The ride

All through this day I had this nagging feeling, I must get back to my book! And yet I couldn't quite identify what novel I was reading in these phantom flashes - something about prep schools and privilege! And of course the reality would dawn - that's not a novel, that's current political events!

But I kid you not, the space between lots of novels I have recently read and  the political TV of the past 48 hours is razor-thin. But real life has been more riveting than all the fiction rolled together.

But what happens on the last page??

the sssssssun!

What a difference the sun makes!

After weeks of almost unremitting cloudiness and rain, Saturday dawned sparkling. As I started on my four mile walk it was almost comical to see the explosion of people and activities. I passed a pick-up volleyball game in noisy competition, several teens shooting hoops, a tiny pink-helmeted girl on a scooter nearly knocked me off the path, a foursome of tennis whacked balls back and forth, an organized baseball team with grandparents, parents, whoever, in the bleachers cheering where usually I walk by an abandoned silence, paddleboats splashed through the lake, two markets - crafts and farmers were hawking their wares, a country music trio had people on the plaza dancing, and laced between all the activities were walkers, bikers, dogs strolling the paths - a cacophony of living!

The day apparently called out to the child in all of us and recess never felt better!

happy as kings

I read an article the other day where parents are trying to schedule outdoor time for their children. That's right, schedule time outside - to of all things, play!

As I read, I closed my eyes on computers, I Phones, I Pads, TVs and I was hiking down through the corn fields to the edge of the languid Conestoga, or climbing the willow tree whose forked branches made comfortable notches to view the summer day, or biking down the dog-less country roads, or rounding up the usual suspects for a rousing hide-and-seek game come twilight, or playing baseball, tennis, badminton, croquet - or just hanging out, plucking buttercups and whistling through grass stalks! 

And mind you, no play dates arrangements were required.

Not only do I think the lack of outdoor activity is amazing, but the spontaneous individual effort to create. We are producing very smart technically oriented kids, but what about that whole internal muscle of private initiative, space and time? 

I wouldn't trade my unfettered country childhood for fame or fortune of any degree.

The wealth is internal and endless.

by their fruits

I cannot tell you how sick the phrase "boys will be boys" is beginning to make me. In an earlier time, I think I found it mildly annoying, thinking it was asinine from the start. Hopefully one rears their children to be kind people, regardless of gender. The above expression increasingly just seems like a catch-all disclaimer for men's bad behavior.

I was reared in a loving family where the acts we have been hearing of all week, nay all year, are so foreign to my brothers as to make them a completely different species! One doesn't just become a predator without encouragement of some kind - whether by example, tacit consent or overt denial. Sexual misconduct doesn't just fall off a tree - apple or not!!

I am horrified at the statistics coming out now about the number of assaults and the number of complete cover-ups because, well, you know, "boys will be boys."

How is this abasement going to be fixed?

I have no ready answers.

But this I know, if you say you are a Christian, and you are not even willing to explore the current national situation and determine the truth because you are willing to sacrifice every other moral principle to get a person on the Court who will reverse Roe v. Wade, contempt is far too polite to describe what I feel for you.

Talk about sanctity of life!

Awake

I was reminded anew how little control we have of the universe. One can eat healthfully, exercise, eliminate harmful habits, do it all and one day, have one's eyelids open to an advanced cancer prognosis.

 I still can't quite get a handle on that.

Though its not in my body (that I know of) it's in the family body and that is equally distressing. It's all old hat to say each day is a gift, blah, blah...… but truly, each day that you rise up from sleep and are functioning soundly is an extraordinary, blue-ribbon day.

Now begins the task of nurturing - of bringing medical, emotional, organic, spiritual, social forces to bear upon the intruder in our midst. I know there will be benefits from this exercise as it peels back the business-as-usual and forces us to look to another level of being.

But meanwhile, there are tears.

Mother

"She had that forthright nature I have always loved in women who knew themselves well."

That was a line I copied from somewhere, sometime. ( How's that for explicit!)

But I think I copied it not only from my now extensive life experiences, but from my earliest days, because that was my mother. She wasn't harsh or bossy, but she spoke her mind; she moved ahead; she got the job done - maybe not always neatly or precisely, but she got to Point B, no questions asked.

And I think it was because she felt very comfortable in her own roomy, expansive, loving-life skin.

it''s raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring

Can there be such a thing as too much rain?????

Seriously, the mind is dripping. And when I look ahead and see raindrops on the next 7 + days, I feel mold setting in. Rain is miraculous in decent proportions, but I think in the coming days, there may be indecency setting in. I'm trying to be thankful.... like trying to think of the starving children in China when asked to eat your spinach. You know on some level that because of an insufficiency somewhere, your plethora should make you happy. 

It's not quite working.