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The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
Black Elk
Tags: Quoting
We’ve been PBS supporters for a long while, and with our membership comes access to an extensive collection of their programs. The interface is clunky and not terribly intuitive, begging for a Netflix employee to jump ship and make it great, but there is a rhythm to it. Once achieved, I find my way around the areas I like. American Masters, American Experience, and the films of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick my absolute favorites.
Over the past month or so, after a dearth of titles elsewhere, I went on a Ken Burns bender, watching Jazz, The Civil War, The War, and Hemingway. Keith David and Peter Coyote’s voices a near constant in my ears. The perfect pitch and timbre, oh, yes.
My high school history teacher would be proud. Were you watching with me in heaven, Mr. Poisson, black Converse and Cuban cigar? What an education I’ve had! There’s so much I didn’t know, so many details Mr. Poisson couldn’t possibly have time for.
I am infinitely grateful for the dedication and attention to detail in these films, how deeply personal it all becomes. The world gets so messed up and still is in so many ways. It makes my depression spike, but then the reminders, of music and great literature, and movies, and small mercies: flowers and wildlife, the scent of pine, and news from loved ones. I also come to remember the words of Mr. Rogers, about looking for the helpers. Wretched people enter our lives; horrible events happen, but there they are, seen and unseen, and I must always keep them in mind.
And the hawk! Early one morning, Greg and I were walking with my Mom and Juniper, through the park of my childhood, and I spied it atop the tallest evergreen. We stopped to gawk at it, which it didn’t particularly enjoy, so it flew off. A beauty.
My beautiful, witty, and hilarious best gal, Andie Card! We’ve been friends since we were sixteen, with a giant book of cherished memories under our belts. We hadn’t seen each other for a well over a year, all this COVID misery destroying the best laid plans. Her pup insisted on being in the photo, and I give you more and more of a glimpse of him edging in, which explains my smirk in the first picture. I am trying not to laugh at him doing his best photo bomb! The pictures aren’t perfect, but our love and friendship surely is.
My parents! We stayed a couple of nights at their house, my growing up place, playing Spades, Sequence, Boggle, and Code Names. Eating and eating, all manner of homemade goodness, plus my best prickly pear margaritas and some Popeye’s fried chicken! Not too shabby.
I made my Mom’s necklace!
The park of my childhood universe, Little Dry Creek, through which I ventured to school for seven years in all manner of weather, and played and played and played. Most striking are the trees, all grown up and wise in sunshine and shady ways.
My Mom and I made Vivian Howard’s banana pudding (from Deep Run Roots), which tasted most spectacularly of said fruit, a whopping nine of them in the mix. A true labor of love. WOW!
Shooting for that corner pocket. My Dad won more games than Greg, but it didn’t really matter, all the fun they had playing.
S W I N G ! !
post script
Due to multiple problems with the J & J vaccine, I got my first Pfizer shot yesterday. Much gratitude to ALL the wonderful people who made the process both kindly and dream-like in speed and efficiency at the Broadmoor World Arena. WOOT!
In the same vein, COVID falsehoods and conspiracy theories debunked.
After a while, you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning,
And company doesn’t mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises.
And you begin to see your defeats
With your head up and eyes open,
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads on today,
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while, you learn that even sunshine burns
If you get too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
That you really are strong.
And you really do have worth.
And you learn and you learn…
With every goodbye you learn.
Veronica Schoffstall
Tags: Quoting
The sky Sunday evening, beautifully illuminated, casting pastel light all around the garden. A perfect end to two very wonderful and productive days getting ready for this year’s green up.
We also grilled some chicken in a tasty Tex-Mex style, loaded up on salad and beans, and farted plenty afterwards (oh, yes I did!).
Since we’re patiently awaiting our ability to return to restaurants, we haven’t had our favorite beef bulgogi at ShinSaDong since last summer. I remedied the fact with another internet search. Ground beef bulgogi salad success. It’s the small things.
In the BIG things category – Greg got his first vaccine last Friday, and I am on the roster for the J & J this Sunday – one and done. Praise be to science and kindly nurses administering shot after shot after shot.
Oatmeal peanut butter cookie, gilded with peanut butter frosting. Sometimes you need extra.
I bought a Willie mug!! It has Trigger on it, too, plus blue bells and mockingbirds, state flower and bird of Texas, of course. A mighty fine sip, if I do say so.
Sleeping giants….
