On trips. And the things they teach us.

The three of us sat on the shore of Fallen Leaf Lake.  Our cheeks were red from the cold air, and from walking through the snowy forest to get there.  The white carpet crept gently up to the water, but had melted several yards from the banks.  That is where we were perched, atop stony pebbles and water-logged logs.  Gracie found a stick of burnt charcoal, and used it to make etchings on a stripped and fallen tree.  Her fingers traced the outline of a heart.  The charcoal dropped to the ground; she blew gently upon her drawing, and the dust dispersed into the mountain air.  "The answer is blowing in the wind", she joked.  But she was right.  Love is the answer, and her drawn-heart had just been picked up by the breeze.  This made me understand Bob's song on a whole new level. :-)

Ode to Friendship, pt Vlll: Misty Renia Schmidt

Misty, today, 21 years ago, smack-dab in the middle of the middle of the mid-west, you were born unto us.  It took you 19 years to make it across the states, to be a part of the west, part of our family, part of my life.  You've taught me so much.  About love, and generosity and drive and fervor for life!  Every minute spent with you, left me with a smile upon my face, and a new excitement for what was ahead.  You became like a sister to me - like the one I'd never had.  You brought joy to our home and to my heart.  I'll be honored and jazzed to romp with you again anyday... 

....and everyday... I will treasure the memories we've shared, but mostly the way you changed my life and taught me a new way to live.  

---Being an adult.  Yet having a child's heart---

May you stay forever young as the graceful and beautiful daughter of our most Holy and Righteous King.

Happy Birthday, love.

I've found the gold.

Name: M. Olivia D.

Age: Two Decades and a Year.

Residence: Paradise, Planet Earth.

Occupation: Looking into these beautiful faces, day after day.

Answer to all life's Questions: Love.

It's one of those days... were you wake up right into a dream.

"I was waken late the other night/There was a bird trapped in my heart/I tried to open up and let it out/Before it tore my chest apart."

Anticipation and excitement is brimming as we rip yucca and succulents from our yard, to replace them with hedges and bougainvillea and grasses and vines and flowers and a deck and a porch-swing.  Springtime comes early on this stretch of coastland...  And my heart is blooming.  I'm in a wonderland of greenery, growth and planting.

P.S. Gardening is always made better when you've got Mason Jennings by your side.

on goals...

In my lifetime, I hope to be able to:

say something

that no one has ever said before.

but that everyone has thought.

Oh baby, baby baby!

Today I got to be the care-taker of a two-day old baby that's been abandoned at the shelter. He was so incredibly adorable!  -Well, all he did was eat and sleep and poop (I honestly didn't know it was humanly possible to poop with such frequency)... But he sure looked awfully CUTE while doing it!!!  I couldn't have asked for a more fulfilling day.

Mr. Billy Collins: my Mentor, #1 of late.

"The trouble with poetry, I realized

as I walked along a beach one night --

cold Florida sand under my bare feet,

a show of stars in the sky --

the trouble with poetry is

that it encourages the writing of more poetry,

more guppies crowding the fish tank,

more baby rabbits

hopping out of their mothers into the dewy grass.

And how will it ever end?

unless the day finally arrives

when we have compared everything in the world

to everything else in the world,

and there is nothing left to do

but quietly close our notebooks

and sit with our hands folded on our desks.

Poetry fills me with joy

and I rise like a feather in the wind.

Poetry fills me with sorrow

and I sink like a chain flung from a bridge.

But mostly poetry fills me

with the urge to write poetry,

to sit in the dark and wait for a little flame

to appear at the tip of my pencil.

And along with that, the longing to steal,

to break into the poems of others

with a flashlight and a ski mask.

And what an unmerry band of thieves we are,

cut-purses, common shoplifters,

I thought to myself

as a cold wave swirled around my feet

and the lighthouse moved its megaphone over the sea,

which is an image I stole directly

from Lawrence Ferlinghetti --

to be perfectly honest for a moment --

the bicycling poet of San Francisco

whose little amusement park of a book

I carried in a side pocket of my uniform

up and down the treacherous halls of high school."

Acasia Bramble Daffodile

Sometimes, I believe... love is an ACHE.

"It's not about what you do,
but who you do it with."

Well, I've been convicted to never dad-gum complain or dis-enjoy myself somewhere, cause I realize I've got the best: friend, teacher, father, guide and companion with me wherever the heck I go.

The realization of this has helped me...
with work on Thursday Mornings.
I actually enjoyed myself this week.
Cause I was with him.  And He sure was having a good time.

Gladness

This past week was a very good one. Thank you, J for flying 1,323 miles to be with me. It was very much appreciated.  Please, do come again, soon!  And stay.  Like, maybe forever or something like that.

Sincerely,

M

The wind in the crooked trees...

...bid me bow my head
bend my eyes
brush my gaze
across the bronzy
aspen valley below

breath in,
and burst out in blessed song!