These days too many to count, and bigger and bigger. Airplanes. Every day, whenever I look up into the sky, I see contrails—vapor trails of airplane exhaust. I don’t like that there’s so much traffic up in the air, though there’s nothing I can do about it. Things could be worse. It’s good they’re not kamikaze planes!
At the end of a long memorial day weekend, I overheard my next-door neighbor’s father sighing, “I’m so tired of going to so many barbecues.” Me? I didn’t go to a barbecue. I did go to a music circle: 2 banjos, 2 ukuleles, 1 auto harp, 1 gold-plated singing saw, 6 guitars, and 2 harmonicas. What a pleasure!
Here are some inspiring quotes about music: Music is the universal language of mankind…If had my life to live again, I would’ve made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week… Music makes everything better...Music is what tells us that the human race is greater than we realize…You couldn’t not like someone who likes the guitar…I would teach children, music, physics, and philosophy, but most important is music for the patterns in music, and all the arts, are the keys to learning.
Everywhere I went that morning, the milkweed in the meadow was swaying. Too bad I didn’t get a better picture. I should’ve taken a video!
Listen to Van Morrison: “Smell the sea and see the sky. Let your soul and spirit fly.”
Squirrels are cool. The way they dart here-there-everywhere, run and flit and flip and twirl and leap and fly then stop on a dime and freeze….holding a pose forever hoping, it seems, to disappear into the background. That phrase, ‘stop on a dime’ always makes me think of that old song by Boz Scaggs, “Loan Me a Dime.” I can just hear him now…. 🎶
This time of year the marshy wetlands along the creek are dense with tall grasses dotted with the tiny yellow flowers of Japanese irises. Yesterday, taking my time crossing over the bridge, there was a light summery, on-and-off kind of rain filtering down. I was enjoying the cool feel on my face. Then I heard a dull, heavy, grunting sound, then another and yet another. Dhink! Dhink! Dhenk! Dhunk! I peered thru the brush searching for the sound, but all I could see there was ‘yellow.’
Those deep bellowing sounds echoing through the wetlands carried my mind to the yodeling calls of villagers in the alpine valleys and mountains of Switzerland. Funny where the mind can take you without ever leaving home!
I took this picture a while ago. I don’t remember what I was thinking. Looking now, I see a mom and dad standing by, quietly looking on as their little one stands on the threshold preparing to go out and meet the world. And I can almost hear them saying….and we love you.
We need all our mothers. If all the mothers in the world got together, maybe we could live in peace.
Warmer days are coming. Sitting in my reading chair, having my morning coffee, the chittering of little birds came thru the open windows, and then the crows, cawing….cawing. I got up and looked out thru the window to see what I could see. No little birds, no crows, no roosters, but there was my old friend, the moon. I wanted to hold on to that feeling.
Feeling safe and so at home in a bed of elephants: symbols of intelligence, wisdom, memory, strength and protection, long life, good luck, friendship and loyalty, family and unity.
Always looking for a good picture: Rush-hour traffic and the light turns green….a lone pigeon, unrushed, lingers, languidly looking….the car behind me is honking.
