bobbing in the dry
ocean on the other side of
your glass she’s gone now &

the nurse in subtidal scrubs
that soothing blue is gone too
hey eels we have a sickness
rippling through this sea

of humanity so I’m taking
a Zoom meeting with you can’t
roll up to your window & smile
back can’t be jostled by

a family of seven edging
me away from my vantage that’s
how we are we humans we’re
just like animals hey eels I like

how you duck into your home
in the sand how you suck
yourself into your safe space
and now humans are doing that

too sucking into our safe
spaces & shrinking away from
faces coming too close
which is to say I’m just like

you hey eels beyond your
invisible walls beyond the four
walls beyond your aquarium
beyond the teeming of Tokyo

I hear wildlife is reclaiming
its spaces that pumas wander
the streets that waterways are
becoming more uncluttered by

the detritus of human indifference
hey eels every time I would take
my son to see you he would sit
by your side & I think he saw

something of himself in the way
you’re alone in your hole & in
the fear that guides your hiding
hey eels it’s where we all are now

QUOTE:  “Think of a wave: it washes onto the shore, and then it rolls back. Likewise, each of your activities has a backside of stillness. To be with people, you must be alone. To listen, you need silence. To exercise, you need rest. You do not need to inflict rest, silence, or aloneness. You can simply surrender to your existing urges for these essential actions.” ~ Veronika Tugaleva

Take a Pebble (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer)

About once a week, I meet up with Sarah and Colin to walk at a park 20 minutes from our home.  It's mostly shady, tucked into a subdivision, and has many lovely winding trails.  You can tell most of the people using it live in the neighborhood, and it's a well-kept secret, so it's not crowded at all.  Sarah says she sees most of the same couples, families, individuals every time she goes.

A few weeks ago, we noticed that someone had painted and left rocks along the trail, two of which are pictured above (Have Fun and Make Things Happen), which then inspired Sarah to follow through on an art project with Colin.  I provided the large river rocks (snagged from the ground-level area at the bottom of our condo complex stairwell), and they added their creative touches.  Sarah is a huge fan of the Dave Matthews Band, so all three are lyrics from his songs...  :-)

The next time I met up with them, our goal was to leave the DMB rocks along the trails, as a thank you and follow-up. And we did.  Hope they brought smiles to others' faces, as theirs did to ours...  :-)

SONG:  Take a Pebble by Emerson, Lake and Palmer

BOOK:  If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian, Barbara Hirsch Lember (Photographer)

POEM:  Miracles by Walt Whitman

Why, who makes much of a miracle?

As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,

Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,

Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge

of the water,

Or stand under trees in the woods,

Or talk by day with anyone I love, or sleep in the bed

at night with anyone I love,

Or sit at the table at dinner with the rest,

Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,

Or watch honeybees busy around the hive

of a summer forenoon,

Or animals feeding in the fields,

Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,

Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining

so quiet and bright,

Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon

in spring;

These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,

The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,

Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread

with the same,

Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,

The fishes that swim-the rocks-the motion of the waves

-the ships with men in them,

What stranger miracles are there?

QUOTE:  "If you are in the country, you should notice landmarks - that is, objects which help you to find your way or prevent you getting lost, such as distant hills, church towers, and nearer objects, such as peculiar buildings, trees, gates, rocks, etc." ~ Robert Baden-Powell

In My Daughter's Eyes (Martina McBride)

Despite this crazy coronavirus, it was a lovely Mother's Day weekend, starting off Friday afternoon with a meet-up at the park in our old neighborhood, where we mostly watched Colin run around.  No wonder Sarah is so thin...  ;-)

The boys presented me with cards and flowers; Sarah brought a card, Parlour Vegan pastries, and a painted rock from Colin; and I gave her a bag o' goodies from Natural Life (dish towel and wine tumbler), in a Strong as a Mother tote.  We hung out for a few hours, and then all headed home.

