re-do

i have been saving this image. i had a whole monologue in my head about the the pandemic and the great pause we all just shared. about fresh starts and clean sheets, and blank canvases. about taking to time to re-evaluate our priorities, and our values. and re-aligning our lives with our values. a collective pause, a rewind, and re-set. but alas, my mom has been in and out of the hospital, and the urgent has overtaken the important. and so i sign off with a simple plea…please take this moment to more fully align your daily behaviors with your values. that is all i ask.

maple samaras in winter

a string quartet

this is my new favorite musical group, combining folkloric energy with classical restraint. they call themselves the tendrils. who am i to argue?

wild grape vine tendrils

an old favorite

i pulled this image from the archive today because i spent the whole day (well, when i wasn’t at my mom’s checking her glucose levels) writing a proposal for an artist grant. woot! woot! wish me luck please. this artist (who cannot decide if she is a fine artist or not) will need all the help i can get.

assemblage of found nature bits

gather around for one last group photo

the snow has melted. it feels like spring. but, alas, it is still march and i am in the north. it is not spring, but rather, very late winter. so, i have at my disposal the remnants of winter. in a few short months, i will be able to do a similar line-up of pale pink, purple, and yellow blossoms on slender new-growth green stems. at that time, it will be spring. right now, i am trying not to think about losing an hour of sleep tonight, due to daylight savings. looking forward to seeing all of you when the hepaticas have started to bloom.

collection of winter stems at the end of winter

still and unstill

my last several weeks have been the opposite of still. i have been tending to an ailing mother, our family’s beloved “gammy,” and it has meant doctor visits and emergency room runs and labwork and bloodwork and at least one impromptu session of self-taught insulin injecting at my childhood kitchen table. part of me wants to tune out, and just get through this time as helpfully and unobtrusively as i can. another part of me wonders what all of this chaotic energy could be channelled into, if i leaned into it. i will look back at this as a formative time of my life. what am i preserving of it, that will be recoverable when the chaos has returned to calm?