Saturday was a lovely day by the pool, as I knew we were in for seven straight days of rain, and yesterday delivered on that promise.  I spent many hours on the balcony, enjoying the much-needed precipitation and the peace it brought, drinking coffee, reading, and eating cinnamon rolls Sarah and Colin dropped off (in a surprise hit-and-run).  I thought about taking a nap but never did, Chico ordered delivery from the Hollybrook restaurant, and we watched Bad Moms later in the evening (totally inappropriate and hilarious!).  Before that, though, at 5 p.m., I tuned into the wonderful online concert described below:

Inspired by Billy Bragg's recent Mother's Day video release for his song "Can't Be There Today," City Winery and Bragg are co-producing a special multi-artist Mother’s Day concert that will be broadcast on YouTube on May 10th, 2020 beginning at 5PM Eastern Time. 

100% of net ticket proceeds will be donated to the The United Nations Foundation fund addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We've invited artists from the extended City Winery family to perform with Billy, Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter,Steve Earle, Shovels & Rope, Rufus Wainwright, Richard Thompson, The Indigo Girls, Jorma Kaukonen, Todd Snider,  KT Tunstall,  Loudon Wainwright, Amy Helm, Jospeh Arthur, Stella Donnelly, Andrew Bird, Fink, Joan Osborne, Hamilton Leithauser, Valerie June, The Mountain Goats.  With More to be Announced... WFUV's Rita Houston will host the event. Families around the world will be able to connect virtually through this shared experience, celebrating all mothers everywhere through music while supporting those in need.  

"The coronavirus pandemic is going to affect our lives in ways we've yet to grasp," says Bragg. "In the coming months, most of us will be forced to miss family gatherings, including Mother's Day which in the UK fell on the first weekend of isolation. My new song touches on the emotional cost of this crisis."

Click on this link to watch archived replay, and maybe donate something as well.  The music starts at the 3:50 mark.


All this to say, I feel very lucky and loved...  💖



SONG:  In My Daughter's Eyes by Martina McBride

BOOK:  What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most by Elizabeth Benedict

POEM:  My Eighteen-Month-Old Daughter Talks to the Rain as the Amazon Burns by Dante Di Stefano

Lark of my house,
keep laughing.
—Miguel Hernández

this little lark says hi
to the rain—she calls
river as she slaps
the air with both wings—
she doesn’t know pine
from ash or cedar
from linden—she greets
drizzle & downpour
alike—she doesn’t
know iceberg from melt—
can’t say sea level
rise—glacial retreat—
doesn’t know wildfire—
greenhouse gas—carbon
tax or emission—
does not legislate
a fear she can’t yet
feel—only knows cats
& birds & small dogs
& the sway of some
tall trees make her squeal
with delight—it shakes
her tiny body—
this thrill of the live
electric sudden—
the taste of wild blue-
berries on her tongue—
the ache of thorn-prick
from blackberry bush—
oh dear girl—look here—
there’s so much to save—
moments—lady bugs—
laughter—trillium—
blue jays—arias—
horizon’s pink hue—
we gather lifetimes
on one small petal—
the river’s our friend—
the world: an atom—
daughter: another
name for: hope—rain—change
begins when you hail
the sky sun & wind
the verdure inside
your heart’s four chambers
even garter snakes
and unnamed insects
in the underbrush
as you would a love
that rivers: hi—hi

QUOTE:  "I do want to try to explain my evolving definition of the word Mother. I am starting to understand that the word works better for me as a verb than a noun. Mothering is a choice we make, like loving is a choice. We do not need to have given birth or to have signed adoption papers to Mother. To Mother, to me, means to nurture. To heal, to help grow, to give. And so anyone and everyone who is involved in the healing of the world is a Mother. Anyone who tends to a child, or friend, or stranger, or animal or garden is a Mother. Anyone who tends to Life is a Mother. Tomorrow is a celebration of all the healers and hopers and lovers and givers and tend-ers." ~ Glennon Doyle

Embroidery Stars (Carrie Elkin)

Well, the best part of Feel Good Friday (today!) is that the condo complex pools reopened this past Monday, and I enjoyed it thoroughly yesterday afternoon, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m., swimming/exercising in the water, sunning, reading.  I was the only one down there for the first hour, then my husband joined me, then another couple came, and sat at the opposite end of the patio. It had been a month, and I will never take the privilege for granted again.  Delightful!  Limitations (completely understood) are:

Pool decks and pools are to be used only by Hollybrook residents. The number of people allowed in the pool at one time must be 50 percent of normal capacity, which comes to 12 residents allowed on the pool deck at any time; only 6 residents in the swimming pool at any time. Everyone at the pools, unless they are residents of the same household, must follow the CDC's 6-foot social distancing requirement. 

Swimming sessions at each pool are: 
9 a.m. - noon
1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
5 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Every hour in between will be used to sanitize pool furniture and equipment.


So, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day/weekend/week.  Enjoy your weekend!  According to my Weatherbug app, we are in for seven straight days of rain, starting Saturday, so I will head down to the pool again later today...  :-)


~ Another livestreamed concert with Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin:  Saturday (tomorrow!), May 9th at 2 p.m. CDT (that's 8 p.m. in the UK). Mark your calendars and come join in the festivities. The first one we did was a really lovely gathering of our community, and it felt really good to "be" with everyone in this way. Let's do it again!


~ View From My Window:  Facebook group offers 'window views' for millions during COVID-19.  While a global pandemic forces most of us to stay at home, the Facebook group View from My Window allows millions of its members to virtually travel the world. (SusanP sent the link to NancyW, who told me about it.  Thanks, friends!)


~ Mattel launches action figure line to honor and support coronavirus frontline workers:  Toy maker Mattel is “playing it forward” to coronavirus frontline workers with a new line of action figures and Little People Community Champions.  The #ThankYouHeroes collection features 16 action figures including nurses, doctors, emergency medical technicians and delivery drivers, the release said. The five-piece Little People set includes a nurse, doctor, EMT, delivery driver and grocery store worker.


~ Special occasion in quarantine? This party truck has a ‘drive-by happiness experience’:  Zombie Ice has created “A Drive By Bday Experience.”  “Bummed because your plans were put on hold by the lockdown!?” reads the ad on its Facebook page. “We can bring back a bit of joy to your day and make it safe for everyone!”  The $45 experience includes six shaved ices, a video with pictures clients send of the child; festive snow shooting from the professionally sanitized truck for the partygoers to play in. There’s even a boomerang photo booth. Touch-free, of course.


~ COVID-19 forces 5 South Florida LGBTQ pride festivals to create a ‘Virtual Pride’ event:  In 2019, hundreds of thousands of celebrants packed five LGBTQ pride celebrations from Lake Worth Beach to Calle Ocho.  This year, though, the coronavirus struck just before South Florida’s pride season got underway — forcing cancellation or postponement of four major festivals, including the region’s two biggest in Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale.  In a moment of camaraderie that has surprised the organizers themselves of the five nonprofit pride festivals, they have formed a collective that will present an online “Virtual Pride” festival Saturday and Sunday. 



SONG:  Embroidery Stars by Carrie Elkin

BOOK:  Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Ola Rosling

POEM:  Around Us by Marvin Bell

We need some pines to assuage the darkness
when it blankets the mind,
we need a silvery stream that banks as smoothly
as a plane's wing, and a worn bed of
needles to pad the rumble that fills the mind,
and a blur or two of a wild thing
that sees and is not seen. We need these things
between appointments, after work,
and, if we keep them, then someone someday
lying down after a walk
and supper, with the fire hole wet down,
the whole night sky set a particular
time, without numbers or hours, will cause
a little sound of thanks--a zipper or a snap--
to close round the moment and the thought
of whatever good we did.

QUOTE:  "To live is so startling, it leaves little time for anything else." ~ Emily Dickinson